All eight of the remaining teams in the 2024 NFL playoffs have one commonality -- they possess a capable receiver ... at tight end.
Over the past decade, the NFL finally welcomed analytics, and clubs collectively realized throwing was the most efficient way to move the football. Because of that, GMs prioritized not only having one, or two, but three quality wideouts.
The latest plan to stay ahead of the curve -- and in this case, the "curve" can be equated simply to "opposing defenses" -- team-builders and offensive coordinators have leaned into "12 personnel," a two-tight end, one-running back, two-receiver grouping that traditionally has hinted at a run play.
In the 2023 regular season, there were 1,271 more 12 personnel plays in the NFL than the 2018 regular season. Huge disparity.
And while the history of the NFL cannot be told without the tight end -- heck, it predates the wide receiver -- there are just more athletically capable large human beings now at the position that blurs the line between wideout and running back.
The eight teams left in the playoffs have many of them.
Of course, Chiefs star Travis Kelce remains the headliner. George Kittle of the 49ers is also elite. So is Mark Andrews. Dalton Schultz has proven his ascension in Dallas was no fluke this season with the Texans.
Then there's a group of youngsters -- Lions first-year pro Sam LaPorta has rocked in Detroit. Dalton Kincaid has become an integral piece to the Bills pass game. After Andrews went down in November, second-year tight end Isaiah Likely moved up the target-pecking order in Baltimore and has thrived.
For the Packers, it's two rookies, Tucker Kraft and Luke Musgrave. And even Buccaneers tight end Cade Otton finished the regular season second on Tampa Bay in receiving touchdowns with four. He had eight snags for 89 yards in the wild-card win over the Eagles.
Here's how those 10 tight ends produced on average during the regular season:
| Catches | Receiving Yards | TDs | |
|---|---|---|---|
Playoff star tight ends | 56.3 | 633.6 | 4.6 |
And that's with Andrews missing the final six games for the Ravens, meaning those averages are lower than they reasonably would've been had Andrews stayed fully healthy.
For perspective on those numbers, the average catch and receiving yard totals are almost identical to the production from Cowboys wideout Brandin Cooks this past season. And only 41 wideouts caught more than four touchdowns before the playoffs.
These eight teams have gotten Cooks-level pass-game productivity from their tight ends with the bonus of their presence on the field suggesting a run play. Now you can really tell -- major offensive boost.
The highlighted tight ends hail from essentially every draft position. Kincaid is the only former first-rounder. LaPorta and Musgrave were picked in Round 2. Kelce, Andrews and Kraft, third-rounders. Schultz, Otton and Likely went in Round 4. Kittle, the latest-drafted member of the group, went in Round 5.
After the proliferation of the No. 2 and No. 3 receivers, the NFL is now experiencing a proliferation at another position -- tight end -- especially for the best teams in the league.
Counting the playoffs, seven of the eight remaining teams are in the top 10 of expected points added (EPA) per drop back, and all of them are in the top 13. Outside of the Packers, each offense has a tight end in the top two on their squad of either catches, receiving yards, or receiving touchdowns. How about that?
Receivers remain the highlighted players on every offense, and rightfully so. But given their natural hybrid ways and how they keep a defense guessing "run or pass?" it should come as no surprise the tight end is vital for the game's most successful offenses on the most successful teams.
