You Can Scratch Hunter Henry Off Your Tight End Shopping List

When it comes to the Patriots needs in free agency, I kind of feel like I'm social distancing myself from most Patriots fans in that I don't see wide receiver as the top priority. They could use help there, don't get me wrong. But give me Mohamed Sanu and N'Keal Harry healthy and add some depth in the form of a reasonably capable deep threat and hope Jakobi Meyers keeps developing and I think the position is adequate. To me, outside of the obvious need to resolve the quarterback situation, tight end is Priorities 1-5. Which is why having the Chargers take Hunter Henry off the board comes as semi-bad news. 

I mean, it was unlikely they'd blow him away with an offer even if he was available. Henry was the consensus best tight end on the market before he wasn't on the market. But in four years he's never played a full season. In all he's missed 23 of a potential 64 career games, including all of 2018. Still, he's an adequate run blocker, lines up all across the formation and is one of the best pass catchers at his position. And a good enough route runner that Pro Football Focus has him graded as the eighth best in the game at beating single coverage since 2016. Not a superstar, perhaps. But a guy who gave the Chargers 54+ yards per game and five touchdowns last year, and would be more productive in a tight end-oriented scheme in New England.

So I had some sort of a fool's hope the Pats would weigh their needs at tight end and shop from the top of the free agent list like they did three years ago when they surprised us all with Stephon Gilmore. Now the Chargers have taken away one way for sure we'd find out. 

Which leaves the following options:

Eric Ebron - He's only months older than Henry, despite coming into the league two years earlier. More of a hybrid TE/WR than a traditional, inline, Y-type tight end, his strength is running routes, getting himself open and being a threat between the numbers, which is a novel concept for a team that had a total of 30 receptions out of their top two TEs. His career year so far got him to a the Pro Bowl with 74 receptions, 827 yards and 14 touchdowns if you include the playoffs. He's not the droid your looking for as a blocker, so they'll still need someone who can be a factor in the run game, attached to the formation. But they've needed two tight ends since they had Gronk and Martellus Bennett. Here's one piece of that dyad. (How about me with the back-to-back "Star Wars" references? You don't get that from Peter King.) OvertheCap has him projected at around $7.5 million APY on a four year deal. So this could get done. 

Austin Hooper - Hooper is the Hugh Jackman of tight ends, in that way Jackman can sing, dance and act, but he's neither the greatest singer or the best dancer nor is he the most accomplished actor. (That is not a criticism; I'm a Hugh-ge fan.) He does everything at tight end is supposed to do at an above average level. A straight-B student. As a blocker he's - as we say in my hood - aight. He's not the route runner or man coverage beater Ebron is. According to PFF, "75.5% of his receiving production on targets defined as holes in zones or underneath the defense (think drag routes, flat routes) - by far the highest percentage in the league." But still, he's managed 70+ catches each of the last two years, including 75 last season while missing three games, which is the stuff nocturnal emissions are made of for those of us who watched Ben Watson and Matt LaCosse last year. A lot of that production might be a product of the players around him. But the Patriots have been known to sign guys who have burned them in the past. And he did beat Pat Chung in the Super Bowl, which might've left an impression:

He's been by far the best TE of his 2016 class and a legitimate red zone threat the Pats are in desperate need of. Again, OvertheCap has him projected at an APY of $10.13 million. I don't have the first clue how they calculate such things. But the fact he'll play the first half of the season at just 25 years of age is probably a factor in his favor.

After those two, it's really just a bunch of spare parts and guys on the back halves of their careers. Which means the Pats will be going into a very competitive seller's market, something they rarely get involved in. But signing Ebron or Hooper could go a long way toward placating Brady by proving they are ready to return the tight end position to some semblance of it's former glory.