LSU TE Thaddeus Moss to Patriots would be a ‘good story’

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INDIANAPOLIS -- The Moss name obviously carries some weight in New England.

The recording-setting 23 touchdown passes that Randy Moss put up in 2007, on the way to 50 touchdowns in three-plus seasons in Foxborough, left a significant mark in Patriots history.

Now, another Moss who carries a little more weight on his frame and a little more physicality to his game is looking to carve out a future in the NFL and is more than open to the idea of that coming in New England.

LSU tight end Thaddeus Moss, Randy’s son, is at the Combine this week after a breakout season for the Tigers in which the N.C. State transfer caught 47 passes from Joe Burrow, doing his part on the way to a National Championship.

Sporting a different build from his Hall of Fame father, the 6-3, 250-pound Moss has been a tight end his entire life. And not the pass-catching kind that litter college and high school fields these days.

This Moss said Tuesday morning at the NFL Scouting Combine that he’d actually prefer to block than catch passes.

“I took pride in that all year,” Moss said of the physicality that he declared is in the DNA of LSU football. “All the receivers always asked me in the offseason how many catches are you going to have, how many touchdowns are you going to have? I was like look, I don’t care about catches. You all can have as many as y’all want. I’m a tight end not a receiver. I’ll do the dirty work and you all go score touchdowns and do y’all’s little dance. I’ll go block.”

At this point, Moss is considered a mid-round prospect in a relatively thin tight end class, a guy NFL Network has compared to former Patriots tight end Jermaine Wiggins.

Though the younger Moss was only 9 years old when his father arrived at the Patriots via trade and helped Tom Brady put together an historic offense in 2007, he does recall his time at Gillette Stadium and the people he met there.

“I don’t know if I’d say (I have) relationships with anybody. I’ve talked to Coach [Bill] Belichick before. I’ve talked to Coach [Robert] Kraft [Patriots owner] before. Probably my most fond memories is the undefeated season that they had, obviously they didn’t finish it the way they wanted to,” Moss recalled. “That and on top of that I was in the facility once or twice before. Meeting Tom Brady when I was younger. I was sitting there star struck. Walking down the hallway seeing Tedy Bruschi, seeing Coach [Mike] Vrabel walk down the hallway when I was younger. Those are probably the most fond memories that I have.”

Moving forward Moss – who actually played his sophomore year of high school football in Rhode Island -- made it clear it’d be a dream to catch passes from Brady much like his father did more than a decade ago.

“It would mean a lot,” Moss said of the possibility of playing with Brady and landing with the tight end-needy Patriots. “Just to catch a touchdown pass period in the NFL would mean a lot. But to catch from Tom Brady knowing that he threw a good amount of touchdown passes to my father, it would be a good story.”

Come draft weekend maybe, just maybe, that good story could become a reality.