Team news: New England Patriots | Page 44

Hunter Henry (knee) will be on the PUP list to start the season, Field Yates of ESPN reports.

The Bolts are taking a shot that Henry could come back at some point very later on in the season, more likely for a playoff run. He was injured in May, so even in January would only be eight months of recovery.

As explained by Peter King of NBC’s Football Morning in America, TE Austin Hooper remained in Atlanta throughout the offseason, working out consistently with quarterback Matt Ryan.

“Hooper’s been like a dog this offseason — over and over, he’d catch everything Matt threw and bring it back,” coach Dan Quinn told King, who explains that, whenever Ryan was looking for a throwing partner this offseason, Hooper answered the call.

The team is possibly looking for more out of the TE position, so any offseason chemistry between Hooper and Ryan can only help to boost Hooper's 49-526-3 numbers from last season.

With tight end Hunter Henry out for the year after suffering a season-ending knee injury during offseason work, the Chargers will rely even more on Keenan Allen to make things happen in critical situations, such as on third down and in the red zone.

The story said the engine for the Chargers last year was already Allen, who had 102 catches for 1,393 yards. Over the final 12 games, the Bolts won nine of those contests with Allen going over 100 yards in five of those games. We have Allen ranked as our No. 6 WR as we head into camps.

Hunter Henry sustained a torn ACL in practice last month, leaving Virgil Green as the only tight end on the roster that has caught a pass in an NFL game and drastically changing his role for the upcoming season. Green, who signed with the Chargers as a free agent in March after playing seven seasons for the Denver Broncos, had been expected to serve mainly as a blocking complement to Henry.

Instead, Green might finally get his chance to be used more in the passing game, especially in the red zone. It was how Green was expected to be featured coming out of college at Nevada, but he never caught more than 22 passes in a season, with 48 of his 71 career receptions coming in the past three seasons.

The story added the Bolts are expected to use more three-WR sets, and we had a story recently about RB Melvin Gordon possibly getting more involved in the passing game. It's certainly no lock Green sees the kind of workload Henry was supposed to see.