FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — When the New England Patriots acquired wide receiver Josh Gordon in a trade on Sept. 17, they assigned him a vacant locker next to quarterback Tom Brady. Perhaps the thinking was that if the two were to connect on the field, they first had to do so off it.
So far, so good.
“We get along well, and he sits right next to me, so it’s just a nice rapport to have that,” Brady said Monday morning during his weekly interview on sports radio WEEI, one day after Gordon made his Patriots debut by playing 18 offensive snaps and finishing with two receptions for 32 yards.
“I really try and get along with everybody. I think that is really important for any teammate, however you get here. We picked Josh up in a trade two weeks into the year, [and] now that he’s our teammate, we have to get to know each other, because you can build that trust and chemistry in different ways.”
After Sunday’s game, Gordon expressed his appreciation for Brady, saying, “He’s been rooting for me, and it’s been awesome to have his support and his love.” Gordon also noted Brady passion for football, saying, “I think we’re going to mesh just fine.”
Gordon has also made a positive impression on coach Bill Belichick in picking up the playbook.
“Josh has worked hard, he’s a smart kid, and he’s got quite a bit of experience,” Belichick said Monday in his day-after-game conference call. “He’s played in a lot of different systems with different coordinators and so forth, so one way or the other, he’s probably experienced things that we’re doing in one of those systems that he’s been involved in. So he’s been able to pick things up quickly and has experience doing different things. It was good to get him out there.”
Brady noted that Gordon was decisive in his debut, which in turn, gave the quarterback himself confidence.
“I don’t feel like I had to worry about where he was lining up or what he was running,” Brady said on WEEI. “He was super confident. I could tell in his eyes he knew what he was doing. He’s just been great since he came in. Hopefully we can keep it going and build on it.”
Gordon’s inclusion into the attack, coupled with receiver Julian Edelman’s return from a four-game NFL suspension on Monday, adds two notable pieces to the team’s pass-catching arsenal. They join Chris Hogan, Phillip Dorsett and Cordarrelle Patterson at the receiver spot.
Brady said on WEEI that he seldom has a bad play throwing to Edelman, because they’ve built up a trust over nine years. It’s his goal with all his pass-catchers, and he’s in the early stages of it with Gordon.
“It’s really a building process. Everything that you are doing, you are either building trust, gaining trust, or you are losing trust,” Brady said. “Guys that really are professional and they show up and are prepared, you build trust pretty quickly. That’s what it comes down to.”