George Kittle blew up in his second season, breaking the single-season record for receiving yards in a season. I don’t think there’s a Kittle-type player sitting out there this year, but there are some tight ends coming off solid rookie seasons.
Chris Herndon and Mark Andrews, most notably. They both finished with better rookie numbers last year than what we saw out of Kittle back in 2017. And Dallas Goedert looks like he’s going to be in the league for a lot of years.
I find Herndon to be the most compelling. He moves well and put together a solid rookie season for the Jets. In the second half of the season, he ranked in the top 10 among tight ends in both catches and yards. He made a one-handed catch near the goal line against the Packers that might have been as impressive as any tight end catch in the league last year.
Herndon lasted until the fourth round of the draft, but he was overshadowed by David Njoku while he was at Miami. Herndon also suffered a season-ending knee injury in his final season.
Since 2000, only nine rookie tight ends have finished with more production than what Herndon put up last year.
Andrews’ numbers were pretty similar to Herndon’s last year, but I don’t think he’s as compelling as a 2019 prospect. With Baltimore, there’s the issue of whether they’ll be able to pass the ball at all. They were really running the heck out of it in the second half of last year.
In the last 19 seasons, 37 tight ends (about two per season) have finished with at least 50 fantasy points in their first season. That’s using standard scoring. In the chart below, the final column shows where the players finished at the position in their rookie season. For 2018, for example, Herndon, Andrews and Goedert were the 15th, 16th and 20th tight ends.
ROOKIE TIGHT ENDS WITH 50 FANTASY POINTS | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Player | No | Yds | Avg | TD | Points | Rnk |
2010 | Rob Gronkowski, N.E. | 42 | 546 | 13.0 | 10 | 114.6 | 5 |
2002 | Jeremy Shockey, NYG | 74 | 894 | 12.1 | 2 | 101.4 | 3 |
2005 | Heath Miller, Pitt. | 39 | 459 | 11.8 | 6 | 81.9 | 11 |
2008 | John Carlson, Sea. | 55 | 627 | 11.4 | 5 | 92.7 | 7 |
2010 | Aaron Hernandez, N.E. | 45 | 563 | 12.5 | 6 | 92.3 | 13 |
2013 | Tim Wright, T.B. | 54 | 571 | 10.6 | 5 | 87.1 | 14 |
2016 | Hunter Henry, S.D. | 36 | 478 | 13.3 | 8 | 95.8 | 11 |
2017 | Evan Engram, NYG | 64 | 722 | 11.3 | 6 | 109.6 | 5 |
2017 | O.J. Howard, T.B. | 26 | 432 | 16.6 | 6 | 79.2 | 16 |
2018 | Chris Herndon, NYJ | 39 | 502 | 12.9 | 4 | 74.2 | 15 |
2010 | Tony Moeaki, K.C. | 47 | 556 | 11.8 | 3 | 73.6 | 20 |
2018 | Mark Andrews, Balt. | 34 | 552 | 16.2 | 3 | 73.2 | 16 |
2010 | Jermaine Gresham, Cin. | 52 | 471 | 9.1 | 4 | 73.1 | 21 |
2002 | Randy McMichael, Mia. | 39 | 485 | 12.4 | 4 | 72.5 | 9 |
2008 | Dustin Keller, NYJ | 48 | 535 | 11.1 | 3 | 71.5 | 14 |
2013 | Zach Ertz, Phil. | 36 | 469 | 13.0 | 4 | 70.9 | 20 |
2012 | Dwayne Allen, Ind. | 45 | 521 | 11.6 | 3 | 70.1 | 23 |
2013 | Jordan Reed, Was. | 45 | 499 | 11.1 | 3 | 67.9 | 23 |
2004 | Chris Cooley, Was. | 37 | 314 | 8.5 | 6 | 67.4 | 14 |
2010 | Jimmy Graham, N.O. | 31 | 356 | 11.5 | 5 | 65.6 | 23 |
2006 | Owen Daniels, Hou. | 34 | 352 | 10.4 | 5 | 65.2 | 14 |
2013 | Joseph Fauria, Det. | 18 | 207 | 11.5 | 7 | 64.7 | 25 |
2013 | Mychal Rivera, Oak. | 38 | 407 | 10.7 | 4 | 64.7 | 26 |
2015 | Will Tye, NYG | 42 | 464 | 11.0 | 3 | 64.4 | 25 |
2017 | George Kittle, S.F. | 43 | 515 | 12.0 | 2 | 63.5 | 21 |
2017 | David Njoku, Cle. | 32 | 386 | 12.1 | 4 | 62.7 | 22 |
2007 | Zach Miller, Oak. | 44 | 444 | 10.1 | 3 | 62.4 | 16 |
2018 | Dallas Goedert, Phil. | 33 | 334 | 10.1 | 4 | 57.4 | 20 |
2013 | Tyler Eifert, Cin. | 39 | 445 | 11.4 | 2 | 56.5 | 29 |
2001 | Eric Johnson, S.F. | 40 | 362 | 9.1 | 3 | 56.2 | 15 |
2007 | Greg Olsen, Chi. | 39 | 391 | 10.0 | 2 | 53.1 | 21 |
2002 | Doug Jolley, Oak. | 32 | 409 | 12.8 | 2 | 52.9 | 17 |
2006 | Tony Scheffler, Den. | 18 | 286 | 15.9 | 4 | 52.6 | 20 |
2008 | Martellus Bennett, Dall. | 20 | 283 | 14.2 | 4 | 52.3 | 24 |
2001 | Alge Crumpler, Atl. | 25 | 330 | 13.2 | 3 | 51.0 | 18 |
2015 | Clive Walford, Oak. | 28 | 329 | 11.8 | 3 | 50.9 | 30 |
2003 | Antonio Gates, S.D. | 24 | 389 | 16.2 | 2 | 50.9 | 19 |
—Ian Allan