The Falcons have traded Mohamed Sanu to the Patriots in exchange for a second-round pick, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. The deal gives the 7-0 Patriots even more offensive firepower and brings them a wide receiver that they’ve long coveted.
The Patriots were one of several teams looking to trade for Sanu during the draft. The Falcons brushed those clubs off, but things changed after their 37-10 loss to the Rams dropped them to 1-6 on the year. With days to go before the trade deadline, the Falcons jumped at the chance to build for 2020 and beyond.
Sanu missed out on a New Jersey homecoming when the Patriots steamrolled the Jets on Monday night, but he will get to reunite friends in New England, including former Rutgers teammates Jason McCourty and Devin McCourty. He also figures to pad the stat sheet. So far this year, Sanu has 33 catches for 313 yards and one touchdown. It stands to reason that with nine games to go on New England’s slate, he could top last year’s career high of 838 yards and find pay dirt many times over.
Speaking of pay – Sanu has two years to go on his current deal. The Pats will have him at a $7.65MM cap figure this year and a $7.9MM number in 2020, though they could theoretically release him without fiscal penalty next year.
With Sanu, the Patriots boast one of the scariest receiver groups in the NFL and enough weapons to (almost) make Tom Brady forget that Rob Gronkowski isn’t around anymore. The WR depth chart, at present:
- Julian Edelman
- Mohamed Sanu
- Josh Gordon
- Phillip Dorsett
- N’Keal Harry (may return in Week 9)
- Jakobi Meyers
- Gunner Olszewski
Meanwhile, the Falcons figure to continue their fire sale between now and next Tuesday’s deadline. They’d like to move defensive end Vic Beasley and they figure to field offers for the likes of edge rusher De’Vondre Campbell and tight end Austin Hooper.
Here’s hoping that the Patriots go ’19 and D’oh’ again this year. That was a sich a wonderful game to watch.
*such*
I love that the Patriots are in your head so much that you were the first to post merely 4 minutes after the article was written.
You posted 2 minutes after him. Sound like envy
PDS. It’s everywhere w/ the haters.
And lose to the 49ers in the super Bowl
Let’s not get carried away
The $1.4M in signing bonus for 2020 stays with Atlanta….no dead money for the Pats if they were to cut him after the season.
Lynch and Shanahan better do something to address that joke of a wide receiving core soon. The defense has been great to this point, but there will be games when the offense will need to put up a bunch of points to stay in games and I’m not seeing it with the current wide out group.
Lol. There 6-0, calm down.
7-0
No, 6-0, they’ve already had their bye week.
And the rebuild has begun in Atlanta smh
Sucks how fast they’ve fallen
We need a new / better Offense C. and someone else needs to take the Defensive back over. Since Kyle left we haven’t been the same on Offense.
As long as the owner of the team is a loser the team will always be a loser.
hahaha how is Arthur Blank a loser?! Do tell, I can’t wait to hear this….
RU Rah Rah!
Do not know what I love more about this the fact this just adds to their offense of weapons or the fact this is going to make all of the patriots haters lose their minds.
I’m sure they will just flatten the footballs some more.
Then I’m sure an 8th-grade science experiment will educate half of America on the Ideal Gas Law. Pretty sad when an 8th-grade project takes the NFL to school.
Lol.. you are actually sticking to the phony 8th grade project? Poor thing!
You’re sticking with ignoring science? Poor thing!
How does the addition of a WR3 make anyone lose their minds?
@ NY – your J-E-T-S are a shade better than your Gnats. Both teams terrible. No World Series for you. Your hockey and basketball teams bite. So yeah, I guess hating on our success is all you have left.
Falcons got good value from the pats, even though this will be pick number 60ish overall. For a 30 year old #2 WR, that’s pretty good… and I don’t think the Pats have a top 5 WR unit, their players with Sanu are enough when you have Brady and a strong defense. If they had Gronk, it would be different, Gordon hasn’t done as well as I thought he would have in NE.
Wow
HAHHA SUCK IT HATERS!!
Lmao, congrats on the 30-year-old washed up wide receiver I guess?
Yeah you’re right he sucks. One of the top WR’s thought to be on the market is referred to as washed up the second he joins the Pats. Love it
That’s how it works with haters.
He was washed up long before being traded to the Pats, bud. But everything always has to revolve around Pats fans so you’re retort is incrediby unsurprising.
He’s not washed up at all…don’t see where you guys are coming up with that? Calvin Ridley was drafted high making Sanu the 3rd option, not washed up…
Jawn is a dolphins fan. yawn jawn
Well he topped out at 67 cates and 5 tds for a single season suggests it’s a depth add and nothing to get to excited about!
You’d think all these Rutgers players on the Pats would translate to better recruiting for them?
Rutgers was dumb moving to the Big 10 where they are destined to be the worst team. They also can’t out recruit teams like Ohio State and Penn State within New Jersey.
Well with that attitude they can’t.
Patriots again going for the gold!
Sanu is a really nice player, but I don’t see how adding the No. 3 WR on a terrible Falcons team gives the Patriots “one of scariest receiver groups in the NFL.” If anything, Sanu upgrades the Pats gadget-play index because that dude has a legit QB arm.
Agreed. He makes them better, but I wouldn’t call that WR core “scary”
Josh Gordon in form is a genuine number one. Edelman is very hard to cover. N’Keal Whatever, the new guy, is apparently a serious deep threat. With Brady throwing, adding Sanu does make the group scary. Not Antonio Brown-Smith-Schuster-Martavis-Bryant-Jesse-James scary but close.
What does a Steelers receiving group from a few years ago have to do with today?
I mean I would’ve said Bell was a lot better catching the ball than Jesse James while lining up as a WR but I get the comparison. Edelman is good at creating space and Gordon has talent (just like Martavis Bryant) but again, still not scary to me.
Boy, has anyone looked at Atlanta’s cap situation?
It is a wreck and they are a terrible team. The only way they fix this in the next decade is to completely tear it down. Trade Matt Ryan, Julio Jones and anyone in their top 6 in salary.
Arthur Blank shot for the moon on some of his recent signings, hoping that the injury-riddled 2018 season was a fluke and the Falcons would play like 2017. What he failed to realize is that 2017 was the fluke and this team is really not that good. The O-Line was full of horrible vets. The ‘big name’ edge rushers are being far outplayed by lesser guys who other teams will likely sign. The DB’s are horrendous. The CAP situation is laughable.
The Falcons are about to become the worst team in football. They will have to do so at some point to rebuild this train-wreck. Getting a late second for Sanu is OUTSTANDING value. They have to also move on from other pieces, for whatever they can get.
Arthur Blank has to realize their is a CAP in this business and he can’t pay all of his guys. Yes, some players might call him out for it, but it’s the reality. He has been far too nice so far and he needs to chop that off now.
The good news for Falcons fans is that if you REALLY understand roster building and the salary cap, the next few off-seasons will be fun to watch. Painful, but fun. The on-field product will just be painful. Can we borrow the ‘Aints’ paper bags?
Thought they’d get more than just a second
Another target for the Goat,