Over the last decade, the characteristics that make NFL tight ends valuable to their teams have split and switched. Tight ends are generally divided into traditional players who blocked a lot of the time and maybe caught 40 passes in a season, and “big receiver” types who only blocked when they had to and ran routes in the slot and outside. Your very occasional Rob Gronkowski aside, there aren’t many tight ends who can do it all, and with Gronk’s retirement, there’s no tight end in the NFL who can match his ability to block like an offensive tackle and win contested-catch battles like a small tank. Generational guys aren’t easy to come by.
10. Jimmy Graham | 9. Kyle Rudolph | 8. David Njoku | 7. Evan Engram | 6. Jared Cook | 5. O.J. Howard | 4. Eric Ebron | 3. Zach Ertz | 2. George Kittle | 1. Travis Kelce
So, this list of the NFL’s best tight ends in the post-Gronk landscape has his share of both types. Blocking is a major component for many of these players, and for others, it’s peripheral at best. No matter—as long as the scheme works for the player (look at what happened to Eric Ebron when he moved from Detroit to Indianapolis), the need for a “complete” player at the position is entirely relative.
Other Top 11 lists: Centers | Guards | Offensive tackles | Edge defenders | Interior defensive linemen | Linebackers | Safeties | Outside cornerbacks | Slot defenders
Here are the NFL’s 11 best tight ends coming into the 2019 season.
11. Austin Hooper, Atlanta Falcons
Perhaps the most unheralded name on this list, Hooper has been a steady producer for the Falcons over the last two seasons, despite an offense that has experienced more than its share of inconsistency in the post-Kyle Shanahan era. In 2018, he caught 71 passes on 88 targets for 660 yards and four touchdowns. As these stats would indicate, he’s not a deep threat—Hooper caught just three passes of 20 or more air yards for 98 yards—but he’s given Matt Ryan some necessary openings in crucial situations.
Hooper doesn’t have the second-level acceleration to get past defenders downfield, but he’s become very good at shaking loose of coverage in short areas. He releases from blocks very well and knows how to present himself in open spaces (he’s also a good blocker), and he’s a practiced option route runner. Hooper isn’t spectacular, but he’s consistent in what he does, which makes him valuable to his team.
10. Jimmy Graham, Green Bay Packers
Graham became one of the most productive receivers regardless of role in the early 2010s in Sean Payton’s offense—the former college basketball player wasn’t debited by the Saints for his inexperience at the position, but Payton and his coaching staff had ways around that, using Graham’s raw speed and ability to box defenders out in the red zone and end zone as schematic pluses. Graham was traded to Seattle before the 2015 season, and that was never a match. The Seahawks wanted a traditional tight end, when Graham has always been more the “big receiver” type. He was decent last season in Green Bay, catching 55 passes on 89 targets for 636 yards and two touchdowns, though he could hardly be blamed for his pedestrian numbers in an offense that benefited nobody.
Graham has said that he wants to be better in the red zone in 2019, and the bar’s pretty low right now—he dropped from 10 touchdowns for the Seahawks in 2017 to just two last season. New head coach Matt LaFleur should be better at scheming guys open than ex-head coach Mike McCarthy ever was, and Graham still has the quickness to make things happen in the right system—plus, he has picked up a few things about route-running this decade.
9. Kyle Rudolph, Minnesota Vikings
Rudolph and the Vikings had been talking about a new contract for a while, and given the team’s selection of Alabama tight end Irv Smith in the second round of the 2019 draft, one might assume Minnesota was ready to move on. But in early June, the Vikings gave Rudolph a four-year, $36 million extension, which means that he’ll still be the team’s primary option at the position, at least in the short term.
Rudolph managed 64 catches on 82 targets for 634 yards and four touchdowns in 2018—not up to the high level of his career standards, but better than average. He doesn’t bring great speed to the table, though he did catch for passes of 20 or more air yards for two touchdowns in 2018. More often, he’s able to benefit Minnesota’s offense by releasing from blocks in short areas and giving quarterback Kirk Cousins easy options in the short to intermediate areas of the passing game. Rudolph will turn 30 in November, but he should be able to fill his current role for a few more seasons.
