I posted the average touchdown lengths of wide receivers yesterday. Figured I’d follow that with the same for tight ends – which guys are tending to score their touchdowns from the farthest away.
I used stats for the last five years, and I’m including all tight ends with at least 15 touchdowns in that span.
Jared Cook comes in at No. 1, with his average touchdown coming from over 25 yards. That’s not surprising. Cook has good speed, and he’s been pretty lousy in the red zone. (That is, he’s not scoring many 1-, 2- and 3-yard touchdowns to bring that average down). With Cook’s lack of effectiveness around the goal line, that’s the primary reason I’m a lot lower on him than most everyone else seems to be. I can promise you he won’t be on any of my teams.
Four other players have averaged touchdowns from over 18 yards – Delanie Walker, Coby Fleener, Vernon Davis and Lance Kendricks.
During the same span, Heath Miller, Tony Gonzalez, Owen Daniels and Anthony Fasano have scored the shortest touchdowns, on average. Not sure if any of those guys will ever catch another one, but whatever.
| TIGHT ENDS, TD LENGTHS (2011-15) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Player | TD | Avg |
| Jared Cook | 15 | 25.5 |
| Delanie Walker | 22 | 18.6 |
| Coby Fleener | 17 | 18.6 |
| Lance Kendricks | 15 | 18.4 |
| Vernon Davis | 26 | 18.2 |
| Greg Olsen | 29 | 16.1 |
| Rob Gronkowski | 55 | 15.8 |
| Julius Thomas | 29 | 15.1 |
| Jimmy Graham | 48 | 13.7 |
| Jason Witten | 24 | 13.0 |
| Scott Chandler | 21 | 13.0 |
| Antonio Gates | 35 | 12.5 |
| Kyle Rudolph | 22 | 12.0 |
| Tyler Eifert | 15 | 11.9 |
| Jermaine Gresham | 21 | 11.6 |
| Martellus Bennett | 19 | 10.6 |
| Benjamin Watson | 15 | 10.5 |
| Brent Celek | 16 | 10.4 |
| Anthony Fasano | 19 | 10.4 |
| Owen Daniels | 19 | 10.0 |
| Tony Gonzalez | 23 | 9.0 |
| Heath Miller | 16 | 6.9 |
—Ian Allan