In his first year with the Patriots, Jordan Matthews will not attempt to snag his customary jersey number.

"I think somebody's wearing that," joked Matthews, who wore No. 87 at Vanderbilt and a year ago with the Buffalo Bills. "I was like, 'OK, whoever has it, I could probably fight him.' But I heard he's big."

Instead, Matthews will don No. 80 in New England.

And he made sure to check in with its previous owner, Danny Amendola, before making it official.

"I called him before I got it," Matthews said on Thursday. "I know what he did here. I don't think you have to get a number retired and all that stuff to understand and have respect for what guys do at a place like this. And I think they called him 'Danny Playoff.' I think he earned that name. I just wanted to make sure it was cool."

Matthews and Amendola first linked up at Sam Bradford's wedding in July 2016. Amendola and Bradford had been teammates in St. Louis, while Matthews and Bradford were playing together in Philadelphia.

"We were kickin' it, had a great time," Matthews said. "He's just a real cool dude. Gave me a lot of good tidbits and stuff, because going into (2016) it was going to be my second year with Sam. He had played a lot with Sam in St. Louis."

Matthews has connections to several current Patriots: He played with cornerback Eric Rowe in Philadelphia, played against defensive end Trey Flowers in high school ("my team always won," he joked), and pledged the same fraternity as defensive end Deatrich Wise Jr.

In fact, Matthews' dad and Wise's dad were fraternity brothers at Jackson State.

Of the receivers, Matthews has met only Julian Edelman, but is looking forward to getting in touch with everyone else.