Reggie Wayne has agreed to become a member of the Patriots. Now the team just has to figure out how he'll fit in.
"We'll find out," Patriots coach Bill Belichick told our Insider Tom E. Curran, Jerry Thornton and Dale Arnold on WEEI's Dale and Holley Show. "We'll see how it goes. We've never had him in our system before. Coached him in the Pro Bowl and all that, but we'll just have to see how it goes.
"I think he's certainly had a great career. He's done a lot of things for the Colts organization, not only playing on the left, but also in recent years being moved around to playing on the right and in the slot in certain situations. He has a lot of versatility, and certainly a lot of experience so we'll just have to see how it goes."
Wayne fits into a receiving group that has been hit hard by injuries this offseason: Brandon LaFell, recovering from a foot injury, has not practiced with the team at all during training camp; Julian Edelman has missed significant time due to what appeared to be a foot or ankle injury; Aaron Dobson has also missed several practices and both preseason games; and veteran Brandon Gibson seemed to sustain a leg injury in Saturday's preseason win over the Saints.
Alongside Danny Amendola and undrafted rookie Chris Harper, Wayne should see plenty of throws from quarterbacks Tom Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo once the team resumes practices later this week.
The Patriots have brought in accomplished veteran receivers in the past with varying degrees of success. Randy Moss, Wes Welker and LaFell are among those that have made an almost immediate impact by picking up the New England system rather quickly. Others, like Chad Johnson and Joey Galloway, had a tougher time adjusting.
Belichick was asked if the Patriots offense makes a transition from one team to another relatively difficult.
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"I think that's a tough question for me to answer," he said. "That's a better question for guys who have actually been in our system or been in another system and ours to compare them . . . Other players that have come here from other systems, like LaFell or Danny, even though Danny played under [offensive coordinator] Josh [McDaniels] for a little bit [in St. Louis], guys like that that have been in other systems that have a better, probably, handle on how ours is the same or different or whatever. All I know is what we do. I'm not really sure about what any body else is doing."
Wayne has found Hall of Fame levels of success in prolific Colts passing games with Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck. It's not expected that he'll be crossed up by the Patriots play book, complex as it is.
But as Belichick put it, "We'll just have to see how it goes."