Martellus Bennett Off to a Great Start for Patriots
By Chad Lemon
It’s a weird sight, seeing an enforcer of an NFL team at tight end. That’s what the New England Patriots got when they traded for Martellus Bennett.
Martellus Bennett has been absolutely dominate through four games of the season, both blocking and receiving. His stats, while still good, don’t tell the whole story. Catching passes from two first year starters, in his first year in a new offense, Bennett looks as good as advertised.
It was a play in the opening game of the season against the Cardinals when I first realized what a beast he was going to be for the Pats this season. The play happened to be a negative play for the Patriots; an awful holding call against Bennett for manhandling former Patriot Chandler Jones.
I had never seen Chandler Jones get thrown around like that in his for years with the Patriots. Bennett showed Patriots nation that he didn’t need a ton of touches to be a huge difference maker. He was a force all game blocking.
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If that wasn’t enough, he then went and showed us he was an elite receiver from the tight end position against the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins, going for over 100 yards in both games.
The scary thing about Bennett is he’s just scratching the surface. He will continue to get more comfortable in the offense the more time passes. Rob Gronkowski will eventually return to form and make the two tight end sets deadly (I have no clue how anyone will stop them in the red zone).
Oh yeah, and the greatest quarterback of all-time is returning this week to throw him passes. I know it’s early but I believe this offense will be one of the best in the league and Bennett will play a huge part.
Bill Belichick does it again. Another highway robbery of an NFL franchise. This time the Chicago Bears were the victim. The trading of a 4th round pick for Bennett will end up there with other great Belichick trades such as Randy Moss from Oakland, Corey Dillon from Cincinnati, and Ted Washington from Chicago.
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Two of the three trades were huge factors in winning Super Bowls, and the other one gave us the greatest regular season in NFL history. Let’s hope the trade for Bennett brings the same success.