Injured Jake Ballard claimed quickly by Patriots
Giants thought TE would clear waivers
By Greg A. Bedard and Shalise Manza Young
| Globe Staff
June 13, 2012
FOXBOROUGH ? The Patriots have plenty of tight ends, but that didn?t stop them from adding another one.
The team claimed injured Giants tight end Jake Ballard with an eye on 2013. Ballard suffered a knee injury during Super Bowl XLVI against the Patriots and later had ACL and microfracture surgery.
A very optimistic timetable would put the recovery at nine months. That would be November. Ballard, 24, is more likely headed to injured reserve after being on the physically unable to perform list.
If that happens, Ballard would be an exclusive rights free agent (the Patriots assume his one-year, $540,000 contract this season) again in 2013. The team would only have to tender a minimum contract and Ballard would return to the Patriots. He would be a restricted free agent in ?14. Since Ballard was undrafted, the Patriots would only need to tender a minimum contract to retain right of first refusal if another team came calling. Ballard wouldn?t become an unrestricted free agent until ?15.
If Ballard does play this season, everything would move up a year. Basically, in claiming Ballard, the Patriots have a good, young prospect to give them options.
By all accounts, the Giants believed Ballard would clear waivers and they would be able re-sign him and place him on either the physically unable to perform list or injured reserve; he was even on the field for the team?s late-afternoon practice Tuesday when news came he?d been claimed by the Patriots.
Obviously, with Rob Gronkowski (2019), Aaron Hernandez (2013), and Daniel Fells (2014) under contract for at least the next two seasons, the Patriots are in good shape at the position.
Ballard, at 6 feet 6 inches, 265 pounds and possessing 4.82 speed, would be a big-body ?Y?? tight end in the Patriots? system, like Gronkowski. Blocking is first, catching is second.
Ballard definitely showed his hands with two huge catches against the Patriots, including the winning touchdown down the stretch in the Giants? 24-20 victory at Gillette Stadium last year in the regular season.
Ballard had 38 catches for 604 yards and four touchdowns last season, his first that counts toward the four years needed for unrestricted free agency. Still, Ballard is known for being a banger.
Ballard, in a statement issued through his agent, said he would miss his Giants teammates and was ?humbled?? to be claimed by the Patriots.
The Patriots drafted Lee Smith in the fifth round of the 2011 draft to fill the ?Y??role, but he was later released and claimed by the Bills.
The Patriots also use an ?F?? tight end, which is a smaller, mobile player such as Hernandez. Fells, who is just shy of 6-4 and has 4.8 speed, is a tweener for both positions.
Claiming a waived/injured player goes against the NFL?s unwritten rules but it has become more commonplace.
The Patriots did the same thing when the Broncos tried to slip safety Josh Barrett through to injured reserve. New England was miffed when the Vikings claimed tight Garrett Mills in 2007, but Mills wasn?t heading to injured reserve.
Still, how much playing time will he get with Gronk and Hernandez already here?
