FOXBOROUGH — Devin Lucien was sitting in Tom Brady’s locker stall chatting with Jacoby Brissett Saturday morning as Brissett got dressed for practice.
As players scurried around the room getting padded up for the first official practice of the regular season, Lucien didn’t seem to be in a hurry. It appeared as though the receiver was resigned to the fact that he was on the move.
As it turned out, Brissett too would be heading out of town.
In the biggest surprise move on a day full of them, the Patriots sent Brissett to Indianapolis in exchange for speedy receiver/return man Phillip Dorsett.
In a separate move, the Patriots acquired cornerback Johnson Bademosi from the Lions for a sixth-round pick in 2019. In a third trade, the Patriots acquired defensive end Cassius Marsh from the Seahawks for the seventh-round pick they received from Seattle in the Justin Coleman deal Friday and a fifth-rounder.
Brissett, the team’s third-string QB and a third-round pick in 2016, had an eventful rookie season, starting two games in which he went 1-1 and spending time on injured reserve after thumb surgery.
Dorsett was a first-round pick out of the University of Miami in 2015. The 5-foot-10-inch, 189-pounder possesses excellent speed (he ran a 4.33 40 at the NFL Combine) and has 51 catches for 753 yards and 3 TDs in two seasons with the Colts. He had 33 catches for 528 yards and a pair of touchdowns last season.
With an average of 16 yards per catch in 2016, Dorsett — who has been slowed by nagging injuries, including hamstring woes — gives the Patriots another vertical threat along with Brandin Cooks (15 yards per catch), Rob Gronkowski (21.6), and Chris Hogan (17.9).
Dorsett, 24, is not a slot man but his addition could allow the Patriots to move the versatile Hogan inside in three-receiver sets with Cooks and Dorsett on the outside.
He has just two punt returns and one kickoff return as a pro, but returned 25 punts for 136 yards and 25 kickoffs for 477 yards during four seasons with the Hurricanes, so he could be given a shot to earn that job in New England. The Patriots lost top punt returners Julian Edelman and Cyrus Jones in back-to-back weeks with season-ending knee injuries.
Dorsett is signed through 2018 but the Patriots could exercise a fifth-year option in the spring.
Brissett provides insurance for the Colts with the status of starter Andrew Luck (shoulder) in limbo for Week 1. Luck was just removed from the PUP list Saturday and Scott Tolzien has taken the bulk of the starter reps this summer in Indianapolis.
Brissett impressed the Patriots with his poise and grit. After being hurt in a Week 3 win over the Texans (big Vince Wilfork landed on him), Brissett played through the injury in a loss to the Bills when the team had no other options with Tom Brady suspended and Jimmy Garoppolo hurt.
In his three appearances in 2016, Brissett threw for 400 yards and had an 83.9 passer rating.
He had an up-and-down camp but finished his summer — and his Patriots career — on a high note Thursday night. Brissett went the distance against the Giants and completed 28 of 39 passes for 341 yards, four touchdowns, and a 121.8 passer rating. For good measure, he rushed for 29 yards and another score.
Brissett showed excellent leadership and led the Patriots back from a 20-point, third-quarter deficit to take the lead with less than a minute left in an eventual 40-38 loss. The Colts were so impressed by Brissett’s outing they described it as “perhaps one of the greatest preseason performances by a quarterback in NFL history’’ in their release on the transaction.
“I thought that Jacoby and really all of our players competed really hard,’’ coach Bill Belichick said Friday about the Giants game. “Positive performance by Jacoby . . . I thought he did a good job and did a good job of leading the team and I thought that the team responded well to him, as well.’’
This is the second trade between the Patriots and Colts in the last six months as New England acquired tight end Dwayne Allen and 2017 sixth-round pick in exchange for a 2017 fourth-rounder.
Like Dorsett, Bademosi is a speed demon. He ran a 4.2 40 in college but went undrafted out of Stanford.
He signed as a free agent with the Browns in 2012 and led them in special teams tackles the last four seasons before signing with the Lions in March 2016.
Marsh, a fourth-year pro out of UCLA, had 22 tackles and three sacks last season.
Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globejimmcbride.
