I like the look of Chigoziem Okonkwo. He’s an athletic tight end, and the Titans are now making more of an effort to use him. I think he’s going to be a good player for a bunch of years.
I remember first taking notice of him in the Kansas City game, played on a Sunday night. He caught a short pass on one of the first plays, breaking loose and turning it into a 48-yard gain. Okonkwo caught a 41-yard pass against Denver the following week, and he got downfield for a big 31-yard reception at Lambeau that helped to salt away that game.
More recently, they’ve been working to get him the ball more regularly. Four games in a row he’s seen 5-6 targets, and he’s caught 17 passes for 202 yards in those games, with a touchdown and a 2-point conversion. He’s also run the ball the last two weeks.
Those aren’t eye-popping numbers, but there aren’t a lot of big producers at the tight end position. Looking at each teams’ last four games, only two tight ends have more receiving yards than Okonkwo: Travis Kelce and Evan Engram.
Okonkwo someone made it to the fourth round of the draft, picked after nine other players at his position. That’s looking like a mistake now. Okonkwo looks like he could be an above-average starter at the position for the foreseeable future.
TIGHT END YARDS (last four games) | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Player | Tgt | Rec | Yards | Avg | TD |
Travis Kelce, K.C. | 33 | 22 | 289 | 13.1 | 1 |
Evan Engram, Jac. | 33 | 25 | 258 | 10.3 | 3 |
Chigoziem Okonkwo, Ten. | 21 | 17 | 202 | 11.9 | 1 |
T.J. Hockenson, Min. | 29 | 18 | 186 | 10.3 | 1 |
George Kittle, S.F. | 17 | 13 | 169 | 13.0 | 2 |
Gerald Everett, LAC | 24 | 18 | 168 | 9.3 | 0 |
Dalton Schultz, Dall. | 24 | 14 | 166 | 11.9 | 2 |
Jelani Woods, Ind. | 14 | 11 | 162 | 14.7 | 0 |
Cole Kmet, Chi. | 22 | 16 | 159 | 9.9 | 0 |
Dawson Knox, Buff. | 18 | 12 | 156 | 13.0 | 2 |
Hunter Henry, N.E. | 17 | 10 | 155 | 15.5 | 1 |
Austin Hooper, Ten. | 18 | 13 | 153 | 11.8 | 0 |
Mark Andrews, Balt. | 27 | 13 | 151 | 11.6 | 0 |
Greg Dulcich, Den. | 21 | 12 | 149 | 12.4 | 0 |
Pat Freiermuth, Pitt. | 15 | 9 | 148 | 16.4 | 1 |
David Njoku, Clev. | 22 | 15 | 116 | 7.7 | 2 |
Juwan Johnson, N.O. | 12 | 7 | 114 | 16.3 | 3 |
Jordan Akins, Hou. | 19 | 12 | 109 | 9.1 | 2 |
Noah Fant, Sea. | 15 | 12 | 108 | 9.0 | 2 |
Noah Gray, K.C. | 9 | 9 | 107 | 11.9 | 0 |
Statistics compiled using search tools at Pro-Football-Reference.com
—Ian Allan