- 22 hours ago
For a position group of the day, Grant & Danny analyze the Commanders' tight end room.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Eight days from now, training camp will unofficially get underway for the commanders.
00:05That's next Friday.
00:07And then veterans are going to report Tuesday, July 28th, which is really when things are going to kick off
00:12for real.
00:13Welcome back, Grant and Danny on the fan.
00:15With that in mind, our countdown to the season continues with our position group of day.
00:36Today, we'll be discussing the tight end position, which I would say involves lesser competition for roster spots and roles
00:45than a lot of other positions on the team.
00:48Because we kind of have a feel for who's going to be lined up where and how guys might be
00:52used.
00:54Chikikonkwo was the big offseason addition at tight end.
00:56And he's going to be the Y, the guy that moves around, that catches a lot of the passes.
01:01John Bates is their lead blocker at the tight end position.
01:04He is going to be a guy that is at the line of scrimmage, doing a lot of the pushing
01:09and pulling and helping them out as a big blocking tight end.
01:13Ben Sinnott is the wild card in this whole thing.
01:15How does he get used?
01:16He's a hybrid.
01:17He can block.
01:18He can catch.
01:19But he hadn't really gotten a chance to get the ball in the open field at all.
01:22Does that change with a new offense?
01:25David Blau calling the plays.
01:26Colson Yankoff flashed.
01:28At minicamp, he's more athletic than Sinnott.
01:30He's a college free agent two years ago who's hung around.
01:34And then a guy that they mention all the time is Lawrence Cager at a really, really good training camp
01:38last year.
01:39He's caught touchdowns in the NFL.
01:41He's kind of the fifth guy in the org right now.
01:43But he's someone that when they name tight ends, they always name him.
01:46Yeah, he's the name check guy.
01:48You know, it's the first receiver that gets mentioned by Dan Quinn is always Van Jefferson.
01:51And the tight end they mention is Lawrence Cager.
01:54So this is an interesting spot.
01:55You go back to last year, non-Zach Gertz division.
01:57This was 24 catches and 237 yards among three tight ends.
02:03That was Sinnott.
02:04That was Bates.
02:05And that was Yankoff, whom you just mentioned.
02:07Gertz himself went 50 for 504 in 13 games before the injury.
02:11Sort of on a 60 catch, 62 catch, 620 yard pace or so.
02:16I think given their personnel, you want more than that from Chica Conquo.
02:21I think the whole point of going out in free agency and getting this guy is going, he can do
02:24more than he's done in years past in Tennessee in a pretty bad situation with terrible quarterbacking, non-innovative offense,
02:30a pretty limited group.
02:32This is somebody that we think can do some catch and run.
02:34But I don't think he's a great in-line blocker.
02:36So you're going to see a lot of two tight ends with Bates kind of being the blocking guy, a
02:40Conquo being the get-out-of-jail guy.
02:42Yeah, I'm curious to see how that works out.
02:44I think you're right.
02:46Chica Conquo in multiple tight end sets is the F.
02:49And that is your pass catcher.
02:51Split him out at receiver.
02:53Put him in the slot.
02:54That's your move him around.
02:55Big, wide receiver kind of tight end role.
02:58And that turns John Bates into the Y, the in-line, the blocker type.
03:02I think when there's one tight end on the field, I think it will be Chig more than people think,
03:05though.
03:06Because it can't be the tell of when he's out there, they're just going to be an 11 or they're
03:11going to be using him as a receiver.
03:12So my guess is they actually have him block a little bit more as an in-line guy than people
03:18maybe anticipate.
03:19But you're right.
03:20In the grand scheme of things, it is what it is.
03:22Like, John Bates is your blocker.
03:23That's your Y.
03:25Chica Conquo is your receiver.
03:27That's your F or whatever they're going to call it in their offense.
03:30I think Ben Sinnott's the hybrid.
03:32He's the most interesting guy to me, though.
03:34And maybe that's where we can ask for people to chime in.
03:39Let's set expectations for each of these players.
03:41But what is reasonable for Ben Sinnott?
03:44Logan and I were talking about tight ends on Take Command last week.
03:48And he said something to the effect of, I think Ben Sinnott's actually going to play well.
03:52I think the offense is really good for him.
03:54I think he's really going to break out.
03:56People are going to be happy with what they see.
03:57And then he said something like, he'll catch 25 or 30 balls.
04:01And I was like, well, damn.
04:03I mean, if that's what we're talking about as a gigantic win for Ben Sinnott, that's super disappointing.
04:07That's not what second-round picks do.
04:09But maybe that ship is sailed because where do the targets come from?
