Playing around with the numbers (which is what I do at this time of year) I notice that tight ends have really exploded in recent seasons. They’re catching more passes and touchdowns than ever before.
All players, of course, are catching more balls. The league keeps softening the rules. But inside the passing subset, tight ends are accounting for a larger share of the production.
Most recently, I notice that 13 players last year accounting for at least 30 percent of their team’s pass attempts inside the 10. That is, when teams passed the ball around the goal line, these were the guys who were most frequently the intended target.
Of those 13, seven of them – or half – were tight ends.
| INSIDE THE 10 -- 2013 SEASON | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Pos | Player | Tgt | Tot | Pct |
| N.O. | TE | Jimmy Graham | 17 | 42 | 40% |
| S.F. | TE | Vernon Davis | 12 | 30 | 40% |
| Dall. | WR | Dez Bryant | 18 | 45 | 40% |
| Car. | TE | Greg Olsen | 9 | 23 | 39% |
| Ariz. | WR | Larry Fitzgerald | 13 | 38 | 34% |
| Mia. | TE | Charles Clay | 9 | 27 | 33% |
| Cin. | WR | A.J. Green | 12 | 36 | 33% |
| Chi. | WR | Brandon Marshall | 16 | 49 | 33% |
| Det. | TE | Joseph Fauria | 13 | 40 | 33% |
| Ten. | TE | Delanie Walker | 9 | 29 | 31% |
| Oak. | WR | Denarius Moore | 9 | 29 | 31% |
| NYG | TE | Brandon Myers | 6 | 20 | 30% |
| NYG | WR | Victor Cruz | 6 | 20 | 30% |
Compare that to 2005. (I wanted to go back a full 10 years, but our records on inside-the-10 stats go back to just 2005 – that was the year we starting tracking that area.)
In the 2005 season, 11 players hit the 30 percent threshold inside the 10. But none of those guys were tight ends. All wide receivers back then.
| INSIDE THE 10 -- 2005 SEASON | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Pos | Player | Tgt | Tot | Pct |
| Mia. | WR | Chris Chambers | 15 | 31 | 48% |
| Pitt. | WR | Hines Ward | 9 | 17 | 53% |
| Chi. | WR | Muhsin Muhammad | 11 | 22 | 50% |
| T.B. | WR | Joey Galloway | 8 | 19 | 42% |
| Ind. | WR | Marvin Harris | 13 | 33 | 39% |
| Jac. | WR | Matt Jones | 8 | 21 | 38% |
| Dall. | WR | Keyshawn Johnson | 9 | 25 | 36% |
| Ariz. | WR | Larry Fitzgerald | 10 | 30 | 33% |
| Balt. | WR | Randy Hymes | 8 | 24 | 33% |
| Car. | WR | Steve Smith | 9 | 28 | 32% |
| Hou. | WR | Andre Johnson | 8 | 26 | 31% |
It’s really at the point where fantasy teams should be starting two of them instead of just one. There are more than enough tight ends to go around.
(And note, by the way, that of the seven tight ends seeing lots of balls inside the 10, only three of them were elite guys that everyone was aware of in August – Graham, Davis and Olsen. Walker, Myers and Clay would have gone in the last round or two last August (if at all). Fauria was a complete outlier – an undrafted rookie who was just hoping to make a roster.
—Ian Allan