To me, Noah Fant was the biggest “winner” of the first preseason game. I saw enough that I’m moving him up on my board.
Fant wasn’t great. He dropped the first pass thrown his way, and it was a short throw that was right on target – a clanger. And he seemed to be a step slow on what could have been a long completion down the sideline. Fant caught a 7-yard pass, and the other ball thrown his way was batted down at the line of scrimmage. Not earth-shattering stuff.
But Fant played plenty around the line of scrimmage and seemed to hold up just fine as a blocker. He was whistled for a hold, but he had a few other good blocks. When they drafted him, I was wondering if Fant would line up essentially as a wide receiver. I didn’t know if he’d be able to block well enough to be a regular tight end, and I didn’t know if they’d use him on many short routes.
After the way they went to him extensively on short routes early in the Atlanta game, I’m figuring he’s going to be a primary part of Denver’s short passing game, and Joe Flacco is a quarterback who likes connecting on those short throws underneath.
Flacco got benched halfway through last year, but the previous season, Benjamin Watson caught 61 passes in that offense. Go back another year, and there’s Dennis Pitta catchinÓg 86.
In the last 10 years, Baltimore had eight top-20 tight ends. It’s early; let’s see what they look like in their next few preseason games. (Flacco hasn’t even stepped on the field yet.) But right now, I’m thinking Fant looks like a reasonably safe choice to finish with top-15 numbers among tight ends.
| JOE FLACCO'S TIGHT ENDS | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | No | Yards | Avg | TD | PPR | Rk |
| 2016 | Dennis Pitta | 86 | 729 | 8.5 | 2 | 170.9 | 8 |
| 2012 | Dennis Pitta | 61 | 669 | 11.0 | 7 | 169.9 | 8 |
| 2009 | Todd Heap | 53 | 593 | 11.2 | 6 | 148.5 | 14 |
| 2017 | Benjamin Watson | 61 | 522 | 8.6 | 4 | 137.2 | 11 |
| 2011 | Ed Dickson | 54 | 528 | 9.8 | 5 | 136.8 | 17 |
| 2010 | Todd Heap | 40 | 599 | 15.0 | 5 | 129.9 | 15 |
| 2014 | Owen Daniels | 48 | 527 | 11.0 | 4 | 124.7 | 18 |
| 2018 | Mark Andrews | 34 | 552 | 16.2 | 3 | 107.2 | 17 |
| 2011 | Dennis Pitta | 40 | 405 | 10.1 | 3 | 98.5 | 26 |
| 2015 | Crockett Gillmore | 33 | 412 | 12.5 | 4 | 98.2 | 26 |
| 2008 | Todd Heap | 35 | 403 | 11.5 | 3 | 93.3 | 24 |
| 2013 | Dallas Clark | 31 | 343 | 11.1 | 3 | 83.3 | 31 |
| 2015 | Maxx Williams | 32 | 268 | 8.4 | 1 | 64.8 | 39 |
| 2013 | Ed Dickson | 25 | 273 | 10.9 | 1 | 58.3 | 46 |
| 2017 | Nick Boyle | 28 | 203 | 7.3 | 0 | 50.3 | 44 |
| 2018 | Nick Boyle | 23 | 213 | 9.3 | 0 | 44.3 | 47 |
| 2012 | Ed Dickson | 21 | 225 | 10.7 | 0 | 43.5 | 49 |
| 2013 | Dennis Pitta | 20 | 169 | 8.5 | 1 | 42.9 | 50 |
| 2018 | Maxx Williams | 16 | 143 | 8.9 | 1 | 37.1 | 56 |
| 2015 | Nick Boyle | 18 | 153 | 8.5 | 0 | 35.3 | 55 |
| 2018 | Hayden Hurst | 13 | 163 | 12.5 | 1 | 35.3 | 59 |
| 2010 | Ed Dickson | 11 | 152 | 13.8 | 1 | 32.2 | 53 |
| 2016 | Darren Waller | 10 | 85 | 8.5 | 2 | 30.5 | 59 |
| 2017 | Maxx Williams | 15 | 86 | 5.7 | 1 | 30.2 | 62 |
| 2014 | Dennis Pitta | 16 | 125 | 7.8 | 0 | 28.5 | 57 |
| 2014 | Crockett Gillmore | 10 | 121 | 12.1 | 1 | 28.1 | 58 |
| 2016 | Crockett Gillmore | 8 | 71 | 8.9 | 1 | 21.1 | 70 |
| 2008 | Daniel Wilcox | 5 | 19 | 3.8 | 2 | 18.9 | 64 |
| 2015 | Daniel Brown | 6 | 64 | 10.7 | 0 | 12.4 | 86 |
| 2016 | Nick Boyle | 6 | 44 | 7.3 | 0 | 10.4 | 83 |
| 2009 | L.J. Smith | 2 | 31 | 15.5 | 0 | 5.1 | 89 |
| 2013 | Billy Bajema | 2 | 18 | 9.0 | 0 | 3.8 | 98 |
| 2015 | Darren Waller | 2 | 18 | 9.0 | 0 | 3.8 | 99 |
| 2008 | Edgar Jones | 1 | 25 | 25.0 | 0 | 3.5 | 94 |
| 2009 | Edgar Jones | 1 | 8 | 8.0 | 0 | 1.8 | 96 |
| 2010 | Dennis Pitta | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 0 | 1.1 | 103 |
—Ian Allan