There are 48 potential free-agent tight ends according to Spotrac. The bad news is that the pickings are slim. There is one big-name tight end who has put up numbers but the rest are either injury prone or more role player than a star pass catcher.
Austin Hooper
Hooper has been selected to the Pro Bowl the past two seasons and it is time for him to cash in. The Falcons don’t have much cap room so expect to see Hooper on the move. The last two seasons have seen Hooper combine for 146 catches and 10 touchdowns. He’s a strong red-zone presence. He is an adequate blocker at the position. He had a great statistical year last season but didn’t even play the whole year. Expect there to be more than a few offers for Hooper. He’ll be able to pick his next team.
Hunter Henry
We are already into the injury-plagued section of the tight end list. Henry has a ton of talent, but he’s pretty unlucky when it comes to injuries. He missed the entirety of the 2018 regular season. He played 12 games in 2019. He still racked up over 600 yards receiving and five touchdowns. Hooper is probably a better blocker than Henry and Henry’s injury history makes him a bigger risk than Hooper.
Greg Olsen
The veteran tight end has options outside of playing which means some team will have to give Olsen a good deal to make him take the field this season. Olsen could easily hop into an announcing booth or join a studio team.
Olsen has not played a full 16-game slate the past three years which is why he could decide to hang them up. There’s interest in Olsen as he’s been taking meetings with teams.
Eric Ebron
Ebron has a ton of talent, but he’s never reached expectations since he was taken with the 10th pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. Ebron’s numbers took a huge hit last season but that will happen when you lose Andrew Luck at quarterback. That means someone may get a deal with Ebron who is an athletic pass catcher and proved — albeit for one season — that he can be a red-zone threat.
Tyler Eifert
We are back to the world of injured tight ends and Eifert has been extremely unlucky and has a history of some gruesome injuries. Eifert only started four games for the Bengals last season. He’s been sapped of the explosiveness that made him one of the better tight end in football.
This situation screams a short-term contract that is incentive-laden. It’s just the type of deal the New England Patriots might like taking a chance on.
Blake Jarwin
Like we said, the pickings are slim. Jarwin had 365 yards receiving and three touchdowns in 2019. Jarwin was poised for a breakout year this past season but the Cowboys wanted to bring back Jason Witten. That creates some questions because if the Dallas staff didn’t have confidence in Jarwin, that’s a bit of a red flag.
Darren Fells
Fells has already played for four NFL teams but last year was his best season as professional. He had seven touchdowns this past season and finally gave Deshaun Watson and the Texans some semblance of a weapon at tight end. He’s a big body at six-foot-seven-inches and was originally deemed more of a blocking tight end rather than a pass-catching tight end.
Jacob Hollister
Hollister only played in 11 games this season and started only three of them. He was traded to Seattle from New England before the season started. He ended up with 41 receptions and three touchdowns. He’s not really a full-time tight end but he could be a good option for a team looking for a secondary tight end that is more of a pass-catcher than a run blocker.
