4 potential trade targets for Patriots at tight end and why they will/won't happen

Got a few questions in my weekly Patriots Q&A about the possibility of New England trading for another tight end in the wake of Rob Gronkowski's retirement. To be honest, there aren’t a lot of big names out there the jump off the page as real possibilities, but here are four candidates we found. (Consider this a complementary piece to this story we ran about trade candidates at the receiver position.)

Kyle Rudolph, Vikings
Final year of contract: 2019
Remaining cost: $7.275 million
Skinny: The biggest name out there. Rudolph is a big pass catcher who checks in at 6-foot-6 and 265 pounds certainly has a similar size and catch radius to Gronkowski. The Notre Dame product, who will turn 30 in November, has had three straight years with 50-plus catches, including 64 receptions for 634 yards and four touchdowns this past season.
Why it will happen: The Vikings are right against the cap, and would like to give themselves a little more financial flexibility. Plus, they still have enough in the passing game (Stefon Diggs, Adam Theielen, Dalvin Cook) they could absorb the loss and theoretically use one of the picks they'd get back to go after a younger option.
Why it won’t happen: Rudolph has emerged as one of Minnesota’s best offensive options, and trading him could signal the start of a rebuild for an inconsistent Vikings' team.

Ryan Griffin, Texans
Final year of contract: 2019
Remaining Cost: $2.25 million
Skinny: If this is going to happen, the 29-year-old Griffin might make the most sense. The 6-foot-6, 264-pounder is a New England native — he’s from New Hampshire and went to UConn. He’s enjoyed a moderate level of success in Bill O’Brien’s offense in Houston with 87 catches the last three seasons. To me, this could be an emergency-type situation — if the Patriots get to the summer and find themselves without a tight end, an August trade with the Texans for someone like Griffin could be made for a low-level draft pick.
Why it will happen: Griffin is a relatively under-the-radar piece of the puzzle in Houston, and could be had cheaply. The Texans just signed Darren Fells, and so the tight-end room could be a little crowded in Houston. And as we said, his experience with O’Brien and the Texans suggests he might be able to assimilate to the New England system.
Why it won’t happen: He’s had his moments as a pass catcher, but he’s not known a great blocker.

Jack Doyle, Colts
Final year of contract: 2019
Remaining Cost: $5.15 million
Skinny: Doyle is one-half of Indy’s two-tight end duo (the other half is Eric Ebron), and has 200 catches for 1,728 yards and 14 touchdowns in his six-year career. (That includes 80 catches for 690 yards and four touchdowns in 2017.) An undrafted free agent out of Western Kentucky, he’s done well to climb the ladder in the NFL.
Why it will happen: With Ebron, Indy has a surplus at the tight end position.
Why it won’t happen: He’s coming off a hip injury that cost him the second half of the 2018 season. And the Colts are one of the last teams in the league that needs to get rid of a guy because of cap space — they have almost more financial flexibility that anyone else in the NFL.

Charles Clay, Cardinals
Final year of contract: 2019
Remaining cost: $1.15 million
Skinny: Clay has had a habit of occasionally being a pain for the Patriots — in 13 career games against New England, he has 38 catches for 335 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Not overwhelming numbers, but still decent totals for the 6-foot-3, 255-pounder.
Why it will happen: When healthy, he’s produced at a decent rate — he averaged 65 catches a season from 2013 through 2016. And he’d come cheap.
Why it won’t happen: The Cardinals just signed him to a one-year deal. Unless he’s released for some unknown reason, you have to imagine they’d want to see him in pads first. (And if Arizona does cut him, it would certainly give you pause when it came to possibly signing him.)