04:13You've got a quarterback who scrambles and runs a lot as it is.
04:16So there's naturally more dropbacks that turn into scrambles and runs than is generally the case.
04:21So you water down the number of targets for guys.
04:23Then we've heard that Terry McLaurin's going to be treated a little bit like Justin Jefferson in the Kevin O
04:28'Connell offense or Pukunikua in the Sean McVay offense where it goes through him and he gets a ton of
04:33targets.
04:34So, okay, he's your wide receiver one.
04:37Chigakonkwo will clearly and easily be their number one targeted tight end.
04:41They went out and spent almost $9 million a year on him for a reason.
04:44So now you start to go down the depth chart and you're like, who's your wide receiver two?
04:48Does the running back catch the ball?
04:50There's just not that many passes to go around.
04:53So in a world where Terry's healthy, Chig's healthy, Jaden's running around, 30 catches for Ben Sinnott probably is a
05:00pretty decent breakout.
05:01And it just means that the second-round label needs to be done away with.
05:07It's never going to work out.
05:08But they're not going to get what any of us thought we were going to get out of a receiver,
05:12but he can still be a helpful player in his role.
05:15So an underrated, I don't want to say story because it's not a story, but an underrated kind of stat
05:18that I keep coming back to here, Jeeps, is two years ago, this team had over 500 passing targets to
05:24divvy up among their receivers.
05:26Last year it was only 432.
05:28And it's not because they threw it less or whatever percentage.
05:31Those things vary.
05:32It's 63% one year, 57% the next year.
05:34Those things don't matter.
05:35What matters is effectiveness.
05:36If this offense is good, there's just more.
05:39Everybody gets to eat more often.
05:40More first downs, more chains moving, more targets, more second down catches, third down catches, more opportunities on all the
05:46downs.
05:46Because you're running more plays, you're staying on the field.
05:49Because you run more plays, you stay on the field.
05:50So if this offense is good, last year everybody's numbers were watered down.
05:54In addition to the fact that McLaurin's hurt and they weren't any good, and you don't have Jaden Daniels who
05:58are not staying on the field, but everybody's numbers suffered as a result of that.
06:02It doesn't sound like much.
06:03Which 70 targets, or 70 plus targets rather, over the course of 16 or 17 games, it's five more throws
06:09per game.
06:09That's your top five receivers eat one time less per game.
06:13That really knocks your stats down a little bit.
06:14So let's say they get back to that north of 500 target window.
06:18I expect Chico Concord to go north, well north, frankly, of that 79, or excuse me, 70 target range which
06:25he was in in Tennessee.
06:26I think that number's probably in the 80s.
06:28I think you can expect 60-some catches from him.
06:31In which case, who else is eating at that tight end spot?
06:34That's the variable to me.
06:35Because I don't know how often we'll see Senate.
06:37I don't know what they think of Cager.
06:39I don't know, you know, Yankov to me is more exciting.
06:41I think he's kind of another version to me of Okonkwo, different players, different bodies, but the exciting receiver of
06:47the tight end position.
06:48And I don't know where Senate fits into that.
06:51It's going to be fascinating.
06:52At this point, if you get 20 catches from Ben Senate, it means, you know, Okonkwo missed a game or
06:57two, which is normal.
06:59And, you know, he's somewhere on the depth chart.
07:01He's part of the mix.
07:02Versus, you know, he caught one fake punt in 2024.
07:06You know?
07:06Like, to me, that's kind of where it is.
07:08And you're right.
07:09He never lives up to the second-round billing.
07:10Yeah.
07:10I mean, you look at passing attempts in the league.
07:12There are teams that threw it 600 times.
07:15But there's no reason to believe Washington would be that team.
07:17The thing you didn't mention that I think also should be acknowledged is I believe that they want to be
07:23a run-first team.
07:24You don't go the way that they did this offseason, heavily investing into your defense.
07:28If you're not also planning on then updating your offense to be a little bit more like...
07:34To reflect that.
07:35The ones that better complement that defense, right?
07:38So that means running the football.
07:40I also think they're going to try to have Jaden Daniels run the ball less.
07:43One of the reasons they're going away from the Kingsbury scheme.
07:46One of the ways to do that is to not have him drop back as much.
07:49Because he's naturally going to have one of the highest scramble rates in the league pulling the ball down and
07:54running.
07:54So that means actually just giving him the direct assignment of handing the ball off.
07:58So all of those things are factors.
08:00So if you go more carries and maybe this complementary style where your defense is a little bit better theoretically
08:08and so the offensive scheme shifts.
08:10I think let's say mid-500s attempts is reasonable enough if Jaden were to play 16, 17 games.
