The Patriots are working their way towards trimming their roster down to 53 players by Saturday afternoon and got a head start Thursday by officially releasing wide receiver Mohamed Sanu.
New England traded a second-round pick to Atlanta last year just prior to the trade deadline for the veteran wide out, but after a 10-catch performance against the Ravens in his first game with his new team, he really didn’t do much of anything. Part of it could be related to an ankle injury that needed offseason surgery, but still the results were the results.
Sanu wasn’t overly impressive this summer and potentially being the No. 3/4 receiver on the team with no special teams value and making $6.5 million just wasn’t enough for him to stick around.
“Just one of those things that didn’t work out,” Bill Belichick said via video conference Friday morning. “I have a lot of respect for Mo, but ultimately things just didn’t work out. I think he tried very hard. I think we tried hard. I don’t think it was anybody’s fault or anything like that. It was just one of those situations that just didn’t work out as well as I think everyone hoped it would have when the transaction was made.
“As always, we’ll try and make the decisions we feel are best for the football team, whether that is bringing a person in or releasing a player. It obviously can go both ways. At this point in time we felt it was best for the team. Last year we felt differently. We’re in a little different situation this year.”
The Patriots currently have Julian Edelman, N’Keal Harry, Gunner Olszewski, Damiere Byrd, Devin Ross, Jakobi Meyers, Jeff Thomas, Isaiah Zuber and Andre Baccellia.