The New England Patriots need to start building a supporting cast around second-year quarterback Drake Maye. Surrounding Maye with protection and talent should be essential for New England as they continue to upgrade the team with new head coach Mike Vrabel.
With Josh McDaniels returning for his third stint in New England, it’s fair to assume that the offense is going to be more organized and run more smoothly with McDaniels calling the plays as the offensive coordinator.
That said, we know McDaniels’ style of play calling and how he runs an offense. He uses all of his skill position players as legitimate options in the passing game, utilizing the running backs as receivers and creating crossing routes for slot receivers that really emphasize his offenses.
During McDaniels’ time in New England, he created an offense that featured two high-caliber tight ends and it changed the way the game was played at the position. The two tight ends were Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez and they combined for 106 receptions for 1,273 yards and scored 16 touchdowns in 2012.
With two high-caliber tight ends, the Patriots will run a lot of 12 personnel: one running back, two wide receivers, and two tight ends. It ultimately gives Maye plenty of options to work with in the passing game, enhancing the offense to set him up for success.
This only works, however, with the right tight end pairing. The Patriots currently have two veterans in Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper, both are going to be 31 years old this season. Although they’ve done well in New England, it’s time to start planning for the future of the position.
The Patriots could address the tight end position in the 2025 NFL Draft by using one of their four picks in the Top 100 to land a top tight end. At No. 4, they should definitely draft an offensive tackle, but at No. 38 they could land a top tight end or attempt to get back into the first round to draft the top tight end in the draft.
Patriots Should Target Top Tight End in NFL Draft
Tyler Warren (Penn State) is the No. 1 tight end in this draft and is arguably one of the best athletes in the class. In 2024, Warren caught 104 receptions for 1,233 yards and scored eight touchdowns in the air, but he also had 218 rushing yards and scored four touchdowns on 26 carries while lined up as a quarterback in a wildcat formation.
Warren joined NBC Sports Boston’s Tom E. Curran on his Patriots Talk Podcast. While discussing the possibility of being drafted by the Patriots, Warren said it would be “awesome” for a young guy to learn from veterans like Henry and Hooper.
“They’ve had some success with tight ends in the past, and they’ve got some good tight ends there. That would be an awesome opportunity for a young guy to learn from. And if I am on your team, I would do whatever I can to help win and help the offense be the best that I can be and play the game the right way. That's kind of how I try and do it.”
Warren hasn’t had the chance to meet Maye, but he told Curran that he’s heard of good things about him, he said he’s even been told that they share a similar personality to each other.
“I saw a little bit more of him when he was in college, just because you don’t get to watch the NFL as much when you’re playing college football. But I know some guys that met him through their process and they say good things about him. And people have said that we might be wired kind of similarly and be similar in some type of way.”
The tight end is one of the most versatile positions on the field. They can line up almost anywhere and change the course of a sequence just by being able to be versatile. Warren understands that notion as a tight end and takes it with great pride.
“Just being able to move around and do a bunch of different roles with an offense I think is what makes tight end fun in general, because you kind of get to do a little bit of everything. I did a little bit of a wider range of stuff in college last year, and I think that’s something that helps me out, being able to fill a lot of different roles within the offense.”
In order to land Warren, New England would likely have to trade down from No. 4, trade back up into the Top 10 of the first round, or simply just draft him at No. 4, as NBC Sports Boston Patriots Insider Phil Perry suggested.
It’s worth mentioning that when Gronkowski retired after the 2018 season, the Patriots didn’t have a contingency plan in place despite the writing being on the wall that he was ready to retire. It turned out that he just needed a hiatus to reset his body after enduring years of injuries and surgeries.
By not having a plan in place, it took three years to replace Gronkowski (and I say that loosely) until they signed Henry in 2021. It would be ideal for the Patriots to draft a tight end to pair with Maye for the next ten years in New England.