Two years in a row, the best pick at tight end has been a rookie – Sam LaPorta two years ago, and Brock Bowers last season. With this in mind, I wonder what kind of market Colston Loveland and Tyler Warren will generate?
Loveland (pictured) will be in an offense orchestrated by one of the coaches who helped LaPorta thrive, Ben Johnson.
With Warren, he caught a zillion balls at Penn State. Warren is paired with Anthony Richardson, which is admittedly about the last quarterback you would pick if playing NFL matchmaker. But if Richardson is a disaster, the Colts could flip to Daniel Jones, who’d probably be a slight upgrade (but also crappy).
But at the same time, it’s rare to see rookie tight ends doing much in their first season. There’s been these recent two, of course, but in the last 10 years, only one other rookie tight end has averaged top-10 per-game numbers, and only nine others in the last 10 years have even ranked in the top 20. That’s using PPR scoring.
Since the NFL expanded to 32 teams, they’ve played 23 seasons. In those years, only seven rookie tight ends have averaged top-10 per-game numbers. (And I use per-game numbers here to reduce the importance of injuries in the listings). That’s about one every three years.
And 22 others have averaged top-20 numbers (about one per year).
(I do not have much interest in firing a later-round pick at Loveland or Warren.)
| ROOKIE TIGHT ENDS AVERAGING TOP-20 NUMBERS | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Pk | St | No | Yards | TD | PPR | Rk |
| 2024 | • Brock Bowers, L.V. | 13 | 17 | 6.6 | 70.2 | .29 | 15.5 | 3 |
| 2023 | • Sam LaPorta, Det. | 34 | 17 | 5.1 | 52.5 | .63 | 14.1 | 3 |
| 2002 | Jeremy Shockey, NYG | 14 | 16 | 4.6 | 55.9 | .13 | 11.0 | 4 |
| 2017 | Evan Engram, NYG | 23 | 15 | 4.3 | 48.1 | .40 | 11.5 | 5 |
| 2002 | Doug Jolley, Oak. | 55 | 8 | 3.1 | 45.4 | .13 | 8.4 | 8 |
| 2008 | John Carlson, Sea. | 38 | 16 | 3.4 | 39.2 | .31 | 9.2 | 9 |
| 2013 | Tim Wright, T.B. | -- | 13 | 4.1 | 43.5 | .38 | 10.7 | 10 |
| 2015 | Will Tye, NYG | -- | 8 | 4.3 | 48.4 | .38 | 11.3 | 11 |
| 2021 | Kyle Pitts, Atl. | 4 | 17 | 4.0 | 60.4 | .06 | 10.4 | 11 |
| 2003 | Dallas Clark, Ind. | 24 | 10 | 2.9 | 34.0 | .10 | 6.9 | 11 |
| 2002 | Randy McMichael, Mia. | 114 | 16 | 2.4 | 30.3 | .25 | 7.0 | 12 |
| 2010 | Aaron Hernandez, N.E. | 113 | 14 | 3.2 | 40.2 | .43 | 9.8 | 13 |
| 2005 | Heath Miller, Pitt. | 30 | 13 | 2.8 | 34.1 | .38 | 8.6 | 13 |
| 2010 | Rob Gronkowski, N.E. | 42 | 16 | 2.6 | 34.1 | .63 | 9.8 | 14 |
| 2006 | Vernon Davis, S.F. | 6 | 9 | 2.2 | 29.4 | .33 | 7.2 | 14 |
| 2004 | Chris Cooley, Was. | 81 | 16 | 2.3 | 19.6 | .38 | 6.5 | 15 |
| 2021 | Pat Freiermuth, Pitt. | 55 | 16 | 3.8 | 31.1 | .46 | 9.6 | 16 |
| 2006 | Owen Daniels, Hou. | 98 | 14 | 2.4 | 25.1 | .36 | 7.1 | 16 |
| 2010 | Jermaine Gresham, Cin. | 21 | 14 | 3.7 | 33.6 | .31 | 8.9 | 17 |
| 2022 | Greg Dulcich, Den. | 80 | 10 | 3.3 | 41.1 | .20 | 8.6 | 17 |
| 2018 | Chris Herndon, NYJ | 107 | 16 | 2.4 | 31.4 | .25 | 7.1 | 17 |
| 2003 | Antonio Gates, S.D. | -- | 11 | 2.0 | 32.6 | .18 | 6.4 | 17 |
| 2010 | Tony Moeaki, K.C. | 93 | 15 | 3.1 | 37.1 | .20 | 8.0 | 18 |
| 2018 | Mark Andrews, Balt. | 86 | 16 | 2.1 | 34.5 | .19 | 6.7 | 18 |
| 2016 | Hunter Henry, S.D. | 35 | 15 | 2.4 | 31.9 | .53 | 8.8 | 19 |
| 2009 | Brandon Pettigrew, Det. | 20 | 10 | 3.0 | 34.6 | .20 | 7.7 | 19 |
| 2017 | O.J. Howard, T.B. | 19 | 14 | 1.9 | 30.9 | .43 | 7.5 | 19 |
| 2019 | Noah Fant, Den. | 20 | 16 | 2.5 | 34.4 | .19 | 7.1 | 19 |
| 2007 | Greg Olsen, Chi. | 31 | 14 | 2.8 | 27.9 | .17 | 6.6 | 19 |
| 2025 | Colston Loveland, Chi. | 10 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| 2025 | Tyler Warren, Ind. | 14 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
—Ian Allan