The Patriots had a strong No. 2 tight end in 2016 in Martellus Bennett, which came in handy when Rob Gronkowski was lost for the season and the team needed someone to step into the void.
Bennett left for Green Bay as a free agent and the leading candidate to step into the No. 2 role this year is Dwayne Allen, who was acquired in a trade with the Colts early in the offseason. Allen’s early work with the team hasn’t been all he hoped it would be, however.
Allen has dropped passes in both of the team’s minicamp practices this week, leaving him to express his frustration “because I know that I can play better.”
“There’s a standard of excellence here,” Allen said, via CSNNE.com. “So if you drop a pass, that’s not excellence ... It’s always frustrating whenever you don’t do your best.”
There’s always an adjustment period for a player on a new team and for a pass catcher with his quarterbacks, so the fact that there’s three months to go before the Patriots play a game stands as good news for hopes that Allen can make positive contributions to the offense this year.