Patriots OTA report: Tom Brady familiarizing himself with new tight end combination

Tight ends Rob Gronkowski (pictured) and Scott Chandler have been getting a lot of individual work with quarterback Tom Brady over the course of the organized team activities. The Boston Globe/Jonathan Wiggs

By Erik Frenz @ErikFrenz

June 11, 2015

2 minutes to read

You couldn’t miss tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Scott Chandler if you tried.

The two massive tight ends are easy to spot on the field at Patriots workouts, but not just because of their size. They’ve been getting a lot of individual work with quarterback Tom Brady over the course of organized team activities.

“The good thing that Bill does is, when he structures practice, there’s no wasted time,’’ tight end coach Brian Daboll said after the team’s practice on Thursday. “So if you’re not involved in one area, then you’d better be doing something in the other area. We’re not out here to waste time, so we’re trying to get as much work in as we can.’’

Gronkowski and Chandler were working with Brady down near the goal line, first running individual routes and then lining up to run routes simultaneously. There were a number of routes explored, from slants to ins and outs to fades and more; the two were then running combination routes, practicing the types of routes that could put defensive backs into a bind of whether to cover one player or another.

No matter who it is they cover, they’ll have their hands full. On a number of occasions, each man showed his unique size by reaching over his head to make a tough catch, proving that Brady could throw a pass anywhere in the general vicinity of his two tight ends and the ball would most likely be caught.

“Most tight ends in this league are big,’’ Daboll said. “They’re all big to me.’’

Gronkowski and Chandler will be big to almost anyone, though. With a pair of tight ends standing 6-foot-6 or taller and weighing in at 260 pounds or more, the possibilities seems almost endless for how the Patriots could use both men on the field at the same time.

Thanks to their combination pass-catching and blocking ability, Gronkowski and Chandler form one of the rare two-tight end combinations that would genuinely force defenses to doubt whether the Patriots would be running or throwing the ball.

And with defenses continually getting smaller and smaller, the Patriots would be wise to get them both on the field at the same time as much as possible.

“I think that each offensive coordinator has their own fingerprint on how they like to call plays, or how they envision their offense to be,’’ Daboll said. “Some teams like to use a lot of tight ends, some teams don’t like to use many, so I think it’s really independent on what the team wants to do.’’

The Patriots have shown in the past that they are willing to field an offense featuring two tight ends. Their practice routines are indicative that the team is toying with the possibilities of employing that strategy once again.