Remember that article I wrote yesterday about Jonnu Smith signing with the Patriots, and how Bill Belichick finally had an athletic tight end to build his offense around again? Well, good ol’ Bill woke up this morning and chose violence, asking himself, “What’s better than one tight end? Two tight ends.”
Enter Hunter Henry.
Belichick is the drunk guy at your fantasy football draft. We all know that guy. Nobody likes that guy. Maybe there’s a chance that he forgot he already got one so he took another. Maybe he’s hoarding for trade bait. Maybe for flex. I’m not sure. Either way, Bill is burning those fun coupons like we’ve never seen him do before.
Realistically, Belichick is looking back to the days of Gronkowski and pre-murder Aaron Hernandez for inspiration on how he wants his offense to look this year. What’s perplexing is the needs that this team has at the wide receiver position, and instead of spending money on one of the top-tier options like Kenny Golladay or Juju Smith-Schuster, they decided to sign a couple of really mediocre guys to big money – Nelson Agholor and Kendrick Bourne. Why have a WR1 when you can have six WR3s, amirite?
When he’s healthy, Hunter Henry has proven to be a very effective tight end, but health has always been the issue. He hasn’t played more than 14 games in any of his five seasons in the league. But, when he’s on the field, Henry is a good in-line blocker, while also averaging 11.8 yards per reception over his career.
This offense, based on their financial commitments to both TEs, will have both guys on the field a large amount of the time, and I guess there’s a chance it could work in a way we haven’t seen with any offense in the NFL since 2011.