Tom Brady and Antonio Brown seem catching up on lost time to build rapport. The New England Patriots quarterback and receiver worked closely on Thursday during the warmup portion practice to discuss routes in the offense.
Receivers like Chad Johnson, Aaron Dobson, Taylor Price, Nate Washington, Eric Decker and Reggie Wayne all know that Brady can be a hard man to please. Those players entered New England with promise or established careers, and couldn’t find a fit in the Patriots offense.
While the discussion between Brown and Brady was not audible, they seemed to be walking through different routes and scenarios in the New England’s offense. The Patriots offense is famous for its options routes, which provide a pass-catcher with multiple options to exploit the defense’s coverage. It’s possible — and perhaps even likely — that Brady was explaining how Brown should be thinking about some of the routes in the playbook.
As the Patriots get Brown acclimated to the offense, they can begin to build plays around him to highlight his tremendous talent. For now, he’s been in practice — though his status with the team has been in question as he faces allegations of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit. For now the Patriots are letting the legal process time its course. In the meantime, they will coach him patiently to make sure he has a solid foundation, which Brady seems to be helping Brown build first-hand. When Bill Belichick deems Brown ready, the coach will begin to implement a Brown-centric group of plays.
“It’s just a question of volume and, again, time and reps” Belichick said Wednesday during a press conference at Gillette Stadium. “You can’t put in 20 new plays when you have, call it, 90 plays in practice over the course of a week. You can’t put in 20 plays and expect to be able to rep those and get them right and then do all of the other things you have to do. You have to be selective. You just have to decide how you want to do it, so can you expand it? Sure, it’s not infinite. We’re not in training camp. We’ve got to get ready for a game, so there are other considerations with other parts of the team and other players on the team that you just have to try and balance all of that out.”
