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In what was one of the more shocking moves in the preseason, the New England Patriots elected to trade away their Pro Bowl guard Logan Mankins to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In return for their guard they received the young tight end Tim Wright from Tampa Bay. Wright will slide into the Patriots’ two tight end set alongside Rob Gronkowski, who is looking to stay healthy this season. The addition of Wright does provide insurance for Tom Brady if Gronkowski can’t stay healthy and will also complement Gronk much like Aaron Hernandez did.
Last season, Wright was a pretty good fantasy football TE despite not having a very good quarterback throwing him the ball, which certainly won’t be an issue this season with the future Hall of Famer in Brady. Last season in his rookie year, Wright caught 54 passes for 571 yards with five touchdowns, all impressive numbers for a rookie TE.
One concern for Wright’s fantasy value will be that he is heading to a new team and will have to learn a complicated offense that saw rookie receivers last season struggle and look silly on the field at times, causing frustration for Brady. The one advantage Wright has heading into the Patriots’ system is that he does have experience in the NFL. But there will be surely be a learning curve with him not being in camp with the Patriots, and it could take him a few weeks of learning on the fly.
If a great organization like the Patriots traded away one of the staples of their offensive line for Wright, they must think that he can be a special player. Fantasy football owners should also put faith in Wright, as he had a strong rookie season on a poor team with poor QB play, and now this season he will be playing for a playoff team that loves to throw the ball to TEs. Wright should be targeted in later rounds, and in some leagues he can be gotten off of the waiver wire.
Nick Ziegler is a New York Jets writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Ziggy26x and add him to your network on Google.
