Since the retirement of Rob Gronkowski in 2018, the New England have desperately needed help at the tight end position.
According to NESN.com’s sources, newly-available free agent Kyle Rupolph has interest in going the Patriots. Rudolph is 31-years-old and has had a very successful and mostly healthy career in the NFL. He’s never been a guy to record 1,000-plus yards in a season, but he hasn’t played less than eight games in a single season and hasn’t tallied less than 200 yards in a season over a 10-year career.
The Patriots have shown interest in Rudolph in the past and they now have the fourth-most cap space in the league, making a perfect scenario to lure him in.
Rudolph played in 12 games last season while accruing 38 catches for 334 yards and a touchdown. He’s a two-time Pro Bowler and his best season was in 2016 when he hauled in 83 receptions 840 yards and seven touchdowns.
The Patriots’ tight end depth currently consists of veterans Matt LaCosse and Ryan Izzo, along with 2020 third-round picks Devin Asiasi and Dalton Keene. Collectively, the tight end group only had 18 receptions for 254 yards over the course of the entire season.
Signing Rudolph would bring skilled veteran experience to a pair of second-year guys that have a ton of potential. With the excess amount of money and the dire need at tight end, the Patriots couldn’t go wrong with signing Rudolph.
