Release of Devin Asiasi ends rough run on tight ends for Patriots

BOSTON — In the spring of 2010, Bill Belichick decided to overlook some medical red flags and take a gamble on an intriguing tight end prospect out of the University of Arizona. It was a decision that kind of worked out.

For the better part of a decade, Belichick and the Patriots were blessed to get some of the best tight end play in the history of football out of Rob Gronkowski. A dominant pass catcher, a bully of a run blocker, and a personality to boot, Gronk was a once-in-a-lifetime player throughout his Patriots career.

Yet Gronkowski retired after winning the Super Bowl in 2018. And what followed at the position in New England was … not good.

That unsightly chapter of Patriots tight end history was closed on Tuesday, when the Patriots informed Devin Asiasi of his release, ahead of the deadline for NFL rosters to be trimmed to 53 players.

Asiasi was brought in to the organization along with Dalton Keene in 2020. Both were third-round picks — Asiasi out of UCLA, Keene out of Virginia Tech — and both were expected to infuse some new life into a position that had long been critical to the success of Josh McDaniels’ offense. Instead, the duo combined to catch five passes for 55 yards and one touchdown over two seasons. And both were cut from the team this summer.

The organization felt obligated to dedicate two relatively high picks to the position in 2020 in large part because the succession plan — or lack thereof — for Gronkowski failed so badly.

In 2019, following Gronkowski’s retirement, the Patriots didn’t draft any tight ends, instead using their top picks on N’Keal Harry, Joejuan Williams, Chase Winovich, Yodny Cajuste, Hjalte Froholdt and Jarrett Stidham. T.J. Hockenson (eighth overall) and Noah Fant (20th overall) were taken in the first round, while Irv Smith Jr. (50th overall) went in the second round and Dawson Knox (96th overall) went in the third round.(Some clear misses like Josh Oliver, Jace Sternberger, Kahale Warring also went off the board in the first few rounds.)

Instead of finding a young tight end, the Patriots went with an old one, convincing Ben Watson to come out of his own retirement to rejoin the team that had drafted him way back in 2004. Watson’s return was less than spectacular, as he caught 17 passes for 173 yards and no touchdowns in 10 games, after serving a suspension for PEDs to start the season.

The only other tight ends on the roster were Matt LaCosse and Ryan Izzo, who combined to catch 19 passes for 287 yards and two touchdowns all season.

The Watson-LaCosse-Izzo trio totaled 36 receptions for 318 yards and two touchdowns. The year prior, Gronkowski — in a down year, no less — caught 47 passes for 682 yards and three touchdowns before catching 13 passes for 191 yards and a Super Bowl-sealing diving catch in the playoffs.

Prior to that season, Gronkowski didn’t decide to retire until late March, and many voices in the area blamed that late announcement for the Patriots’ inaction in the free-agent market at tight end. The next year, though, they were equally dormant on the free-agent market, instead opting to go with rookies in Keene and Asiasi to supplement Izzo and LaCosse. But LaCosse opted out of the season due to COVID-19, and the Patriots’ tight end production somehow dropped from 2019 to 2020.

The trio of Izzo, Keene and Asiasi combined for 17 receptions for 254 yards and one touchdown — a score which came from Asiasi in the fourth quarter of the final game of the season.

In 2019 and 2020 combined, Patriots tight ends caught 54 passes for 673 yards and three touchdowns. Over two seasons.

Rob Gronkowski caught more than 54 passes in six of his nine seasons. He recorded more than 673 yards seven times. He topped 1,000 yards in a season four times. And he caught at least three touchdowns in all of his seasons in New England, including the injury-shortened campaigns.

Obviously, a drop-off from Gronkowski was always going to be unavoidable for the Patriots. But the plunge at the position was almost unfathomably drastic, both with Tom Brady in 2019 and with Cam Newton in 2020.

After that, obviously, the Patriots adjusted, throwing big money at Hunter Henry and Jonnu Smith in the great free-agent spending spree of 2021. The overall results of that spending may be a bit mixed — Henry came as advertised and caught nine touchdowns, while Smith was certainly a disappointment in 2021 while leaving plenty of room to improve in 2022 — but the Patriots clearly reestablished a baseline for tight end production with those signings. 

And the releases of both Keene and Asiasi this summer officially closed the book on a forgettable era of tight end play in New England.