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32 Observations: Week 14

This week the 32 Observations shift the focus to the tight end position. Last year both Rob Gronkowski and Jimmy Graham burst onto the scene making the tight end position interesting again. This year Jason Witten might be a game away from 100 catches on the season. As always, here are the stats you need to impress your friends, or make them think you’re a nerd… depending on what kind of friends you have.

AFC East

Buffalo Bills: Tight ends aren’t typically the kind of player to run go routes, but Scott Chandler has been the target of 10 of these passes. On them he has eight catches for 157 yards and three touchdowns.

Miami Dolphins: Tight end Anthony Fasano has a Yards Per Route Run of 0.59 when lining up in the slot, which is the lowest for all tight ends with at least 50 pass routes in the slot.

New England Patriots: Rob Gronkowski has 424 receiving yards on first down, which is 93 more than any other tight end. He has done this on 29 catches.

New York Jets: Dustin Keller’s role in the passing game has been wildly inconsistent this season. In the first two games he had one catch each, while in his second two games he had seven catches each. Over this past four, he has found a happy medium of three catches per game.

AFC North

Baltimore Ravens: Dennis Pitta has seven catches on eight targets for 56 yards when lining up in the backfield. The targets and catches are both tied for the most for tight ends, while the amount of yards is second only to Tom Crabtree.

Cincinnati Bengals: Jermaine Gresham has 210 receiving yards on his 15 third-down catches, which is the most in the league.

Cleveland Browns: Ben Watson has averaged a defender missing a tackle on him on 18.9% of his catches, which is the third-highest rate for tight ends with at least 50 targets.

Pittsburgh Steelers: Heath Miller had 14.5 yards per catch while Charlie Batch was the quarterback, and 10.4 yards per catch playing with Ben Roehlisberger.

AFC South

Houston Texans: Since Week 7, Garrett Graham has caught 19 of 23 passes thrown his way for a catch rate of 82.6%. That catch rate is the highest for players with at least 10 targets.

Indianapolis Colts: On Dwayne Allen’s 56 targets, Andrew Luck has had an average time to throw of 3.1 seconds, which is the highest for all tight ends with at least 20 targets.

Jacksonville Jaguars: Of all the tight ends with the second-most yards on their team, Zach Potter has the fewest at 6 on two catches.

Tennessee Titans: On 76.9% of his pass routes, Jared Cook lines up in the slot, which is the highest rate for all tight ends.

AFC West

Denver Broncos: Of all the players with a perfect 100% Pass Blocking Efficiency, Jacob Tamme is the one with the most pass blocking snaps at 39.

Kansas City Chiefs: So far, Tony Moeaki has had more success with Brady Quinn at quarterback than Matt Cassel. With Quinn at quarterback, Moeaki has 10 catches on 13 targets for 153 yards and a touchdown. With Cassel, he has 18 catches on 28 targets for 243 yards, and three drops.

Oakland Raiders: Brandon Myers has 370 receiving yards in the fourth quarter, which leads all tight ends. He has done this on 33 catches, which also leads tight ends.

San Diego Chargers: There have been only 17 times this season where a tight end has recorded multiple touchdowns. Dante Rosario is the only one with a three-touchdown game, which occurred in Week 2.

NFC East

Dallas Cowboys: Jason Witten is by far the most targeted tight end on out routes with 35. It is probably because he is one of the most successful at them, with 30 catches and 266 yards.

New York Giants: Martellus Bennett has 70 or more yards in four games this season. He is one of only four tight ends this year to have that many games of that many yards.

Philadelphia Eagles: Brent Celek has been targeted 12 times behind the line of scrimmage, which leads the league. On those passes he has 10 catches for 57 yards.

Washington Redskins: Logan Paulson has the lowest Pass Blocking Efficiency for all tight ends. He has allowed two sacks and seven hurries, which has led to a PBE of 86.8.

NFC North

Chicago Bears: Kellen Davis has stayed in for pass protection 120 times, which is the most among all tight ends.

Detroit Lions: There have been just 15 times this season where a tight end has been a target of a pass 37 yards in the air or more. Tony Scheffler is the only player in the league with a catch on a pass this deep, and he has two of them. One was a 57-yard catch against the Eagles, and the other was a 39-yard catch against the Colts.

Green Bay Packers: On passes where the time to throw is 1.6 seconds or less, Jermichael Finley has caught all 15 balls thrown his way for 120 yards and a touchdown. The next most catches by any other tight end is seven, and most yards is 67.

Minnesota Vikings: Five of Kyle Rudolph's eight touchdowns have come in the fourth quarter. No other tight end has more than three.

NFC South

Atlanta Falcons: Only 26.0% of Tony Gonzalez's receiving yards have come after the catch, which is the lowest rate for all tight ends with at least 65 targets.

Carolina Panthers: Greg Olsen has 31 targets, 20 catches and 247 yards when he is on the right side of the field. Each of those are league highs.

New Orleans Saints: Jimmy Graham has three games this season with multiple drops, which ties for the league lead.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Over the past four weeks, the Buccaneers have worked on making the tight end a bigger part of their offense. Over the first nine games the Tampa Bay tight ends averaged 3.9 targets per game, but over the past four that has increased to 7.8.  In fact, 46% of Dallas Clark’s targets and 53.8% of Luke Stocker’s targets have come in the past four weeks.

NFC West

Arizona Cardinals: The Cardinals are the only team without a touchdown from their tight ends. Every other team has at least two.

St. Louis Rams: The average team has 6.7 games where a tight end has more than 40 receiving yards. The Rams are the only team without a tight end with a game of more than 40 yards.

San Francisco 49ers: On passes where the time to throw is more than three seconds, Vernon Davis has 12 catches for 209 yards. That yard total is the highest in the league.

Seattle Seahawks: There are only 15 100-yard games by tight ends this year. For 14 of them, the tight end had at least six targets to accumulate the 100 yards. The one exception is this past week, where Anthony McCoy caught all three passes thrown his way for 105 yards.

 

Follow Nathan on Twitter: @PFF_NateJahnke

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