September 07, 2022
The Philadelphia Eagles announced on Wednesday that they signed wide receiver Auden Tate and tight end Dalton Keene to the practice squad. Let's look at each guy.
The Bengals selected Tate in the seventh round of the 2018 draft out of Florida State. In four years in Cincinnati, he had 61 catches for 799 yards (13.1 YPC) and 2 TDs. Tate's most productive season came in 2019, when he had 40 catches for 575 yards and 1 TD, though those 40 catches came on a rather inefficient 80 targets.
Tate's biggest appeal is his size, at 6'5, 228. The Eagles list Tate as a wide receiver, but it will be interesting to see if he's their next tight end project, like Hakeem Butler was in 2020.
Keene was a player we profiled back in 2020, when he was a versatile piece who lined up all over the formation for Virginia Tech. The Hokie probably wasn't used as much as he should have been in their offense (21-240-5 in 2019), given his good athleticism, soft hands, and ability to fight through tacklers for extra yardage. (I liked him as a mid-late Day 3 prospect, as a guy who could maybe fill a Trey Burton type of role.)
The Patriots selected him in the third round of the 2020 draft, after they had already taken another tight end in the third round, and after they had already paid big money to Hunter Henry and Jonnu Smith in free agency. Odd. Whatever.
Keene has not produced in the NFL. In 2020, he had 3 catches for 6 yards on 5 targets. He missed the entire 2021 season with a knee injury, and did not make the Pats' 53-man roster in 2022.
To make room for Tate and Keene, the Eagles cut RB La'Mical Perine and QB Reid Sinnett.
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