08:17Let's say 525 pass attempts.
08:19Well, we're talking about like 150 range for Terry McLaurin if they're serious about 10 or so per.
08:26Because he's not going to get to 170, 180.
08:28But let's just say it's around 150.
08:29If a Conquo ends up having the big year that you and I are anticipating, which is like 80 to
08:34100 targets.
08:35I mean that's half of your targets right there for those two guys possibly.
08:40And I think that's how they'd like to live in this offense.
08:42Now you include players like Antonio Williams and Luke McCaffrey or whoever ends up being the second receiver, Traylon Burks
08:49or Jalen Lane.
08:50Dumping the ball off to running backs I think will be turned up in this offense.
08:54I certainly hope it is.
08:55And you're right.
08:56It's just there aren't that many bowls to go around down the depth chart at tight end.
09:00Who gets more targets, Bates or Sinnott?
09:02Probably Bates because he's on the field more.
09:05And you have to do that every once in a while to keep people honest, right?
09:07Because to your point, there's been way too much over the years, regardless of who the OC has been, of
09:12telegraphing.
09:13All right, guys, our running package is in the game.
09:15And at some point, you've got to be able to throw it out of that.
09:17You're not going to major in that, but do it just enough to keep people honest.
09:20I think they're going to do a lot of two tight ends.
09:23That's what's in vogue right now in the NFL.
09:25Look at what the success the Rams just had and everybody else.
09:27With the Rams, though, what's in vogue really is 13, which is three tight ends.
09:31Well, yeah.
09:32And if they do that, I mean, everyone does two tight ends a lot.
09:35Washington, frankly, did that all of last year.
09:37The 12 is like the old thing.
09:38Now the new thing is 13.
09:40How much of that will they do?
09:42I don't know.
09:42But that provides a chance, at least if Ben Sinnott's out there, on some of those play action shots
09:48where all three tight ends are running routes and they really heavy have linebackers running
09:53with Sinnott and Bates or whatever.
09:55Now you could possibly get those guys getting a step on a linebacker and getting them the football.
09:59But I think it's true that Sinnott could have his best season and will have his best season
10:05in this offense just because they care more about getting the ball to tight ends.
10:08And also, it's just never going to happen the way I wanted it to.
10:11To me, when you draft a guy in the second round, he eventually becomes like a 50-catch,
10:15500-yard player as a floor.
10:17And when they went out and signed Chig, those days were done.
10:20And they should have, by the way.
10:21Oh, yeah.
10:21I shouldn't have sat here and waited and gone, let's give Ben Sinnott a chance.
10:24Uh-uh.
10:25Chig Akanko should be their top option at tight end.
10:28And Sinnott can get in where he fits in.
10:30But if you're talented and skilled and you are actually really good after the catch,
10:34which was the skill at Kansas State, then that's a good asset.
10:38That's a really nice piece to have as your third tight end in the room.
10:42I'm with you, though.
10:43Colson Yankoff has flashed.
10:44He's had some good moments.
10:45He seems to be just a more athletic, better weapon than Sinnott in the league so far.
10:51We've seen him even on special teams, the way he can run and cover.
10:55He can move.
10:56He was a running back at one point in time and a quarterback at the beginning of his college career.
11:00He's a really good athlete.
11:01I wouldn't mind including him and just seeing what that looks like, too.
11:04Same here.
11:04Again, if you're not going to have the receivers that I want,
11:08you need to have a matchup advantage somewhere.
11:10That may be the spot, honestly.
11:11Like Colson Yankoff against your third linebacker.
11:14That might be an advantage.
11:15Again, I always go back to what the Patriots did before we knew what Aaron Hernandez was.
11:21But when they had him and Gronkowski, they were just destroying people.
11:25You went nickel, they knocked you into next week.
11:26If you tried to cover them with linebackers, they killed you.
11:29I wanted that.
11:29We could never seem to figure it out here when they had Cooley and Fred Davis.
11:33It was either one or the other, it seemed like.
11:35They could never maximize.
11:36I think we're smart enough now with David Blau and company to go,
11:39where are we best suited?
11:40It's probably not with Traylon Burks trying to beat Quinion Mitchell in coverage.
11:44Maybe it is with Colson Yankoff against their third cornerbacked out physical
11:49or their dime linebacker or something like that.
11:51Maybe that's where the sort of secret sauce is.
11:54Let's open up the phones next.
11:56800-636-1067.
11:59That's 800-636-1067.
12:02How do we see the tight end spot for Washington developing at camp?
12:08Position group a day.
12:09Today, we're zeroing in on tight end, getting your thoughts on the fans.
Comments