Kendrick Bourne Trolls Reporter Over Patriots Receiver Criticism

FOXBORO, Mass. — Kendrick Bourne isn’t ignoring the noise when it comes to critiques of the Patriots’ receiving corps.

Bourne ended his post-practice media scrum Sunday with a zinger aimed at a local reporter.

The final question Bourne received came from Boston Sports Journal’s Mike Giardi, who asked the veteran wideout how important Tyquan Thornton is to New England’s receiving corps.

Bourne smiled, replied “Stink, stunk and stank,” and then dashed away from the podium.

Thornton has not enjoyed an especially impressive training camp — he missed two practices this week, has yet to catch a pass from Mac Jones in team drills and fell behind Demario Douglas on the depth chart Sunday — but Bourne’s comment wasn’t aimed at his second-year teammate.

It was a dig at Giardi, who used that same phrase to describe the Patriots’ receiver group during a recent appearance on NBC Sports Boston. New England’s roster does not feature a Pro Bowl-caliber “No. 1 receiver,” and several of their projected top wideouts got off to slow starts in camp.

Starting wideout DeVante Parker seemed to enjoy Bourne’s troll, tweeting: “Lmao he funny af for that.”

It’s worth noting Bourne and Parker both have increased their practice production since the segment in question aired July 31.

Bourne believes the media and general public are underrating New England’s receiving corps. On Thursday, he shared a photo on his Instagram story of himself, Parker and JuJu Smith-Schuster with the caption: “We gonna go crazzyyy this year!”

Bourne said Sunday that he has “a lot of confidence” in his position group, which also includes rookie training camp standout Demario Douglas.

“We’ve got a lot of doubters, so we have a lot to prove, and I’m excited, man,” he said. “It’s good to be the underdogs sometimes because they don’t know we’re coming.”