Matt LaCosse opted out of the season for New England yesterday. It's not as big a name as Patrick Chung or Dont'a Hightower, but LaCosse might conceivably have been the Patriots' starting tight end this year. Next man up is now Ryan Izzo, or more likely one of the team's two Day 2 rookies.
Izzo was a 7th-round draft pick back in 2018. He's caught all of 6 passes his first two years in the league, with injuries a factor. But should be either him, Devin Asiasi or Dalton Keene as New England's main player at the position.
The Patriots made Asiasi the second tight end drafted back in April, taking him at the bottom of the third round. They then selected Keene 10 picks later, so not a lot of difference between the two in terms of draft capital. What are the odds that one of the two makes a rookie impact?
Since Bill Belichick came to town, the Patriots have drafted 12 tight ends out of college. Of those players, two hit it big right away, and like Asiasi and Keene there were taken in the same draft. Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez were selected 10 years ago, and both were top-15 PPR tight ends in their rookie seasons.
| NEW ENGLAND TIGHT ENDS, ROOKIE NUMBERS (2002-PRESENT) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Rd | Player | G | Tgt | Rec | Yds | TD | PPR | Rk |
| 2002 | 1 | Daniel Graham | 12 | 23 | 15 | 150 | 1 | 36.0 | 42 |
| 2003 | 7 | Spencer Nead | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -- |
| 2004 | 1 | Benjamin Watson | 1 | 4 | 2 | 16 | 0 | 3.6 | 93 |
| 2005 | 7 | Andy Stokes | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -- |
| 2006 | 3 | Dave Thomas | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -- |
| 2006 | 4 | Garrett Mills | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -- |
| 2010 | 4 | Aaron Hernandez | 14 | 64 | 45 | 563 | 6 | 142.0 | 14 |
| 2010 | 2 | Rob Gronkowski | 16 | 59 | 42 | 546 | 10 | 156.6 | 11 |
| 2015 | 6 | A.J. Derby | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -- |
| 2017 | U | Jacob Hollister | 15 | 11 | 4 | 42 | 0 | 8.7 | 89 |
| 2018 | 7 | Ryan Izzo | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -- |
| 2020 | 3 | Devin Asiasi | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| 2020 | 3 | Dalton Keene | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Most of those players didn't do anything in their first seasons, and that's not surprising. It's a tough position to make an immediate contribution at, and obviously the Patriots had future Hall of Famer Gronkowski manning the spot for the last decade -- no rookie was going to push him off the field.
But now there's a void at the position for New England, and with Tom Brady gone and a lot of the team's players opting out, it kind of looks like a rebuilding year. Either Asiasi or Keene seems very likely to get plenty of snaps this year. Maybe both of them.
Our expectation is it will be Asiasi. He was drafted a little earlier, but he was also the more productive college player, catching 44 passes for 641 yards and 4 TDs at UCLA last year. He can block, so no reason he can't get on the field immediately. Keene wasn't as productive in college (59 catches in three seasons at Virginia Tech) and could be used as an H-back type; more likely to see situational usage. Although, it's something they'll figure out in August.
Given that people see design in everything involving Bill Belichick, there are plenty of theories surrounding all these New England opt outs. Maybe he's tanking for Trevor Lawrence, encouraging people to take the year off (unlikely, but like I said, people can come up with all kinds of things).
What can be said is that New England is going to have some nobodies playing plenty and contributing. I don't think Asiasi and Keene will be the next Gronk-Hernandez, but I'll be keeping track of the camp reports anyway. Maybe one will emerge as a significant player this season.
--Andy Richardson