Pats roll the dice on tight ends

After selecting Rob Gronkowski in the second round and Aaron Hernandez in the third round of the 2010 NFL Draft, the Patriots went nine straight drafts without taking a tight end in the first four rounds. In that span only Lee Smith (fifth round in 2011), A.J. Derby (sixth round in 2015) and Ryan Izzo (seventh round in 2018) were picked by the Pats.

When Gronkowski retired before the start of last season, the cupboard looked bare. Tight ends combined for only 37 catches for 419 [...]

After selecting Rob Gronkowski in the second round and Aaron Hernandez in the third round of the 2010 NFL Draft, the Patriots went nine straight drafts without taking a tight end in the first four rounds. In that span only Lee Smith (fifth round in 2011), A.J. Derby (sixth round in 2015) and Ryan Izzo (seventh round in 2018) were picked by the Pats.

When Gronkowski retired before the start of last season, the cupboard looked bare. Tight ends combined for only 37 catches for 419 yards and two touchdowns last season and they came from four different players: Ben Watson, Matt LaCosse, Ryan Izzo and Eric Tomlinson.

The Patriots tried to shore up the position at last weekend's NFL Draft with two selections in the third round, taking Devin Asiasi (91st overall) out of UCLA, and Dalton Keene (101st overall) out of Virginia Tech.

Dating back to 2010, 74 tight ends have been selected in the first three rounds of the NFL Draft. But since that year, the most successful tight ends were players not drafted in the first round.

Over the last decade, there have been just nine tight ends drafted in the first round. That group produced three Pro Bowl players — Jermaine Gresham (two), Tyler Eifert (one) and Eric Ebron (one). The jury is still out for David Njoku, Evan Engram, O.J. Howard, Hayden Hurst, Noah Fant and T.J. Hockenson.

The second round has produced three Pro Bowlers (Gronk, Zach Ertz and Kyle Rudolph) of the 18 drafted in that period. In total, 16.7% of the tight ends in this round turned in at least one Pro Bowl season. Gronkowski has been the only All-Pro. Other players of note to come out of this round include Dallas Goedert and Hunter Henry.

In the third round, 21.7% of the tight ends have turned in at least one Pro Bowl season with five of 23 players earning the accolade — Jimmy Graham (five), Travis Kelce (five), Austin Hooper (two), Jordan Reed (one) and Mark Andrews (one). This is the only group to produce two players (Graham and Kelce) with at least one All-Pro honor. Other tight ends coming from this group include Jonnu Smith and Dwayne Allen.

The odds of finding a Pro Bowler in the fourth round are much lower — 4.2% with just Julius Thomas of the 24-player group. In Round 5, George Kittle (two Pro Bowls and two All-Pros) is a clear abnormally.

However, Kittle's success forced NFL talent evaluators to look at tight ends differently. He was very athletic in college, but had little production, catching only 22 passes for 314 yards and four touchdowns at Iowa. His athletic profile was similar to Dawson Knox (drafted in 2019 by Buffalo), who caught 15 passes for 284 yards and no touchdowns in his final year at Ole Miss. He was the second-most productive rookie tight end in 2019. Those examples are notable because he's similar to the Pats' Keene.

At Virginia Tech, Keene wasn't used as much in the passing game, catching 21 passes for 240 yards and five touchdowns, but he was one of the most athletic tight ends at the NFL Combine. After the draft, Keene said he looked up to Kittle.

“I think probably the best for me is George Kittle,” Keene said. “I think he's a super versatile tight end and they do a lot of different things there. That's what I pride myself on doing, being a versatile tight end and being able to do a lot of different things — playing from the slot, or playing fullback or to play traditional tight end.”

Asiasi looks more NFL ready. Last year, he caught 44 passes for 641 yards and earned honorable mention all-conference honors for UCLA. He said he also looked up to Kittle along with Gronk.

“It's guys like George Kittle, obviously Gronk, who is one of the best tight ends to ever play the game,” Asiasi said. “All those guys you just look up to and kind of want to take little different pieces to add to your game. But, at the end of the day, it's your game. You've got to make it unique in your own way.”

After a down year at the position, the Patriots are certainly hoping at least one rookie pans out. If anything, they picked the right round to take a chance one a tight end.