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Tom Brady reaches out to former receivers to try and fix Patriots passing game

Tom Brady appears to be hoping to get Deion Branch (left) back on the plane. (David J. Phillip/AP) It's not a news flash that the New England Patriots have
Doug Farrar|
Tom Brady reaches out to former receivers to try and fix Patriots passing game
Tom Brady reaches out to former receivers to try and fix Patriots passing game

Tom Brady appears to be hoping to get Deion Branch (left) back on the plane. (David J. Phillip/AP)

It's not a news flash that the New England Patriots have major issues with their receiver corps. They were without Rob Gronkowski and Danny Amendola for their Sunday victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Julian Edelman leads the team with 27 catches for 201 yards and two touchdowns through three games ...  and a 7.4 yards per catch average. Tom Brady entered Week 3 ranked 29th in Football Outsiders' opponent-adjusted efficiency rankings, and he's been first overall in four of his last five seasons.

So, what's Brady to do? The Pats may get another receiver before the late October trade deadline, and one assumes that Gronkowski and Amendola will be back in the lineup consistently at some point. But in the interim, New England's quarterback has reached out to some old friends.

Mike Silver and Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reported Sunday morning that Brady has called and texted Deion Branch and Brandon Lloyd, who combined for 90 catches, 1,056 yards, and four touchdowns in 2012. Per Silver and Rapoport, Branch is in Kentucky, and is ready and waiting by the phone if the Patriots call. However, Lloyd is not in game shape, because he's been working on a straight-to-DVD zombie movie entitled After Effect with Daniel Baldwin. (Yes, if you're a Sopranos fan like I am, you just made a Cleaver joke in your head).

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Doug Farrar
DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009,  Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine.  He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.

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