The Patriots made a couple of seemingly lesser moves. They signed Matt Flynn, and they released Tim Wright. These aren’t show stoppers, but there might be a little fantasy relevance there.
With Flynn, I believe they are looking for some insurance for Jimmy Garoppolo. I don’t think there’s any intention to start Flynn. But Brady might be down for four games, and if Garoppolo struggles or gets hurt, they’ll need somebody else to fill in.
The decision to release Tim Wright is more intriguing. He caught 6 TDs last year. Previously, Aaron Hernandez put up big numbers as a second tight end, working alongside The Gronk.
With Wright gone, I think there’s a reasonable chance one of the team’s other tight ends will be sneaky good this year. Scott Chandler started most of the last four years with the Bills. Maybe. And they’ve also got Fred Davis. He’s been suspended multiple times for violating the substance abuse policy (he didn’t even play last year) but in the not-too-distant past, he appeared to be one of the top 10 pass catching tight ends in the league. In 2011, he caught 59 passes and 3 TDs in 12 games (before being suspended).
Neither Chandler nor Davis is promising enough right now that I would envision either being drafted today. But one could play his way into that kind of value.
—Ian Allan
