Former Chiefs TE James O’Shaughnessy “favorite” to make Patriots roster
By Matt Conner
The New England Patriots have seen enough of James O’Shaughnessy to make him the favorite to win the team’s No. 3 tight end job.
Several months ago, the Kansas City Chiefs decided they had too many tight ends on the roster. They were right. Even now, heading into the final weeks of the preseason schedule, the Chiefs have four solid options to consider keeping, and that’s after they’d already traded away James O’Shaughnessy to the New England Patriots.
Fortunately, to show just how deep the talent was on the Chiefs roster, O’Shaugnessy is expected to make the Patriots roster as the No. 3 tight end option behind Rob Gronkowski and the newly-acquired Dwayne Allen. Per the Boston Herald’s Stephen Hewitt, O’Shaughnessy has done enough in training camp to differentiate himself from other roster hopefuls in the preseason.
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O’Shaughnessy caught five passes for 41 yards in the Patriots most recent playoff game, showing that he can be an offensive outlet for Tom Brady while also providing real value on special teams—something he definitely brought to the Kansas City Chiefs for his first two years in the league.
"“He kind of got back in action this week in the kicking game and offensively, so again, there were some good things,” Belichick said on a conference call. “There were some things that he’ll need a little more work on and was a little rusty, but yeah, I thought overall, I thought he competed well.”"
The tight end position as a whole has been a completely remade position after Gronk this offseason. Normally teams will use later round picks on tight ends to round out the roster with cheaper options, developmental talent and guys who can provide value on special teams. However, the Patriots have taken an alternate approach. They traded a fourth round pick to the Indianapolis Colts for Allen and a sixth round choice, and they flipped a fifth round pick for O’Shaughnessy outright.
For the Chiefs, they also have an All-Pro tight end in Travis Kelce, but they have a number of homegrown options behind him in Demetrius Harris and Ross Travis, both former college basketball players turned tight ends. This offseason they also added free agent Gavin Escobar to the mix. The former Dallas Cowboys second round pick is hoping to turn around his fortunes with a new team.
O’Shaughnessy started six contests for the Chiefs over the last two years at tight end, but provided strong special teams play in 23 games.