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Dynasty & Redraft: TE Devin Asiasi, Patriots (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Faust
- Start date
EBF
Footballguy
Quality value pick in rookie drafts and startups.
I don't see the superstar ceiling because Asiasi does not have top tier explosiveness, but he's quite a good TE. Solid frame with some nice movement for a bigger player. Enough speed to beat coverage and quality route running ability. He's more fluid than sudden, but he should develop into a solid pro starter.
I can see him being a Crumpler/Owen Daniels level performer in the NFL.
I don't see the superstar ceiling because Asiasi does not have top tier explosiveness, but he's quite a good TE. Solid frame with some nice movement for a bigger player. Enough speed to beat coverage and quality route running ability. He's more fluid than sudden, but he should develop into a solid pro starter.
I can see him being a Crumpler/Owen Daniels level performer in the NFL.
Football Jones
Footballguy
Boston
Footballguy
The kid has a great opportunity especially since the Pats traded up for him and his college Coach is one of BB's boys...it is really amazing how bad the Patriot TE's were last year and you could see it coming in the pre-season...it usually takes some time for young TEs to put up numbers but if this kid is legit he could so something as the path is pretty clear for him.
JohnnyU
Footballguy
Boston
Footballguy
Not sure from a fantasy point of view...I get the feeling Keene may turn into a swiss army knife type of player which will be good for real football but not sure about stats...
Football Jones
Footballguy
Asiasi will be their Y unless he disappoints.
Keene, while a good athletic tester, doesn't necessarily show it on the field. He does have decent raw skills, but is best suited as an H-back & will almost certainly be cast that way for the Pats (limiting his opps).
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I had moved him up to TE1 for this class before my rookie drafts started but I was still surprised to Asiasi go as TE1 in majority of my rookie drafts so it was not a novel or out of the box idea.
Some reasons I moved him up to TE1.
His game videos. I'd read a few times pre-draft about him being a sleeper, possible TE1 in this class, etc,etc. But I was a little lazy on my TE pre-draft scouting this year due mainly to unexciting billing of the class and I had never dialed up Asiasi video's until the night he was drafted. I was hooked pretty quickly. His smoothness really jumps out at you, good catch radius, showed a lot of overall athleticism and his lower body/base is massive. Looked a lot more athletic to me on tape then his combine numbers.
But one of the reasons I put him at my top TE is his ability to produce now and really it's past his ability to produce it's just being on the field helps you get a look at him and in those FFPC type short rosters that chance for evaluation is huge.
So I get rookie TE's don't normally produce, I sure don't go into a season counting on one and that's in a normal non-Covid year. But it happens and I've not done a deep dive on this in terms of looking up data but I think it happens in spurts during a lot of these rookie TE's season just very infrequently over 16 games.Similar for WR's but a little more productive for them.
As an example, and no I'm not saying Asiasi or Keene deserve to be compared to Gronk or Hernandez, plus no Brady, etc, etc, but stay with me as an example of what I'm talking about. Aaron Hernandez rookie season he's a TE1 weeks 1-8. He's got 34/436/2 after 8 games then made some on field mistakes, got banged up, slowed down a bit. Gronk does not do a lot those first 8 weeks while Hernandez is off to a hot start but he basically gives you TE1 numbers the second half of the season.
An example off the top of my head of a rookie TE getting limited off-season. Jordan Reed had a knee injury early in camp and missed almost all of training camp. I don't recall his level of participation in other offseason work but a rookie TE missing training camp seemed like he had no chance. He only made it 9 games that year but gave you borderline top 5 TE numbers.
Could dig up all kinds of rookie TE's who had stretches where they got it going as rookies. I think the list is longer then people would think because so few do it over a whole season.
So I like what I saw of Asiasi's video's, based purely on video it would difficult for me to separate him or Trautman. Trautman looks pretty awesome but the comp is hard to evaluate. Kmet's athleticism does not pop, which is fine, he's a huge dude who is super young and probably going to get bigger plus not playing two sports and focused on just football he has a lot of growth as a player. But the biggest issue I had with his video, and it was not really his fault, but he was just so wide open so often.
But for me one of the things I used to separate them was Asiasi's path to playing time and lack of overall team competition to grab a sizeable role. I'm becoming more and more of a believer that TE is a heavily scheme impacted position and I think all of these schemes are fairly TE friendly. Again I drafted all 3 of them in various leagues and really had no interest in any other rookie TE.
