[QuikSand]

Position Focus: Tight End

In past years, the Chili Dogs have lined up in a lot of 3-WR sets, and have made real efforts to move the ball downfield using our wideouts as the primary engines for our passing game. In our initial few seasons, we rarely used a TE on the field at all, generally running with three or even four wide receivers and one or two backs.

With the signing of Clyde Rego as a free agent in 2006, we started working him into the mix a bit more – a solid veteran tight end, he caught 45, 41, and 65 passes in his three seasons as a starter for us, allowing a reasonable shift toward more TE usage than before. Through that time, our backup has been journeyman Clay Lannon – generally my ideal backup TE, who has good special teams skills, can do the long snapping, and has a positional affinity with our leader. (The position leader, Joel Connell, is himself a TE and special teamer, incidentally, and he has a roster spot sewn up, as he is the centerpiece for massive affinity gains within the WR/TE group)

This offseason, we acquired FB Bill Wunderlich by trade, which complicates things a bit. He is probably the most talented guy in our backfield now, even with the signing of Bill briner to be our main duty back. So, how to best use Wunderlich? Using him at the fullback position per se probably means he catches a fair number of underneath passes, but doesn’t contribute a lot to our actual success. I have had success with using a quality FB in more of an H-back role, slotting him at TE, in another league, and I envision a similar role here for Wunderlich.

So, amidst this change, we have another variable. We brought in a few new bodies at FB or TE for training camp, and it looks like we have one more mouth to feed. TE Robert Cooper was a pretty well-developed tight end who slipped through the draft, and largely because he projected to have an affinity with Connell, we brought him aboard to give him a look. He gave us an immediate bump up, and then another in training camp, and now looks like a pretty intriguing prospect at 27/44.


For a team that once basically shunned the TE position, we are now looking at ways to get multiple tight ends onto the field. Rookie Brent Sedor, also, is limited to only 8 formations at this point (after missing a training camp specifically designed to help him) so we probably need to make use of the ones he does know – including the 2TE pro set. Right now, I think our best talent to put on the field there is probably Wunderlich at TE1 and Rego at TE2. Robert Cooper, though, is an intriguing enough prospect that slotting him at TE2 might make more sense, on a team that’s trying to look a little more long term.

So… Connell makes the team, and the promising rookie Cooper definitely does as well. That leaves both our returning veterans, Rego and Lannon, in limbo. Both guys are affinity contributors, Rego still has pretty decent skills (49/54 overall by my scout) and there’s not urgency to cut either guy. But I know cut-downs are coming, and we’ll have to find six or eight victims from this team.

I think we may shop Rego, and if we can get a draft pick for him, he might go. If not, then the plan may be to cut Lannon, and go into the season with three affinity tight ends, all competing for playing time behind a FB slotted as the TE1 starter.