Getty Kyle Rudolph looked like an ideal replacement in New England for Rob Gronkowski.
With Rob Gronkowski retired, the New England Patriots are left with a blank outline in their offense. That led NFL reporters and fans to speculate that Kyle Rudolph might be an ideal candidate to fill that blank.
The Minnesota Vikings tight end was in the final year of his four-year contract and the team spent its 2019 second-round draft pick on Alabama’s Irv Smith, viewed as one of the top prospects at the position. Furthermore, trading Rudolph would have cleared $7.6 million from the Vikings’ salary cap.
With Rudolph looking expendable and New England in clear need of a starting tight end, the dots were being connected. The Vikings and Patriots appeared to be natural trade partners, a perception that was seemingly confirmed when Sports Illustrated‘s Albert Breer reported that the two teams had talked about a deal.
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However, any possibility of Rudolph going to the Patriots was shut down when he agreed to a contract extension with Minnesota, signing a five-year deal that also served to create $4 million in salary cap space. The Vikings boast a potentially formidable two-tight end attack for the 2019 season.
Yet according to Rudolph, getting traded to the Patriots never seemed like a real possibility. As he explained to Breer in this week’s MMQB column for SI.com, Rudolph understood the dot-connecting. Playing for former Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis at Notre Dame created another line drawn to New England. Wouldn’t Rudolph be a natural fit if he was already familiar with elements of the Patriots’ offense? Not so much, he says.
“I’ve kind of followed that organization from afar since 2008 when I got my first Notre Dame playbook and we watched cut-ups from the Patriots offense that we were running,” Rudolph told Breer. “I have a huge amount of respect and appreciation for what they’ve done over the last two decades. But I don’t know that there was ever any real opportunity there.”
Rudolph went on to say that his preference was to stay in Minnesota and he believed Vikings GM Rick Spielman telling him that the team didn’t want to make a trade.
Meanwhile, the Patriots are left to look elsewhere for a Gronkowski replacement or hope that Matt LaCosse and Stephen Anderson are good enough until Ben Watson returns from his four-game PED suspension and Austin Seferian-Jenkins possibly rejoins the team after taking a one-month personal leave.
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