AP

Tom Brady isn’t taking a seat on Thursday night against Washington because of his perpetually nonexistent right shoulder injury or any other condition or ailment. Brady, who put in plenty of work during joint practices in D.C., will take a seat because the Patriots, in the opinion of Tom Curran of CSNNE.com, want to showcase fourth-year backup Ryan Mallett.

Curran explained on Thursday’s PFT Live that he believes the Patriots prefer to trade Mallett if they can. The most obvious candidate would be the Texans, where former Pats assistant Bill O’Brien has become the head coach, and veteran journeyman Ryan Fitzpatrick has become the starting quarterback.

New England’s ultimately willingness to trade Mallett depends also on whether rookie Jimmy Garoppolo performs well enough to justify making him the backup to Brady.

There’s also a chance that Mallett will, to borrow some of Curran’s fancy journalism words, “poop the bed” in the preseason, resulting in not only the lack of a trade market but also a decision to cut him.

For Curran’s full comments about Mallett and everything else he said about the Patriots, click the thing in the thing in the thing below.

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