All eye’s are on Buccaneer’s QB Tom Brady, chasing his 7th super bowl ring in a matchup against his ‘successor’ and a person who will lead the charge as the new face of the league, Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes. However whilst that in itself is great my eyes are drawn to the matchup between two revolutionary players who helped define what a modern Tight end is all about.
The meaning of playing at the Tight End (TE) position in the NFL has become somewhat of a blur in the modern age of the league. What really is this position? People see it as a big athletic Wide Receiver (WR) who can also help in the blocking game, good at everything but master of none.
Travis Kelce has took over the reigns from Gronkowski and is now displaying what it means to be play at Tight End in the modern NFL. The key to success within this Chiefs offense is creating defensive mismatches and then punishing the defense with the opposite to what they do. Travis Kelce simply being on the field makes him too fast for linebackers to guard and too big for defensive backs to guard. That has always been the philosophy behind a Tight End.
We have seen for years the success of traditional play at the Tight End position by great players like 49ers Tight End, George Kittle, who really exceed in every discipline from route running and catching to helping block for the running game. A big reason that attributed towards the success of the 49ers team last year was their ability to run the ball. Having great Tight End’s who can block and catch only makes the defense have more scenarios that they could have to react to. You’ll be having a defense who’s primary focus will be to watch out for the run game and then when they are doing that can punish them with big yardage on the pass which we saw last year with George Kittle racking up over 1053 yards.
When I look at this Chiefs offense the whole philosophy of this offense and its ability to score so often boils down to the connection and drastic difference between three key players. A dynamic QB in Patrick Mahomes who you can not take your eyes off of otherwise you will miss something truly spectacular. TE Travis Kelce, a freak athlete who causes defensive mismatches and is almost unguardable. And one of the fastest players in the league who will make defensive backs question their very existence in Tyreek Hill. These three players all contribute to this teams success and the big threat who changes games is Travis Kelce at the TE position.
It’s kind of silly that we undervalue this position so much, you look at most Super bowl contending teams and their TE is always a good player. Its a constantly evolving position that is so hard to be great at as their is many things that you have to be good at. Many plays that have three TE’s minimum, at least two of them will just be good at blocking and not as good as catching or route running which strips the position down to barebones. Its pretty simple I think what makes this position important and that is that you have to be great at everything to do with the game otherwise you just become predictable and then your magic has been lost and your just seen as a regular football player then. It’s why you can make a list of top 10 Wide receivers and can struggle where to put who in the list as it’s such a close race. With Tight End’s you might as well list the top three or four instead of top 10 as there is a big drop off after that compared to any position in the sport.
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