Some reasons I moved him up to TE1.
His game videos. I'd read a few times pre-draft about him being a sleeper, possible TE1 in this class, etc,etc. But I was a little lazy on my TE pre-draft scouting this year due mainly to unexciting billing of the class and I had never dialed up Asiasi video's until the night he was drafted. I was hooked pretty quickly. His smoothness really jumps out at you, good catch radius, showed a lot of overall athleticism and his lower body/base is massive. Looked a lot more athletic to me on tape then his combine numbers.
But one of the reasons I put him at my top TE is his ability to produce now and really it's past his ability to produce it's just being on the field helps you get a look at him and in those FFPC type short rosters that chance for evaluation is huge.
So I get rookie TE's don't normally produce, I sure don't go into a season counting on one and that's in a normal non-Covid year. But it happens and I've not done a deep dive on this in terms of looking up data but I think it happens in spurts during a lot of these rookie TE's season just very infrequently over 16 games.Similar for WR's but a little more productive for them.
As an example, and no I'm not saying Asiasi or Keene deserve to be compared to Gronk or Hernandez, plus no Brady, etc, etc, but stay with me as an example of what I'm talking about. Aaron Hernandez rookie season he's a TE1 weeks 1-8. He's got 34/436/2 after 8 games then made some on field mistakes, got banged up, slowed down a bit. Gronk does not do a lot those first 8 weeks while Hernandez is off to a hot start but he basically gives you TE1 numbers the second half of the season.
An example off the top of my head of a rookie TE getting limited off-season. Jordan Reed had a knee injury early in camp and missed almost all of training camp. I don't recall his level of participation in other offseason work but a rookie TE missing training camp seemed like he had no chance. He only made it 9 games that year but gave you borderline top 5 TE numbers.
Could dig up all kinds of rookie TE's who had stretches where they got it going as rookies. I think the list is longer then people would think because so few do it over a whole season.
So I like what I saw of Asiasi's video's, based purely on video it would difficult for me to separate him or Trautman. Trautman looks pretty awesome but the comp is hard to evaluate. Kmet's athleticism does not pop, which is fine, he's a huge dude who is super young and probably going to get bigger plus not playing two sports and focused on just football he has a lot of growth as a player. But the biggest issue I had with his video, and it was not really his fault, but he was just so wide open so often.
But for me one of the things I used to separate them was Asiasi's path to playing time and lack of overall team competition to grab a sizeable role. I'm becoming more and more of a believer that TE is a heavily scheme impacted position and I think all of these schemes are fairly TE friendly. Again I drafted all 3 of them in various leagues and really had no interest in any other rookie TE.
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His ADP is skyrocketing and I’m not sure it’s justified. This is coming from someone who had him a lot higher than most in the predraft process. Something is wrong when this guy is going in the 2nd and Dalton Keene is going at the end of drafts. Yes, I am aware that they essentially play two different positions.
Football Jones
Footballguy
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BigTex
Don't mess with Texas
Football Jones
Footballguy
Yeah, I didn’t think it was too high yet.
40 seems low, though. I think Asiasi starts being a steal in the early 30s. I suspect his ADP will slowly rise into the late 2nd.
lardonastick
Footballguy
dot
Football Jones
Footballguy
I’m fully on board, especially at his ADP.
He’s an eyeball guy for me. His athletic testing doesn’t stand out & his production is modest. In fact, nothing about him stands out other than my eyeball evaluation.
That said, Asiasi has late-bloomer dynamics to his credit. He looked like a potential stud towards the end of the season last year.
He’s an eyeball guy for me. His athletic testing doesn’t stand out & his production is modest. In fact, nothing about him stands out other than my eyeball evaluation.
That said, Asiasi has late-bloomer dynamics to his credit. He looked like a potential stud towards the end of the season last year.
I've done 8 rookie drafts and 6 of them are TE premium.
In the 6 TE premium drafts of mine he went 3.1(1), 3.3(2) , 3.3(1), 3.11(2). 3.12(2) and 4.1(3). The number in parenthesis is where he went relative to rookie TE's.
In my two single PPR leagues he went 3.11(1) and 4.10(2).
Football Jones
Footballguy
After checking on that data I'm feeling I at least got good value because I drafted him 3 times and it was the 3.11, 3.12 and 4.1 and all in the TE premium leagues. I had not realized until responding to your post I got him the latest times he went.
