So you thought the New England Patriots spent all their money and made all their major free agent splashes on Monday, right? Well apparently not, as they wasted little time making Tuesday’s first major deal, agreeing to a three-year, $37.5 million deal ($25 million guaranteed) with former Los Angeles Chargers tight end Hunter Henry, per Adam Schefter.

While the Patriots were one of the favored destinations for Henry once the Chargers decided not to franchise tag him for the second year in a row, everyone not named Bill Belichick assumed they’d be out of the tight end market after inking Jonnu Smith to a four-year, $50 million deal agreed upon on Monday. But New England continues its spending spree and has now added the top two tight ends on the market.

https://twitter.com/PhilAPerry/status/1371827955324846087

Dating back to the Rob Gronkowski-Aaron Hernandez days, we know Belichick has a warm spot in his heart for not only tight ends, but dualing receiving threats at the position. It was an area of his offense the Patriots lacked entirely last season. New England’s 2020 tight end depth chart featured Ryan Izzo at the top (who caught a total of 13 passes) and two rookies who combined for only five receptions. Now, Belichick has not only massively improved the position group, but he’s also adding a player he has an affinity for.

https://twitter.com/MikeReiss/status/1371827086915166213

Henry is a talented receiving threat who’s had to overcome his share of injury issues in his young career, including missing the entire 2018 season with a torn ACL. He’s never played a full 16-game season, but when he’s active he’s been very productive for both Philip Rivers and Justin Herbert.

Henry will be a very solid underneath option for Cam Newton—the tight end caught the majority of his passes within seven yards of the line of scrimmage last season, per Sports Info Solutions—while Smith can serve as the big-play, run-after-catch option of the two. No, they are not Gronkowski and Hernandez in their prime, but Henry and Smith offer a massive upgrade at the position and could serve as two of the top three target-getters on the roster.

https://twitter.com/AlbertBreer/status/1371833991498772482

Fantasy Football Impact

This agreed-to deal has a significant impact on TE1 territory. Henry has finished as a top-10 fantasy tight end (PPR) in total points each of the last two seasons—he was the TE9 in 2019 and TE8 in 2020. However, his per-game production dipped to the bottom of TE1 territory (TE11, 10.4 points per game) last season. He’s downgrading at quarterback, but will be a little higher in the pecking order than he was in Los Angeles. He’d currently rank somewhere between TE10-12 for me next season in redraft leagues. As for Smith, his value has to drop slightly from where it was on Monday as he goes from a surefire featured role to a semi-main option with Henry alongside him. He was a clear top-10 player before Henry’s deal, but now he lands in that same TE10-12 territory.