I’m not sure what to make of Dwayne Allen. If Rob Gronkowski gets hurt yet again, we’ll all want Allen. But he doesn’t look as dynamic as some of the other tight ends they’ve had there.
Allen doesn’t have great hands or mobility, so in that regard, he’s well short of Aaron Hernandez and Martellus Bennett (the two most notable tight ends to play opposite Gronk).
But Allen has at least some ability. He caught 35 passes and 6 TDs last year, including three scores in a Monday night game against the Jets (a team he’ll be seeing twice per year now). In 2014, Allen caught 29 passes and 8 TDs.
I don’t see Allen as a good enough tight end that the Patriots are going to want to extensively use him as a second pass-catching tight end. He’s not up at the Hernandez-Bennett level. The Patriots are heavily stocked with wide receivers right now, with four really good ones (Cooks, Edelman, Hogan, Mitchell). They’ve also got a bunch of good pass-catching backs (White, Lewis, Burkhead).
Allen’s only value, I think, is as a replacement if and when Gronkowski is out, and I suppose the likeliness and upside of that scenario are enough that Allen will land as a backup tight end in typical 12-team fantasy leagues. Gronkowski has averaged 11 games over the last five years.
Allen isn’t a tight end I’ll be hoping to pick, but probably one of the 24 who should be selected. I would be far more interested in selecting the two tight ends in Indianapolis who should now playing larger roles with Allen out of the picture – Jack Doyle and Erik Swoope.
| NEW ENGLAND'S NON-GRONK TIGHT ENDS | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | No | Yards | Avg | TD |
| 2010 | Aaron Hernandez | 45 | 563 | 12.5 | 6 |
| 2011 | Aaron Hernandez | 79 | 910 | 11.5 | 7 |
| 2012 | Aaron Hernandez | 51 | 483 | 9.5 | 5 |
| 2013 | Michael Hoomanawanui | 12 | 136 | 11.3 | 1 |
| 2014 | Timothy Wright | 26 | 259 | 10.0 | 6 |
| 2015 | Scott Chandler | 23 | 259 | 11.3 | 4 |
| 2016 | Martellus Bennett | 55 | 701 | 12.7 | 7 |
—Ian Allan