Anybody else concerned about our TE's?

The TE from Pitt looks like a great pass catching TE, think he will definitely contribute, may be even more athletic than Hockenson. They also picked up two UDFA TEs. Think we will be in good shape there.

JR44 wrote:
The TE from Pitt looks like a great pass catching TE, think he will definitely contribute, may be even more athletic than Hockenson.  They also picked up two UDFA TEs.  Think we will  be in good shape there.

It would be nice if that's the case, but we are talking about a 6th round unproven rookie. I'd like more of a sure thing behind Hock

the Vikings have 16.8 in call space.

Depends who gets cut on June 1.

I don't think the Vikings are done in free agency. And Kwesi could also make some trades.

Well see?

supafreak84 wrote:

It would be nice if that's the case, but we are talking about a 6th round unproven rookie. I'd like more of a sure thing behind Hock

6th rounder in a very deep TE class. The depth of the position in this years draft likely pushed some talent further down the boards than most years and TE is not a position that teams typically carry as many players at so that may be a factor as well.

Mattyman wrote:
the Vikings  have 16.8  in call space.

Depends who gets cut on June 1.

I don't think the Vikings are done in free agency. And Kwesi could also make some trades.

Well see?

supafreak84 wrote:
This is a mild concern for me when looking at our roster. We lack another true pass catching option at the position behind Hockenson..Oliver has never caught more than 22 passes in a season and is known as more of an in-line blocker. Behind him we have the rookie 6th round pick from Pitt, Bartholomew, who nobody knows about but would be safe in assuming any impact from him would be minimal. You lose Hockenson for any amount of time and the entire position itself is rendered useless from a threat standpoint. I'm seeing some interesting names being floated out as potential trade options like Johnnu Smith and Kyle Pitts. I would certainly explore those options if I was Kwesi. 

Anybody else feel the same?

Not really. Sure it would be great to have proven talent three deep at every position, but that's not how it works. Hockenson is one of the best pass catching TEs in the league. Oliver is one of the best blockers in the league, but is also no slouch catching the ball.  If you compare it to last year, we simply replaced Mundt and Muse with a 6th round draft pick (Bartholomew) and one of my favorite UDFAs in Ben Yurosek. I'm good with that. 

Far more concerned about Safety relying so much on 36-year-old Harrison Smith, and Theo Jackson, a guy who's never once started an NFL game. Add RB to that as well, where we're woefully thin. And to a much lesser degree RG. Almost hate to say it, but Will Fries was a 7th round draft pick. For three seasons, he was league average. He got paid due to 5 games in 2024 where he played at an almost elite level before he broke his leg. Did his light come on? Or was this just an outlying stretch of good games that even Brandel and Cleveland can point to?

I think we have 2 very good TEs and should find a good 3rd in the 3 rookies added via draft and UDFA. As stated above we are replacing Mundt and Muse with younger guys. That's football, players are constantly being replaced by younger cheaper options.

I have more concerns about the D.backfield.

My biggest TE concern isn't depth but rather about Hock ever returning to pre- injury form.

Not really. Was thinking about the NFL in general. I can name about 7-8 TE. After that a list of nobody's. Can't tell you who plays TE for GBay or the Bears

MaroonBells wrote:

Not really. Sure it would be great to have proven talent three deep at every position, but that's not how it works. Hockenson is one of the best pass catching TEs in the league. Oliver is one of the best blockers in the league, but is also no slouch catching the ball.  If you compare it to last year, we simply replaced Mundt and Muse with a 6th round draft pick (Bartholomew) and one of my favorite UDFAs in Ben Yurosek. I'm good with that. 

I suppose from an optics/players standpoint you are correct. I'll disagree on Oliver though, who I think is pedestrian at best as a pass catcher. Stiff, doesnt run great routes and wont outrun anybody. If he becomes TE1 with some late round/undrafted guys sprinkled in behind him, I think we are in trouble and takes away a big aspect of the offense. I think this is definitely a position that could see some movement prior to the start of the season..

JR44 wrote:
The TE from Pitt looks like a great pass catching TE, think he will definitely contribute, may be even more athletic than Hockenson.  They also picked up two UDFA TEs.  Think we will  be in good shape there.

So we lost both Muse and Mundt in Free Agency.
Both were serviceable.  Clearly. 
We still have Hock and Oliver.

So let's do a quick review of the other TEs on the roster (5 total):

Gavin Bartholomew, 6'4", 245 lbs.
6th round pick - Started 41 games at Pittsburgh
Career:  105 receptions for 1,257 yards
Teammate of Jordan Addison in the year Addison won the Fred Biletnikoff Award (before transferring to USC)
Strong in-line blocker (for run game)
Fluid receiver, needs work on exact route-running

Ben Yurosek, 6'4" 245 lbs
UDFA-Possibly made a strategic mistake by switching from Stanford to Georgia. 
Went from 108 receptions at Stanford to only 15 at Georgia his senior year.
As a sophomore at Stanford, his 15.3 YPC ranked 3rd among all Power-5 TEs in the country.
All-Pac 12 second team or honorable mention all three years at Stanford.

