Kevin Boss Joins the Raiders, is Travis Beckum a Fantasy Sleeper

The Raiders haven’t had the off-season they wanted. They weren’t able to bring back Nnamdi Asmougha, they lost Robert Gallery who after busting at tackle developed into a very good guard, and then they lost Zach Miller to the Seahawks (where former coach, Tom Cable, now coaches), but they got some good news today when former New York Giants tight End Kevin Boss signed with the team. Boss is not on the same level as a pass catcher as the departed tory of Zach Miller is, but he’s a very solid, good all around tight end. Oakland fans will love his gritty play and clutch ability. Boss has an unfortuante history of concussions in his early career, but as far as on the field he’s a good all aroudn tight end, perhaps one of the best blocking/pass catching combo tight ends in the league. So the Raiders are set at Tight end, but what about the New York Giants?

The New York Giants don’t traditionally feed the ball to the tight end, but the tight end has become a valuable part of the Giants offense and with the possibility that Steve Smith could leave via free agency (or begin the season on the Physically Unable to Perform list), Boss was likely to see his name called more this season. But who will get those passes now?

As of today, the New York Giants only employ five tight ends on their roster. Recently signed Ben Patrick, Jake Ballard, and Christian Hopkins. The Giants also have last year’s starting full back (formerly backup tight end) Bear Pascoe as a possible tight end candidate. And then there is former third round compensatory pick Travis Beckum, the talented pass catcher that was drafted out of Wisconsin. Beckum was expected to come in an immediately patrol the middle part of the field in the Giants offense to give Eli Manning another relieve valve, but that hasn’t panned out as Beckum has only 21 catches and two touchdowns in his two year career. Beckum has impressed early in camp. When asked if Beckum could play the traditional tight end role and be the primary blocker and receiver Coughlin said,

“Well it’s a possibility,You’d have to change some things in the run game to be able to do that, but he had a couple of nice blocks down in the green zone last night that were pretty physical. He has a special skill set and certainly we’d like to take full advantage of that skill set. You certainly don’t want to do that all the time and run the power or whatever right at him, but he can do it.”

Beckum is not a traditional tight end and is only listed at 240 pounds right now, but no one has ever doubted his pure physical ability. Last year the Giants employed a lot of six offensive linemen sets where they used a reserve offensive linemen as a second tight end so the Giants are open to giving Beckum every shot at winning the job. This is a situation that bears watching because if the Giants don’t sign another tight end to the team it appears that Travis Beckum will have every opportunity to be a factor in the Giants potent passing game.

In all likelihood the Giants will use Ben Patrick as the blocking tight end and Beckum has the receiving tight end. But before you draft Beckum also be aware the past week the Giants were linked to John Carlson and the Seattle Seahawks. Carlson could become apart of a package deal (john Carlson and a 2nd or 3rd rounder for Osi Umeinyora) as the Seahawks were rumored to be one of the teams that were in on Osi Umeniyora (and also reportedly Osi favored the Seahawks as his most desired destination).

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