The New England Patriots claimed tight end Martellus Bennett off waivers, the team announced Thursday.
The move came one day after Bennett was waived by the Green Bay Packers.
Bennett, who was released by Green Bay with the designation that he failed to disclose a physical condition, rejoins the team with which he won a Super Bowl ring last season.
The 30-year-old veteran had just 24 receptions in seven games with the Packers but had not played since Oct. 22 — the week before Green Bay’s bye week. He was inactive for Monday night’s loss to Detroit after being listed with a shoulder injury last week.
During the bye week, Bennett posted on Instagram that he was “pretty sure” he would retire at the end of the 2017 season.
“After conversations with my family I’m pretty sure these next eight games will be the conclusion of my NFL career,” he wrote. “To everyone who has poured themselves and time into my life and career. These next games are for you. Thank you.”
Signed to a three-year, $21 million contract in the offseason, Bennett failed to find the end zone with Green Bay, but he appeared in all 16 games with New England last season, hauling in 55 catches and scoring a career-high seven touchdowns.
The addition of Bennett gives Patriots quarterback Tom Brady another huge red zone target to pair with star tight end Rob Gronkowski. New England signed Dwayne Allen as a replacement for Bennett but he has yet to register a catch this season.
To clear a roster spot for Bennett, New England released defensive lineman Geneo Grissom.
During the season opener against Seattle, Bennett was one of three players who knelt for the national anthem. He is the brother of the Seahawks’ Michael Bennett, who has sat during the anthem.
With a Chicago-based family and a passion for art and creativity, the 30-year-old Bennett was asked during training camp if he had considered retiring after winning a Super Bowl with New England last season.
“I think when I stop loving the preparation is when I will give it up because that’s the most important part, whether that’s working out or watching film and studying and taking notes,” Bennett said in camp.
“Once I feel like my preparation goes down, I feel like that’s when I will walk away. I think that will happen before my body gives out.”
Patriots look to get offense rolling
The (6-2) offense was trending in the wrong direction in the month leading up to last week’s bye.
Quarterback Tom Brady’s attack was held to 24 points or less for four straight weeks — all New England wins — something that hasn’t happened in New England in nearly a decade.
If the trend is to turn around in this Sunday night’s trip to Denver to take on a Broncos (3-5) team that’s lost four in a row, New England will have to overcome a history of struggles in the Mile High City as well as produce against a defense that ranks among the best in the NFL in a number of categories.
The Broncos have the league’s No. 2 defense — No. 5 against the run and No. 4 against the pass — and despite all the struggles by the Denver offense still have the talent to make things life tough on almost any opponent.
“They’re very good defensively, at the top of the league in almost every category, or every category I should say,” head coach Bill Belichick gushed. “They’re very good against the run. That’s been much improved from last season. They have a strong pass rush. They cover as well as any team in the league. They have great players at all three levels of the defense. They’re very disruptive, a tough team to move the ball against, a tough team to score against.”
For Brady — who’ll be facing Von Miller’s pass rush with a backup at right tackle and will attack an Aqib Talib-led secondary without Chris Hogan (shoulder) — the second half of the season that kicks off in Denver comes with an increased urgency. An urgency he also expects from the Broncos as they try to get back on the winning track with a strong home-field advantage, a place where New England has just a 3-7 record since Brady took over as starter for the Patriots in 2001, including an AFC Championship Game loss in 2015.
“I think at this point, all these wins are important for every team,” Brady said with perspective of a guy who is used to annual runs toward February. “No one likes to lose, obviously. We feel that way. We’ve lost games and there’s definitely urgency. You learn a lot from the losses and everyone wants to get the bad taste out of their mouth. Any time you lose that’s how you feel. I’m sure they feel that way. We felt that way this year. It’s still going to come down to how well you prepare and play this particular week. What happened last week or next week isn’t going to matter much. It’s really what we do this week. We’re going to have to play good to beat them. Hopefully, we can go execute and make a bunch of plays and that will take care of a lot of things for us.”
Doing that coming out of the bye will require the Patriots to turn around a downward offensive scoring trend in a tough environment against a talented defense.
“There’s little margin of error when you go out there,” Brady concluded of a place some have called New England’s House of Horrors. “We’re going to have to play good. They have a great defense. They have great players on both sides of the ball. You can’t go out there and make a bunch of mistakes and expect to win.”