Patriots Players Rave About Malik Cunningham After Standout Drive

FOXBORO, Mass. — Patriots fans had fun watching Malik Cunningham on Thursday, and the players were right there with them.

Cunningham, who’s focused heavily on receiver during training camp, played quarterback for one drive Thursday and wound up stealing the show. The undrafted rookie led to New England to its only touchdown in a preseason loss to the Houston Texans, capping an impressive drive with a highlight-reel 9-yard run. He also saw a few snaps at receiver earlier in the game.

The former Louisville quarterback was the talk of the locker room after an otherwise boring evening at Gillette Stadium.

“It was real fun to see him come out there and just ball,” rookie corner Christian Gonzalez said. “It was fun to watch that. Super nice guy, always talking, real high energy. To see him be able to go out and do that was a lot of fun on the sideline for us to see that. I am happy for him.”

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After scoring his TD, Cunningham gave the ball to rookie center Jake Andrews, who delieverd a celebratory spike. It was a fun moment, one that fired up Patriots teammates and coaches who reportedly are very high on the 24-year-old.

“We all got excited out there,” second-year tackle Andrew Stueber said. “You saw him give the ball to Jake and he spiked the ball. We’re all excited to see another man succeed and do well. It was a great offensive unit out there and a team effort for the final push of the drive. It was great to see him score.”

Quarterback Bailey Zappe added: “Malik came in and did a phenomenal job. … It was really nice to see him do that, especially his first game in the NFL. To be able to go out there, kind of put the jitters aside and play like he did was really good to see. Like everybody, I’m sure he had those little nerves, little jitters the first play or so. But as the drive went on, you could tell he got comfortable with it.”

It’s unclear how Cunningham will be used going forward. Prior to this week, all of his training camp work came at receiver. But he got QB reps in Monday and Tueday’s practices before excelling under center Thursday night, albeit against players at the bottom of Houston’s roster.

Will Cunningham start seeing more consistent QB work during practice, or will he continue to focus on his position change? We should get more answers when the Patriots return to practice next week.