The tight end evolution: Bigger role, greater impact, lingering problem

LONG AFTER THE other players had assembled, Travis Kelce finally took the field, fashionably late. You earn that right when you are one of the greatest NFL players of your generation.

The Kansas City Chiefs‘ star tight end has put together a résumé that even most wide receivers can’t match: Seven consecutive seasons with at least 1,000 receiving yards (2016-22), three seasons with 100 or more receptions, four first-team All-Pro selections and three Super Bowl victories. By comparison, Las Vegas Raiders All-Pro wide receiver Davante Adams has two fewer 1,000-yard seasons and 547 fewer career receiving yards than Kelce. They were both drafted in 2014.

Kelce was a big draw at the fourth annual Tight End University event in June, a gathering in Nashville focusing on mentorship and camaraderie. Founded by Kelce, San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle and former Pro Bowler Greg Olsen, it’s open to any NFL tight end on an active roster.

Kelce mingled with friends, family and sponsors, signed autographs, posed for photos and vibed to the music. Whether he realized it or not, Kelce represented what many of the younger tight ends in attendance hope to become.

All of which makes it ironic that there was a time when Kelce had no such visions for himself.

“Most stuff that tight ends did when I was growing up, I was like, ‘Man, that doesn’t sound like the most exciting position,'” Kelce told ESPN.

A high school quarterback who wished to remain at the position long term, Kelce stiff-armed early recommendations about switching to tight end. He consistently resisted the idea in high school despite his coach’s belief he had NFL potential at the position. Kelce even ignored offers from major college programs that declined him the opportunity to play quarterback.

It wasn’t until three years after his arrival on the University of Cincinnati campus, in 2011, that Kelce finally committed to making the change.

“I was watching [Rob Gronkowski] and Jimmy Graham in 2011,” Kelce said of two of the game’s premier tight ends. Gronkowski had 1,327 receiving yards in 2011 (sixth in the NFL) while Graham had 1,310 yards (seventh). “That was an exciting year of football.”

Kelce added, “When you’re getting fed the ball, you get to score touchdowns, and on top of that, you get to be the guy that springs the running back or be the guy to get somebody else open. You just become a utility piece, and it makes playing the entire game fun. And that’s why I really embraced it.”

Since then, Kelce has spearheaded a transformative era for tight ends. More than ever, tight ends are lining up in various spots — such as the slot and out wide — and catching more passes. Tight ends averaged 4.9 receptions per game last season, tying 2015 for the most ever. Kelce was the Chiefs’ leading receiver during the last two seasons, both of which ended with a Lombardi Trophy, and he’s helped enhance the profile of the position. Consider there were 49 attendees at Tight End U in 2021, and that number grew to 70 this year. But as tight ends grow in importance, they’re starting to focus more on their pay gap with wide receivers.

“Tight ends are leading the league, getting seven, eight catches every week,” said Detroit Lions tight end Sam LaPorta, a second-team All-Pro selection as a rookie last season. “They’re scoring touchdowns and getting on highlight reels.

“The acceptance and the exposure of tight ends for younger players is far and beyond what it has ever been.”

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DALLAS CLARK, A former All-Pro tight end with the Indianapolis Colts, is convinced much of what today’s tight ends are displaying was possible long ago if more teams had the vision.

“The offensive coordinators didn’t even really understand the weapons that they had because they were just so brainwashed into thinking, ‘Oh, they’re just a glorified offensive lineman,'” he said. “When I got in the league [in 2003], it was a lot of bigger guys that could go catch a 5-yard stick route and get about 45 catches a season. That was a Pro Bowl season back then. Pay the man!”

But to Clark’s benefit, Tom Moore had other ideas.

The Colts’ offensive coordinator from 1998-2009, Moore broke with convention. He deployed Clark in myriad ways, allowing him to become one of the league’s top tight end receiving threats and a go-to target for Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning.

“We were able to break the mold, if you will, and think outside the box with Tom Moore and his craziness,” Clark said. “Obviously having Peyton never hurts. So we were able to do some things that were very unorthodox, like splitting me out wide, using me as a receiver and in the backfield — all sorts of stuff.”

