But the offense that creates the mismatch is not really 2 TEs, its a TE and a hybrid TE/SlotWR/HBack.
There are not many of those in the league.
I didn't consider Hernandez a slot WR and neither did the Patriots.
If you read the snippet from Bedard, They consider him an "F" tight end, aka flex TE or move TE. In the past, a lot of these guys would be considered tweeners. Too slow to play WR, too small to play traditional TE.
Ideally, i want a carbon copy of Hernandez. I agree these types of guys don't grow on trees, but there are a good number of guys out there to be had.
Guys like Charles Clay, Delanie Walker, Zach Ertz, Ladarius Green, Gavin Escobar, Mychal Rivera, Jordan Cameron all possess a lot of the traits you look for in an Aaron Hernandez replacement. Guys who are more dynamic in the passing game and just good enough as a blocker. Guys who can create the mismatch like Hernandez did.
You've also got guys that are in between the Gronk types and Hernandez types, like Dwayne Allen or maybe even a Virgil Green, who is a better blocker than Hernandez was but is less dynamic in the passing game. He won't be able to create the same one on one mismatch as a guy with the speed of Hernandez can, but he will be more effective in the running game, in pass protection, and still enable you to create formation mismatches IMO. A guy like that might not be able to roast LB's as well as Hernandez can, but if a defense is committing it's best defenders to Gronk and Edelman and leaves a lower level defender on Allen or underestimates Allen as just a blocker, Allen has the requisite skillset to expose that defense. So although this type of TE doesn't help you in the exact same way, he still contributes effectively in an all around way.
These guys are available, the problem is price. When these guys hit the free agent market, they are paid like #1 tight ends because coordinators salivate at the matchup mismatches they can create and overlook the blocking deficiencies. Such as Charles Clay last year.
That's why it seemingly needs to be addressed with devalued/bargain free agents or in the draft, such as in rounds 2 through 5 where a ton of good tight ends have gone in recent years, so the cost is well controlled and not outrageous. We can't just go out there and give a guy like Julius Thomas 9 million a year. Hence, a guy like Ladarius Green may be out of our price range.
The suggestions like Dwayne Allen and Jordan Cameron in free agency are shrewd, as they come with their injury/production issues and may be undervalued on the open market -- a prime opportunity for the Pats to pounce to get an above average talent that could flourish in this offense on a bargain contract.
If you want to go the draft route, I'm fine with that too, although it may be a little more risky as it's more of a projection from college. I had a post the other day about the success of drafting tight ends in the middle rounds, so there are definitely guys to be had. I'm not entrenched in the draft stuff yet, so I have no idea if there are a lot of guys available this year.
