Is It Ever WORTH Drafting a Tight End in the 1st Round? 

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Tim Tebow was a first round TE

Tight End was my nickname in prison

Brandon "I'm an expert on curses" Perna

Between "Balls deep in Tight Ends" and "I'm the Pube Guy" I couldn't stop laughing, love your crazy humor, Brandon.

Hockenson was a 1st round pick and he panned out. Tight End is one of the hardest positions to learn in the NFL for rookies so usually tight ends don't wow you right away. Laporta though is a rare breed. That boy looked like a vet in his rookie year.

2013: Tyler Eifert was the lone tight end drafted in the first round. Cincinnati passed on tight ends Zach Ertz and Travis Kelce that year.

Brandon Pettigrew, Eric Ebron, Hockenson all 1st round TEs by detriot and now LaPorta at 34, lions really love drafting TEs high

Fun fact about Hurst, he was drafted out of high school by the Pirates to play baseball. I played with him for a season in A ball. He didnt stay long and retired from baseball to go to college at South Carolina to play football. Guy was a stud and a good dude.

this videos sole purpose was to tell that “balls deep into tight ends” joke and I respect the effort from Brandon & Johnny for that lol

When being 6' 3"+, 240lbs is small at your position AND you get the ball. Sheesh.

Perna has been waiting for this moment his entire life to make his balls in on tight ends joke

Packers hit last year with Tucker Kraft and Luke Musgrave. Obviously not first rounders but they deserve to be mentioned for how vital they were for the offense last season

Eric Ebron was nicknamed “Droptimus Prime” here in Detroit

Kincaid looked pretty good last season

Major pause on balls deep in tight ends😂😂

Ebron was a drop machine In the burgh. He was tough af though. Boy took some hits

For the record, Gronk and Hernandez were a badass 1-2 punch!!! Them dudes were 🔥🔥🔥

Pitts just hasn't had a coach not named Arthur Smith yet

A 1k season for a TE is a statistical outlier. It should not be used as a measuring stick. Only a few TEs have had a 1k season, and those tend to be mid career

Please never stop the OJ jokes; they’re always priceless.

I'm a Lions fan and you might be right. Brandon Pettigrew from Oklahoma State with the 20th pick in the same draft we drafted Stafford #1 and he was a big slow dummy TE. Then Eric Ebron was a bust for us from the start. He had moments, but he also looked like he didn't care whatsoever. Then we drafted TJ Hockenson who put up production and was a solid receiving TE and trading him to the Vikings was the best decision we could've done in Detroit because we drafted Sam LaPorta with the 34th pick so the 2nd round who is better than any TE we drafted in Detroit and who was the best rookie TE last year of any TE. Couldn't be happier with laPorta. He can do it all and he had one of the best rookie TE performances out of any TE ever.

The original tweet is disingenuous, as the NFL doesn't see a 1,000-yard season for a TE as a benchmark for whether they are good. A more fair yardage metric would be 750 to 800 yards for a good tight end's season. Add in the problems with getting an All-Pro selection, and the best metric would be Pro-Bowl selections, as the bias is often removed for TEs, as you only know them if they are good.

Dalton Kincaid seems to be a good pick so far

Something about watching manscaped improve over the years through Perna’s ads is truly majestic.

The comment about TE production being linked to QB & scheme is an excellent observation, one few draft gurus have talked about. Here is another observation; most of the tight ends mentioned as successful share a common characteristic. They ran under 7 seconds in the 3 cone drill at the NFL combine or on their pro day. This brings me to Denver's Adam Trautman, who Payton traded a 7th round pick to the Saints to acquire. Trautman ran a blistering 6.78 3-cone. For reference, that's faster than Kittle or Kelce. It's faster than Vernon Davis ran, & he clocked a 4.38 forty time. In fact Trautman ran this drill which is considered more important than the forty for tight ends faster than all but 9 tight ends out of the 120 drafted players at the position in the last ten years. If he were a wide receiver we would be talking about him as a deep threat. Back to the QB & scheme thing. It's debatable whether Trautman had much in the way of a scheme fit in NO for a decent QB fit when he was operating with Jameis Winston or Trevor Siemian. because his numbers reflect mediocrity with those two QBs. The same is true with his 2023 season with Russell Wilson throwing him the ball. However, in 2020 and 2022 he had final year Drew Brees & Andy Dalton at QB, both of whom posted high accuracy numbers. The difference is startling. With Brees at QB Trautman was targeted only 16 times as a rookie but caught 15 of them. With Dalton he was targeted 22 times & caught 18 passes. Those are exceptionally high percentages. OTOH...with the Winston/Siemian/Hill three headed monster throwing him the ball in 2021, he was targeted 43 times & caught only 27. The same thing was true with Wilson throwing him the ball. He was targeted 35 times & caught only 22. In addition, his other numbers across the board dropped like a stone with the foursome of Winston/Siemian/Hill/Wilson. His quarterback's rating when targeted in 2020 with Brees was 132. In 2021 with the 3-headed monster it plummeted to 85.7 & his drop rate skyrocketed to over 9%. The next year with Dalton his QB rating when targeted jumped back to 121 with a drop rate of only 4.5%. Fast forward to 2023 with Russ...QB rating when targeted dropped back to 95.4. These wild swings of volatility from 47 & 26 point drops in one season are pretty clearly related to who was at QB as opposed to what he was doing. What seems obvious is that Trautman's performance has been related to who played QB as this video makes clear is true for tight ends. It's possible that we have a legitimate stud TE here without knowing it simply because he's not yet been with a QB in Paytons offense when he was both trusted for more targets & getting them from an accurate passer. It's not like Trautman was not productive in college. We know he can catch the ball. He was a high level producer every year he was at Dayton & his senior season he had 70 catches for 914 yards & 14 TDs. Yes...that was small college competition but the point is he can catch the ball. We also know he can block. As a rookie he got PFF's highest blocking score for all NFL tight ends. Put that together with his excellent lateral agility & good hands & that might equal a pretty good starting TE with some stability at the QB spot.

