Patriots Are Most Likely To Take These Tight Ends Based On Draft History

The New England Patriots need tight ends. It’s more than obvious that the team will have to try to find a talented tight end who will fill up the void Rob Gronkowski left behind. The Patriots’ offense struggled a lot in 2019, and many say that this struggle killed the team’s chances of winning a title.

New England picked Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez in the 2010 NFL Draft. The team has signed just three tight ends in the last nine NFL drafts. Lee Smith, A.J. Derby and Ryan Izzo were selected after the fifth round. New England selected 11 tight ends in the first 11 drafts head coach Bill Belichick took part in.

When it comes to the 2020 NFL Draft, the Patriots will have to make 12 decisions. Most analysts agree that the Patriots should use at least two picks to add depth to their tight end depth chart. Izzo and Matt LaCosse are the only tight ends New England has on the roster at the moment.

The Patriots need at least two tight ends

New England has doubled up on tight ends on three occasions since Belichick took the head coach position in 2000. In each of these efforts, the Patriots have snatched a bigger tight end over 250 pounds and a smaller player who is 245 or lighter. Bigger players were the first to come off the board.

Let’s go through the Patriots’ tight end draft history:

As you may have noticed, the Patriots tend to get tight ends with better than NFL average 40-yard dash, 3-cone drill, short shuttle, vertical leap and bench press measures. Coach Belichick and his staff value height, weight, broad jump, arm length, and hand size less than those other numbers. The team is really picky about the 3-cone drill and short shuttle.

The following tight ends were invited to the NFL Scouting Combine. These are their testing numbers:

If you go through this list, you’d notice that Adam Trautman and Dalton Keene are the best fit for the Patriots. Albert Okwuegbunam could have passed Trautman and Keene if he had taken part in the 3-cone, short shuttle, vertical leap, broad jump, and bench press. Cole Kmet, Brycen Hopkins, Devin Asiasi and Okwuegbunam come behind Trautman and Keene.