My colleague, Andy Richardson, took a semi-shot at Jeff Cumberland yesterday. He wrote, “The Jets currently have Jeff Cumberland atop the depth chart at tight end; they like him, for some reason.”
I’m not sure what he’s getting at that. Not sure what he thinks is wrong with Cumberland. He’s not Jimmy Graham, but I don’t think he’s the reason the Jets have struggled the last two years. To me, I don’t see tight end as being high on their list of priorities for draft day.
My feel is that Cumberland blocks fine. I remember reading that it was blocking that played a role in him moving ahead of Kellen Winslow last year. Winslow is a prima donna who thinks he’s a playmaking wide receiver. Cumberland is a lot bigger, and more willing to do the dirty work.
As a disclaimer, I don’t pay a lot of attention to blocking. I’m not trying to break down film to see which tight ends are getting pushed into the pocket and which ones are the best pass blockers and whatnot. Generally I’m just making note of which ones are obviously undersized pass-catching tight ends who aren’t big enough to be used as in-line tight ends – think Jacob Tamme, Winslow, Ladarius Green.
But as a tight end, I think Cumberland is probably OK there as well. Granted, he’s averaged under 2 catches per game when he’s started the last two years, but he’s caught it when they’ve thrown it to him. He caught 65 percent of the passes thrown to him last year. That’s more than about 70 percent of the tight ends around the league, including guys like Jimmy Graham, Rob Gronkowski and Vernon Davis.
And Cumberland was working with an erratic rookie tight end last year. Gronk and Graham were catching balls from future Hall of Famers. Hmm.
Also note that Cumberland was getting downfield. He wasn’t simply catching 8-yard dumpoff balls. He averaged 15.3 yards per catch, which is unusual for a tight end.
If you blend the damage per catch against the percentage of balls caught – that is, if you look at average yards per pass attempt – than Jeff Cumberland grades out as the 2nd-most productive tight end in the league last year.
I’ll grant that there are other factors. Jimmy Graham and Tony Gonzalez faced a lot of double teams. Stuff like that. But Cumberland impressed me last year. As the Jets put together their draft priorities, I don’t think finding a replacement for Cumberland is anything they’ll be thinking about.
| TIGHT ENDS AVERAGING 7 YARDS PER ATTEMPT | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Player | Rec | Trgt | Yards | Avg |
| S.F. | Vernon Davis | 52 | 84 | 850 | 10.1 |
| NYJ | Jeff Cumberland | 26 | 40 | 398 | 10.0 |
| Phil. | Brent Celek | 32 | 51 | 502 | 9.8 |
| N.E. | Rob Gronkowski | 39 | 66 | 592 | 9.0 |
| Den. | Julius Thomas | 65 | 90 | 788 | 8.8 |
| N.O. | Jimmy Graham | 86 | 143 | 1215 | 8.5 |
| Phil. | Zach Ertz | 36 | 56 | 469 | 8.4 |
| Wash. | Jordan Reed | 45 | 60 | 499 | 8.3 |
| NYJ | Kellen Winslow | 31 | 47 | 388 | 8.3 |
| Buff. | Scott Chandler | 53 | 81 | 655 | 8.1 |
| Chi. | Martellus Bennett | 65 | 94 | 759 | 8.1 |
| Ariz. | Rob Housler | 39 | 57 | 454 | 8.0 |
| St.L. | Jared Cook | 51 | 86 | 671 | 7.8 |
| Clev. | Jordan Cameron | 80 | 118 | 917 | 7.8 |
| S.D. | Antonio Gates | 77 | 113 | 872 | 7.7 |
| Dall. | Jason Witten | 73 | 111 | 851 | 7.7 |
| Jac. | Marcedes Lewis | 25 | 47 | 359 | 7.6 |
| Pitt. | Heath Miller | 58 | 78 | 593 | 7.6 |
| K.C. | Sean McGrath | 26 | 40 | 302 | 7.6 |
| Cin. | Tyler Eifert | 39 | 59 | 445 | 7.5 |
| T.B. | Tim Wright | 54 | 76 | 571 | 7.5 |
| Mia. | Charles Clay | 69 | 102 | 759 | 7.4 |
| Car. | Greg Olsen | 73 | 111 | 816 | 7.4 |
| Minn. | John Carlson | 32 | 47 | 344 | 7.3 |
| Atl. | Tony Gonzalez | 83 | 121 | 859 | 7.1 |
| Ind. | Coby Fleener | 52 | 87 | 608 | 7.0 |
| NYG | Brandon Myers | 47 | 75 | 522 | 7.0 |
—Ian Allan