Ryan Izzo has taken hold of the Tight End one spot but can he hold on?

Ryan Izzo after two games has played 133 snaps or 97.79% of the offensive playcalling. It was expected that Izzo would probably start but Asiasi is barely seeing the field and Keene has been injured. After week one PFF graded Izzo 71.4 on his blocking, and he continued to look solid after week two.

In the passing game Izzo is looking like the fourth to fifth option. He has been targeted four times catching three passes for 44 yards. Newton has been locked in on Edelman, Harry, and Byrd, targeting them 45 times. Izzo is fifth in targets (4) behind Burkhead (6). Izzo is being primarily used as a blocker at the moment, an area he struggled in during 2019.

Bill Belichick spoke about Izzo after the miami game, "Ryan's gotten a lot of snaps. He's gotten more of an opportunity to work on his craft and improve. He's been able to stay out there and get better in practice, and then that's showed up in the game – and the opportunity to work with Cam [Newton] in the passing game and make some route adjustments or make some good decisions to help the rest of the route based on knowing more of what to do and having more experience doing it has led to a higher, more consistent level of performance on his end.

Ryan's always worked hard. I mean, he doesn't say much, he's a quiet kid, but he always comes to work ready to work with a good attitude and good level of toughness and competitiveness. Fortunately, he's been able to stay healthy this year and by being on the field, he's gotten better."

Izzo showed flashes last season that he could develop into a legitimate tight end but then suffered a concussion during the week six match up and was redshirted after he came off concussion protocol. As long as Izzo continues to show up and put in the work, he has the ability to fend off Asiasi as the number one tight end.