New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo wants to see more from a select group of players over the final four games of the regular season, and one player he has been looking forward to viewing is rookie offensive lineman Caedan Wallace.
The problem is Wallace has not played since late September due to an ankle injury and was just designated to return.
However, it doesn't look like the 24-year-old will be returning to the field against the Arizona Cardinals this Sunday.
Mayo said that he "realistically" does not see Wallace playing in Week 15, noting that he needs more time to get "fully back up to speed," via Patriots beat writer Evan Lazar.
New England selected Wallace in the third round of the NFL Draft last April and was hoping that he would play a significant role along its offensive line throughout the season.
But even when Wallace was healthy earlier in the year, he only made one start and was only participating in 28 percent of the Pats' offensive snaps.
So, clearly, the Penn State product was not ready for significant playing time over the first month of the campaign.
Of course, the Patriots are still hoping Wallace will become a lynchpin for the future.
New England has had one of the worst offensive lines in football this year and has gone through a bunch of different combinations of players over the course of the season.
Nothing has worked.
But with the Pats looking to build around quarterback Drake Maye for the future, they would certainly like to see whether or not Wallace can be a major piece going forward.
In order to do that, Wallace obviously needs to play, so hopefully, the youngster can make his way back to the gridiron in a couple of weeks.
