When wide receiver Ja’Lynn Polk trotted onto the practice field at the New England Patriots’ mandatory minicamp earlier this week, there was something different about his appearance. This physical difference did not have anything to do with his person, though; rather, it was the fact that he donned a yellow jersey.

Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel explained that yellow jerseys belong to players who are recovering from injuries but are still physically able to practice, with the eye-popping color serving as a visual reminder to teammates of this fact.

On Tuesday, Vrabel told reporters why Polk specifically has been wearing a yellow jersey in practice.

“[We’re] just trying to be careful and not have any issues. He had a shoulder procedure in the offseason. At this point in time, I really would just like to get to training camp. I think we’ve figured out how to practice early on. You can clearly see that there’s different speeds in how we practice,” Vrabel said. “I just wanted to be careful that they can let him get his looks and operate and function, but just be mindful that this player’s working with something. That’ll be the case throughout the season.”

Polk is coming off a rookie season during which he appeared in 15 of the Patriots’ regular season games, starting in seven of them. He caught 12 passes for 87 yards and scored two touchdowns, one of which came in his second NFL game. Polk signed a four-year, $9.7 million rookie deal with the Patriots after the team selected him with the No. 37 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Prior to joining the Patriots, he played college football at Texas Tech and Washington, where he was teammates with fellow NFL wide receivers Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan. Polk finished his senior season, which ended with a trip to the College Football Playoff National Championship game, with 1,159 receiving yards and nine touchdowns on 69 receptions.