Patriots Trade for Dwayne Allen
Source: The #Patriots are trading for #Colts TE Dwayne Allen. Wow.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 8, 2017
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And the Patriots make their first real roster move of the offseason. Adding the bookend tight end to Gronk that is essential to making the McOffense go and that they’re so obviously about to lose when Martellus Bennett hits it big on his Free Agency scratchie.
As I post this we still don’t know what they gave up to get Dwayne Allen. But we do know what they’re getting in return. A solid, 6-3, 255 lb, 27-year-old, 5-year veteran entering his prime years. Allen’s receiving totals have been up and down over his career, as the Colts offense has. His high in receptions is still the 45 he had as a rookie. He followed that up with a season lost to injury and missed a handful of games every year since then. But last year he managed 35 receptions for his career average 11.6 YPC. And he’s always been a decent, Bennett-like red zone threat, with 6 touchdowns last year and 8 in 2014.
Just as important, he’s not a one-year rental like Bennett was. Allen signed a deal that will pay him $4.937 million this year and $5 million the next. Again, we don’t know what this cost the Patriots yet. But they’ve found their rough approximation of Bennett, but 3 years younger and for probably half the money. And it frees them up to take more of a developmental type of TE in the draft than a first round, plug-and-play guy.
UPDATE: Reports are the Patriots sent the Colts a 4th rounder and get back the Colts 6th rounder. Depending on which of their 4ths Roger Goodell is Hamburglaring away from them, that probably means the 137th for Allen and the 200th. Pocket change.
P.S. The firing of the one they called Grigson just paid its first dividend for New England because there’s no way Belichick even picks up the phone from that scumbag.