Your eye test is not deceiving you: Hunter Henry and Jonnu Smith have massively underperformed this season.
But a few stats are borderline startling.
Smith made a variety of critical errors in Sunday’s embarrassing loss to the New Orleans Saints, from slippery fingers to missed blocking assignments. Henry, who hardly is a blocking tight end, has more or less been a non-factor in the passing game so far.
Obviously not what the New England Patriots’ had in mind for their two moneymen, who they signed to lucrative, long-term deals this offseason in order to offset what, unsurprisingly, proved to be a major void left by Rob Gronkowski.
It’s not just that Henry and Smith have not been as effective as they should be. It’s that they’ve been outright bad and are setting the Patriots back.
It’s only Week 3, so there obviously is plenty of time to turn things around. But so far, Henry and Smith aren’t living up to their end of the bargain.
