The Tight End in Today's NFL: Quantity over Quality

Pass catching tight ends like Jason Witten are nothing new.
We've just never seen this many before.

In the introduction to his weekly Tuesday Morning Quarterback column, ESPN's Gregg Easterbrook hails the importance of the tight end to the success of today's NFL teams.  He states that "the tight end is the essence of cracking a modern defense," and "four of the five most recent Super Bowl winners (the Indianapolis Colts, New York Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers and New Orleans Saints) featured the tight end."

Easterbrook's words imply that the tight end's place as an integral part of an offense is a recent development, but that does a disservice to the great offensive minds and athletes of the past.  In fact, pass-catching tight ends have been an important part of the game long before Jimmy Graham and Jermichael Finley were outrunning linebackers and outleaping safeties.

Coaches understood the importance of the pass-catching tight end as far back as the 1960s.  When speaking of his Charger offense, Hall of Fame coach Sid Gillman said, "You put a real tough tight end with good hands in the hash area, and there won't be anyone who can cover him.  Then you really control the passing game." ¹

You can point to Dallas Clark, Kevin Boss, Heath Miller and Jeremy Shockey as key cogs in recent Super Bowl-winning offenses, but none of them came close to Mark Bavaro's 1,001 yards for the 1986 Giants, or Todd Christensen's 1,247 yards for the 1983 Los Angeles Raiders.  From John Mackey and Mike Ditka in the '60s, to Kellen Winslow Sr. in the '80s, to Shannon Sharpe in the '90s, the fact is that pass-catching tight ends were an important part of the NFL for decades before coordinators had to combat the "modern defense."

Offensive coordinators have always loved tight ends because they are the most versatile weapon on the field.  If you have a tight end who can both block and catch, you can get an advantageous matchup on every play.  Jason Witten is not a Calvin Johnson-type freak of nature, who can outrun or outleap any defender.  But because Witten is a superior route-runner and run-blocker, he is often able to take advantage of his opponent.  Guard him with a linebacker, and he can split out wide and outrun the slower coverman.  Bring in a cornerback, and Witten can motion closer to the tackle to run-block against a weaker front.  You can try covering him with a safety, but then you also have to worry about John Phillips and Martellus Bennet, Dallas' two other receiving tight ends.

And this last point shows the true evolution of the tight end in today's game.  In past years, few teams would be lucky to have one receiving tight end on their roster.  Now, most have two or even three.  From 1960 to 2000, each decade saw about 52 instances when a tight end caught more than 600 yards in a season.  But from 2000 to 2010, there were 82 times when a tight end surpassed that mark.  We are on pace for 15 such performances this year alone.

Tight ends have always been an important factor of passing offenses, and their versatility was never lost on coaches.  The biggest difference in today's game is that there are just so many more of them.  Maybe it's the receiver-friendly rule changes that are opening up the middle of the field, or maybe it's the increasing athleticism of players, but you're more likely to see a tight end catch a pass now than ever before. Once the exception, receiving tight ends have now before the norm.

1. From Ron Jaworski's The Games That Changed The Game

Image found here.