By LEO ROTH
Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. - More tight ends are being drafted, developed and paid well around the NFL these days.

And judging by the current receiving statistics, the tight end definitely justifies the means.

Three of the league's top seven receivers are tight ends and the Kansas City Chief's Tony Gonzalez, the standard bearer at the position for the past five seasons, isn't one of them.

San Francisco's Eric Johnson is second overall in the NFL with 45 catches after just six games, followed by San Diego's second-year star Antonio Gates with 44 and Miami's Randy McMichael with 35.

League wide, there are 14 tight ends with at least 14 catches and a combined 29 touchdowns and that's with young stars Kellen Winslow, Jr. (Cleveland) and Todd Heap (Baltimore) out injured.

There's no question about it; the tight end is back.

"It's great to see," said Buffalo Bills tight end Mark Campbell, who has 10 catches for 135 yards and two touchdowns heading into Sunday's game against the Arizona Cardinals at Ralph Wilson Stadium. "Look at the stat sheets and seeing what the tight ends are doing, and you see some tight ends are getting some balls in good situations. Whatever the case may be, it's good to see for the position because there are good athletes at this spot who can help you win consistently."

The NFL's crackdown on defensive holding and pass interference this year was designed to benefit wide receivers, but the biggest beneficiary may wind up being tight ends.

Since nobody can touch a receiver after five yards from the line of scrimmage, large, athletic tight ends are finding it easier to work against mismatched linebackers in coverage on short- to medium-range passes. Meanwhile, safeties have always given away size to the tight end, and now they've been handcuffed by stricter rules.

Pat Kirwan, senior analyst for NFL.com, observed recently that some coaches are surmising that tight ends can get open deep against a safety a lot easier than a premier wide receiver can get free against a so-called "lockdown" corner. And the middle of the field is often wide open for business these days with more and more teams playing the fabled "cover 2" zone to nullify the threat of getting burned deep by an ever-growing number of talented wideouts.

"Safeties line up deeper than five yards," Kirwan wrote. "On the snap of the ball, they generally backpedal, which means they can never touch the tight end during his route. A defender who is giving away 4 to 6 inches and 40 pounds to a receiver he isn't allowed to touch is a recipe for defensive disaster, and coaches around the league know it."

The Bills are catching on.

Campbell, an imposing 6-foot-6, 260-pound target who had a career-high 34 receptions last season after being acquired in a trade with Cleveland, didn't catch a pass against New England but has latched onto six for 72 yards the past two games.

He has scored two of Buffalo's four red-zone touchdowns and last week against Baltimore made strong 16- and 20-yard catches working against 5-11 strong safety Ed Reed that set up goal-to-go situations. The Bills failed to get touchdowns both times, in part because they forgot what got them down there - Campbell.

"A lot of times you really have to impress on these coaches that you are a capable receiver otherwise you get classified as a blocking tight end and that's all they're going to use you for," said Campbell. He has worked hard to shed that label first placed on him at the University of Michigan to become a dependable player in both roles.

"It's a mentality. You have to prove it in practice and make plays, otherwise you won't get those game opportunities. We've made a couple plays here the last few games. When you're not winning, you're trying to find ways to help and one way I can help is making more plays with the ball."

Coach Mike Mularkey, who played tight end in the NFL for nine years, and quarterback Drew Bledsoe, who set records throwing to Ben Coates in New England, certainly don't need convincing that using Campbell more often is warranted.

That's not only as a red-zone threat but as a quick-developing alternative to assist in keeping Bledsoe off his back (24 sacks).

The tight end is a comforting outlet for young quarterbacks - Arizona's Freddie Jones, whose 380 career catches are second to Gonzalez (494) among active tight ends - has caught 21 passes for Josh McCown. But older, slower quarterbacks need help, too.

"(Mark's) come up with some big plays for us. I know Drew has a lot of confidence in him," Mularkey said.

Bill Walsh's West Coast offense changed the tight end job requirements, putting more athletes onto rosters, Kirwan noted.

The Chiefs' Gonzalez, who has 49 touchdowns since 1997; Jeremy Shockey, an intense competitor who has changed the face of the New York Giants; and Gates all have basketball backgrounds.

The 49ers' Johnson, a seventh-round pick from Yale in 2001, lettered in basketball and volleyball in high school and played on Yale's golf team.

The Bills drafted former Oregon State basketball player Tim Euhus last April to join Ryan Neufeld, who also has a basketball background, as Campbell's backups.

"In the modern game, the tight end has become a major weapon and there is no end in sight to his growth and development," Kirwan wrote. "All over the league, teams are re-evaluating the value of their tight end personnel."

The trend will continue, Mularkey said.

"I think, based on the defenses we're seeing, people are trying to get the ball out of their hands quicker, trying to eliminate as many deep throws and seven-step drops as they can," he said. "The guys that are really (important) are the backs and tight ends and receivers in the short game. The idea is to put the ball in their hands and let them make the yards and tight ends are more capable of doing all of that when trying a quick passing game."

Campbell said that when he learned he was traded to Buffalo, he immediately thought of Coates and his career with Bledsoe. Coates set the NFL record for catches by a tight end in a season with 96 in 1994.

"I'm not putting myself in Ben Coates' category, he was just a superior athlete," he said. "But it was something I envision, getting more balls thrown my way, knowing I'd have a quarterback that does like to throw to the tight end. But it's not something that just happens, you have to build a confidence with the quarterback."

Return to Bengals front page...