Over the summer, Jonnu Smith was hyped to be one of the best players on the Patriots this coming season.
In the offseason, the Patriots gave him a four-year contract worth $50 million, including a $15 million signing bonus and $31.25 million in guaranteed money. The thought was they were paying him for what they believed he could do for the team, not past performance.
Patriots gave him a four-year contract worth $50 million, including a $15 million signing bonus and $31.25 million in guaranteed money this offseason. The thought was they were paying him for what they believed he could do for the team, not past performance.
Smith noted his ability to make plays with the ball in his hands and Bill Belichick seemed to agree.
"(He’s) great after the catch, probably the best in the league. I mean, I can’t imagine anyone better than him after the catch,” he said ahead of the 2019 playoff game against the Titans.
Well, through five games Smith has been rather disappointing.
The 26-year-old has 15 receptions for 115 yards and a touchdown. The 115 yards receiving are 23rd in the entire league among tight ends. Furthermore, he has just 84 yards after the catch.
This is not what the Patriots hoped they were getting. But, while many have already written the tight end off, it’s a little early to do that.
Stephon Gilmore being traded last week reminded us how bad he was at the start of his Patriots career. He seemed lost in coverage and was having major issues communicating with the other members of the secondary.
"It's frustrating when it's communication, it's not really ability. I have to get better at the communication part. It's my fault on the communication," Gilmore said after a 2017 early season game against the Panthers.
But, everyone knows how the rest of his career with the Patriots went as just two years later he was the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year.
“I think for him, he came into this situation in ’17, not the easiest situation to come into,” Devin McCourty said this past week. “He [didn’t] start out great and got written about and it’s a big deal here. I thought he did an awesome job from ’17 to come into ’18 being the best corner in the game and then winning [Defensive Player of the Year] the year after.
“Just so much respect for him and how hard he worked to understand what we were doing as a defense and to also be our best player on defense. I think it speaks volumes of his work ethic coming in and understanding what he had to do to obviously be successful in this defense, but to make the defense better. To me it’s a hard thing to do as a free agent to come in and he just didn’t do it well, he mastered it at an elite level.”
The similarities between Gilmore and Smith’s situations are pretty spot-on.
They both signed their first real big-money contracts with the Patriots, which comes with a great deal of pressure. Not to mention the process of learning the Patriots playbook, which is likely far more complex than either had seen in the past.
For the record, Smith said a few weeks ago he feels comfortable with the Patriots system. But, who knows exactly how he feels about things and how quickly he’s picked everything up.
No we're not saying Smith will be the next Gilmore, but while it’s easy to get on him and deem him a bust, just remember Gilmore a few years ago.
