Tight end Martellus Bennett figured he was going somewhere, but he had no idea it was going to be New England. So he tried to keep himself light and free as he went through the process.
“I knew the possibility was coming,” Bennett said, via Phil Perry of CSNNE.com. “It’s just like any other thing in life, you just be prepared to make sure you flow where the wind goes. Try to be a dandelion.”
Of course, he’s now working with something far less delicate than a dandelion, teaming with All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski. They’ve worked out together so there’s background, and Bennett hopes their complementary skills can help the team.
“I think Gronk has always been an awesome tight end and I look forward to learning more about him,” Bennett said. “There are some things that he does that I don’t do, and I’m pretty sure there are a lot of things that I do that he doesn’t do, so it’ll be a good challenge to push each other and continue to help us grow as individual players as well as a tandem to do what we can to help the team. . . .
“We kind of have different styles as far as playing, but I think the one thing that we both love to do is run with the ball in our hands and I think for the last couple of years me and him have both been the best at that. He does a lot of good things. You just look at his numbers, making big plays, to showing up every week, always being reliable for Tom [Brady] and I’m just trying to come in and do the same thing.”
Of course, there’s a bit of a risk involved with having two such high-profile players with similar resumes, but Brady has proven to be a master in doing things differently each year, able to adapt to the personnel around him. It’s not exactly an ephemeral quality, but he has shown his own style of floating through a gentle breeze.