New England Patriots: 5 players blazing the way into 2021 NFL season
New England Patriots tight ends, Jonnu Smith and Hunter Henry
It’s cheating a bit to advertise 5 key players and specify six but the tight end position is a unique situation.
Jonnu Smith and Hunter Henry have been linked elsewhere and it’s actually a good thing.
The position last season for the New England Patriots was truly abysmal. As had been noted before, all the tight ends caught a total of 18 passes with one touchdown.
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Smith and Henry combined caught 101 passes last season. Smith had 41 and eight touchdowns and Henry notched 60 with four touchdowns.
Henry is more prolific as a pass-catcher but Smith is a red-zone specialist. Both of those talents were missing from New England in 2020.
Two rookie third-round draftees caught five passes between them. Ryan Izzo who caught the most with 13 was shipped out to Houston in a trade.
For all practical purposes, there were no tight ends working for the Patriots or for Cam Newton to throw to. It was an organizational embarrassment.
Even below-average production might have vaulted them into a playoff spot last year. Unfortunately, both rookies flopped and no one else emerged either.
The presence of Smith and Henry will allow New England to again deploy the formidable two-tight-end formation that was so successful for the team in the past.
Assuming reasonable health, each new tight end will dwarf last year’s total production by himself, in his sleep. That’s good offseason work but another backup would be helpful.