Tom Brady doesn’t deny that he pushed for Mohamed Sanu

[Poe the Raven]

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Patriots quarterback Tom Brady reportedly hasn’t been happy with some of the decisions made by the team to jettison receivers. Brady apparently is quite happy about the decision to trade for his newest one.

During his Friday media availability, Brady was asked this specific question, based on the transcript provided by the team: “There was a report that you pushed for Mohamed Sanu behind the scenes. Was this trade deadline an opportunity to voice your preference, or just some of the things you liked about Mohamed before the deal?”

Brady’s answer appears below. Look at both what he said, and what he didn’t say.

“I think everybody liked Mohamed. So, yeah. Everybody liked him. Everybody likes him, that’s why he’s here. So it’s great to have him. I’m excited for him, and again, the more we work together, the better it’s going to be.

“It’s hard to be on the same page within a week, so we’re just going to try to communicate through things and talk through them. There’s a lot of things that come up in that game, practice, past games, things that he’s done, things that we’ve done that — football’s a game about anticipation. So the good part is that a veteran player, you know how to play football. It’s not like a rookie that they don’t know what the real expectation is.

“I mean, he’s been a part of some great offenses, so it’s really incorporating him into what we do and him learning the terminology, so that he can play fast and we can play with anticipation together. And then he’s running the routes where I expect them to be, so I can play with anticipation. And then you gain trust, then you gain confidence. And then once you gain confidence, you can go out and execute really well. So it’s hard to skip anything in that process. It’s just a reality of football. If you try to think that it’s going to come together in a day or two, those are probably unrealistic expectations. But, every time we go out there, we’re trying to be a little bit better and lead to better execution.”

Not once did Brady push back against the suggestion that he pushed for the trade that sent a second-round pick to the Falcons for Sanu. And that’s fine. Some think that a quarterback should never have any input in anything unrelated to his on-field obligations. While I may have believed that at some point (after 18 years of doing this, who the hell knows what I’ve said in the past?), the better view is this: Teams want the quarterbacks to operate as a member of management, so teams should let the quarterbacks be involved in management decisions.

Ideally, the quarterback shows up early, stays late, works all the time, holds teammates accountable, and otherwise acts like a coach on the field. So he should have the input that a coach would have off the field. If there’s a guy the quarterback thinks could help advance the cause, the quarterback should say so — and the team should listen.

If Brady said so, coach Bill Belichick either listened or the transaction was a coincidence. Regardless, Brady has a receiver that Brady wanted, and that could help what has been a somewhat sluggish offense down the stretch.