Gaffney spent three seasons as Tom Brady's third option on offense.
Jabar GaffneyFOXBOROUGH – Jabar Gaffney knows a little something about being Tom Brady’s third option on offense.
A member of the Patriots for three seasons, he thrived in that role and caught 85 passes for 1,059 yards before bolting to Denver in 2009 and landing in Washington this season.
Even since his departure, New England has struck out on potential replacements such as Chad Ochocinco and Joey Galloway, which comes as no surprise to Gaffney.
“It’s a pretty tough offense and if you’re not really used to it, it can be a little overwhelming,” Gaffney said. “With (coach) Bill (Belichick), he doesn’t play you if you don’t know your stuff. He’s not going to put you out there and trust you in those situations.”
Filling that role this season, Ochocinco has caught 12 passes for 213 yards.
Gaffney gave a glowing a review of his time in New England and playing alongside Brady, who he referred to as the best in the game.
The reason he believes he got along so well with the quarter and his successors haven’t is due to preparation and treating each snap as if he was always going to be the first read.
“Just the attention to detail – his attention to detail,” Gaffney said. “He pretty much let’s you know what he expects and puts in a lot of work. I was always the guy that didn’t mind putting in work, so we got on the same page real quick.”
Brady returned the praise.
“He’s just one of those guys that, from the day we got him here, he was just so reliable and dependable because he knew what to do and he did it well,” Brady said. “You gain a lot of trust from the quarterback when all those things matchup. I was bummed when he went to Denver and I was bummed when he went to Washington and here we are playing them.”