We were talking earlier about young tight ends, wondering whether Jace Sternberger might be worth a late-round pick. He’s one of three tight ends selected in the third round last year who didn’t do much of anything his first season (along with Kahale Warring and Josh Oliver).
Of this group, I think I like Sternberger the most. (Contingent, of course, on the Packers not obtaining some other kick-ass tight end before camp opens.) He’s looking like their probable starter, and he was a pass-catching tight end at Texas A&M.
But somebody in the comments section pointed out that he had very little confidence in the potential of any Green Bay tight end to finish with good numbers.
I thought that was an interesting idea. I have been going with the narrative that Jimmy Graham is simply done – that’s why he’s really struggled the last two years. But more fairly, perhaps some of the blame can be attributed to other parts of that offense. Matt LaFleur hasn’t yet won me over as an offensive coach. (How, for example, could the Packers be destroyed by San Francisco in the regular season last year, then show up for a playoff rematch with no new ideas?)
And Aaron Rodgers, while considered one of the great quarterbacks in the league, hasn’t had much success with tight ends over the years. He’s had a lot of seasons with big numbers, but I don’t see much success with tight ends.
Rodgers has been starting there for most of the last 12 years, and I see one top-10 tight end, with four others in the top 15.
| GREEN BAY TIGHT ENDS (Aaron Rodgers) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Tgt | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD | PPR | Rk |
| 2011 | Jermichael Finley | 92 | 55 | 767 | 14.0 | 8 | 179.7 | 9 |
| 2015 | Richard Rodgers | 85 | 58 | 510 | 8.8 | 8 | 160.1 | 11 |
| 2009 | Jermichael Finley | 72 | 55 | 676 | 12.3 | 5 | 152.6 | 12 |
| 2012 | Jermichael Finley | 87 | 61 | 667 | 10.9 | 2 | 139.7 | 14 |
| 2018 | Jimmy Graham | 89 | 55 | 636 | 11.6 | 2 | 130.6 | 12 |
| 2019 | Jimmy Graham | 60 | 38 | 447 | 11.8 | 3 | 100.7 | 21 |
| 2008 | Donald Lee | 50 | 39 | 303 | 7.8 | 5 | 99.3 | 20 |
| 2014 | Andrew Quarless | 46 | 29 | 323 | 11.1 | 3 | 79.3 | 26 |
| 2013 | Andrew Quarless | 53 | 32 | 312 | 9.8 | 2 | 75.2 | 36 |
| 2016 | Jared Cook | 51 | 30 | 377 | 12.6 | 1 | 73.7 | 36 |
| 2013 | Jermichael Finley | 34 | 25 | 300 | 12.0 | 3 | 73.0 | 37 |
| 2016 | Richard Rodgers | 47 | 30 | 271 | 9.0 | 2 | 69.1 | 37 |
| 2009 | Donald Lee | 54 | 37 | 260 | 7.0 | 1 | 69.0 | 31 |
| 2010 | Jermichael Finley | 26 | 21 | 301 | 14.3 | 1 | 57.1 | 39 |
| 2014 | Richard Rodgers | 30 | 20 | 225 | 11.3 | 2 | 54.5 | 43 |
| 2010 | Andrew Quarless | 33 | 21 | 238 | 11.3 | 1 | 50.8 | 42 |
| 2012 | Tom Crabtree | 12 | 8 | 203 | 25.4 | 3 | 46.3 | 47 |
| 2017 | Lance Kendricks | 35 | 18 | 203 | 11.3 | 1 | 44.3 | 48 |
| 2009 | Spencer Havner | 10 | 7 | 112 | 16.0 | 4 | 42.2 | 44 |
| 2018 | Lance Kendricks | 25 | 19 | 170 | 9.0 | 1 | 42.0 | 50 |
| 2019 | Marcedes Lewis | 19 | 15 | 156 | 10.4 | 1 | 36.6 | 51 |
| 2010 | Donald Lee | 12 | 11 | 73 | 6.6 | 3 | 36.3 | 49 |
| 2017 | Richard Rodgers | 19 | 12 | 160 | 13.3 | 1 | 34.0 | 58 |
| 2015 | Justin Perillo | 13 | 11 | 102 | 9.3 | 1 | 27.2 | 62 |
| 2008 | Tory Humphrey | 17 | 11 | 162 | 14.7 | 0 | 27.2 | 51 |
| 2019 | Robert Tonyan | 15 | 10 | 100 | 10.0 | 1 | 26.0 | 64 |
| 2013 | Brandon Bostick | 14 | 7 | 120 | 17.1 | 1 | 25.0 | 57 |
| 2008 | Jermichael Finley | 12 | 6 | 74 | 12.3 | 1 | 19.4 | 61 |
| 2018 | Robert Tonyan | 6 | 4 | 77 | 19.3 | 1 | 17.7 | 79 |
| 2011 | Tom Crabtree | 8 | 6 | 38 | 6.3 | 1 | 15.8 | 63 |
| 2012 | D.J. Williams | 15 | 7 | 57 | 8.1 | 0 | 12.7 | 73 |
| 2010 | Tom Crabtree | 7 | 4 | 61 | 15.3 | 0 | 10.1 | 77 |
| 2013 | Ryan Taylor | 9 | 6 | 30 | 5.0 | 0 | 9.0 | 84 |
| 2014 | Brandon Bostick | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1.5 | 1 | 8.3 | 87 |
| 2016 | Justin Perillo | 5 | 4 | 35 | 8.8 | 0 | 7.5 | 90 |
| 2011 | Ryan Taylor | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4.0 | 1 | 7.4 | 81 |
| 2015 | Andrew Quarless | 5 | 4 | 31 | 7.8 | 0 | 7.1 | 93 |
| 2018 | Marcedes Lewis | 4 | 3 | 39 | 13.0 | 0 | 6.9 | 104 |
| 2011 | Andrew Quarless | 4 | 3 | 36 | 12.0 | 0 | 6.6 | 82 |
| 2017 | Emanuel Byrd | 2 | 2 | 31 | 15.5 | 0 | 5.1 | 100 |
| 2011 | D.J. Williams | 4 | 2 | 13 | 6.5 | 0 | 3.3 | 93 |
| 2012 | Ryan Taylor | 1 | 1 | 11 | 11.0 | 0 | 2.1 | 99 |
| 2019 | Jace Sternberger | 1 | 0 | 0 | -- | 0 | .0 | 119 |
—Ian Allan