Patriots Made a Mistake Picking Mohamed Sanu Over Emmanuel Sanders
By Chris Pyo
A week before the NFL trade deadline back in October, the New England Patriots tried to improve their receiving corps and acquire more weapons for Tom Brady to work with.
Well, two veteran receivers were made available for trade in Emmanuel Sanders and Mohamed Sanu, and the Pats chose to go for the latter. You bet they're regretting that decision right about now.
At the trade deadline, the #49ers paid a 3rd and 4th to the #Broncos for WR Emmanuel Sanders and a 5th, the #Patriots paid a 2nd round pick Mohamed Sanu.
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) December 8, 2019
Safe to say the 49ers made the right choice, the Patriots, did not.
The San Francisco 49ers were fortunate enough to scoop Sanders up in exchange for 2020 third and fourth-round picks. He's been more than worth their investment, becoming one of Jimmy Garoppolo's favorite targets and hauling in 28 catches for 407 yards and three touchdowns in seven games since the trade.
Meanwhile, the Patriots gave up a 2020 second round pick to the Atlanta Falcons in exchange for Sanu in the same week, and all they've gotten since then is 18 catches for 135 yards and a touchdown over five games.
The 49ers and Patriots were the last two teams involved in talks with Atlanta for WR Mohamed Sanu, per multiple sources. So the latter got him, and the former landed Emmanuel Sanders.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) October 22, 2019
(Kyle Shanahan coached Sanu in Atlanta.)
Tom Brady must be fuming at the missed opportunity to land Sanders, as that would've given him a much more reliable and steady target than Sanu.
While Sanders has flourished with his new team, Sanu has yet to develop a strong rapport with Brady, even dropping a potential touchdown grab in the end zone on Sunday against the Bengals. Hopefully the two can figure out how to properly mesh in the stretch run ahead of the playoffs, but for now the team's acquisition of Sanu instead of Sanders is looking pretty grim.