Factoid

The Raiders have had their problems in recent years, but they appear to have gotten a pretty good tight end in the second round in last year's draft, when they selected Zach Miller out of Arizona State.

Productive, anyway. Miller as a rookie caught 44 passes. That's more than all but four of the 43 tight ends selected with first-round picks since the merger in 1970. And Miller was very good in the one game that JaMarcus Russell started, catching 8 passes. So it looks as if Miller probably can be counted on to catch at least 40-50 passes in a bunch of upcoming seasons.

The below chart shows all of those first-round tight ends, in order by the number of balls they caught as rookies. The additional numbers for each player show the number of catches, yards and touchdowns produced in the player's second season.

Rec  Name (Year) Team (Rec-Yd-TD)
  81  Keith Jackson (1988) Eagles (63-648-3)
  74  Jeremy Shockey (2002) Giants (48-535-2)
  55  Charle Young (1973) Eagles (63-696-3)
  46  Junior Miller (1980) Falcons (32-398-3)
  44  Zach Miller (2007) Raiders (rookie in 2007)   
  42  Raymond Chester (1970) Raiders (28-442-7)
  39  Greg Olsen (2007) Bears  (rookie in 2007)   
  39  Heath Miller (2005) Steelers (34-393-5)
  38  Ozzie Newsome (1978) Browns (55-781-9)
  36  Tony Hunter (1983) Bills (33-331-2)
  35  Russ Francis (1975) Patriots (36-367-3)
  34  Bubba Franks (2000) Packers (36-322-9)
  34  Rickey Dudley (1996) Raiders (48-787-7)
  34  Eric Green (1990) Steelers (41-582-6)
  33  Tony Gonzalez (1997) Chiefs (59-621-2)
  29  Dallas Clark (2003) Colts (25-423-5)
  29  Billy Joe Dupree (1973) Cowboys (29-466-4)
  26  Jerramy Stevens (2002) Seahawks (6-72-0)
  26  Kyle Brady (1995) Jets (15-144-1)
  26  Mark Bruener (1995) Steelers (12-141-0)
  25  Kellen Winslow (1979) Chargers (89-1290-9)
  22  Ken MacAfee (1978) 49ers (24-266-4)
  21  Riley Odoms (1972) Broncos (43-629-7)
  20  Vernon Davis (2006) 49ers (52-509-4)
  18  David LaFleur (1997) Cowboys (20-176-2)
  16  Todd Heap (2001) Ravens (68-836-6)
  16  Anthony Becht (2000) Jets (36-321-5)
  16  Irv Smith (1993) Saints (41-330-3)
  16  Johnny Mitchell (1992) Jets (39-630-6)
  16  David Lewis (1984) Lions (28-254-3)
  15  Daniel Graham (2002) Patriots (38-409-4)
  13  Marcedes Lewis (2006) Jaguars (37-391-2)
  13  J.V. Cain (WR-TE-WR) (1974) Cardinals (12-134-1)
  11  Reese McCall (1978) Colts (37-536-4)
  10  Rod Bernstine (1987) Chargers (29-340-0)
   8  Steve Zabel (1970) Eagles (2-4-2)
   5  Kellen Winslow (2004) Browns (0-0-0)
   5  Willie Scott (1981) Chiefs (8-49-1)
   5  Bennie Cunningham (1976) Steelers (20-347-2)
   4  Derek Brown (1992) Giants (7-56-0)
   2  Benjamin Watson (2004) Patriots (29-441-4)
   2  Rich McGeorge (1970) Packers (27-463-4)
   0  Mike Cobb (1977) Bengals (1-7-0)
   0  Reuben Gant (1974) Bills (9-107-2)

—Ian Allan

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