Before the NFL offseason hits its full swing, NESN.com will be highlighting hidden Patriots: players on New England’s roster who have fallen under the radar for one reason or another. Next up: tight end Dalton Keene.
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick hinted that Dalton Keene faced an uphill battle for playing time as a rookie after the tight end was selected in the third round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
And that was before Keene suffered a neck injury before the season and a knee injury midway through the campaign.
Keene, 21, played just 140 snaps in six games as a rookie. He finished the 2020 season with three catches for 16 yards with a fumble.
“I mean, when you watch Dalton play, you just don’t see a lot of things that we do,” Belichick said last April after the draft. “The Virginia Tech offense didn’t really translate too much to a New England Patriot offense. That’s not uncommon with other players as well. It is what it is. I think the things you saw him do, which was his blocking, his effort to block, his toughness, ability to make plays with the ball in his hands, and certainly the intent of the offense to get him the ball was impressive. They did a lot of things to try to get him the ball one way or another: hand it to him, throw it to him, put him in different locations so that he could run with it or catch it and run with it. That’s what you saw.
“I’ve already talked to him about that, that it’s going to be a big transition for him in terms of learning our system, being I would say more detailed, more specific on a lot of assignments, particularly in the passing game, learning how to block in close quarters. Again, he shows plenty of ability to do that in size, quickness and so forth. Just he hasn’t done a lot of it. He played quite a bit in the backfield, not as a fullback, but kind of an off-the-ball, sometimes a fullback location, but not really lined up behind the quarterback, but lined in the backfield, off the lines. A little bit of a different location than what we would normally use. He’s a smart kid. He’s athletic. He’s strong. He’s tough. I don’t see any reason why he can’t and won’t make those adjustments in time. We’ll work on it.”
“In time.” Be patient.
Of Keene’s 140 offensive snaps, 102 were spent inline at tight end, 26 came in the slot, nine out wide and three in the backfield, per PFF. It’s still unclear where Keene ultimately will end up playing in the NFL, though he’ll most likely be a tight end. The Patriots also could choose to convert him into an athletic pass-catching fullback in the mold of San Francisco 49ers veteran blocker Kyle Juszczyk.
Keene, who was drafted 101st overall with a compensatory pick at the bottom of the third round, is far from the first rookie tight end to struggle out of the gate as a rookie. Among 29 tight ends drafted in the third or fourth round in the last five years, 14 have registered fewer than 100 yards in their rookie seasons and 22 have posted fewer than 200 yards.
As Belichick mentioned, Keene had to adjust to a much different offense coming out of Virginia Tech. He also didn’t have the benefit of traditional OTAs and minicamp and participated in a truncated training camp with no preseason. Keene missed the first two weeks of the season with a neck injury and later spent time on injured reserve with a knee ailment. The intention here is not to make excuses for Keene, and there’s certainly no guarantee he’ll break out in 2021, but at least there are several obvious causes for his struggles as a rookie beyond talent deficiencies.
Keene is one of four tight ends on the Patriots’ current 90-man roster, where he’s joined by fellow 2020 third-round pick Devin Asiasi and veterans Ryan Izzo and Matt LaCosse. The Patriots also have fullback Danny Vitale on their 90-man roster. Starting fullback Jakob Johnson, an exclusive rights free agent, is likely to return, as well.
Patriots tight ends only produced 254 yards in 2020, which could cause the team to look outside the roster for more help. Even if the Patriots don’t draft a player like Kyle Pitts, sign a free agent like Hunter Henry or trade for a tight end like Evan Engram, they should see more production out of the position with LaCosse returning from his opt-out and Asiasi and Keene taking presumed second-year jumps.
It would be a risk to simply assume Keene will significantly improve his production in Year 2, but if he does, it would also allow the Patriots to spend salary cap or draft capital at other positions of need if they bet on their 2020 draft picks.
There’s a lot to like about Keene from his time with the Hokies despite his lack of raw production. He was a natural ball-carrier and impressed with a 4.71-second 40-yard dash, 7.07-second three-cone drill, 4.19-second short shuttle, 34-inch vertical leap and 10-feet, 5-inch broad jump as one of the most athletic tight ends at last winter’s NFL Scouting Combine.
If Keene’s athleticism can translate into more production in Year 2 and beyond, then the Patriots might have an exciting player in the third-round pick. But it’s also fair to doubt Keene based on his lack of counting numbers in 2020.
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