Last season, three of the top seven tight ends — Kelce, the Jacksonville Jaguars‘ Evan Engram and the Buffalo Bills‘ Dalton Kincaid — lined up mostly in the slot as teams took advantage of mismatches against slower linebackers or smaller defensive backs. Kelce lined up on 48% of his snaps in the slot, compared to a career-low 32% at the traditional tight end spot. By comparison, Gronkowski lined up at tight end on 64% of his snaps and in the slot on 22% with the New England Patriots in 2016, which was the first year the stat was kept.

“You’re not seeing the big tight end anymore,” Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said. “You’re not seeing that in-line guy, and if he is, he’s 250 pounds, not 290 pounds like back in the day.

“They’re athletic guys, they’re probably multisport athletes growing up. They’re bigger receivers, quite honestly.”

Wide receiver was often the original position for many of today’s tight ends. Players like LaPorta, who played WR in high school, have been making that transition for years, moving because they, for example, lacked the top-end speed needed to play receiver or simply outgrew the position. What has changed is that those players no longer get lost in the shuffle, characterized as tweeners. In fact, they often find themselves prominently featured at their newfound position.

And because colleges are leaning into today’s broader use of tight ends, especially with the proliferation of spread offenses, those players are more polished as receivers when they get to the NFL.

This was the case with Engram, who took off in coach Hugh Freeze’s offense at Ole Miss. Schools such as Georgia, his dream school, and Ohio State, told him he was too slow to play receiver there. But Freeze had a plan for Engram as a hybrid tight end and implemented it precisely. Engram went on to become a first-round pick and, last season, made his second Pro Bowl while lining up 52% of the time in the slot.

“Now, everybody is kind of looking for that kind of player,” Engram said. “I was kind of blessed to be in that situation.”

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SEVERAL YEARS BEFORE Kirk Ferentz became an institution at Iowa, where he’s been head coach since 1999, he was Bill Belichick’s offensive line coach with the Cleveland Browns. Ferentz learned valuable lessons during that time, and there’s one that he remembers to this day.

He recalls Week 12 of the 1995 season when Belichick, already considered a defensive mastermind, seemed stressed about an impending matchup with the Green Bay Packers. It wasn’t so much the presence of future Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre or wide receiver Robert Brooks, who had 102 catches and 1,497 yards that season, that had Belichick frustrated. It was, rather, Green Bay’s pair of Pro Bowl tight ends, Keith Jackson and Mark Chmura.

Ferentz recognized that Belichick was identifying a vulnerability in the Cleveland defense as he tried to strategize for the difficult matchup. Ferentz calls it “a Kodak moment” that’s stuck with him.

“Coach Belichick was distracted that week,” Ferentz said. “I know Coach Belichick’s a really brilliant football mind, and I know he is a brilliant defensive guy. So, if you saw him a little overly concerned about something, I figured, ‘OK, make a mental note that that must be a problem.’

“If he thinks it’s a little bit of a challenge, then maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe we should do that offensively if we get the opportunity.”

Sixteen years later, in 2011, Belichick utilized a two-TE set with historic success in New England as Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez combined for 167 receptions, 2,237 yards and 24 touchdowns — all records for a tight end combination.

That period, which also included Tony Gonzalez, Jason Witten, Kellen Winslow II and Antonio Gates, reflected the biggest increase in receptions for tight ends. In 2010, there were 173 more receptions by tight ends than in 2009, the biggest one-year jump.

At Iowa, Ferentz has created a pipeline of tight ends to the NFL, with 13 tight ends drafted under his tutelage. The list includes three first-round picks and multiple stars, Clark, Kittle and LaPorta among them.

Ferentz learned back in the 1990s what so many NFL teams have now caught on to: If you commit to using them in the right ways, tight ends create frustrating matchups for defenses.

Colts defensive coordinator Gus Bradley, who made his name leading the Seattle Seahawks’ vaunted “Legion of Boom” defense in the early 2010s, said scheming for tight ends now requires more adjustment than ever.

“In the past, if there was 11 personnel, it was just 11 personnel,” he said, referring to a common lineup that includes one running back and one tight end.

Today, due to the expanded roles of tight ends, there are multiple iterations of 11 personnel because of the versatility of the players, he said.

“Now you have 11 big, 11 speed, 11 this, that,” Bradley said. “Like, ‘All right, in this personnel grouping, maybe he’s acting more like a wide receiver.’

