The Patriots defense will have to figure out a way to cope without Jamie Collins after the Pro Bowl linebacker was traded to Cleveland for a conditional draft pick on Monday.
Their offense? Well, their offense won't be impacted all that much. Players on that side of the ball just know that more will be on their shoulders as their defensive teammates get things sorted out.
Tom Brady said as much during an interview with Westwood One's Jim Gray on Monday night.
“It doesn’t affect anything we’re doing on offense," Brady said. "And defensively, those guys will have to answer that question. I’m not in those meetings to understand what their schemes are all about. But offensively, our pieces are the same. We’re still trying to do things more consistently on offense.
"We on offense we know when you lose a player of Jamie’s caliber, we’re going to have to do better. That is what our goal is going to have to be.”
Brady and Collins have been teammates since 2013, when Collins was a second-round pick out of Southern Mississippi. They won a Super Bowl together in 2014, and they seemed to be on their way toward another memorable finish until Collins was dealt away.
Though Brady has been through this before with teammates like Chandler Jones, Logan Mankins and Richard Seymour, he said it still affects him when someone is traded unexpectedly from the Patriots locker room.
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“It’s always tough to hear news like that with a teammate that I’ve played with and been in so many battles with,” Brady said. “Jamie [was] a great player for our team, and I’m sure he will be a great player for the Cleveland Browns. I'm always sad when we lose a player that I like and someone that I respect like Jamie.”