Patriots Acquire Tight End Bennett In Trade With Bears
ANDREW SELIGMAN, AP Sports Writer
LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — The New England Patriots have acquired Martellus Bennett from the Chicago Bears, giving them another talented tight end to pair with All-Pro Rob Gronkowski.
New England also gets Chicago's sixth-round pick in this year's draft in exchange for the Patriots' fourth-rounder in the deal announced on Thursday.
The 29-year-old Bennett has spent eight seasons in the NFL, the past three in Chicago. He made the Pro Bowl in 2014 and has 3,586 yards with 23 touchdowns in his career.
He goes from a rebuilding team to a perennial championship contender under coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady. He also joins Gronkowski in what could be the NFL's most productive tight end tandem, and the Patriots will be banking on all that to help keep him in line after he rubbed the Bears the wrong way.
A free spirit who describes himself as a "black unicorn" and writes children's books, Bennett missed voluntary offseason workouts a year ago because he wanted a contract extension even though he had two seasons remaining on his contract.
That forced him to play catch-up trying to learn a new offense under coordinator Adam Gase, who left after the season to become the Miami Dolphins' head coach. It didn't exactly endear him to new coach John Fox and general manager Ryan Pace.
Bennett made the Pro Bowl in 2014 with 90 receptions for 916 yards and six touchdowns. But his production slipped last season and he started to question his role as Chicago began to feature tight end Zach Miller. Bennett caught 53 passes for 439 yards over 11 games before going on injured reserve with a rib injury.
The Patriots are the fourth team for Bennett, who spent four years in Dallas and one with the New York Giants.
The trade was announced after the Bears retained a pair of tight ends on Monday, agreeing to a two-year contract with Miller and a one-year deal with Rob Housler.
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