Patriots in need of a tight fit

The Patriots won't be able to replace Rob Gronkowski, who was arguably the greatest tight end to ever play the game, but they need to find a successor to him at the position.

FOXBORO – Arguably the greatest tight end to ever play the game up and walked away at the age of 29.

Can the Patriots find his successor in the upcoming (April 25-27) NFL Draft?

It goes without saying that the Patriots will never replace Rob Gronkowski, a player who is destined to go from Foxboro to Canton (Ohio), but the state of their depth chart would seem to dictate that they must find a lead man to play the position.

Gronkowski’s primary backup the past two years, blocking tight end Dwayne Allen, is gone as well, released by the team and subsequently signed by Miami.

Now consider (in alphabetical order) the Patriots’ current options at a position that, over the years, has taken on a more integral role in their offense:

• Stephen Anderson – Signed to the Patriots’ practice squad last Sept. 6, five days after he’d been released by the Houston Texans, the 6-foot-2, 230-pound Anderson was promoted to the team’s 53-man roster on Jan. 8 but didn’t appear in any games.

Over the course of two seasons with the Texans, who signed him as a rookie free agent out of California, the 26-year-old Anderson caught 36 passes for 435 yards and two touchdowns in 28 regular-season games. He failed to make a catch in two postseason games in Houston.

• Jacob Hollister – Signed by the Patriots as a rookie free agent out of Wyoming in 2017, for what it’s worth the 6-foot-4, 245-pound Hollister was the MVP of the team’s offseason camps last year, showing signs he was ready to make a leap from his first (four receptions for 42 yards in 15 games) to second season in the league.

Turns out that wasn’t worth much: The 25-year-old Hollister was limited to his second straight four-reception season as he couldn’t stay on the field, appearing in just eight games in an injury-plagued campaign (most notably a nagging hamstring injury) he finished on injured reserve.

• Ryan Izzo – The 6-foot-5, 255-pounder may have been a seventh-round pick (250th overall) in last year’s draft, but the Florida State product actually showed some promise in what little we saw of him before he was placed on season-ending IR on Sept. 2.

• Jakob Johnson – Added to their roster as part of the NFL’s International Pathway Program earlier this week, the 6-foot-3, 250-pound tight end-fullback is a native of Stuttgart, Germany.

Johnson, 24, played collegiately at Tennessee, seeing time on special teams and defense before moving to tight end. He caught three passes for 23 yards and was credited with 22 tackles and one forced fumble in college.

Under the International Pathway Program, Johnson has the opportunity (we’ll label it a long shot) to make the Patriots 53-man roster out of training camp. Failing that, he’s eligible for an “international player practice squad exemption,” meaning he could become an 11th member of the team’s practice squad but ineligible to be activated during the season.

• Matt LaCosse – Signed as an unrestricted free agent on March 15, the 6-foot-6, 255-pound LaCosse originally entered the league as an undrafted free agent with the New York Giants out of Illinois.

A veteran of three seasons with the Giants and Denver, LaCosse, 26, has caught 27 passes for 272 yards and one touchdown, the bulk of that (24 receptions for 250 yards and the TD) coming with the Broncos in 15 games last year.

• Austin Seferian-Jenkins – Signed by the team as an unrestricted free agent last Wednesday, Seferian-Jenkins, another 26-year-old, was a second-round pick (38th overall) of Tampa Bay’s out of Washington in the 2014 draft who has already bounced around from the Buccaneers to the New York Jets to Jacksonville to New England.

The 6-foot-5, 262-pounder has made 116 receptions for 1,160 yards and 11 touchdowns in 43 regular-season games, 50 for 357 yards and three TDs coming in 13 games with the Jets in 2017, the only year in his career that he’s appeared in more than nine games. He had just 11 catches for 90 yards and one TD last year when he was limited to five games with the Jaguars and spent the bulk of the season on IR.

Given all that, it goes without saying that the tight end position is one that is in need of attention in Foxboro. And with 12 picks in this draft, including six in the top 101, the Patriots will have ample opportunity to do it.

The Iowa tandem of T.J. Hockenson and Noah Fant and Alabama’s Irv Smith Jr. are generally considered the top talents at the position.

As Super Bowl champions, though, barring some trade movement (certainly not out of the question given coach Bill Belichick’s past), the Pats aren’t scheduled to select until 32nd overall, the last pick of the first round, which would seem to put them out of the running for both Hockenson and Fant, but in the neighborhood of where Smith is projected to go.

Beyond those three, top prospects at the position (in alphabetical order) include Mississippi’s Dawson Knox, Josh Oliver of San Jose State, Stanford’s Kaden Smith, Texas A&M’s Jace Sternberger and Kahale Warring of San Diego State.