With fellow tight end Rob Gronkowski hobbled with an ankle injury, it was inevitable that Tom Brady would rely more heavily upon tight end Aaron Hernandez to provide value to the passing attack, and it was just as inevitable, given how Hernandez has played all season, that he would not be up to the task.
According to the NFL's Gamebook, Hernandez, with 14 pass targets, was the most targeted receiver by quarterback Tom Brady. Of those 14 pass targets, though, Hernandez only snagged eight of them, gaining 67 yards and scoring one touchdown.
As Tom Brady has to be used to by now, when he was not throwing in Hernandez's direction, he was putting up superior statistics. When Hernandez's statistics were removed from Brady's, Brady's completion percentage increased by 6.8 percent (from 65.9 percent to 70.4 percent), his yards per pass attempt increased by 14.9 percent (from 6.7 to 7.7), his adjusted yards per pass attempt increased by 9.7 percent (from 6.8 to 6.2), and his yards per completion increased by 7.8 percent (from 10.2 to 11.0).
Even the fact that Brady's touchdown percentage decreased by 24.9 percent and his interception percentage increased by 54.2 percent when not throwing to Hernandez could not negate the fact that overall his adjusted yards per pass attempt statistic was higher when throwing to other receivers.
It is disappointing performances like that where he really provides no value to his quarterback, despite being given the most chances to do so, that keep Aaron Hernandez from being an elite tight end.
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