8. David Njoku, Cleveland Browns
The move halfway through the 2018 season from Hue Jackson to Freddie Kitchens benefited just about everybody in Cleveland’s offense, especially quarterback Baker Mayfield. But if you were expecting bigger numbers from second-year tight end David Njoku based on his athleticism and potential, you’re not alone. It’s not that Njoku had a bad season—56 catches for 569 yards and four touchdowns is nothing to sneeze at—but if 2019 isn’t even more of a breakout season for the Miami alum, that would be considered a disappointment.
Because when Njoku is on point, he creates defensive matchup issues that are very hard to reconcile. At 6’4” and 246 pounds, he’s physical enough to body any defender out, he has the agility and acceleration to beat tight coverage, and his catch radius is ridiculous. Njoku has the physical gifts to put up several 1,000-yard seasons in the NFL—it’s up to the Browns to make sure he’s one of Mayfield’s primary weapons, especially in the red zone.
7. Evan Engram, New York Giants
Engram fought through injuries and the decline of Eli Manning in his second NFL season, and he saw his stats drop accordingly—from 115 to 64 targets, from 722 yards to 577, and from six touchdowns to three. He’s likely to become more of a primary target with Odell Beckham, Jr. out the door, and given how he was able to produce in the dog days of the season, that could be a good thing for whoever’s playing quarterback for Big Blue in 2019 and beyond.
There’s a need to adjust for iffy quarterback play when watching Engram’s potential, but it’s definitely there. He gives his quarterback easy options with quick and precise release routes, he establishes position with agility at the line of scrimmage, and he’s got more than enough acceleration to make big plays downfield, if they’re open to him. It’s not known when Engram will get out of his current quarterback purgatory, but he’ll do his best to transcend it.
6. Jared Cook, New Orleans Saints
Cook made his first Pro Bowl in his tenth season last year, and he was a stalwart in a passing game that was inconsistent at best. While the Raiders moved heaven and earth to improve that passing game in the offseason, they lost Cook to the Saints, as the South Carolina alum signed a two-year, $15.5 million contract with $8 million guaranteed. New Orleans’ coaching staff has said that Cook will be used similarly to how Jimmy Graham once was, and he has the potential to make some of those explosive plays. Last season, he caught a career-high 68 passes for 896 yards and six touchdowns. A highly effective deep threat when given the opportunity, Cook should thrive in an offense with Drew Brees at the helm.
A 6’5” and 254 pounds, Cook is more than physical enough to move cornerbacks and safeties off their coverage from the line of scrimmage, and he understands how to use push-offs like a veteran. He’s great at grabbing the ball in the timing of the down in tight coverage, and he’s got the speed and agility to win on the deep post and seam routes.
5. O.J. Howard, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tampa Bay’s first-round pick in 2017, Howard has never had issues being efficient in any circumstance. In his rookie season, he ranked fifth in Football Outsiders’ opponent-adjusted per-play metrics, and fifth in FO’s cumulative metrics. In 2018, he ranked first in per-play efficiency, and third overall. His overall numbers have been average—60 catches for 997 yards and 11 touchdowns through two seasons—but he averaged 16.6 yards per catch in both seasons, which indicates a big-play player just waiting to go off. Had he not missed the final six games of the 2018 season with an ankle injury, things could have been very different. Howard was targeted just three times on passes of 20 or more air yards, but he caught two of those passes for 55 yards.
Howard is quick enough in a straight line, but he can really beat defenses with his agility in short spaces, route advancement, and he makes it very difficult for linebackers and safeties to cover him because he’s very physical through the route, and can easily break free from match concepts to find the open field. New Bucs head coach Bruce Arians isn’t generally known for featuring tight ends in his offenses, but he’d be wise to use Howard as a premium player.
