With the 2019 season in the books, the Providence Journal will take a look at each position group on the Patriots, analyzing how the team performed in 2019 and where it might be heading in the future.
Tight End
Ben Watson, Matt LaCosse, Ryan Izzo
Contract situation: It's pretty barren here.
Watson is a free agent, but the 38-year-old is expected to retire after a long solid NFL career.
LaCosse [...]
With the 2019 season in the books, the Providence Journal will take a look at each position group on the Patriots, analyzing how the team performed in 2019 and where it might be heading in the future.
Tight End
Ben Watson, Matt LaCosse, Ryan Izzo
Contract situation: It's pretty barren here.
Watson is a free agent, but the 38-year-old is expected to retire after a long solid NFL career.
LaCosse enters 2020 in the final year of his two-year contract. He'll account on the cap for $1.55 million — if he makes the team. That salary isn't full guaranteed. The Pats could cut ties with LaCosse and it would only cost them $150,000 and saving $1.375 million off the cap.
A seventh-round pick, Izzo isn't expensive. He's in the third year of his rookie deal and will count for $677,267 on the salary cap. His contract runs through 2021, where he counts for $767,269 on the cap. The Pats could cut Izzo and save $642,731, so his contract isn't guaranteed either.
2019 review: Well, it wasn't good.
You can trace the downfall of the Patriots tight end position back to last offseason when Rob Gronkowski retired in March. The timing was awful. Gronk made his decision after the first two weeks of free agency. That left the Pats little time to come up with an adequate plan. Of course, that's also on the Patriots. They should have had a plan in place. Everyone — and we mean everyone — knew it was possible that Gronk would retire.
The Pats collected a group of free agents — Watson, LaCosse, Austin Seferian-Jenkins and Lance Kendricks. They tried to trade For Michael Roberts, but he failed the physical. They then traded for Eric Saubert, but cut him after training camp along with Kendricks. Seferian-Jenkins left the team due to personal reasons before camp started. Watson also started the season with a four-game suspension.
Simply put, it was a mess.
Watson, even after the suspension, was the most productive tight end on the team, finishing with 17 receptions and 173 receiving yards. LaCosse dealt with multiple injuries, playing in 11 games, finishing with 13 catches for 131 yards and a touchdown. Izzo played in six game, finishing with six catches for 114 yards and a score.
This was the worst tight end production we can recall for the Patriots in the Tom Brady-era.
The future: The Patriots need to figure out their quarterback position first. Right after that, the next priority is tight end.
The Patriots need to completely overhaul this position. That starts with free agency. Top free agents are Hunter Henry, Austin Hooper, Eric Ebron, Greg Olsen and Tyler Eifert. Anyone of those veterans would help. The Patriots would be wise to add at least one from that group, but it could be costly.
Henry and Hooper will set the tight end market. It looks like Henry could receive the franchise tag from the Los Angeles Chargers. That would make Hooper, a Pro Bowler, more expensive. Ebron isn't a blocking tight end, but would add a competent pass catcher to the mix. Olsen is currently visiting teams, since he was just released, and the Patriots haven't been in that mix. Eifert has had injury problems, but was healthy in 2019 and wouldn't hurt the Pats salary cap.
That shouldn't be where the Pats stop, either. They should seriously consider adding multiple tight ends from the 2020 NFL Draft. It'd be great to see them add a blocking and then a move tight end. One name is very familiar for Patriots fans — Randy Moss' son, Thaddeus Moss, who also played briefly for Lincoln High School.
Adding a veteran plus a couple of rookies would be a good start.
Here's one more idea — Gronk.
He's only 30. He's fresh. Perhaps the Patriots can try to get Gronkowski to comeback to convince Brady to re-sign. Adding Gronk plus a couple of rookies, would be a great way to get this position back on track. That might be a pipe dream, but it doesn't hurt to approach Gronk and ask. Hopefully, the Pats get an answer before free agency.