It’s a good offseason to be shopping for a tight end. There are some good options that are set to hit the open market.
Evan Engram, Dalton Schultz and Hayden Hurst, most notably. Mike Gesicki, Austin Hooper, Foster Moreau and Robert Tonyan should also draw interest.
Engram signed a one-year prove-it deal with the Jaguars last year. After catching 73 passes for 766 yards, his price tag will be higher this time around. GM Trent Baalke indicated at this year-end press conference that Jacksonville hopes to re-sign him.
“Obviously, we would love to have Evan back,” Baalke said. “I think it’s mutual. Now we got to make it happen. That’s something that we’re going to work on with Evan, and all the other free agents that we have. We have a list of them that we got to mow down one at a time.”
Gesicki might be a much better value. He’s got a similar game but probably will cost a lot less after not having a big role in Miami’s offense. They franchised him a year ago but didn’t use him all that much, instead building their passing game around Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. Gesicki caught 73 passes in the 2021 season.
Like Gesicki, Schultz played under the franchise tag last season. It will be interesting to see what the Cowboys do with him this time around. Dak Prescott has a comfort level throwing to him, but Schultz is more of a security blanket type tight end rather than a difference maker. Schultz caught 3 TDs in the playoffs, but he also made a couple of mental errors on their last drive, with a drop and a concentration error on the sideline (not getting both feet down before going out of bounds).
Hurst should draw some interest. He had a good season for the Bengals, averaging 4 catches per game during the season and coming up with some impact plays in the postseason. He signed a one-year contract worth $3.5 million a year ago; he’ll cost a lot more this year. (The tight end he replaced, C.J. Uzomah, a year ago got from the Jets a three-year contract worth $24 million, with over 60 percent of that money guaranteed.)
The top 50 tight ends from last season appear below. Those who are headed for unrestricted free agency are tagged with black dots.
| 2022 TIGHT END STATISTICS | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | G | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD | PPR |
| Travis Kelce, K.C. | 17 | 110 | 1,338 | 12.2 | 12 | 318.3 |
| T.J. Hockenson, Det.-Min. | 17 | 86 | 914 | 10.6 | 6 | 217.4 |
| George Kittle, S.F. | 15 | 60 | 765 | 12.8 | 11 | 202.5 |
| Mark Andrews, Balt. | 15 | 73 | 847 | 11.6 | 5 | 190.5 |
| • Evan Engram, Jac. | 17 | 73 | 766 | 10.5 | 4 | 176.9 |
| Tyler Higbee, LAR | 17 | 72 | 620 | 8.6 | 3 | 152.0 |
| Taysom Hill, N.O. | 16 | 9 | 77 | 8.6 | 9 | 148.2 |
| Pat Freiermuth, Pitt. | 16 | 63 | 732 | 11.6 | 2 | 148.2 |
| Cole Kmet, Chi. | 17 | 50 | 544 | 10.9 | 7 | 147.3 |
| • Dalton Schultz, Dall. | 15 | 57 | 577 | 10.1 | 5 | 144.7 |
| David Njoku, Cle. | 14 | 58 | 628 | 10.8 | 4 | 144.0 |
| Dallas Goedert, Phil. | 12 | 55 | 702 | 12.8 | 3 | 143.2 |
| Gerald Everett, LAC | 16 | 58 | 555 | 9.6 | 4 | 139.5 |
| Dawson Knox, Buff. | 15 | 48 | 517 | 10.8 | 6 | 135.7 |
| Juwan Johnson, N.O. | 16 | 42 | 508 | 12.1 | 7 | 134.8 |
| Tyler Conklin, NYJ | 17 | 58 | 552 | 9.5 | 3 | 131.5 |
| Noah Fant, Sea. | 17 | 50 | 486 | 9.7 | 4 | 122.6 |
| Jordan Akins, Hou. | 15 | 37 | 495 | 13.4 | 5 | 118.5 |
| Zach Ertz, Ari. | 10 | 47 | 406 | 8.6 | 4 | 115.6 |
| • Robert Tonyan, G.B. | 17 | 53 | 470 | 8.9 | 2 | 112.0 |
| • Hayden Hurst, Cin. | 13 | 52 | 414 | 8.0 | 2 | 105.4 |
| Hunter Henry, N.E. | 17 | 41 | 509 | 12.4 | 2 | 103.9 |
| • Mike Gesicki, Mia. | 17 | 32 | 362 | 11.3 | 5 | 98.2 |
| • Austin Hooper, Ten. | 17 | 41 | 444 | 10.8 | 2 | 97.4 |
| Chigoziem Okonkwo, Ten. | 17 | 32 | 450 | 14.1 | 3 | 97.2 |
| Cade Otton, T.B. | 16 | 42 | 391 | 9.3 | 2 | 93.1 |
| Isaiah Likely, Balt. | 16 | 36 | 373 | 10.4 | 3 | 91.3 |
| • Foster Moreau, L.V. | 15 | 33 | 420 | 12.7 | 2 | 87.2 |
| Will Dissly, Sea. | 15 | 34 | 349 | 10.3 | 3 | 86.9 |
| Greg Dulcich, Den. | 10 | 33 | 411 | 12.5 | 2 | 86.1 |
| Darren Waller, L.V. | 9 | 28 | 388 | 13.9 | 3 | 84.8 |
| Logan Thomas, Was. | 14 | 39 | 323 | 8.3 | 1 | 77.3 |
| Daniel Bellinger, NYG | 12 | 30 | 268 | 8.9 | 3 | 77.0 |
| Kyle Pitts, Atl. | 10 | 28 | 356 | 12.7 | 2 | 75.6 |
| Jelani Woods, Ind. | 15 | 25 | 312 | 12.5 | 3 | 74.2 |
| Noah Gray, K.C. | 17 | 28 | 299 | 10.7 | 2 | 70.0 |
| Colby Parkinson, Sea. | 17 | 25 | 322 | 12.9 | 2 | 69.2 |
| Brock Wright, Det. | 17 | 18 | 216 | 12.0 | 4 | 63.6 |
| Harrison Bryant, Cle. | 17 | 31 | 239 | 7.7 | 1 | 61.7 |
| Trey McBride, Ari. | 16 | 29 | 265 | 9.1 | 1 | 61.5 |
| Kylen Granson, Ind. | 13 | 31 | 302 | 9.7 | 0 | 61.2 |
| C.J. Uzomah, NYJ | 15 | 21 | 232 | 11.0 | 2 | 56.2 |
| Mo Alie-Cox, Ind. | 17 | 19 | 189 | 9.9 | 3 | 55.9 |
| • Irv Smith, Min. | 8 | 25 | 182 | 7.3 | 2 | 55.2 |
| • MyCole Pruitt, Atl. | 13 | 16 | 150 | 9.4 | 4 | 55.0 |
| Tommy Tremble, Car. | 17 | 19 | 174 | 9.2 | 3 | 54.4 |
| Jonnu Smith, N.E. | 14 | 27 | 245 | 9.1 | 0 | 52.0 |
| Jake Ferguson, Dall. | 16 | 19 | 174 | 9.2 | 2 | 48.4 |
| Adam Trautman, N.O. | 15 | 18 | 207 | 11.5 | 1 | 44.7 |
| Shane Zylstra, Det. | 13 | 11 | 60 | 5.5 | 4 | 41.0 |
—Ian Allan