Who Should I Start? Giovanni Ricci or Ben Sinnott

Monday, February 3, 7:02 PM

The New England Patriots signed free-agent tight end Giovanni Ricci (knee) to a Reserve/Futures deal on Monday. Ricci was on the Cleveland Browns' practice squad in 2024 but never was active for a regular-season game and was cut in August due to a knee injury. The 28-year-old former undrafted free agent out of Western Michigan made his NFL debut in 2021 with the Carolina Panthers, with all 36 of his career games coming with Carolina. In three NFL seasons, Ricci has caught only nine of 12 targets for 102 yards and no touchdowns with the Panthers. Ricci is more of a blocker than a pass-catcher and will now represent tight end depth for the Patriots throughout the offseason and into training camp this summer. The most likely scenario is that he'll effective serve as a fullback for new Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.

Wednesday, January 15, 9:40 PM

Washington Commanders tight end Ben Sinnott (shoulder) logged a limited practice session for the second consecutive day in preparation for his team's meeting with the Detroit Lions this Saturday. The rookie was used sparingly in his debut campaign -- hauling in all five of his targets despite appearing in all 17 contests. Ironically, Sinnott played more snaps earlier on in the season than he'd rack up over its last three outings -- logging double-digit snap percentages twice as opposed to the 12 times he did so over the first 13 weeks. This role remained the same in the Wild Card round, as he registered just seven of a possible 73 snaps while fellow TEs John Bates (38) and Zach Ertz (46) handily out-snapped him. With the Commanders lining up on Saturday, the 22-year-old will have one more shot to enhance his practice participation before his team must designate a status for the Divisional Round. If he can't go, Bates and Ertz would garner a higher workload.