Tony Gonzalez was a first rounder!

I was going to say the bears hit with Cole Kmet but he was taking in the second round😅

Dallas Goedert on the Eagles is underrated as a TE.

Because of how complicated a TE's role is and how they need the right system to flourish, it makes sense that later round TEs will sometimes fare better: They're picked up by better teams / organizations.

goin balls deep into tight ends is insane

Dalton Kincaid is cursed.

No Steelers TE Heath miller was a 1st round pick (pick 30) in 2005

The excitement on your face when you got to say “we go balls deep into tight ends” 😂 It all lead up to this

Kinda helps LaPorta that his HC is a former NFL TE. I mean, that might be something that helps his development ya know

When you are talking about a TE in the first 2 rounds blocking doesn't matter even a little bit. For 3rd round later sure, but first 2 rounds you have one criteria for success and its catching the ball. Any blocking is a bonus.

21:46 I think history shows that Erick All will be the best TE, since he's from Iowa and not projected as a 1st round pick.

It’s crazy how much the college game affects the draft in both football and basketball, more in football obviously, but smaller teams in bball obviously have ti play to strengths to have a hope… I never stopped to think about how a running team would obviously skew the stats for a TE

This is the series I've been waiting for my whole life! Thank you, sir.

Love you BP!!! Been here since the Lawnmower 2.0. Might need to upgrade my mower since it’s been so long

I'm not a Broncos fan so my opinion doesn't mattsr, but Noah Fant not being a Bronco still feels weird, idek why he wasn't there for long

Kincaid looks pretty damn good.

Todd Heap and Vernon Davis are two TE that were pretty good.

Ahh yes, I love that off season Pern is even more unhinged than season Pern.

All of a sudden Eric Ebron can catch ? 😂

18:21 LaPorta was actually thought of as a receiving te and was not sure how he'd do as a blocker. He didn't have good numbers in college because that Iowa offense is terrible

This is a great question I made a mock draft on my channel where bowers went to the jets and I had people say they’re scared of taking a tight end that early or even in the first round at all

“Block” Bowers will be an amazing addition to whatever team he goes to he’s more then just pass catch a true stud

“Balls deep into Tight Ends!” 😮😅😂😆🤣 Laporta was my pet cat for that Draft. Too bad we took Mazi instead. 🥺

Tony Gonzalez is a Hall of Famer

I commend you for going balls deep into tight ends. That can’t be easy.

@thatsgoodsports I massively appreciate the volume of content you’re putting out right now! I’d tell you to slow down if it wasn’t consistently top notch! Get around it, mate. Love from 🇦🇺

Excellent analysis. Sounds like you know your way around big tight ends

Mr. Perna if RU-vid ever bans you, your comedic career is always waiting for you. Thanks for getting a laugh out of me every single vid

what an amazing research team and production team you have !

My boy Heath Miller has 2 super bowl rings and leads his franchise for receiving yards by a TE

Well done again!

Cheetahtron sounds like a Beast Wars character 😂😂😂

That intro is legendary

Good work

Indianapolis Colts, 2003 drafted Dallas Clark from Iowa in the first round of the NFL draft....yes it's worth it!

CheetahTron is a sick name not gonna lie.

Not mentioning the best rookie TE of all time Sam LaPorta is criminal activity.

As a Laporta fantasy owner, I definitely noticed 😂.

Eric Ebron will forever continue to piss me off. He did nothing for Detroit. I'm soooooo glad we have Sam LaPorta

Besides quarterback, tight end might take the longest to develope. It doesn't really make the most sense to draft them in the first round because of that. By the time they fully bloom the 2nd team might be the team that reaps all the benefits.

