Reggie Wayne knows he's been incredibly lucky. He spent 10-and-a-half years with Peyton Manning. Then after a half-season with Curtis Painter, he got three more years with Andrew Luck.
Now as a member of the Patriots, Wayne is looking at spending his 15th NFL season with Tom Brady.
Not many receivers can say they've played as long as Wayne, and among those, even fewer can say that they've spent almost their entire careers playing with best quarterbacks of a generation.
"Not everybody can say they went the same path I've taken," Wayne told Patriots.com this week. "I'm blessed, man. I truly am. One thing, I do understand that this doesn't come everyday. I try to do my best to not take this for granted. I hear all the horror stories from friends of mine going through their careers and don't have a big-time quarterback. For myself, I'm excited, I'm ready to go. Hopefully I can catch up at a rapid pace, go out there and make some plays."
Wayne has only had the benefit of two practices with his new team so it will be interesting to see just how much, if at all, he plays against the Panthers in New England's third preseason game of the summer on Friday night.
We know that if Wayne's deemed not ready in Carolina, it won't be for a lack of trying. As soon as he arrived in Foxboro, he hit the books hard in order to learn the Patriots offense as quickly as possible.