Bill Belichick Continues To Spend Like A Madman In Free Agency, Hunter Henry Come On Down!

 

    Just when you started to give up hope that Patriots head coach/GM Bill Belichick would ever change in any way, he starts going wild the first few days of free agency in the NFL. Of course, Cam Newton is still his quarterback which is a fatal flaw but at least he's making the team much better around him as he signed another top tight end-Hunter Henry-to a three-year deal worth $37.5 million with $25 million guaranteed. In the span of a few days, New England went from having the worst tight ends in the entire league (sorry Devin Asiasi and Dalton Keene but the truth hurts) to one of the best with the addition of Jonnu Smith on Monday and Henry on Tuesday. 

    As we found out last season when the Patriots were playing the Chargers, Belichick had reportedly been following Henry's career since he was in high school which isn't weird at all. A native of Arkansas, Henry was a second-round draft pick (35th overall) in 2016 for the Chargers out of the University of Arkansas. He's been in the NFL for five seasons now (he missed all of 2018 with a torn ACL) and two things stand out: he's never played in all 16 games of a regular season but on the bright side, his catches have gone up each year that he's been on the field.

    In 2020 with LA's sensational rookie quarterback Justin Herbert, Henry had 60 catches on a career-high 93 targets for 613 yards and four touchdowns. His career-high in yards is 652 in 2019 and his most touchdowns (8) came in his rookie campaign. At 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds, he gives the Patriots a great red zone target plus a key weapon on third down and in short yardage situations for Newton or whoever else is their quarterback in 2021 and beyond. I haven't seen every Chargers game beyond highlights on NFL Red Zone and playing fantasy football helps fill in some of the picture but I'm pretty sure that he's not the most physical tight end when it comes to blocking, meaning he's more Travis Kelce than Rob Gronkowski in that regard but that's fine. 

    New England desperately needed an infusion of talent all over its thin roster and while Henry's injury history is a little troubling, the fact that they already have Smith is reassuring so at least all the pressure isn't on Hunter. Newton struggled so much passing the football last season but having two upper-level NFL quality tight ends should help him immensely rather than a pair of third-round rookies that can't seem to do anything right. Henry has only played in one career NFL playoff game so he'll no doubt be extra motivated to help the Pats return to the postseason and their former winning ways albeit without Tom Brady aka the greatest quarterback of all-time.

Worst Pats Season In 20 Years Fittingly Ends On A Bad Note As Their Top Draft Pick Drops To No. 15

 

    So this is what it's like to cheer for most other teams in the NFL? The last day of the regular season rolled around today and after the Patriots (7-9 overall, 5-3 home) stupidly beat the hapless Jets (2-14 overall, 1-7 away) 28-14 at snowy Gillette Stadium, we have nothing else to look forward to now-at least when it comes to our favorite football team-but the draft and free agency which are both months away. Woof. In what was hopefully his last game for New England, quarterback Cam Newton (21-of-30 for 242 yards, 3 TDs; 79 yards rushing; 19-yd TD catch) had perhaps his best performance in an otherwise terrible season (for him and the team). New York was already locked into the No. 2 pick (Ohio State QB Justin Fields?) and shortly after this most meaningless of affairs was over, they fired their woefully-overmatched head coach Adam Gase (he was 9-23 in 2 seasons in charge). 

    With a loss and some help from other teams with similar records, New England could have reached as high as the No. 10 pick in the first round (when's the last time they were up that high?) but they couldn't even do that right as the victory gave them their worst possible scenario-the 15th pick on April 29. As you would expect, there really was no new information to glean from this glorified fourth preseason game other than the fact that the Patriots should avoid Jets quarterback Sam Darnold (23-of-34 for 266 yards, TD, 2 INTs) at all costs if he becomes available because he stinks. Oh and Jarrett Stidham never saw the field this afternoon which tells you everything about what Pats head coach Bill Belichick thinks of him at this point. 

    If you were hoping for a Patriots loss like I was (along with any other halfwit Pats fan), the first half and much of the third quarter were promising. You knew right off the jump that it would be a weird one as running back James White caught a seven-yard touchdown from Cam on the first drive of the contest but Jets tight end Chris Herndon snagged a 21-yard touchdown from Darnold in the second quarter to make it 7-7 at halftime. NFL Films no doubt will fast-track the highlights of this instant classic to make some big money. New York scored on the first drive of the second half as running back Josh Adams found the end zone on a one-yard run. New York led 14-7 for most of the frame until New England's offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels went into his bag of tricks (polishing his resume and LinkedIn page before he finally leaves here again for another head coaching job?) and called for wide receiver Jakobi Meyers (6 catches for 68 yards on 7 targets) to toss a 19-yard touchdown to Newton. Did you know that Meyers played quarterback at NC State? Me neither, I just found that out today (JK!). 

    Things really started to go off the rails in the fourth quarter as you could hear the Jets' team bus starting up in the background. Rookie tight end Devin Asiasi picked a fine time to make the first two catches of his NFL career including a 26-yard TD from Cam. Would you believe that was the first touchdown catch of the season for any Patriots tight end? You couldn't even make up that horrifying stat if you tried. Running back Sony Michel (76 yards rushing; 60 yards receiving) similarly chose to show off and in the process, to do something that he'd never done in three years in the NFL (!): he caught a pass and went 31 yards for his first TD catch. Three Patriots defensive players were able to pad their stats as well with cornerbacks J.C. Jackson (his 9th of the season, tied with Ty Law in 1998 for 2nd most in team history) and Jonathan Jones each notching an interception and defensive end Chase Winovich (6 tackles, 4 solo, 2 sacks, pass deflected, 3 QB hits) had his best game of this fruitless season.

    The scariest part about this rebuild for the Patriots is that it feels like they are miles away from winning the AFC East anytime soon let alone compete for a Super Bowl title (which used to be the main focus in these parts) since the Bills (13-3) and Dolphins (10-6) are way more talented and just getting started after years of laying down to New England year after year. Belichick is still one of the better head coaches in the league-not that he really showed it in 2020-but his constant failures as a GM have really come back to bite him and the franchise lately. Also, do you believe at this point in his Hall of Fame career that he will allow any other prominent voices in the room that heaven forbid might have a slightly different opinion on something than him? Probably not since both of his sons are assistant coaches along with one of his favorite ex-players (Jerod Mayo) that he coached here. 

    For weeks, we've been told over and over how much cap space the Pats have available going into next season but honestly, when is the last time they aggressively went out in free agency and spent top dollar to get one of the best players (a crazy concept, I know)? The unfortunate reality is that having Tom Brady for so long was a smokescreen for so many other flaws on the roster and in terms of Belichick's stubborn style of coaching that feels very outdated for the millennials in 2021. The only way any of this will change in the near future is if they get a legitimate quarterback and we saw how badly they whiffed this year with Newton and Stidham. Does that give you any hope that they'll strike gold next time? Getting Brady in the sixth round is like winning Powerball, the odds of anything like that ever happening again to you are basically impossible.