The New England Patriots signing of wide receiver Antonio Brown became official Monday evening, so Bill Belichick finally made himself free to talk about the transaction Tuesday morning in a conference call.
“We’ll just take it day-by-day,” Belichick predictably said. “We haven’t practiced yet. We’re going through information with him like we do with any new player like we did with the offensive linemen last week. We’ll take it day-by-day and see how it goes. Get out on the practice field and after Wednesday talk about Thursday and go through the week. We’ll see how it goes.”
Brown is one of the best wide receivers in NFL history. He’s a seven-time Pro Bowl selection and four-time All-Pro. He has 837 career receptions for 11,207 yards with 74 touchdowns in nine seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Last season, at 30 years old, Brown had 104 catches for 1,297 yards with a league-leading 15 touchdowns.
“We think he’ll help our team,” Belichick said. “Until we start working with him, part of that is actually having a hands-on opportunity to work with a player and see exactly how everything fits together and what we can develop. We’ll just see how that goes.”
Brown has been equally disruptive on and off the field over the last year. He forced a trade out of Pittsburgh to the Oakland Raiders in March. The Raiders finally released Brown on Saturday at the receiver’s request.
“I wasn’t in either of those places, so I can’t really comment on what did or didn’t happen there,” Belichick said.
“Same thing you (collectively) said about Randy Moss when we brought him in.”
Moss made his unhappiness known with the Raiders before being traded to the Patriots in 2007. Moss was a model citizen for at least one season in New England, catching 98 passes for 1,493 yards with 23 touchdowns in 2007.
Brown is signed to a one-year contract with a one-year option.
