5 things to know about Patriots draft pick Dalton Keene
Keene was compared to a famous movie character and a Swiss Army knife in college.
The Patriots doubled down on their need for a tight end Friday night.
Ten picks after selecting UCLA’s Devin Asiasi, New England traded back into the third round, acquiring the 101st overall pick from the New York Jets, to select Virginia Tech’s Dalton Keene.
Here are five things to know about the second tight end the Patriots drafted Friday night.
His nickname is Rambo.
Keene’s teammates and coaches at Virginia Tech nicknamed him Rambo because of his resemblance to the movie character portrayed by Sylvester Stallone. The nickname came naturally as Keene has a similar muscular frame to Stallone’s character and rocks the same haircut, too.
“Honestly, it’s a pretty cool nickname,” Keene said in a conference call Saturday morning. “I didn’t come up with it, but it could be a lot worse.
“He takes great pride in being a tough guy,” Virginia Tech tight ends coach James Shibest told the Denver Post before the draft. “Everybody called him ‘Rambo’ because of how his body looked, how physical he plays, how that weight room is important to him. He’s gotten our whole sideline jacked up several times running over people — he ain’t looking to dodge anybody. And, of course, he had the long hair too [as a freshman and sophomore], so he really did look like a young Rambo.”
He comes from an athletic family.
Keene isn’t the only member of his family to play sports at the collegiate level.
His dad, Wesley, played defensive end for Murray State in the 1980s. Wesley played under then linebackers coach Bud Foster, who was also Dalton’s defensive coordinator at Virginia Tech.
Foster got to know Dalton when he was a kid and recalled a story of “toughness” Dalton displayed when his dad threw him off Foster’s boat into the water.
“Next thing you know, Wes grabs Dalton and kind of flips him up and he spins around and, boy, he belly flops,” Foster told The Roanoke Times in 2017. “But he no sooner hit that water that he jumped up and he was just screaming bloody murder.
“And that’s when Stacy, Wes’ wife, I’ve never seen a woman beat a guy so much in my life. But I saw some toughness out of Dalton at that time right there.”
Keene’s brother, Trey, was a two-sport athlete at Northern Colorado, playing football and baseball during his time there.
He didn’t only play tight end at Virginia Tech.
Keene started at tight end for all three seasons he was at Virginia Tech. He also played as an H-back for the Hokies, where he was utilized as a blocker out of the backfield. In his junior season, Keene earned his first career rushes, getting 11 carries for 33 yards.
In addition to being called Rambo, Keene was also called the Swiss Army knife of Virginia Tech’s offense.
Over this three-year college career, Keene caught 59 passes for 748 yards and eight touchdowns. In 2019, he had 21 receptions for 240 yards and a career-high five touchdowns. In his sophomore season, he caught a career-high 28 catches for 341 yards and three touchdowns. He earned Honorable Mention All-ACC for his 2018 campaign.
🗣”What a catch by Keene.” @DaltonKeene18 in action. pic.twitter.com/WqaKd8ifK9
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) April 25, 2020
Keene was rated as the second-most athletic tight end prospect in the draft class.
The several roles Keene played for Virginia Tech’s offense speaks well for his athleticism.
Keene also showed how athletic he was at the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine. Keene had the second-best Relative Athletic Score for tight end prospects in 2020 NFL Draft, earning a 9.34 RAS (out of 10.0) which only trailed Arkansas’ Chase Harrell.
“RAS is a composite metric on a 0 to 10 scale based on the average of all of the percentile for each of the metrics the player completed either at the Combine or pro day,” according to its website.
Keene ran a 4.71 40-yard dash at the Combine, which was the fifth quickest out of the tight end prospects. He also had the best broad jump (125 inches) out of all the tight ends.
He gave up his snowboarding hobby to focus on football.
Keene, who grew up in Littleton, Colorado, did what many who grow up in snowy mountain and hill areas do: snowboard.
However, as his aspirations for a football career progressed, his time snowboarding had to stop.
“I figured it wasn’t the best for my football career. It’s kind of dangerous,” Keene told The Roanoke Times. “I don’t make the smartest decisions when I’m strapped up to a snowboard.”
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