Will Burrow Finally Get His One Missing Ingredient?
Credit: Kareem Elgazzar/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK
A quick open letter to Halle Gesicki: No offense, but Cincinnati Bengals fans need your husband to either start dating a pop star, become a gambling app spokesperson, start a podcast, or possibly become the star of several not-so-flattering documentaries before the start of the 2024 season. Your choice, but time is ticking.
Why? Because if he does, he might just be that one ingredient that Joe Burrow is missing to bring the Lombardi trophy home to the Queen City.
Don’t worry, Mrs. Gesicki, this makes total sense.
Since 2001, there have been several teams – the 2001 Baltimore Ravens, the 2002 to 2019 New England Patriots, the 2021 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the 2020 to 2023 Kansas City Chiefs – that have won Super Bowls, all with something else in common: A tight end that is a major component of their team’s offense.
As noted on Chiefs.com, the 2023 season ended with Kelce not only owning the record for most receptions by any NFL tight end through their first 10 years, but also 600 first-down receptions. That is already the fourth-most by a tight end in NFL history! That helps explain why Kelce’s 984 receiving yards accounted for 23.5% of quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ 4,183 regular season passing yards last season.
But of course, not everyone is Kelce. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have all had to wait four hours on Ticketmaster for The Eras Tour tickets. But in looking at the numbers, it becomes clear that if you wish to make the playoffs, the tight end might be the most crucial element of your offense.
Look at the Baltimore Ravens over the past two seasons. The 2022 Ravens also had a healthy Mark Andrews, who led his team with 847 yards (or 37% of Lamar Jackson’s passing total). In 2023, Andrews only played in 10 regular season games due to injury, but his 544 receiving yards were still third on the team. Maybe they haven’t broken through in the playoffs, but they’re always a contender.
The Detroit Lions were dark-horse darling of the 2023 season, tying for an NFC-leading 12 wins after a mediocre 9-8 record in 2022. What changed? Enter rookie tight end Sam LaPorta, whose 889 receiving yards accounted for nearly 20% of the team’s passing offense. Yes, LaPorta got 10 touchdown grabs, standing out even with Pro Bowl wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown getting a whopping 164 targets.
They say numbers never lie and a continuation of this premise would tend to back this up more than not. What about the San Francisco 49ers, who made the Super Bowl last year? Loaded at the skill positions for sure, as Brandon Aiyuk, Christian McAffrey, and the dual threat of Deebo Samuel are all on the roster.
With all that talent, it might surprise some to learn that TE George Kittle’s 1,020 yards were just 97 fewer than Samuel’s combined output of rushing/receiving yards. Even the Houston Texans, who made the playoffs behind the impressive season of rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud, utilized Dalton Schultz (635 yards, five touchdowns) to the point he became their third-leading receiver.
And that brings us back to the Bengals. The Bengals’ 2023 tight end core consisted of Tanner Hudson, Drew Sample, Irv Smith Jr, and Mitchell Wilcox. Their combined receiving total was 686 yards – or just 51 yards more than Schultz had in Houston.
Other teams that had one tight end who posted more receiving yards than the Bengals’ quartet did in 2023? The Dallas Cowboys’ Jake Ferguson (761), the Cleveland Browns’ David Njoku (882), the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Evan Engram (963), the Chicago Bears’ Cole Kemet (719), the Minnesota Vikings’ T.J. Hockenson (960), the Arizona Cardinals Trey McBride (825), and of course, Kittle and Kelce.
Add in the teams with a single tight end within 100 yards of the Bengals quartet, and the picture is as ugly as Carson Palmer’s knee injury after his 2005 Wild Card game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
So, while some might want to argue about the evidence like they’re in an episode of “Law & Order,” the fact remains: The Bengals, who haven’t had a Pro Bowl tight end since 2015 and only two since 1989, must find a way to make the tight end a viable weapon in their offense.
Playoff teams in today’s NFL utilize the tight end for more than blocking and decoys; they are a viable option in the passing game. The Bengals should know this, as their 2021 Super Bowl season saw C.J. Uzomah have a career year with 493 receiving yards and five touchdowns – that is, one more touchdown and just 193 fewer yards than the production of last year’s tight end quartet.
The team has never had a 1,000-yard tight end, one of 13 teams in the NFL who have still not had one. It might not be a surprise, given the trends we’ve read about that many of the franchises that skipped the TE1K Party along with Cincinnati — the Arizona Cardinals, Buffalo Bills, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, and Jacksonville Jaguars — make up six of the 12 teams to have never won a Super Bowl. That’s one convincing Venn Diagram.
Cincinnati doesn’t need 1,000 yards from a tight end to get that Super Bowl win, but it’d sure be nice to have a threat in the middle of the field. Whether it’s presumed starter Mike Gesicki, or maybe rookie tight ends Erick All or Tanner McLachlan, someone needs to step up. We’re not picky! For the sake of Burrow and everyone else, Cincinnati must have someone prove that they’re that missing ingredient that their passing game desperately needs.
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