But what is surprising is to me is you see in only one of my 8 drafts he was rookie TE3 and still lasted that long in a lot of TE premium drafts. A lot of factors led to people really laying off TE this year in rookie drafts more then normal. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone but I can't remember a TE picked as early as Kmet lasting till mid 3rd into 4th round of TE premium drafts.
Some of those factors which led to rookie TE's dropping this year was depth at WR, mad dash for RB's and in a lot my leagues Hayden Hurst and/or Gronk were available and in a few Blake Jarwin as well. I was not in a draft were Hurst or Gronk did not go before any rookie TE if they were available and Gronk was available in all but one and Hurst in all but two.
Football Jones
Footballguy
Asiasi’s problem early on may have been extra weight, but he’s really done a good job with his physique, which no doubt adds to his athletic ability.
Asiasi’s burst doesn’t line up with his athletic testing. He seems to be a natural receiver with good hands, as well. Some blocking upside, too.
Might be fluff, but his trainer is raving about his upside as an athlete. That could be very important, especially if you believe he’s one of those guys who’s good at football (as his play seems to suggest).
Asiasi’s burst doesn’t line up with his athletic testing. He seems to be a natural receiver with good hands, as well. Some blocking upside, too.
Might be fluff, but his trainer is raving about his upside as an athlete. That could be very important, especially if you believe he’s one of those guys who’s good at football (as his play seems to suggest).
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Football Jones
Footballguy
I’m down on Kmet, but really like Trautman & Asiasi. Got both in my rookie draft at good value (but not as late as their actual ADP).
I didn’t mind this TE class, at all. Like you said, the circumstances of this particular year made it easier to acquire Asiasi (& Trautman).
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Inspiration
Footballguy
I remember Hernandez going well ahead Gronkowski in 2010 rookie drafts, on the assumption that Gronkowski was going to function primarily as a blocker and Hernandez as a receiver. I think there's probably a lesson there in accepting that we know less than we like to think about how players will transition to the NFL. Given their similar draft position by the same team, one of these guys going multiple rounds ahead of the other seems like overconfidence in our ability to predict the ultimate outcome.Iceman03 said:
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Football Jones
Footballguy
Well, maybe his ADP is skyrocketing after all.
Asiasi went 17 overall in my son's dynasty league & it's not TE premium.
Kmet & Trautman still on the board at 3.1 (25).
Asiasi went 17 overall in my son's dynasty league & it's not TE premium.
Kmet & Trautman still on the board at 3.1 (25).
JohnnyU
Footballguy
Wow, that was a horrible reach. Looking at 5 of my leagues he went 3.09 (33) in two leagues, 2.11 (23) in one, 3.10 (34), in one, and 3.07 (31) in another.
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Football Jones
Footballguy
Yeah, I couldn't believe it when he told me.
Maybe the team was stuck & wasn't able to trade down, but that's real early. Many years, it might even make sense, but not in this class.
Football Jones
Footballguy
Love Asiasi as a 3rd round pick in rookie drafts. Risk/reward ratio is fantastic in the 3rd. Walker signing with the Pats would probably put a damper on his production right away, but he's a legit FF prospect.
I actually like him better than Kmet. Trautman is my #1 rookie TE, though (dynasty).
I actually like him better than Kmet. Trautman is my #1 rookie TE, though (dynasty).
JohnnyU
Footballguy
Football Jones
Footballguy
Faust
MVP
@Anarchy99 - I’d be interested in your thoughts/observations on Devin Asiasi or anything you are hearing from the local beat writers.
Will this kid be one of the rare rookie tight ends that might be viable to start or have as a strong backup option this year?
Will this kid be one of the rare rookie tight ends that might be viable to start or have as a strong backup option this year?
Anarchy99
Footballguy
NE is said to be signing two other TE's . . .Paul Butler and Alex Ellis. I had never heard of either one. Butler has not appeared in an NFL game so far and I think Ellis has like 3 receptions total.
I will post what I see about him when I see anything. Here were some Asiasi blurbs from today:
Today's Practice Notes: Both Asiasi and fellow rookie Dalton Keene seem like they’ll have the opportunity to take the reins at the tight end position without much competition.
