Any takers for Coby Fleener? The Saints are releasing him, but he might be a better fit with a different offense.
If we go back to the 2016 offseason, the Saints signed Fleener to a five-year contract valued at $36 million. They had traded away Jimmy Graham, and they were looking to get that pass-catching dimension from a tight end back in their offense. But Fleener isn’t Graham – doesn’t have the same ability to pull in passes even when he’s covered.
Like Graham, Fleener isn’t a factor as a blocker. You can’t line him up as a traditional tight end. He’s a big slot receiver – he lines up outside and catches passes.
He’s reasonably good at this. He caught 50-plus passes in four straight seasons through 2016.
Fleener moves better than most tight ends. He averaged 12.6 yards per catch in his good season with the Saints. Back in 2014, Fleener averaged 15.2 yards per catch with the Colts.
He’s 29 years old.
The Saints soured on Fleener last year. He was their starter for the first month of the season, and then they decided to go in another direction. Coming out of their Week 5 bye, they decided to instead try to run the heck out of the ball. So they started using tight ends Michael Hoomanawanui and Josh Hill instead. They can’t catch at all, but they’re both better blockers. That approach seemed to work pretty well, and Fleener didn’t get on the field much the rest of the way. Later in the year, they put him on injured reserve after he suffered a concussion.
Assuming Fleener wants to continue to play, I would think some team will sign him in short order. He can’t block, but demand for these kinds of tight ends is high right now. Mike Gesicki is a Fleener-type tight end, and the Dolphins drafted him. Mark Andrews went in the third round; he’s a Fleener type.
Philadelphia and Kansas City have had a lot of success with these kind of tight ends in recent years, and they’ve exported coaches who will be running three other offenses this year.
Fleener (I think) will sign long before Dez Bryant.
In the four seasons prior to last year, only 10 tight ends put up better overall numbers than Fleener (standard scoring).
| TIGHT END PRODUCTION (2013-2016) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | No | Yards | Avg | TD | Points |
| Jimmy Graham | 284 | 3,632 | 12.8 | 34 | 567.2 |
| Greg Olsen | 314 | 4,001 | 12.7 | 22 | 534.1 |
| Rob Gronkowski | 218 | 3,432 | 15.7 | 30 | 523.2 |
| Delanie Walker | 282 | 3,349 | 11.9 | 23 | 474.9 |
| Antonio Gates | 255 | 2,871 | 11.3 | 28 | 455.1 |
| Martellus Bennett | 263 | 2,815 | 10.7 | 21 | 411.5 |
| Jason Witten | 283 | 2,940 | 10.4 | 19 | 408.0 |
| Julius Thomas | 184 | 2,013 | 10.9 | 33 | 399.3 |
| Travis Kelce | 224 | 2,862 | 12.8 | 15 | 382.2 |
| Jordan Reed | 248 | 2,602 | 10.5 | 20 | 380.2 |
| Coby Fleener | 207 | 2,504 | 12.1 | 19 | 370.4 |
| Zach Ertz | 247 | 2,840 | 11.5 | 13 | 362.0 |
| Charles Clay | 235 | 2,444 | 10.4 | 17 | 346.4 |
| Vernon Davis | 160 | 2,073 | 13.0 | 17 | 309.3 |
| Kyle Rudolph | 186 | 1,879 | 10.1 | 17 | 289.9 |
| Gary Barnidge | 160 | 1,938 | 12.1 | 13 | 273.8 |
| Jared Cook | 172 | 2,163 | 12.6 | 9 | 272.3 |
| Tyler Eifert | 123 | 1,491 | 12.1 | 20 | 269.1 |
| Jordan Cameron | 147 | 1,787 | 12.2 | 13 | 256.7 |
| Heath Miller | 184 | 1,889 | 10.3 | 6 | 228.9 |
| Jermaine Gresham | 163 | 1,532 | 9.4 | 12 | 225.2 |
| Lance Kendricks | 134 | 1,261 | 9.4 | 13 | 204.1 |
| Mychal Rivera | 146 | 1,413 | 9.7 | 10 | 201.3 |
| Brent Celek | 105 | 1,395 | 13.3 | 10 | 199.5 |
| Eric Ebron | 133 | 1,496 | 11.2 | 8 | 197.6 |
| Scott Chandler | 123 | 1,411 | 11.5 | 9 | 195.1 |
| Dwayne Allen | 81 | 930 | 11.5 | 16 | 191.0 |
| Owen Daniels | 118 | 1,296 | 11.0 | 10 | 189.6 |
| Ladarius Green | 91 | 1,335 | 14.7 | 8 | 185.5 |
| Benjamin Watson | 113 | 1,187 | 10.5 | 10 | 178.7 |
—Ian Allan