The Curious Adventures of Dwayne Allen

soxfan121

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I don't disagree. However, given a healthy-ish Gronk, Allen has been - at best - the 7th or 8th option. I think the Pats gave up two rounds of draft value and paid Allen's base salary on the (likely) basis that Gronk will get hurt. At which point, if Allen is still a zero - and average blocking is replacement level - then he'll be a "bust". But if Gronk stays healthy-ish and Allen remains way, way down the pass catching depth chart, then Allen probably isn't going to get many, if any, opportunities to participate in the offense. (Circle of Trust...sigh). And when Gronk gets dinged up, misses time, and Allen is able to produce 3 or 4 catches a game with a TD every once and a while, he'll have been a good use of draft value and cap space.
 

nothumb

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Yeah, I'm with Stitch on this one. Specifically his last sentence.

Maybe I'm way off, but I think the Pats were expecting Allen to be a bit like a poor man's Gronk. Can block well, make some plays in the passing game, and with enough flexibility between those two roles to provide some matchup problems to a defense.

The problem with Allen as blocker and Hollister as pass catcher is that it makes the offense more predictable. It's one of the things that national fans/media underappreciate about Gronk. Yeah, he's a spectacularly great pass catching option and a matchup nightmare in that regard. But it's his blocking skill that ensures he rarely leaves the field. Which means that the defense always has to account for him as a pass catching threat, even in obvious running situations and jumbo sets.

I'm not saying Allen (or anyone) is even close to that sort of Gronk-level player, but I think they were hoping he would provide some value in both domains. If he only can do one of the two things (blocking, catching) then his value as a TE is diminished.

If all the Pats wanted is a blocking TE with stone hands, they didn't need to trade two rounds of draft value and give up $5 mil in cap space to get it. That doesn't make Allen a disaster or anything but he's definitely been a disappointment.
i agree with this. we have to give it time, but i think about how they looked out of the 2 TE sets in the brief time that gronk, bennett and brady were all playing. bennett was hilariously open on a number of occasions because of the trickle down effect of gronk. he wasn't an elite TE on his own, but he was completely unfair as a 2nd TE when gronk was your first TE. i'd like to see allen be able to take advantage of that too.
 

DJnVa

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Dec 16, 2010
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Matt Chatham had a tweet a couple weeks ago about Allen and just because he isn't catching passes doesn't mean he is struggling.


I love fantasy football. But the idea that Patriots TE Dwayne Allen is somehow struggling in NE cuz he isn't catching passes is a warped, fake football POV.
I mean, okay, but then how about educating us?
 

tims4wins

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i agree with this. we have to give it time, but i think about how they looked out of the 2 TE sets in the brief time that gronk, bennett and brady were all playing. bennett was hilariously open on a number of occasions because of the trickle down effect of gronk. he wasn't an elite TE on his own, but he was completely unfair as a 2nd TE when gronk was your first TE. i'd like to see allen be able to take advantage of that too.
Yeah this. Allen should be having tons of looks given Gronk and Cooks
 
Apr 7, 2006
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I expected more than zero catches a game.
This is my favorite quote of the entire thread. I agree. I also expected that.

From what I hear and have seen, Allen just looks like an OLD six year vet. Hoping it's just a matter of getting the system in his bones, and as everyone has acknowledged, we're working off a ludicrously small sample size. My sense from previous seasons, though, is that while Allen may not be an elite pass catcher, it was at least a decent part of his repertoire. His lack of production is certainly a bit worrying, esp given Gronk's fragility.
 

BigSoxFan

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The main problem with Dwayne Allen for me is that he's not Martellus Bennett. Bennett spoiled me and I'm not ready to go back to the days of Crumpler, Hooman, Chandler, etc.
 

TheoShmeo

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The main problem with Dwayne Allen for me is that he's not Martellus Bennett. Bennett spoiled me and I'm not ready to go back to the days of Crumpler, Hooman, Chandler, etc.
But this is an impossibly high standard. Which I know you know. To wit, Bennett is somewhere near the top of all TEs in football. Whether it's top 5 or top 10 I will leave to others, but he's up there. I also miss him. A lot. And while I take the point that Allen is likely a very good blocker (I am not watching the all 22s and have not been to a game live, so I have some trouble evaluating his blocking at this point), the position is of course both blocking and receiving. If I were in Tom's shoes, I would be on the way to not wanting to throw to Allen in a big spot. Not there yet, but with a few more drops, I might get there. I note that there was some talk about him having trouble catching the ball this summer, too.

The conventional wisdom before last season was that the Pats would have a lot of trouble winning a SB if Gronk was lost. He was such an important part of the offense. Bennett fell off somewhat near the end but he remained good enough that they were able to overcome the loss of Gronk. And maybe the Gronk Meme was overstated to some extent. But Allen's play -- with SSS caveats -- on the receiving side of TE does worry me in a scenario when Gronk goes out. Hollister looks to have some promise as a receiver and perhaps he can block, too.

The mystery to me is why no one picked up Gary Barnridge. He had a productive career with crappy QBs in Cleveland and I would think he'd be good Gronk insurance.

His stats:

http://www.espn.com/nfl/player/stats/_/id/11364/gary-barnidge

And an article about his free agent status from June:

http://www.patriots.com/news/2017/06/01/ex-browns-te-gary-barnidge-what-its-still-be-free-agent-june-arrives