The Patriots recently lost Cunningham to the Ravens’ active roster.
After the New England Patriots lost Malik Cunningham from their practice squad to the Baltimore Ravens’ active roster, several of his now-former teammates took to social media to bid him farewell. The most notable of those statements came from offensive tackle Trent Brown, who said that he wants Cunningham to “go flourish where your talent is respected.”
While that statement in itself might have been innocent, it did raise quite a few eyebrows given one potential interpretation: the Patriots did in not respect the rookie quarterback/wide receiver’s talent.
On Wednesday, Brown doubled down on his take in a conversation with Sophie Weller of A to Z Sports.
“It’s funny because I told him months ago if they ever called, if anybody, that’s the team where he should go,” Brown said. “It was almost like I saw it coming. And that’s really good for him to actually get a real chance to play his real position.”
Cunningham spent his college career at Louisville setting school records as a dual-threat quarterback. Despite his success, however, he did not hear his name called in the NFL Draft and joined the Patriots as a rookie free agent.
New England right away started changing his position, moving him to wide receiver instead of keeping him at QB. And while he did occasionally see opportunities under center in both preseason and his Week 6 regular season debut, those were few and far between; outside of one 5-yard sack he did not register any in-season statistics.
His usage, or lack thereof, remained curious especially given the Patriots’ offensive struggles behind quarterbacks Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe. Nonetheless, the team never appeared to seriously consider a switch to Cunningham.
As Brown put it, he “couldn’t even get a red jersey” in practice — signaling that he was viewed as a wide receiver throughout his time in New England.
That tenure, of course, ended in mid-December when the Ravens poached him off the practice squad. That was the best-case outcome for Cunningham, at least according to Brown.
“I’m sure he’s doing well. He’s a great athlete. He’s a great quarterback,” he told Weller. “Wasn’t many opportunities he got to actually do it [here], but I definitely saw glimpses of him being a good quarterback. So, I wish him well. I wish him the best of luck. I’m glad he’s in a better place.”