But my evaluation of Ellington was that he would not make the team.
Well, here's the thing, IMO:
In 2018, Edelman (12 games) and White (16 games) combined for 161 catches. If you put Edelman up to the full 16 games, since there's no suspension, that would get you another 25 catches, which puts you up to 186. So, between the entire rest of the receiving corps, you'd only need another 200 catches (192, actually).
So, removing the space making ability of Gronk from the equation for purposes of this exercise, does having a healthy group of, say,
Burkhead
Michel
Harris
Devlin
Gordon
Thomas
Dorsett
Harry
Watson
ASJ
give you the potential for another 200 catches? It does, no question.
But sub out, or limit, Gordon and Thomas, and only give Burkhead his usual percentage of healthy games, and accept that we don't know what Michel and Harris will be like in the passing game this year, and things get a lot dicier.