Patriots add Roberts to list of tight end candidates

The Patriots acquire 25-year-old tight end Michael Roberts in a trade with the Detroit Lions.

A former Toledo Rocket, Michael Roberts’ career never got off the ground in Detroit.

Now, he’s a member of the Patriots.

The Detroit News’ Justin Rogers was first to report on Thursday that the Lions had traded the 6-foot-5, 265-pound tight end, whom they selected in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL Draft, to New England in exchange for a future, late-round draft pick. ESPN’s Adam Schefter subsequently reported that the compensation would be a conditional seventh-round choice in the 2020 draft.

With the move, Roberts becomes the latest piece in the Lions’ overhaul at a tight end position that was a major disappointment in 2018, a makeover that has seen them sign Jesse James (from the Pittsburgh Steelers) and Logan Thomas (from the Buffalo Bills) as free agents, draft Iowa’s T.J. Hockenson (in the first round) and Georgia’s Isaac Nauta (in the seventh), and allow Luke Willson (who signed with the Oakland Raiders as a free agent) and Levine Toilolo (signed with the San Francisco 49ers) to leave.

In New England, the 25-year-old Roberts joins a tight end position that will have a new look in 2019.

With five-time Pro Bowler Rob Gronkowski announcing his retirement in March and the release of Dwayne Allen (subsequently signed by the Miami Dolphins as a free agent) prior to that, the top two tight ends on head coach Bill Belichick’s depth chart in 2018 are gone.

The new-look group of tight ends consists of newcomers Ben Watson (signed as a free agent from New Orleans; his second stint with the Patriots, who brought the 38-year-old into the league as a first-round draft pick in 2004), Matt LaCosse (signed as a free agent from Denver), Andrew Beck (a rookie free agent out of Texas) and Roberts, plus Stephen Anderson (the former Houston Texan spent most of last season on the practice squad in New England) and Ryan Izzo (a seventh-round pick in last year’s draft who spent the season on the injured reserve list). As part of the Patriots’ remake at the tight end position, former Tampa Bay Buccaneer-New York Jet- Jacksonville Jaguar Austin Seferian-Jenkins has come (signed on April 10) and gone (released on June 4).

With Watson facing a four-game suspension for violating the league policy on performance-enhancing drugs, LaCosse has emerged as the leading candidate at the position heading into the Sept. 8 regular-season opener with the Steelers in Foxboro. LaCosse was very impressive at the team’s mandatory minicamp earlier this month.

Coming off a senior year at Toledo that saw him catch 45 passes for 533 yards and 16 touchdowns, the Lions made Roberts the 127th overall pick in the 2017 draft but got little production out of him in two years time (13 receptions in 27 targets for 146 yards and three TDs).

Appearing in just eight games last season when a shoulder injury led to his placement on injured reserve, Roberts caught nine passes in 20 targets for 100 yards and the first three touchdowns of his career.