FOXBORO — Patriots fans are too accustomed to the familiar story of a struggling rookie wide receiver.

And for years, the demands of quarterback Tom Brady, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and head coach Bill Belichick were blamed for the careers gone adrift of Bethel Johnson, Chad Jackson, Brandon Tate, Taylor Price, Aaron Dobson and N’Keal Harry.

But the old quarterback, offensive coordinator, head coach and complex offensive system are all gone, yet the Patriots still can’t find production out of rookie wide receivers Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker.

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Baker, a fourth-round pick, has barely played. On the field for just 3.76% of offensive snaps, Baker has been targeted once and has yet to record his first NFL reception.

Polk, whom the Patriots traded down to take 37th overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, has been on the field for over 47% of offensive snaps and produced 12 catches on 31 targets for 87 yards with two touchdowns. Since Week 5, Polk has been targeted 18 times and caught just 22.2% of those passes for 26 yards.

“I just gotta get involved more,” Polk told the Herald on Tuesday. “Pretty much just doing what I can. Pretty much whatever they tell me to do.”

When asked if he’s spoken to coaches about how he could get involved more, Polk said it’s not his decision.

“All I can do is just come and practice hard each and every day and just do what I can,” the rookie said.

Among NFL wide receivers with at least 30 targets, he ranks last with a 38.7% catch rate, last with 2.8 yards per target and second to last with a 25.8% success rate. He’s PFF’s lowest-graded wide receiver with a 43.4 mark, he’s last with 0.9 yards after catch per reception and he has the lowest yards per route run at 0.37. The next-lowest is Cowboys wide receiver Jonathan Mingo at 0.60 yards per route run.

Since 1992, just 18 rookie wide receivers have been targeted at least 30 times and had a catch rate under 39%. Just four of them – Michael Westbrook, Zay Jones, Bernard Berrian and Plaxico Burress – went on to have 3,000 receiving yards in their careers. None made a Pro Bowl or All-Pro team. In that same time frame, only eight wide receivers, including Polk, have had at least 30 targets and less than 2.9 yards per target in a season.

Polk is one of four rookie wide receivers since 2004 with at least 30 targets and a sub-26% receiving success rate.

Polk still called his rookie season “a blessing.”

“It’s all a part of my journey,” Polk said. “I’m grateful for all of the ups and downs. I can’t really put no time on it, but I’m always hard on myself about greatness and being legendary. I’m just trusting my journey, trusting where I’m at right now and I know it’s going to be better.”

Team sources believe Polk is struggling mentally with mistakes and that he’s hard on himself, so the issues are compounding.

He was targeted just once in Sunday’s 25-24 loss to the Colts. Rookie quarterback Drake Maye threw Polk’s way after the receiver had found a spot in zone coverage. But the rookie wideout kept drifting to his right, while Maye’s pass fell incomplete in the spot he had previously occupied.

Maye said he got the ball out too late to Polk.

“Trying to get to a spot, expecting to break across the linebacker’s face and Drake was kind of expecting me to just sit down,” Polk said. “We weren’t both on the same page.”

Polk said that he and Maye need to continue to talk out those situations in the film room and pick each others’ brains.

Maye has done a nice job of spreading the ball around since taking over as the Patriots starter in Week 6. Tight ends Hunter Henry (396 yards) and Austin Hooper (248 yards) and wide receivers DeMario Douglas (361 yards), Kayshon Boutte (239 yards) and Kendrick Bourne (203 yards) lead pass catchers in yards from Maye. Running backs Rhamondre Stevenson (85 yards), Antonio Gibson (61 yards) and JaMycal Hasty (59 yards) all have more production than Polk (13 yards). Even K.J. Osborn (26 yards), who’s played just three games in September, has produced more than Polk under Maye.

Polk was flagged for a false start in the Patriots’ Week 11 loss to the Rams. As the play clock expired, Polk moved forward before the snap and drew the penalty.

“I can sit here and just blame everybody what could have happened, what could have been done, but at the end of the day, it was a play that we had that I had to go out there and execute, and I jumped offsides,” Polk said. “I’m going to put it on myself. I’m not gonna sit here and bash anybody about anything. At the end of the day, I’m the one that got to go out there and make the plays happen.”

The University of Washington product seems to be taking the right approach when asked about the idea of hitting the rookie wall.

Polk hasn’t played as much as other rookie wide receivers, but his 2023 college season extended into January, when the Huskies lost the national championship to Michigan. From there, he prepped for the combine and his pro day, got drafted and participated in rookie minicamp, OTAs, minicamp, training camp and the preseason without an extended break.

The Patriots are now finally off on their Week 14 bye.

“They always say and speak on the rookie wall and all this and that, but everybody got their own journey. As bad as we want things to work out the way we want it to work out, a lot of the times, it don’t work out in our favor. It’s gonna be bumps in the road,” Polk said. “It’s going to be stuff that we gotta re-learn to continue to stay on our path. I think keep trusting it, knowing that it’s going to be a legendary story and keep trusting the process.”

He’s also confident that things will turn around for him.

“I’m 1000 percent confident in myself and my ability and what I’m able to do,” Polk said. “I work very hard, and I got great faith in my good lord. So, there’s no question about my confidence. It’s just waiting on my time, waiting on my turn and knowing that it’s going to come and just being ready.”

After the bye week, the Patriots play four more games this season against the Cardinals, Bills, Chargers and Bills.

When the Patriots traded down from No. 34 overall to 37 to take Polk, the Chargers used the 34th pick to take wide receiver Ladd McConkey out of Georgia. McConkey has 58 catches for 815 yards and four touchdowns as a rookie.

Polk won’t catch up to McConkey’s numbers in the final four weeks of the season, but he can still salvage what’s left of his rookie season. His future is unwritten, but for now, it’s understandable that Patriots fans are mentioning him in the same sentence as Johnson, Jackson, Tate, Price, Dobson and Harry.