Many brought up the New England Patriots‘ name when buzz started floating about tight end Dallas Clark‘s intentions on finding a team soon for the 2013 NFL season. Tight end production has made up a massive part of the Patriots offense in recent years but as we all know Rob Gronkowski has been dealing with serious physical issues and Aaron Hernandez is in prison for the foreseeable future.
While Clark has had an excellent career — when healthy — at age 34 his prime went and past three years ago. Bill Belichick and Co. are among the best at managing the salary cap and that often means running with your young home-grown talent over pricier free agent vet signings. I’m not saying Clark would exactly have cost a fortune for New England, but it’s probably good they let him pass to the significantly more tight-end needy Baltimore Ravens.
Baltimore has a huge question mark at TE with Ed Dickson providing little of an answer right now. However, up in Massachusetts the relatively unknown group of players are quickly becoming household names in the state. Glowing reports from both the Pats PR staff and local media on the battle for reps behind Gronk are helping Pats fans breathe a bit easier
“Daniel Fells had another strong day catching the football,” via notes on the team website from Monday practice. “The seemingly overlooked veteran once again displayed soft hands all over the field. He also showed strong hands by seemingly taking a ball away from Tavon Wilson for a touchdown from Brady. … Zach Sudfeld also had another impressive day, catching passes from both (Tom Brady) and Ryan (Mallett).”
If they continue to look good in the preseason and gain chemistry with Brady, then the bright state of New England’s TE situation isn’t quite all PR strategy.
Thomas Emerick is a Senior Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @ThomasEmerick, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google
