I see a couple of blurbs going by this morning where coaches are talking about young tight ends. Not players who are likely to make much of an impact in 2021, but perhaps players with some long-term value.
Noah Gray, most notably. Kansas City selected him in the fifth round, and so far, so good. Patrick Mahomes has been talking him up, and Andy Reid says he likes what he’s seen.
“You can see that he’s a good route-runner,” Reid says in an article posted at USAToday.com. “There’s more to that spot than just doing that, so we’ll see once he gets pads on, but he sure is willing to do whatever we’ve asked. And you get a sense that he’s quarterback-friendly so that always helps if you’re a receiver. If quarterbacks like throwing the ball to you, that’s a plus, and he’s presented himself that way so far.”
Kansas City has Travis Kelce, of course, who’s the best tight end in the league right now. But Kelce will be 32 in October. Maybe in a couple of years he starts slowing down, and injuries are a fact of life in the NFL. If Kelce were to suffer some kind of major injury in 2021 or 2022, it probably would be Gray who’d step in. And with Mahomes at quarterback, Gray at that point could start putting up top-10 tight end numbers.
Gray (pictured) caught 51 passes and 3 TDs in his best season at Duke.
In Seattle, the team likely will use a combination of tight ends, and Pete Carroll indicates Colby Parkinson likely will be a viable part of their offense. They drafted him in the fourth round last year, but Parkinson was hurt for half of his rookie year and was unable to get much playing time behind Greg Olsen, Will Dissly and Jacob Hollister.
“Colby is going to be a factor,” Carroll says in an article written by Joe Fann (an employee of the team). “There's nothing to keep him from being a factor. At 6-foot-7, you know he's got a target that's just obviously unique. He's got great hands. He's a natural catcher. His catching range is as normal as it can be. He can use it all. He gets off the ground well, too, when he has to. He's a really bright player. He's picked stuff up.
“Because of the time he missed on the field with us, he really dove into the strength program, and he just pumped up. He's better now than he was at the end when he became active with us at the end of the year.”
Fann (who used to live up the street from me when he was growing up) calls Parkinson a candidate to be a breakout player. I don’t see that. I think he'll be their 3rd-best tight end behind Gerald Everett and Will Dissly But some chance he might catch 30 passes in either the 2021 or 2022 season. He caught 7 TDs as a sophomore at Stanford, and in his final season caught 48 passes for 589 yards and a touchdown.
Comparing these tight ends, Parkinson has a lot more potential to at least become some kind of contributor in the next two seasons. But those kind of tight ends are always available on the waiver wire. In fantasy, the name of the game at this position is to find guys who’ll make an impact. Gray probably won’t play at all anytime soon, but you can at least see a path for him to maybe become a viable player at some point.
Neither of these tight ends, of course, is a can’t-miss coveted prospect. They were selected in the fourth and fifth rounds. But there have been some tight ends from that area who’ve had good careers.
In the last 20 years, 10 percent of the top-15 seasons by tight ends have been authored by tight ends originally chosen in either the fourth or fifth round (30 of 300).
| TOP-15 TIGHT ENDS DRAFTED IN FOURTH & FIFTH ROUNDS | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD | PPR | Rk |
| 2019 | George Kittle, S.F. | 85 | 1053 | 12.4 | 5 | 222.5 | 3 |
| 2018 | George Kittle, S.F. | 88 | 1377 | 15.7 | 5 | 258.7 | 3 |
| 2013 | Julius Thomas, Den. | 65 | 788 | 12.1 | 12 | 215.8 | 3 |
| 2011 | Aaron Hernandez, N.E. | 79 | 910 | 11.5 | 7 | 216.5 | 3 |
| 2015 | Gary Barnidge, Cle. | 79 | 1043 | 13.2 | 9 | 237.3 | 4 |
| 2009 | Brent Celek, Phil. | 76 | 971 | 12.8 | 8 | 221.1 | 4 |
| 2020 | Logan Thomas, Was. | 72 | 670 | 9.3 | 6 | 176.9 | 4 |
| 2004 | Randy McMichael, Mia. | 73 | 791 | 10.8 | 4 | 178.1 | 4 |
| 2003 | Randy McMichael, Mia. | 49 | 598 | 12.2 | 2 | 126.8 | 4 |
| 2013 | Jordan Cameron, Cle. | 80 | 917 | 11.5 | 7 | 213.7 | 5 |
| 2008 | Owen Daniels, Hou. | 70 | 862 | 12.3 | 2 | 168.2 | 6 |
| 2007 | Owen Daniels, Hou. | 63 | 768 | 12.2 | 3 | 157.8 | 7 |
| 2019 | Tyler Higbee, LAR | 69 | 734 | 10.6 | 3 | 160.4 | 8 |
| 2016 | Dennis Pitta, Balt. | 86 | 729 | 8.5 | 2 | 170.9 | 8 |
| 2012 | Dennis Pitta, Balt. | 61 | 669 | 11.0 | 7 | 169.9 | 8 |
| 2005 | Randy McMichael, Mia. | 60 | 582 | 9.7 | 5 | 148.2 | 8 |
| 2007 | Donald Lee, G.B. | 48 | 575 | 12.0 | 6 | 141.5 | 9 |
| 2012 | Owen Daniels, Hou. | 62 | 716 | 11.6 | 6 | 169.6 | 9 |
| 2006 | Randy McMichael, Mia. | 62 | 640 | 10.3 | 3 | 144.0 | 9 |
| 2002 | Randy McMichael, Mia. | 39 | 485 | 12.4 | 4 | 112.3 | 9 |
| 2014 | Julius Thomas, Den. | 43 | 489 | 11.4 | 12 | 163.9 | 10 |
| 2011 | Brent Celek, Phil. | 62 | 811 | 13.1 | 5 | 173.1 | 11 |
| 2020 | Dalton Schultz, Dall. | 63 | 615 | 9.8 | 4 | 148.5 | 11 |
| 2010 | Jacob Tamme, Ind. | 67 | 631 | 9.4 | 4 | 154.1 | 12 |
| 2015 | Jacob Tamme, Atl. | 59 | 657 | 11.1 | 1 | 130.7 | 14 |
| 2010 | Aaron Hernandez, N.E. | 45 | 563 | 12.5 | 6 | 142.0 | 14 |
| 2006 | Owen Daniels, Hou. | 34 | 352 | 10.4 | 5 | 99.2 | 14 |
| 2013 | Garrett Graham, Hou. | 49 | 545 | 11.1 | 5 | 133.5 | 15 |
| 2012 | Scott Chandler, Buff. | 43 | 571 | 13.3 | 6 | 136.1 | 15 |
| 2006 | George Wrighster, Jac. | 39 | 353 | 9.1 | 3 | 92.3 | 15 |
—Ian Allan