New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady didn’t offer much on his newest teammate, Antonio Brown, on Sunday night or Monday morning. After spending the day with Brown on Monday, however, Brady did expound a little more Monday night on Westwood One.
Brady isn’t drawing any conclusions about Brown based on his brief and tumultuous time with the Oakland Raiders.
“You don’t judge anything,” Brady told Jim Gray, via ProFootballTalk. “I’m not judging anything before I have a chance to go out and practice and prepare. You know, Antonio, meeting him today I really enjoyed being around him, he’s a very smart football player, knows how to play the game. He’s been extremely productive.
“The only thing that I know what we can do is to go out there and work at it to meet and to communicate and get on the practice field and go through things. I’m not buying into any hype or potential. I’m into work. He’s into work and our entire offense is into doing what’s in the best interest for the team and I’m really excited to get to practice on Wednesday.”
Brady reportedly invited Brown to stay at his house. Even if the receiver doesn’t take up the generous offer, the two All-Pros are going to be spending a lot of time together.
“Yeah, you know we’re going to meet as much as we possibly can,” Brady said. “I think that quarterback-receiver relationship is so important. The more you know each other the more you know what each other’s thinking, the faster you can accelerate the trust and confidence in one another when you get on the field.
“I have that with a lot of guys that I played with, certainly with the guys that are on the roster now, Julian (Edelman), Phillip Dorsett, Josh (Gordon). You saw that last night. But when you haven’t played with guys, you got to try to do it as quickly as possible, and the clock is ticking on us right now. This is not the offseason program. This is about real games that count and we are going to try and spend as much time as we can together and really get up to speed and lock in with what are roles and responsibilities are.”
Brady said it would be a “challenge” for Brown to contribute right away after the Patriots have already started their season.
“That’s just the time of the year and we are going to deal with those from now to the end of the season,” Brady. “We are just going to deal with those the best way we can. You’d love to have a training camp or an offseason to learn, but that’s just not our reality and we are going to do the best we can possibly do with the time that we have.”
Gordon caught 40 passes for 720 yards with three touchdowns last season after joining the Patriots after Week 2. So, it can be done.
