New England Patriots: Most important offensive skill players in 2020
Fourth, the two rookie tight ends need to contribute.
The New England Patriots got little in 2019 from a position that had traditionally been a great source of production with All-Universe tight end, Rob Gronkowski.
Gronk is at Tampa Bay and he’s not walking through that door.
To try to finally address that situation, the Patriots invested heavily in the position in the draft of all places. They traded up for two tight ends in moves that could easily be termed “reaches”. Both came in the third round.
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UCLA’s Devin Asiasi came on the 91st pick and Virginia Tech’s Dalton Keene on the 101st. Asiasi is 6’3″ tall and weighs 257 pounds. That’s a bit smaller than the prototypical Patriots’ tight end. But he also ran a 4.7 forty yard dash. Not bad at all for a 257-pound guy.
Asiasi had a good season for the UCLA Bruins in 2019 reeling in 44 passes for 641 yards. He had a very healthy 14.6 yards-per-catch. If he can come close to those numbers for New England he’ll have to be considered a steal.
The other rookie tight end is Dalton Keene from Virginia Tech. Keene possesses that trait that New England loves, versatility. While he only caught 21 passes for 240 yards in 2019, Keene can play a multitude of positions.
These include fullback, H-back, and in-line among other positions as noted by patriots.com. Ironically, patriots.com compares him to Jacob Hollister, who was cut by the team and had a breakout season with Seattle in 2019 where he caught 41 for 349 yards.
New England will have to get production from Asiasi and/or Keene to justify those two high draft picks and to give their offense a dimension that Brady didn’t have in 2019. Hopefully, these cookies can justify those high selections by New England beginning in September.
Those are some thoughts on who has to perform in the offensive skill positions when the ball is kicked off to the New England Patriots in the 2020 NFL season.
Next. New England Patriots: 5 rookies who will make immediate impacts in 2020. dark
Overall their skill positions on offense need a lot of work. The help could come from within or from outside. But someone has to step up.
The New England Patriots did little to address the running back and wide receiver positions in the offseason. They are basically rolling with what they had. They also are relying on two rookies to bolster a weak tight end room. That’s always a risky proposition.
But with camp about 5 weeks away, hopefully, we’ll soon learn if they’ve done enough to bolster an offense that even the greatest quarterback in history couldn’t ignite. So we’ll see. But, then again, that’s why they play the games.