Though his football career has long since come to an end, Martellus Bennett’s 2016 top-ranked performance by Offensive Share Metric (OSM) can provide a window into how valuable a dependable tight end can be to an inexperienced quarterback. This could become relevant as the New England Patriots head into a new era without Tom Brady in 2020.
The Patriots will likely have last year’s fourth-round pick, Jarrett Stidham, at quarterback following Brady’s exit for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. With the Patriots having added little in the way of proven firepower to an offense that was frequently stagnant in Brady’s final season, Stidham would appear to have a sizeable task on his hands to ensure New England remains a playoff contender.
However, the Patriots did make significant changes at tight end, and the importance of that position will certainly not be lost on head coach Bill Belichick with the instrumental role Rob Gronkowski played for New England.
In a game that Gronkowski missed through injury, Bennett proved a reliable safety net for two young quarterbacks as the Patriots negotiated Brady’s Deflategate suspension. The latest in our Back to the Future series takes a closer look at Bennett’s performance and examines what the now Brady-less Patriots can take from his display.
Martellus Bennett’s top-ranked performance from 2016
Bennett racks up YAC
An excellent 2016 season saw Bennett earn four of the top five individual-game OSM grades by tight ends. His top-ranked performance was one in which he earned an incredible score of 65.32 for his efforts in New England’s Week 2 win over the Miami Dolphins.
OSM uses the NFL’s NextGen Stats and a series of algorithms to measure a player’s contribution to his offense’s production by looking at the factors only he could control.
Bennett’s grade indicates an elite level of performance and came in a game in which he hauled in five of his six targets for 114 yards and a touchdown.
Jimmy Garoppolo, making only his second career start, and Jacoby Brissett – who came in when Garoppolo went down injured – each leaned on Bennett, getting the ball out quickly and asking him to make things happen in the open field.
Bennett did just that, racking up an average of 19.1 yards after the catch, according to NextGen Stats, dwarfing his expected YAC per reception of 9.2 in a late-career demonstration of the athletic ability that led the Dallas Cowboys to draft him in 2008.
Open-field excellence
Coming out of Texas A&M, Bennett crushed pre-draft testing, his impressive efforts in his combine workout reflected by his Relative Athletic Score (RAS).
RAS is a composite metric on a 0-to-10 scale based on the average of all of the percentile for each of the metrics the player completed either at the NFL Combine or pro day.
Bennett received a RAS of 8.55 for his workout, earning an elite speed grade and a great explosion grade.
His speed was soon displayed against the Dolphins as Garoppolo connected with Bennett after he motioned across the formation. With the acceleration he had at his disposal, he was able to take away the pursuit angle of the deep safety and gain 26 yards as the Patriots began the game with a touchdown drive.
Bennett was frequently a mismatch for linebackers because of his size and speed, and that was the case on his touchdown later in the first quarter. He gained easy separation going up the seam against Kiko Alonso, who was never able to recover as Garoppolo produced a near-perfect throw into the endzone.
The final Patriots scoring drive of the game, which came in the third quarter, saw Bennett pick up 52 yards on two receptions.
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Both of those plays owed to Bennett’s prowess in the open field. He began the drive with a 37-yard catch and run, the Dolphins leaving him wide open on the left sideline, with Bennett then demonstrating enough agility to elude a defender and the explosiveness to get back up to top speed and surge into the secondary.
Bennett subsequently put the Patriots on the fringe of the red zone, gaining 15 yards on a screen courtesy of a stutter move and keeping his legs driving through contact.
That Bennett received such a high grade for this performance should be no surprise. He had a hand in three scoring drives, and in catching the football and picking up yardage after the reception, Bennett excelled in the two primary areas in his control.
But what significance does Bennett’s top-ranked performance have for the new-look Patriots as they approach the 2020 campaign?
New England’s future at tight end
The Patriots did not do much to add to their wide receiver depth chart in the offseason, signing Damiere Byrd and Marqise Lee in free agency, but they did add athleticism at tight end.
New England used two third-round picks on tight ends in the 2020 draft. Devin Asiasi, who the Patriots selected 91st overall, was more productive in college than Dalton Keene, who went to New England 10 picks later.
While Asiasi posted a mediocre RAS of 6.11, Keene had the second-best score in this year’s class of tight ends.
Keene’s Combine performance resulted in him receiving a RAS of 9.34, the former Virginia Tech Hokie excelling in the speed and explosion metrics, just as Bennett did 12 years ago, and impressing in the agility drills.
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Matt LaCosse, the presumptive starter at tight end, recorded a RAS of 7.44 back in 2015, going undrafted despite great size and speed scores from his pro day.
His athleticism has not translated to any kind of sustained production so far in LaCosse’s NFL career, and there is no guarantee that Asiasi or Keene can hit the ground running.
But in 2016, Bennett’s top-ranked performance demonstrated how vital a difference-making tight end could be to a young quarterback taking his first steps in the league. The Patriots have players of a similar athletic mold at the position. One of the challenges for Belichick and his staff will be to ensure either LaCosse or one of the two rookies is in a position to fill the same role Bennett did for Garoppolo and Brissett, to ease Stidham’s transition to signal-caller.