long distance
Pro Bowl Player
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2015
- Messages
- 10,307
- Reaction score
- 27,270
On the one hand you are saying it is time to stop playing around but on the other you are just projecting Smith to be a better overall target than Henry just because of his athletic profile. Henry has already proven he is an actual receiving threat (1000 yards more in the same number of seasons) whereas with Jonnu everyone keeps coming back to his "potential" but somehow he never has broken 450 yards a season.
The one thing that is pretty clear to me is that the gap between Henry and Jonnu as receivers is bigger than the gap as blockers. Henry is still a pretty good blocker and thus more versatile.
If you take the money aside the decision between Henry and Jonnu is relatively easy. If you want the better blocker who has receiving upside then Smith is your guy. If you want someone who is an accomplished receiving option then you go for Henry. Of course you can't just ignore the money and Henry will be a bigger investment in terms of guarantees. But as the move for Gilmore in 2017 has shown that additional cap hit might not really matter to BB if Henry fits the role they want to fill very well.
A final thought on this is that if you go to Mockdraftable and check Jonnu's profile one of the top comparisons that come up for him is Dalton Keene.
We obviously have two strong Henry & Smith camps. Id guess both camps would be more than happy if any of the two indeed ends up here (and im not sure the chance are that great). If Ertz gets cut before tomorrow, BB might be most interested in him bc of comp formula and bc. he believes in developing the 2 TES he drafted highly last year to develop behind so he wouldn't mind a vet on a 1y deal.
Id prefer Smith for his versatility, athleticism, toughness, YAC, run blocking - i think he fits more into the offence i see Pats playing this season, and would fit perfectly also with either Lance or Jones at QB. As said before Smith's numbers - fwiw - are askew in 2020 as mentioned earlier. He was on pace for 800yd+ 10+ TD season before they lost LT and he had to help in-line much more for the running game.
I just hope they finally bring in one legit receiving TE even if it is on 1y deal.