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Looking Back at Mohamed Sanu Trade: Price Was High, but So Was Demand for Patriots

In the end, other teams prospered from the Mohamed Sanu trade. But the Patriots did not.

Last October, the New England Patriots were desperate for help at the receiver position. Their rookie first-round pick N'Keal Harry was on injured reserve. The Antonio Brown experiment didn't work out. And Josh Gordon was injured and would eventually make his way to injured reserve before being cut. 

That's why, even though the price was a bit high, New England traded for veteran receiver Mohamed Sanu on Oct. 22. The six-time Super Bowl champions traded a second-round pick (55th overall) to the Atlanta Falcons in exchange for the 30-year-old wideout. 

New England's trade for Sanu will forever me compared to a trade that the San Francisco 49ers also conducted on the same day. The 49ers acquired wideout Emmanuel Sanders, a 32 year old, efficient pass-catcher that for years had been linked to the Patriots, for a fifth-round draft pick. 

That trade panned out for the 49ers; in 10 regular season games Sanders caught 36 passes for 502 yards and three touchdowns, which are great numbers for an aging receiver in one of the most run-dominant offenses in the NFL. 

But the same can't be said for New England's trade. 

12 days after joining the six-time Super Bowl champions, Sanu had himself a day; against the Baltimore Ravens in a Week 9 loss for the Patriots, Sanu caught 10 of 14 targets for 81 yards and a touchdown. It was a great sign for a team desperate for help in the receiver department and had just given up significant draft capital to acquire one. 

However, Sanu's progression in the Patriots' system would come to a screeching halt soon after the Baltimore game. 

Following a Week 10 bye week, Sanu would return a punt against the Philadelphia Eagles and injure his ankle on the play. That ankle injury - a high ankle sprain - would linger for the rest of the season, which limited Sanu's production. After his 10-catch performance against the Ravens, Sanu would catch just 16 passes for 126 yards over the last seven games of the regular season. In the team's Wild Card round loss to the Tennessee Titans, he would catch one pass for 11 yards. 

“I was there the next day after (Sanu injured his ankle), and Mo was like ‘bro, my ankle is (expletive), I can’t even walk.’ I just came to be able to give him some relief," Seth Minter, a footwork specialist that helped Sanu rehab his ankle in-season, said during an interview with PatriotMaven back in June. "So we did a lot, and he struggled for a little bit. But then the next week he was jogging, and then he played the next week and the rest of the season."

Sanu underwent surgery on his high ankle sprain back in March, and his recovery post-surgery was incredible. Minter said the progress Sanu had made three months after surgery compared to someone that was 6-7 months removed from the same surgery. This news was promising for those who were disappointed in Sanu's 2019 campaign and wanted to see a drastic improvement in the veteran receiver in 2020. 

While Sanu began training camp this summer on the active/physically unable to perform list, he would be activated from the active/PUP on Aug. 4, which was a week after Phase 1 of training camp begun. 

But when Sanu hit the practice field for what would be his first training with the Patriots, he still wasn't reaching expectations. 

Over the course of Phase 2 of training camp and with quarterback Cam Newton under center, Sanu caught 13 of 21 passes (61.9 percent), according to reporters on-scene for the practices. The main factor for Sanu's weak camp was his inability to create separation downfield against defenders. 

Entering the 2020 season with a $6.5 million cap hit, Sanu's production had yet to match his price tag, which is why the Patriots released him Wednesday

Aside from the 49ers acquiring Sanders on the same day as the Sanu trade, what may be the most frustrating part of that trade last October was what came about of the draft pick New England gave to Atlanta for Sanu. 

In March, the Falcons packaged that 55th overall pick from the Patriots along with a fifth-round pick to acquire Baltimore Ravens tight end and former first-round pick Hayden Hurst and a 2020 fourth-round pick. The Ravens then took that second-round pick and used it to draft Ohio State running back J.K. Dobbins, who was considered a steal at that point in the draft. So from that perspective, New England could have solved their tight end woes by acquiring a talented pass-catching tight end via trade, or they could have loaded their backfield by drafting the talented Buckeye. Instead, they used it on an aging receiver that hadn't eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards in his eight-year career. 

Mohamed Sanu was expected to come in and help add quality depth to a diminished receiving corps. Instead, injuries and a lack of production have him looking for a new home just before the 2020 regular season. 

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