Patriots Release WR Mohamed Sanu

In a bit of a surprise, unless you’re Mike Reiss of ESPN, the Patriots are parting with their trade deadline acquisition from last year, Mohamed Sanu. The move brings the Patriots roster down to 79 and saves them around $6.5 million on the cap.

The Patriots have released WR Mohamed Sanu, as @RapSheet reported.

The move clears $6.5M in cap space for the Patriots, but the trade of a second-round pick to Atlanta yields a minimal return at a position they’ve needed help at.

— Field Yates (@FieldYates) September 2, 2020

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Sanu never quite caught on last season in his short time in New England. The former Falcon came over for a second-round pick in part to help mitigate the loss of guys like Antonio Brown, Josh Gordon, and N’Keal Harry. Harry, of course, was hampered with an injury to start the season. Outside of a 10/81/1 stat line against the Ravens in his second game as a Patriot, Sanu was relatively quiet the rest of the way including just one catch in their Wildcard Round loss to the Titans. He was hampered early on by a high ankle injury, however, he totaled just 26 receptions for 207 yards in eight regular-season games.

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This is an example of the Patriots and Bill Belichick admitting that a player wasn’t working and cutting bait despite the high price they paid to acquire him. In hindsight, it is a terrible deal having given up a second-round pick for an average of three receptions a game.

This could be a good sign for a guy like Jeff Thomas or it could open up the door to bring in another player as teams across the league fight to get down to the 53 player roster limit.