Tom Brady threw three touchdown passes in New England's Week 1 whitewash of
the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Patriots are about to welcome Antonio Brown to
their offense.
Brady, who guided the Patriots to a 33-3 victory on Sunday night, will work to
get Brown acclimated in time to potentially play a role for the team at Miami
on Sunday.
"I think everybody's excited to add great players," Brady said. "It helps
everybody when you have great players that are sharing the burden of a tough
football season. I think, like anything else, whether it was Josh (Gordon)
last year or Phillip (Dorsett) when he got here a few years ago late, and then
this year Antonio, how much can you learn and process and get in here? And
we're all going to work hard and try to get up to speed as fast as possible.
But, we haven't had a training camp together or that, so you've got to force a
lot of information. We're all excited to have him. All I could say is we're
just going to work as hard as we possibly can to get up to speed as quickly as
possible."
Patriots owner Robert Kraft told NBC Sports' Al Michaels that Brady was "a
million percent in" on signing Brown, who invited and even staged his share of
drama with the Oakland Raiders and never played a regular-season snap with the
team. Brown was traded to Oakland from the Steelers. Pittsburgh decided to cut
ties with the Pro Bowl receiver after he bailed on the team prior to the 2018
regular-season finale.
Of course, this isn't the first time Patriots coach Bill Belichick has rolled
the dice on a player viewed as a problem child or outcast. Gordon was acquired
after being suspended multiple times by the Cleveland Browns. Others in that
category who produced for the Patriots include cornerback Aqib Talib, wide
receiver Randy Moss and running back Corey Dillon.
Gordon said the first days acclimating to the "Patriot Way" might not go
easily.
"For me, initially it was a culture shock. It was definitely different,"
Gordon said. "I think as I grew in this environment and got to observe other
young men move and organize and act professionally, expectations were high. It
wasn't anything more than what I think they knew that they could do was being
asked of them. I was like, 'Alright, this is the way it's done here.' I could
either get with it, or look for a transition somewhere else. It's tough, but
if this is what you want to do, I think this is the best place to be.
"Antonio is Antonio. He's going to have to figure out his own way, just like
everybody else has."
Brady said it will not solely be up to him to get Brown ready to play a key
role for New England.
"I think all us players are trying to be the best player that we can be for
the team. There's a lot of things that play into that, but we're all trying to
reach our highest potential individually so that we can reach our highest
potential collectively," Brady said. "It doesn't come together just because
you say, 'Oh, all you guys are going to come together.' Antonio's had a lot of
production, Demaryius (Thomas) has had a lot of production, Julian's (Edelman)
had a lot of production, Josh has had a lot of production, Phillip had a great
game tonight. So, the point is we've got a lot of players that are talented
and we've just got to figure out how to make it all work. We're going to work
hard. It's a long year. It's the beginning of a long marathon and the NFL's
very competitive and it's going to be a great challenge, but I think we're all
looking forward to it."
If things work out, the Patriots have reportedly added an option year worth
$20 million on Brown's deal for the 2020 season. The full amount would become
guaranteed if the option is executed, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported.