Patriots head coach Bill Belichick jokingly acknowledged that he goes “way back” with trade-addition wide receiver Mohamed Sanu.

It was a reference to Sanu’s Rutgers’ roots and Belichick’s affinity for the school’s players over the years.

“We saw everybody at Rutgers,” Belichick added with a smirk.

The school was not only the college home for current Patriots such as Devin McCourty, Jason McCourty and Duron Harmon, but also was attended by Belichick’s son and current Patriots safeties coach Steve Belichick.

Now, Belichick will work with Sanu on a daily basis, striving to get him up to speed as fast as possible for Sunday’s game against the Browns and beyond.

Asked what traits Sanu brings to the field that drew the Patriots interest, Belichick answered in somewhat general fashion.

“He’s a very experienced receiver,” Belichick explained. “He’s had a lot of production. So, yeah, glad to have him. See how it goes.”

New England has experience getting veteran receivers immersed in the offense on the fly in recent years, having done it with Josh Gordon last September and Antonio Brown for short stint early this season.

“I think each player is a little bit different,” Belichick said. “Really it’s more about the game plan right now than it is starting on day one and going through the installation schedule. Really what we’re doing this week…what the Browns do, what the coverages are, what our game plan is, what our assignments are, what adjustments we have to make and so forth. (Rather) than go back and talk about things that happened earlier in the year, I mean there is a time for that and we certainly have a lot to catch up on but the most important thing for a player coming onto the team is the immediate game.”

As that process evolves this week, Belichick didn’t acknowledge much of connection between the Patriots’ offensive scheme and what Sanu did previously in his career in Atlanta and Cincinnati.

“He’s been in a couple different systems. So we’ll have to see how all of that comes together,” Belichick said.

Sanu has started 86 of the 110 games he played in his eight NFL seasons, including six of seven for the Falcons this fall. He has 377 career catches for 4,300 yards (11.4 avg.) with 25 touchdowns. This season he’s tallied 33 catches for 313 yards (9.5 avg.) with one score.

Sanu, who wore No. 12 previously in his career, is wearing No. 14 with the Patriots.