4. Eric Ebron, Indianapolis Colts
What a difference a change of environment can make. The Lions’ first-round pick in 2014, Ebron was better-known for the catches he didn’t make (re: drops) than the one he did. He caught 186 passes for 2,070 yards and 13 touchdowns in four seasons for Detroit, and when he found a place in the Colts’ favorable offense under Frank Reich, he brought in 66 passes for 750 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2018. The most dangerous scoring threat from the slot at his position in the NFL last season, Ebron had seven touchdowns when split from the formation.
A project player in Detroit, Ebron has learned to maximize his athletic gifts in Reich’s offense. He shows excellent footwork off the line of scrimmage, his route understanding has improved, and he’s physical enough to contest defenders through any of his routes. And with his catch radius, he’s especially dangerous on boundary fades. Ebron is one of the better recent examples of what can happen to a player when he finds himself in an offense in which his value is made clear with intelligent schematic deployment.
3. Zach Ertz, Philadelphia Eagles
Ertz put together his best season in 2018, with 116 receptions on 156 targets for 1,163 yards and eight touchdowns. And though he saw passes of 20 or more air yards on just 3.9% of his targets (as opposed to Dallas Goedert’s 11.6%), Ertz caught five deep passes on six targets for 154 yards. Interestingly, none of his receiving touchdowns came on deep passes, or from the slot.
An old-school player in that regard, Ertz is tremendously effective when aligned to the formation, especially as a red zone target. He’s elusive in short areas and turns corners quickly to shake coverage. Ertz has a veteran’s eye for open areas of the field, and he understands the nuances of route-running in ways that allow him to peel off potential coverage at the last second. Factor in his plus-level blocking, and it’s clear that Ertz is a complete player coming into his best NFL seasons.
2. George Kittle, San Francisco 49ers
Kittle set the NFL’s single-season record for receiving yardage for a tight end at 1,377 in just his second NFL season, and it was a big stretch over the 515 he had in 2017. There’s no reason to believe he won’t keep the numbers up in a Kyle Shanahan offense that has always benefited tight ends to an extreme degree.
As the stats show, Kittle didn’t get a lot of deep throws—he caught just three passes of 20 or more air yards on 12 targets for 145 yards and one touchdown, but it’s easy to imagine Kittle getting a lot more opportunities if Jimmy Garoppolo is playing a full season.
An outstanding route-runner, Kittle fits perfectly in a Shanahan system that asks its tight ends run everything from Texas routes to Y-Throwbacks. He also has the speed off the line and second-level acceleration to beat safeties and linebackers, which adds to the inherent advantage he derives from pre-snap motion. Yes, Kittle is in the perfect system for his skill set, but he also gives his coaches a level of performance they’d be hard-pressed to find from any other player at his position.
1. Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs
Over the last five seasons, Kelce leads all tight ends in targets (492), receptions (343, tied with Zach Ertz), receiving yards (4,372), and touchdowns (27). Last season, he was the most prolific deep target at his position with 19 targets over 20 air yards, nine receptions, and 243 yards, Only Eric Ebron had more deep touchdowns with three. Whether his quarterback has been Alex Smith or Patrick Mahomes, Kelce has been the pace-setter in Andy Reid’s offense since 2014, his second NFL season. He’s gained over 1,000 yards in each of the last three seasons, and he can beat defenders from anywhere in the formation—aligned to the offensive line, in the slot, or outside.
Why is Kelce such a dangerous receiver? Simply because he does everything well. If he needs speed off the line of scrimmage to beat a defender, he has that. But he’s also great at delaying a route to trick an opponent, and when it’s time to make a contested catch, few are better. Not only can Kelce body a cornerback or safety for the key catch in the red zone, but he’s also great at moving through a defender to grab the ball. Factor in his improvement as a blocker over his career, and Kelce has become the gold standard at the position.
