Reggie Wayne signs with New England Patriots

By Kevin Parvizi | Aug 24, 2015

Well, that happened fast. After the New England Patriots started to show interest in former Indianapolis Colts legend Reggie Wayne, the Green Bay Packers quickly followed as a Super Bowl contender dealing with wide receiver injuries with interest in the former four-time, 100-reception receiver.

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Even though you’d think that interest from two elite teams with high-powered offense would cause Wayne to wait a little bit before coming to a decision, a deal has already happened between the Patriots and their former arch-nemesis. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that player and team have reached a one-year deal, and it will be interesting to see how much money the contract is worth.

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While the Patriots are notoriously stingy when it comes to paying players, this deal will be for more than the veteran minimum and will carry guaranteed money, based on the fact that they signed Wayne this quickly after word broke of interest from the Packers, who are searching for a replacement following Jordy Nelson‘s ACL tear in yesterday’s meaningless preseason game.

Adding Wayne gives the Patriots a veteran option with several receivers missing due to injury here in training camp, but we’ll have to wait and see what his role will be when the games start. This signing doesn’t bode well for youngsters like Aaron Dobson and Josh Boyce, though Wayne is a “Z” receiver whereas Dobson is an “X”.

Last season, Reggie Wayne caught 64 passes for 779 yards, but he was one of the NFL’s worst wide receivers with nine drops, a 55.2% catch rate, and an average of less than 7.0 yards per attempt despite catching passes from Andrew Luck. Despite his awful numbers and the fact that he’s a rapidly declining 36-year-old, Wayne could bounce back if he proves to be healthy. He tore his ACL in 2013 and didn’t recover well in 2014, and he also had a triceps issue on top of that.

The Colts didn’t have faith in Wayne’s ability to bounce back after last season’s putrid performance, but the Patriots do; let’s see if their faith is rewarded, and let’s also see just how much they’ll be paying him, particularly when it comes to financial guarantees for a veteran who offers little in the form of on-field guarantees (based on his work last season).

News of the deal comes very, very shortly after T.Y. Hilton stated, via the Indianapolis Star’s Zak Keefer, his former teammate is “dead set” on playing this year. Wayne now has his shot to have a better finish to his career than what he did in 2014, and he’ll probably have more opportunities to rack up more receptions on his Hall of Fame resume with the Pats, who are more willing to throw to veterans, than he would have with the Packers.

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