“It’s just more awareness that there’s another skill set on the field. Some of these tight ends are acting more and more like wide receivers.”

Engram’s 114 catches last year and LaPorta’s 10 touchdown receptions were the fourth most in the NFL. And Kittle led all tight ends with 1,024 receiving yards last season. Only 23 wide receivers had more.

This group of tight ends has established itself as one of the best ever. In fact, Kelce and Kittle have produced the top three single-season performances among tight ends in receiving yards per game since the 1970 merger.

“Thirty years ago, tight ends were like an extra offensive lineman,” Kittle said. “They weren’t exactly viewed as a receiver. … But what I’ve noticed is that, probably in the last 10 years, every playoff team, every Super Bowl team, they have [elite] guys.”

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KELCE WILL GO down as one of the greatest tight ends in history, but that has failed to make him one of the highest-paid non-quarterbacks in the NFL.

His current contract averages $17.1 million, but there are 25 receivers averaging more money. That list includes the Cleveland Browns’ Jerry Jeudy, who hasn’t topped 1,000 receiving yards in any of his four seasons.

Leaguewide, Kelce’s average salary ranks 123rd, even though he’s currently the game’s highest-paid player at his position.

After signing an extension in May, Kelce acknowledged the importance of his deal, saying on his podcast, “I got to move the needle for the tight end room. It’s everyone’s job to go out there and keep making that tight end [average salary] go up and up with every single contract that’s better than mine in the future.”

A couple of months later, at Tight End U, Kelce addressed the issue with sarcasm.

“I tell guys, ‘Just say you’re a wide receiver who blocks,'” he said. “You’ll do everything the tight end does and hopefully they won’t know the difference.”

There are at least 10 wide receivers who average $25 million. That disparity has prompted some players who are labeled as tight ends — but line up most often in other positions — to challenge their designation.

Graham fought the New Orleans Saints‘ decision in 2014 to designate him a tight end when placing the franchise tag on him. Graham’s contention was he lined up in the slot more often than at tight end and deserved the receiver franchise tag — which meant a $5 million difference in salary. Graham ultimately lost in arbitration.

One obstacle for tight ends is the CBA, which was ratified in 2020 and extends through 2030, doesn’t recognize slot receiver as a position, so it’s either tight end or receiver. Kelce and Engram lined up at wide receiver just 19% of their snaps last season.

Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank once lamented the potential financial ramifications of utilizing players at different positions. Former Falcons coach Arthur Smith, who was fired after last season and is now the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive coordinator, subscribed to a positionless football theory, allowing tight end Kyle Pitts to line up at various spots.

“At some point, he’s going to get bitten in the fanny,” Blank said of Smith a year ago. “Because he is going to find a player that is positioned in one place, and saying when it comes to renegotiating his contract, he’ll say, ‘Well, actually, I’m not that, I’m this.'”

Pitts was the fourth overall pick in 2021 and is the highest-drafted tight end in league history. He earned Pro Bowl honors as a rookie and will look to regain that form with quarterback Kirk Cousins. Pitts, who lined up at wide receiver 29 percent compared to 22% at tight end, is eligible for an extension but is under contract through 2025.

Salaries “should probably be more of a talking point,” Colts tight end Mo Alie-Cox said. “Especially for those top guys who do everything. Kittle does everything. He’s an all-around tight end. Then, I look at LaPorta. He’s only in Year 2, but he’s another guy who does everything. When his time comes, hopefully he gets a big bag.”

Money is not the only way of classifying players. The Pro Football Hall of Fame also says something about how players are regarded in the context of the sport’s history. There are just nine tight ends enshrined in the Hall (compared to 34 wide receivers). When kickers and punters are excluded, no position group is less represented in Canton. Only one tight end — Gonzalez — was elected in his first year of eligibility.

Whether the recognition eventually comes, today’s elite tight ends know their place in history. They’ve helped transform a position that’s existed for generations and given future tight ends higher aspirations.

“It’s meaningful to me,” Kittle said during a break in the action at Tight End U. “I love the position. I’m very blessed to play the position.

“We always say we stand on the shoulders of all the guys that played before us, and all we’re trying to do is leave it in a better place.”

ESPN reporter Josh Weinfuss contributed to this report.