Remember when the New England Patriots dominated with the tight end position?
Yeah, it feels like it was some time ago. The 2017 season was the last time New England had over 1,000 yards from the tight end position and 2018 was Rob Gronkowski’s last year in New England. These past two seasons, the Patriots have been near the bottom percentile in tight end production.
Bill Belichick hoped to turn that tide in 2020 with two third-round tight ends being drafted. Devin Asiasi out of UCLA and Dalton Keene out of Virginia Tech had expectations to at least provide a threat on the field. Collectively, they have one catch for eight yards through 14 weeks. Ryan Izzo leads the group with 13 receptions for 199 yards — but, he’s now on the injured reserve list.
Asiasi and Keene have dealt with being rookies during COVID and injuries throughout this year. They’re both healthy and Belichick explained how they can show production during the final three games of the season.
“It’s good to have them back out there,” Belichick said on Wednesday, transcribed by Pats Pulpit. “Last week, they had a little more playing time, but unfortunately it didn’t correlate into more practice time or quality practice time because of the schedule we were on. So, we’ll see how it goes here as they get more experience and reps at what they’re doing and then how that transfers over into the game.”
Practice, they just need some practice.
“Both guys missed some time there kind of right in the middle of the season after they’d gotten started and had made some progress, and then weren’t able to continue and now have resumed full activity,” Belichick said. “So, hopefully we can make progress every day. We’ll just have to see how that all works out here. …
“I think we made the most of what we had, but, yeah, not ideal. You’d like everybody out there all the time, but unfortunately that’s not really realistic in the National Football League.”
Though the playoffs are likely out of the equation, it’ll still give the rookies three games to prove their abilities for the future.
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