Rams’ Tight End Production Among Lowest In NFL

Los Angeles Rams TE Lance Kendricks scored a 15-yard touchdown on Sunday in the Rams’ 28-31 loss to the Detroit Lions, his first of the year and the 16th of his six-year career. It was also the first touchdown of the year for the tight end position for the Rams.

With that in mind, I went ahead and tallied the production of the tight end unit for every NFL team through Week 6. The results honestly surprised me.

I thought the Rams could be the lowest team in the NFL in tight end output, due to the low overall offensive output, but there are four teams who have gained less yards from their tight ends than the Rams: the Denver Broncos, the Green Bay Packers, the Arizona Cardinals and the New York Jets.

The Jets, who boast a tight end group of Brandon Bostick, newly-signed Austin Sefarian-Jenkins, Kellen Davis and Braedon Bowman, have seen their tight ends catch three passes for 26 yards. In six weeks. In the NFL.

Now there’s no real correlation between tight end production and wins...at least not through Week 6 of the 2016 NFL season, but you do have to wonder what the intent is for the Rams at the position moving forward.

The biggest move at the position came in February when the Rams released Jared Cook in February. His exit opened the TE1 slot for Kendricks who re-upped on a four-year deal in 2015. Four months later, the Rams drafted rookies TE Tyler Higbee and Temarrick Hemingway in the 2016 NFL Draft. After being hyped up through most of training camp, Higbee has tallied just one catch on six targets for two yards this season.

So while the unit’s production isn’t necessarily something to decry in 2016, is this the standard we’re going to have moving forward? With other needs developing with more clarity, is a Kenrdricks-Higbee-Hemingway trio set in stone for 2017?

Is that “ok?”