Why not Otton? Goes back to what I thought was the "clunkiness" of Henry/Hooper last year. Neither of them were "move" TEs and neither is Otton. All 3 of those guys belong as in-line guys and that just makes for a bit of a clunky offense IMO because you get duplicate route trees. And in the case of Henry/Hooper last year, both are still weaker blockers so you weren't even benefiting there.
Now that you mention Otton though, I am very intrigued. Not instead of Likely in my plan, but as a younger replacement for Henry. Cut Henry to have $9.25M and sign Otton for a cap hit lower than that. Gives you a better blocker for that in-line/Y s TE spot and a younger player too. On top of the Diggs thing and my Pierce/Likely ideas, you could cut Diggs/Henry to save about $30M of cap and have Pierce/Otton/Likely for probably less than that cap space.
Why not Pitts? it was primarily about cost and I kind of think they'll tag him anyway. Also, since I'm cutting Diggs to go with Pierce (downfield guy) at the X and Boutte at the Z (more of a downfield/intermediate route tree than underneath), the move TE is going to run a lot of underneath routes. In his whole career, Pitts has broken 9 tackles (1 every 31.6 receptions) and averages 4.4 YAC per reception. His average depth of target is 10.1 yards downfield. Likely has broken 15 tackles (1 every 9.0 receptions) and averages 5.5 YAC per reception. His average depth of target is 7.2 yards downfield. And then a guy like Henry (or Otton now since I liked that idea), you're talking guys who are more down the seam types. So just in building a fully complimentary route tree of skill sets, I think Likely fills in the gaps well.
Another thing I like about Likely is that he's played in 2 TE sets before. I think there's be a lot of familiarity for him coming over into the role we have him. You're right that he's a weaker blocker, but based on how I'm leaving cap space for other spots we can improve the OL. I also think I'm projecting his role as kind of a big slot as much of a move TE so there's some wiggle room for a weaker blocker there. It's certainly a weakness with him and why I'm not saying to write him a blank check, but most FAs you sign have some warts otherwise they wouldn't be FAs to begin with.
Overall though with the Otton idea, I love what our offense would be if it was Pierce at X, Boutte at Z, Otton at Y, Likely as the slot/move TE as the primary formation. Try to find a real fullback for when you want to go heavier. I think Hollins/KWilliams/Douglas/Chism give you different flavors of a 3rd receiver when you want to go to those type of formations. Draft supposedly has some good TE options so maybe you can find a good third one there to eventually replace one of Likely/Otton in the third/4th year of their deals once the cap hits get too heavy to sustain as is the case with most contracts. And all of this would come from cap space form cutting Diggs/Henry so it doesn't take away from our ability to add 2 OL starters and a starting DE along with retaining or replacing guys like Hawkins/Chaisson. And I think at the skill positions we get younger and better or at least better-fitting. I think all the pieces here work well together.
