Matt Williamson is a former scout for the Cleveland Browns and spent the last 10 years at ESPN as a scout and co-host of "The Football Today Podcast."
How would you build the ideal player? We decided to do exactly that by taking the head, eyes, arm/hands, body, and feet of a great player and assembling the ideal specimen at eight different positions. We also decided that you could only use one aspect of each player - no double dipping allowed. This edition covers tight ends.
If you recall, this former first-round pick entered the league as an athletic receiving tight end, but not much of a blocker. He was traded from the Bears to the Panthers for peanuts when Mike Martz, who notoriously doesn’t utilize tight ends, became Chicago’s offensive coordinator. But Olsen's game has grown.
He isn’t a monster in the run game but has improved a great deal due to his head for the game and work ethic. As a receiver, Olsen defines consistency and has an excellent understanding of where to be in order to be productive, consistent, and proficient.
And of course, Cam Newton relies heavily upon Olsen, who has posted a remarkable three straight 1,000-yard seasons and has played in all 16 games nine years in a row.
At this stage of his illustrious career, Witten certainly could have been selected in the "Head" category as well. He is a master craftsman at his position and has been for quite some time now. But his eyes may be even more outstanding.
He sees blitzers and picks them up quite well as a blocker, or adjusts his route accordingly. He has a great feel for chipping a defensive end and then finding and reaching a linebacker at the second level in the run game. Most importantly, Witten sees the soft spots in coverage with eagle-eye precision.
He clearly doesn’t move or stretch the field as he once did, but Witten sees it all and knows exactly how to get himself in position to receive the football no matter what the coverage or down and distance.
Many took the drafting of O.J. Howard as a slight on Brate. That isn’t the case at all. It's more likely that the Buccaneers didn’t think there was any chance that Howard could fall to them in the draft and just pounced on the best prospect available. That is excellent work by the club.
Howard can be used in many ways, but is more of an inline player than Brate, who is coming off an excellent season in which he clearly established himself as one of Jameis Winston's most trusted receivers. He's so trusted because Brate simply catches everything. He has very sure and sticky hands and can pluck the ball away from his frame.
His role will not be diminishing anytime soon.
We could have plugged Gronkowski's name into every highlighted body part. He's a complete player and, as many have already stated, is slated to go down as the best to ever play his position. While we love the entire package here, how could we not take Gronkowski’s body to build our perfect tight end?
He is huge and strong with big powerful hands and is well-proportioned throughout his massive frame. His size (and much better technique than he gets credit for) allows him to do battle in the trenches as a capable blocker against NFL defensive linemen. He can also tangle with the league’s smaller and highly athletic defensive backs in the passing game.
Gronkowski is a monster.
Reed plays the tight end position like a wide receiver. That isn’t to say Reed doesn’t play with a physical edge through his route or with the ball in his hands; rather, because of his sweet feet, Reed runs routes better than any tight end in football.
He is very sharp in this capacity and explodes out of his cuts. Reed is also one of the best players at his position when moving with the ball. Washington has had some good receiving options over the past few years and looks to have restocked its wide receiver position nicely for Kirk Cousins, but Reed is the straw that stirs the drink in the Redskins' passing game.
Other entries in the series
