At Tight End, Rookie Expectations Collide With History

The Green Bay Packers need instant impact from rookie tight ends Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft. The history is daunting.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers will be counting on rookie tight ends Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft to make a sudden impact at a position that doesn’t favor sudden impacts.

Pro Bowl might not be the best measuring stick, but it does illustrate a point. Over the last 30 drafts, only two rookie tight ends have been voted to a Pro Bowl: Atlanta’s Kyle Pitts in 2021 and the Giants’ Jeremy Shockey in 2002.

Compare that to 18 running backs, 17 receivers, nine quarterbacks and nine linemen on the offensive side of the ball.

Looking at the last three decades of rookie tight ends, only three caught more than 60 passes, only three reached 700 yards and only four scored more than six touchdowns. Meanwhile, looking at last year’s veterans, six topped 60 receptions, seven had more than 700 yards and four scored more than six touchdowns in 2022 alone.

Why is it so hard to make an impact as a rookie tight end – significantly harder, by the Pro Bowl measuring stick, than every other position, including quarterback?

One of the challenges is the job description. Tight end is one position on the roster but more than one in reality. Indeed, it’s an amalgamation of positions. Just look at Robert Tonyan’s numbers from last season. According to Pro Football Focus, he played 333 snaps of traditional tight end, 160 as a slot receiver and 85 as a wide receiver. Meanwhile, Josiah Deguara played 78 snaps at fullback, 77 as a traditional tight end, 82 as a slot receiver and 21 as a wide receiver.

That’s a lot of skill-sets and positions to learn.

“The best part about playing tight end is you get to do everything on the field besides throw the ball. The hardest part about playing tight end is you have to do everything on the field,” tight ends coach John Dunn said on Thursday.

Learning how to do “everything on the field” takes time. The start of organized team activities next week – the first practice is set for Monday – will be a vital part of the education for Musgrave and Kraft as they move into a lineup that is down veteran stalwarts Tonyan (signed with the Bears) and Marcedes Lewis (won't be re-signed).

“There’s no substitute for doing,” Dunn continued. “We can teach them, they’re in the classroom, they do a great job learning, they’re smart guys, but what we’re going through now and what we’ll go through in training camp is the ultimate teacher.

“They have to get out there and they have to do it. They have to do it under pressure. They have to do it full speed. There’s going to be mistakes, right? A lot of learning is through failure, so there’s no substitute for that. I wish there was a magic, ‘Hey, this will get you there faster.’ But the greatest part about sport is it really is a process.”

The process will be a challenge, no matter the physical skill-sets of second-round pick Musgrave and third-round pick Kraft.

Last season, Musgrave played in only two games due to a knee injury and caught just 47 passes in his four-year career. Kraft missed about half his final season with an ankle injury. Most of his 92 receptions during his final two seasons came against FCS competition.

Every coach has to learn about his rookies but there’s significantly less tangible evidence for Dunn to see on tape than there was for, say, receivers coach Jason Vrable when watching Michigan State receiver Jayden Reed.

Fortunately for Dunn, both players are big and athletic – always a good starting point.

“I think it starts with the skill-set, which obviously they have,” Dunn said. “And you can see enough on film of what they can do. Tight end is a unique position because sometimes you might watch college tape and it might be a little different than what you do.

“For us, seeing their skill-set, which is the height, weight, speed, intelligence and all those things, you can see that on tape. To your point, it might not be a full season, but you can feel who the player is. Then from there, we get them in rookie minicamp and now, and now, you really will see where a guy can go and how we can use him.”

Musgrave and Kraft have the potential to be the best rookie tight ends in Packers history. That’s because they’re talented but also because the bar is incredibly low. The most catches ever by a Packers rookie tight end? In 2000, first-round pick Bubba Franks caught 34 passes. Andrew Quarless caught 21 in 2010, Richard Rodgers caught 20 in 2014 and nobody else caught more than 13. Jermichael Finley caught only six passes in 2008.

For a silly comparison: Every rookie tight end in Packers history caught 17 touchdown passes, led by Ed West with four. Rob Gronkowski scored 17 touchdowns by himself in 2011.

“It’s a long way away from gameday, which is a good thing, and right now we’re just trying to learn how to line up and do the base things in our offense,” Dunn said. “At some point, we’ll start to get there, but it truly day by day.

“I wish there was some magic formula by ‘X’ amount of time, you’re going to be there. For some, it’s faster than others but, again, the positive is all these guys are intelligent and they work hard and that’s a very, very good recipe for understanding and getting there.”

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The #Packers loved their two-tight end sets with Robert Tonyan and Marcedes Lewis. That's not going to change with Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft. Here's why.https://t.co/QnOSw9JrCt

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) May 17, 2023

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