Bryson Nesbit, 6'5" 238 lbs
UDFA - played 4 seasons at North Carolina, set program records for TE TD-catches (13)
107 receptions, 1,510 yards 
All-ACC first team
NFL Combine invitee

In my limited view, I see at minimum both potential Muse & Mundt replacements here...2 out of the three seem realistic.

All my TE concerns for this season, as I'm likely overstating, are that Hock is basically spending half of each practice (and many days on his own) catching passes from the JUGS machine and anyone willing to throw them; his hands remind me of our first season with Shiancoe.

supafreak84 wrote:

I suppose from an optics/players standpoint you are correct. I'll disagree on Oliver though, who I think is pedestrian at best as a pass catcher. Stiff, doesnt run great routes and wont outrun anybody. If he becomes TE1 with some late round/undrafted guys sprinkled in behind him, I think we are in trouble and takes away a big aspect of the offense. I think this is definitely a position that could see some movement prior to the start of the season..

You have to think about it in context with the rest of the league. Half the league has TE1s whose name you don't even know. Ours is a 2X Pro Bowler who's still only 27. Our TE2 isn't just a good blocker, over the past two seasons his run blocking grade ranks 2nd in the league behind only George Kittle. Behind that, sure, we have some turnover. I liked Nick Muse as a developmental guy, but he was a 7th round pick who was 26 years old. He's being replaced by a 6th round pick who's 22 and a UDFA (Yurosek) who was ranked higher on most boards, and is being paid more, than the 6th rounder. Unless you think Mad Man Mundt was some kind of irreplaceable player, I'd say in many ways we're better off now than we were last year.

MaroonBells wrote:

You have to think about it in context with the rest of the league. Half the league has TE1s whose name you don't even know. Ours is a 2X Pro Bowler who's still only 27. Our TE2 isn't just a good blocker, over the past two seasons his run blocking grade ranks 2nd in the league behind only George Kittle. Behind that, sure, we have some turnover. I liked Nick Muse as a developmental guy, but he was a 7th round pick who was 26 years old. He's being replaced by a 6th round pick who's 22 and a UDFA (Yurosek) who was ranked higher on most boards, and is being paid more, than the 6th rounder. Unless you think Mad Man Mundt was some kind of irreplaceable player, I'd say in many ways we're better off now than we were last year.

Hock is one of the better TE's in the league. Oliver has never shown to be a consistent option in the passing game throughout his career. Great run blocker, but that's about where his value ends. Behind that we have a 6th round rookie and some undrafted free agent flavors. If you lose Hock for any amount of time, where are you turning to for production in the passing game? That's the concern. Green Bay has Kraft and Musgrave returning. Bears have Kmet and just drafted Loveland. Lions have LaPorta and Brock Wright behind him who has 10 TD catches over the last four seasons. I would like to see us improve the room from an offensive threat standpoint and I'm not confident that comes from one of the rookies. I know this roster isn't a finished product by any means but I'd like to see a more proven option as an offensive threat be added to the mix. Kyle Pitts, Jonnu Smith, Michael Mayer, there are some interesting names out there worth monitoring

Still Hurtn wrote:
Not really. Was thinking about the NFL in general. I can name about 7-8 TE. After that a list of nobody's. Can't tell you who plays TE for GBay or the Bears

Between those 2 teams there’s 4 pretty decent TEs.

MaroonBells wrote:

Not really. Sure it would be great to have proven talent three deep at every position, but that's not how it works. Hockenson is one of the best pass catching TEs in the league. Oliver is one of the best blockers in the league, but is also no slouch catching the ball.  If you compare it to last year, we simply replaced Mundt and Muse with a 6th round draft pick (Bartholomew) and one of my favorite UDFAs in Ben Yurosek. I'm good with that. 

Far more concerned about Safety relying so much on 36-year-old Harrison Smith, and Theo Jackson, a guy who's never once started an NFL game. Add RB to that as well, where we're woefully thin. And to a much lesser degree RG. Almost hate to say it, but Will Fries was a 7th round draft pick. For three seasons, he was league average. He got paid due to 5 games in 2024 where he played at an almost elite level before he broke his leg. Did his light come on? Or was this just an outlying stretch of good games that even Brandel and Cleveland can point to?

Stop that, right now...

purplefaithful wrote:

Stop that, right now...

Ha! For what it's worth, I don't think Fries will be a free agent bust. I went back and read a bunch of reports from those first five weeks and he was legitimately dominant against good DLs on the Texans, Packers, Steelers and Jags, in both run blocking and pass blocking, with a somewhat lesser performance against the Bears. 

I think we're going to be happy with Fries. Just a little surprised that the 5-game fact was rarely mentioned with him. His contract puts him among the top 10 highest paid guards in the NFL. It almost seems like the brevity of his excellence (not to mention the injury itself) had no impact on his contract.