I am a fan of Chigoziem Okonkwo. To me, he looks like an up-and-coming player at tight end.
We were kicking around the prospects of Irv Smith and Hayden Hurst earlier in the week. Okonkwo will be one of the players at this position that I’ll definitely be selecting before those guys.
Okonkwo is a little small for the position. They had him listed at 6-foot-3 and 238 pounds last year. He’s not a guy where they’ll be lobbing him fade routes around the goal line (he doesn’t have that height advantage). But he can really move. He ran a 4.52 at the combine, reminding me of another shorter tight end who preceded him at Maryland way back when (Vernon Davis).
Okonkwo has shown some Davis-like ability to do it on the field, with 3 catches over 40 yards last year. That was more than any other tight end. They started getting him the ball late in the year, and he was top-10 tight end in that final third of the season.
In general, my leaning is that he’ll keep it going. Definitely a guy I’ll be thinking about.
Statistically, I can offer the following chart. It shows all rookie tight ends who caught a least 30 passes and averaged over 13 yards per catch. We can take those guys, then look at how they did in their second season. The results look very good, with everyone expect Kyle Pitts (who’s going to be a good pro) finishing with top-14 PPR numbers.
| ROOKIE TIGHT ENDS AVERAGING 13 YARDS PER CATCH | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | No | Yards | Avg | TD | Next Yr (PPR rk) |
| 1985 | Mark Bavaro, NYG | 37 | 511 | 13.8 | 4 | 66-1001-4 (2) |
| 1988 | Ferrell Edmunds, Mia. | 33 | 575 | 17.4 | 3 | 32-382-3 (9) |
| 1995 | Ken Dilger, Ind. | 42 | 635 | 15.1 | 4 | 42-503-4 (7) |
| 2010 | Rob Gronkowski, N.E. | 42 | 546 | 13.0 | 10 | 90-1327-17 (1) |
| 2013 | Zach Ertz, Phil. | 36 | 469 | 13.0 | 4 | 58-702-3 (13) |
| 2016 | Hunter Henry, S.D. | 36 | 478 | 13.3 | 8 | 45-579-4 (14) |
| 2018 | Mark Andrews, Balt. | 34 | 552 | 16.2 | 3 | 64-852-10 (5) |
| 2019 | Noah Fant, Den. | 40 | 562 | 14.1 | 3 | 62-673-3 (8) |
| 2021 | Kyle Pitts, Atl. | 68 | 1026 | 15.1 | 1 | 28-356-2 (34) |
| 2022 | Chigo Okonkwo, Ten. | 32 | 450 | 14.1 | 3 | to be determined |
—Ian Allan