Today's Studs: TE Devin Asiasi: Even with a month to go until kickoff, Asiasi has and should continue to be considered the favorite to start Week 1. The third-round rookie displayed soft hands, sharp routes and enough ability to block in full pads. Perhaps best of all, during full-team special teams drills, he worked on a separate field with the rest of the Patriots’ best skill-position players.
Patriots Training Camp / Who Popped: While the kicking-game period was happening, quarterbacks made their way over to the empty field briefly. They were joined for a quick throwing session by N'Keal Harry, Mohamed Sanu, Julian Edelman, James White and rookie tight end Devin Asiasi. These side sessions are the same side sessions that were often populated by Tom Brady and his top pass-catchers in years past . . . Newton hit a nicely-timed pass over the middle to Asiasi in 7-on-7 play . . . Devin Asiasi: Getting some extra time with the quarterbacks during special teams periods is a sign that the Patriots are looking to get him as many receiving reps as possible. He looked smooth catching the football and carries his 257 pounds well.
TE Devin Asiasi Is Also Enjoying Some Early Success: He keeps popping up in the notes on Patriots.com. Here’s one note on how he’s doing: “Brian Lewerke made a nice connection with Gunner Olszewski, who worked nicely with Devin Asiasi on a combination route near the goal line. Asiasi also made a nice catch on a pass from Newton, and later Stidham connected with Mohamed Sanu as well Asiasi.” When Matt LaCosse opted out of the 2020 season, Asiasi had practically no competition to take over the top tight end spot. The fact that he’s making catches early in camp is a good sign. But again, let’s wait to pass judgement before we see him in contact drills. A tight end has a huge physical advantage when safeties can’t be physical. Asiasi’s real test will be against a safety like Devin McCourty when they’re both wearing pads.
As for your question, had there been a regular offseason, Asiasi may have been the rare rookie TE to make some noise in Year One. However, all rookies have missed pretty much all of the offseason and are way behind the 8-ball this year. Even BB mentioned this recently, and there is nothing anyone can really do to make up for that. Asiasi will likely see the field the most of the TE's on the roster, but that isn't exactly saying a whole lot. Maybe he will become more of a red zone threat and get some TD's, but I don't see him piling up a lot of receptions or yardage. Of course, we don't even know who the starting QB will be (Newton is the favorite). Like I said, I will monitor how things go.
Football Jones
Footballguy
It’s always good to hear positive reports on a rookie TE. Asiasi was a big-time steal at his earlier ADP, but I suspect it’s moving up with a bullet.
I’m curious to see what he can do this season.
I’m curious to see what he can do this season.
Anarchy99
Footballguy
It’s pretty much universal among all the beat guys that NE is giving Asiasi a ton of reps with the ones. He is the de facto TE on 7-on-7,11-on-11, side sessions, etc. At this point it would be close to shocking if he were not the primary receiving TE this year. What that translates to may depend on who ends up at QB. As of yesterday, the feeling of many was that if they were playing a real game this Sunday, Hoyer would be the starter.
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lardonastick
Footballguy
Assuming the first bold refers to beat reporters; is the second bold the same group? I'd love to put names behind the thought that Hoyer would start, now, or ever, over Cam.
Anarchy99
Footballguy
Curran was one that voiced that if the season started today, based on how things have played out over the past few days, that Hoyer would be starting. There is no way he believes Hoyer will end up as the starter. From the looks of it, Hoyer hasn't made any bad decisions, hasn't thrown any picks, and cashed in on deep opportunities then they presented themselves. But he also has missed guys that were open, thrown some passes that needed to be better, and in general has played like Hoyer. Hoyer is not going to move the needle in anyone's mind.
By comparison, Stidham looked great one day but threw a bunch of picks the next two days. Newton hasn't looked great and hasn't looked terrible. Apparently yesterday they called a designed run . . . something the defense hasn't seen in practice, well, ever when Brady was there.
Bottom line, this dog and pony show will go on for a while and then they will have to start making decisions. IMO, it does not make sense to go the rest of practice up until the season starts rotating reps almost evenly among three QBs. I would guess they will unofficially anoint someone as the guy that gets the most reps working with the ones once practices become closed to the media. They may already know who that is . . . or they may not. But from what has been reported so far, no one is really winning the QB battle and standing out day after day.
That's likely bad news for Stidham, as he is the one familiar with the plays, the players, the system, and the phraseology. If he can't look leaps and bounds better than Newton coming in cold off the street, then Stidham is not going to end up starting (which many people expected Newton would start in the first place).
