Friday, September 10, 1999SEASON PREVIEW: TIGHT ENDS
Tight ends missing in action
BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati EnquirerCoach Bruce Coslet has made no bones about emphasizing the tight ends more this season. Or why they had virtually no numbers during the exhibition season.
Tony McGee, Marco Battaglia and Steve Bush combined for just four catches and only one in the last three games.
“Tell them to get open,” Coslet said.
The Bengals opened the door for McGee to leave after this season when they signed Battaglia to a long-term deal. The club has noticed how McGee's catches dwindled from a career high of 55 catches in '95 to 38, 34, and 22 the last three seasons.
Battaglia has just 30 career catches, but he's never missed a game in his three seasons despite being busy the last two years on special teams.
He was tied for the team lead in special teams snaps in '97 before leading the unit last year with 317. The club believes Battaglia has become a good enough blocker that he can take the starting job next season.
Bush is viewed by some in the organization as the most complete tight end on the team when it comes to catching and blocking.
With Greg Truitt out for the year with a knee injury, Bush becomes the long snapper, a job he did five games last season when Truitt was hurt.
The production of the tight end has always been a telltale sign if Coslet's offense is working.
On the 1988 Super Bowl team, Pro Bowler Rodney Holman was second on the team with 39 catches and third with 527 yards. On the '96 Bengals that scored the most points of the decade with 372, McGee had 38 catches for an 11.7-yard average, nearly matching the 11.8 average of wide receiver Carl Pickens.
Last year, McGee had 22 catches while the team struggled to 268 points, fourth lowest in the NFL.
Here's a little nugget about McGee. He caught 93 passes in 1995-6, when his old head coach at Michigan — Gary Moeller — coached the Bengal tight ends.
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Tight ends missing in action