Through Week 5, here’s the NFL’s rookie tight end receiving leaderboard:
- Harrison Bryant (4th round, Browns): 11 targets, 7 catches, 59 yards, 1 TD
- Adam Trautman (3rd round, Saints): 3 targets, 3 catches, 34 yards
- Cole Kmet (2nd round, Bears): 3 targets, 1 catch, 12 yards
Four other players, including Packers third-rounder Josiah Deguara, are tied with Kmet in having one catch.
2020 was considered a weak draft class for tight ends, which probably makes an impact here. But last year, through the first five weeks of the season, the top four rookie tight ends were:
- Noah Fant (1st round, Broncos): 16 targets, 12 catches, 136 yards, 1 TD
- T.J. Hockenson (1st round, Lions): 19 targets, 11 catches, 166 yards, 2 TDs
- Dawson Knox (3rd round, Bills): 18 targets, 10 catches, 156 yards, 1 TD
- Foster Moreau (4th round, Raiders): 11 targets, 10 catches, 97 yards, 1 TD
So while rookie tight ends usually face a steep learning curve, a handful of them usually break through to make an early – if still limited – impact in the passing game. And it’s not just first round picks.
But check out the rookie tight end learderboard for the entire 2011 season, which like 2020 did not have an offseason program for rookies to build a foundation:
- Kyle Rudolph (2nd round, Vikings): 39 targets, 26 receptions, 249 yards, 3 TDs
- Rob Housler (3rd round, Cardinals): 26 targets, 12 receptions, 133 yards
- Jordan Cameron (4th round, Browns): 13 targets, 6 receptions, 33 yards
- Colin Cochart (undrafted, Bengals) 9 targets, 4 catches, 44 yards, 1 TD
- Lee Smith (5th round, Bills): 4 targets, 4 catches, 11 yards
- Virgil Green (7th round, Broncos): 5 targets, 3 catches, 24 yards
- Kevin Brock (undrafted, Bills): 2 targets, 2 catches, 27 yards
- Five players with one catch
One of those players with one catch was Julius Thomas, a fourth-round pick of the Denver Broncos, whose tight ends coach was Clancy Barone – who’s now the Bears’ tight ends coach.
“The worst thing you can do with any young player is just assume that that is not important, to grow and have time to get their feet wet and develop,” Barone said. “And that’s hard. I think back to when I had Julius Thomas in Denver. Julius came in and he went on to break Shannon Sharpe’s single-season touchdown record with the Broncos. Not once, but he broke it twice. In his first 24 starts in the NFL, he had 24 touchdowns. But it took him three years to get that first NFL start. People don’t remember that.”
“It’s not gonna take Cole three years to get his first NFL touchdown, I can promise you that.”