Eric Ebron went balls deep into Detroit.

David Njoku, TJ Hockensen, Greg Olsen (who Brock resembles but with a higher floor) have worked out A safety blanket like Brock will help out whoever the QB is

There is an obvious answer to the tight end problem. Just draft whatever tight end is coming out of Iowa

Thank god sam laporta just missed the 1st round. Kid is gonna be #1 tight end in the league this year.

Brock Bowers will do something. What he will do is hard to say. He really needs a dynamic OC and tight ends coach and he'll shine.

No one was getting first-team All-Pro over George Kittle in the NFC, but if Hockinson didn't get hurt, he is probably second team All Pro. Since he did get hurt, however, that honor went to Sam LaPorta.

Gronk and Hernandez were a killer combo.

They should expand the all pro TE selections and the pro bowl too

Sam Laporta is an absolute beast. Hope he stays healthy; he could be one of the all time greats.

Laporta had more TDs in year 1 than Pitts has had in 3 season. 😂

One issue is tight ends are very dependent on offensive lines, those that thrive like Kittle and Kelce thrive, others with poor lines don’t see much of this success, Jaguars and Giants

We could have kept Lock, Harris and Fant, taken Surtain anyway then grabbed Garrett Wilson and Kenneth Walker in the 2022 draft. It's been proven Fields and Jones weren't worth their mid first round status and Pickett ain't an upgrade on Lock either, certainly not over getting Garrett Wilson. And who knows, if we'd been looking for a cheap QB we might have grabbed Minshew from the Jags.

Jonnu is a freak too. His top speed on that screen against Minnesota last year was insane

I need a TGS about the Broncos trading for Zach Wilson. You're on the clock, Perna!

I went to Iowa at the same time as Kittle, and I swear a buddy of mine predicted back then that he would break out and be a star in the NFL. Not sure how he saw it as Kittle had a solid but quiet career with the Hawks, but I'm glad he was vindicated (just wish it could have been with the Broncos...).

Tony Gonzalez is a first round TE that worked out

Greg Olsen. Famously of the 7th floor crew at Miami. Quite the tight end but maybe a better rapper?

Tony Gonzalez was a great first round trade up for the Chiefs. Hard to think of another success TE in the first round. Kyle Pitts is the poster child for decent talent drafted way too high.

Why should he be worried about a tight end hit a thousand yards anyway? If a tight end is hitting a thousand yards then there's something really off with the wide receivers core i think

Unrelated to anything, but can we get like monthly Denver meet ups during the season?

This could also be a power of small numbers issue. There are very few tight ends period. And very few drafted in the first round. So the last 10 years doesn't really include that many total players at that position in the first round. The prior 10 years included Dallas Clark, Kellen Winslow Jr., Heath Miller, Vernon Davis, Marcedes Lewis, Greg Olsen. So a small handful that really excelled from 2003-2013 and a small handful that kind of didn't from 2013-2023. So few data points it's hard to draw a long-term pattern or conclusion.

This video reminded me LaPorta was a 2nd round pick, for some reason I thought he was in the 1st round alongside Gibbs. I was so convinced he was breaking that trend of cursed 1st round tight ends that it caught me off guard to realize I was wrong, and instead he's part of the proof being picked in the later rounds is a safer idea. Still is crazy how many Iowa tight ends end up being solid NFL guys.

Woah Perna’s hair grew back fast

I honestly think the tight end position might completely die out eventually. Their contributions blocking aren't exactly needed as much as before, and the top end guys are really just big WRs. Some offensive guy needs to come up with schemes where you just routinely have a tackle eligible and have the "tight end" be just another bulky slot receiver.

We need the video on the new uniforms asap

Why did you have to make any reference to Ebron? It hurts to this day as a lions fan. We didn't need a TE we needed a WR. It hurts to go back and watch the lions drafting Ebron and hearing Mel Kiper say I thought they were going with O'Dell Beckham Jr and know we could have had a WR room with Golden Tate, Calvin Johnson and OBJ buy the lions decided to draft TE who couldn't block with drop issues and promoting Jermey Ross from the practice squad.

You forgot to mention Eric All out of Iowa this year.

Njoku was a good pick especially since the Browns had 3 first round picks that year

Nah always wait til day 2 or sign them when that rookie deal is up / trade for them like vikings did with hock.

Mercedes Lewis, god of blocking. 39 and still trying to play another season. Anyways, Brock Bowers is a big slot/H-back hybrid player.

If the cursed jets take a TE in the first round, do the two curses cancel out or is it just a double curse and business as usual on one jets drive?

I never get tired of your content

The 1st round TE's aren't cursed they are picked for traits and potential sometimes over the ability to play the position. This happens with WR's, DB's, and Safeties also, for this reason a team can get valuable players in later rounds.

Gronk was taken in the 2nd round lol. Crazy.