• April 26, 2024

Eagles Need Help At The Tight End Position

The Eagles tight end position is perhaps the weakest position on the entire roster. They have little if any depth and Brent Celek had a disappointing season in 2010 after having a great year in 2009. Last year he was supposed to step up to Pro Bowl status, but instead he made us wonder whether he can be a reliable pass catching tight end.

I think second-year man Clay Harbor will be utilized more in a spread formations, almost like a 4th or 5th wide receiver, more than like the traditional tight end position..

Back to Celek, He’s a fighter and a tough guy but he just doesn’t block that well and has very little speed to run away from linebackers, let alone any of defensive backs in the secondary. As long as he gets back to his usual sure hands as far as catching, Celek will still be the tight end, but if he continues to drop balls like he did last year, then Harbor and someone else may take some snaps from Celek.

Former draft pick Cornelius Ingram still hasn’t proven he can stay healthy enough to contribute. I think this is his last shot to make this football team. If he doesn’t regain the quickness and speed from his college years, don’t expect to see him Philadelphia Eagles uniform any more.

John Nalbone is a practice player but who knows he could surprise us all and prove that he can play in this league. I’m sorry to say that the Eagles tight end talent is probably at the bottom one-third of the league, as far as talent and athleticism as concerned. When you compare this group to the rest of the talent in the NFL at the tight end position it ranks very low.

That’s a quite a surprise when you think about how much Andy Reid likes to the throw the football.

Paul Mancini

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eaglesfan4life
March 9, 2011 2:00 pm

Definitely not our weakest position.

atra1781
March 9, 2011 2:17 pm

Nice post Paulman.

I think with Maclin, Jackson, Avant and Mccoy catching screen passes. Celek was overlooked and the playbook didn’t call his number enough. I think with an improved offensive line Celek may see more targets his way. Vick didn’t have enough time to check of everyone before getting pummeled or running for his life. This draft is critical because the window is closing and i think Andy’s seat is really hot right now. I think Cowher might be an option after this year.

Erock
Erock
March 9, 2011 2:21 pm

Cowher…i dont want his old a$$ in here and neither does Lurie.Dont see it.

I would say if they dont re-sign Mikkel …safety and t.e. are the weakest spots on roster.O-line is tough because if Jackson comes back and is ready then the line is improved with Mcglyn being there for depth or Justice goin inside if they draft a tackle..or vice versa. I think Mudd improves the oline from day 1.

Nice write up Paulmandomis.You’ve come a long way from trade alerts.Good stuff.

paulman
paulman
March 9, 2011 2:29 pm

My article did get little muddled towards the end, but I wanted to point out
that the Eagles TE Corp’s in comparison to the rest of teh NFL is the bottome 1/3 of the league.. Look around the good/playoff teams around the NFL, they all have good TE’s as another weapon on offense and especially in the Red-Zone where todays TE are big and athletic (Check the Packers,Steelers,Pats,Colts,Ravens,Saints,Bears,Falcons,Jets and even teams like the Cowboys,Vikings, Redskins,Raiders,Chargers,Texans have better talent at the TE position than the Eagles do)

Erock
Erock
March 9, 2011 2:33 pm

And the Packers won the SB w/o there stud TE.

runtheball09
runtheball09
March 9, 2011 2:49 pm

What are you talking about? If we draft a TE we are as dumb as this writer. We’ve got more important things than a friggin TE… Why don’t you go back to your job sniffing paint thinner?

runtheball09
runtheball09
March 9, 2011 2:50 pm

Holy crap I just looked at who the writer is… big surprise. I knew it wasn’t G but i’m not surprised.

runtheball09
runtheball09
March 9, 2011 2:52 pm

FYI our weakest position is, has, and under Reid always will be our Strong Safety position.

runtheball09
runtheball09
March 9, 2011 2:53 pm

*Weak Safety

correction

andrew p
andrew p
March 9, 2011 3:05 pm

What a shame Ingram couldnt stay healthy, He would of been a beast, I still say they should of picked up Shockey, Like him or not the man brings something this team lacks, ATTITUDE !!

RealTalk777
RealTalk777
March 9, 2011 4:18 pm

We seen Vick miss Celek a few times and we saw Celek drop a few that could have been big yarders. Key is for these two cats to get on the same page!

The DE, OLB, and Safety positions need to be addressed before the TE, spot. I’d say the corner back position and center position would be addressed before the TE position.

Harbor really didnt get too many oppurtunities for me to form an opinion. But he really didnt hurt the team when he was on the field. So I’m optimiistic about what he’ll bring to the table.

BirdoBeamen
BirdoBeamen
March 9, 2011 4:20 pm

Tight end our weakest position? LMFAO. I just looked at who the writer is as well. This site loses more and more credibility each day.

scorpiodsu
scorpiodsu
March 9, 2011 5:44 pm

Tight end is not our weakness position. Sure we need better depth but these positions easily are weaker than TE: CB, Safety, spots on the O-line. And an argument can easily be made for LB and DT that they are weaker than TE.

I do agree that Celek dropped a lot of passes he should have caught. No excuse for that. But I think a lot of his disappearing had to do with not getting as many looks. The year before McNabb was his QB and McNabb always leaned on the TE. For whatever reason, Vick didn’t. That happens when you change QBs but Celek still has to catch passes when they come his way. But Celek and Harbor are decent enough. Other parts are way more in need of attention.

paulman
paulman
March 9, 2011 7:00 pm

For the Record,
This above article of mine was a response on the TE position from a couple of weeks ago that G pulled up and posted as an article ..
I still think TE is the Weakest Position on the Eagles team, though I don’t think it’s the most important to address for this upcoming Season..
The OL/LB/Secondary Positions are much more important to upgrade which is obvious.. My above posting was a repsonse when specifically commenting about the current TE Position of the Team.. Carry on…

MartyT
MartyT
March 11, 2011 1:42 am

Wow. That’s an overly harsh assessment of Celek. He did have a disappointing year, but much of that was because he was used more as a blocker due to the horror that was the offensive line.
Tight end is NOT the Eagles’ weakest position. Maybe right guard, or right tackle, or any of the linebacker spots, but tight end? Don’t think so.
Celek did drop more balls than he should have. He isn’t a speed demon, but tight ends don’t really need to be. Two years ago people were talking about him being Pro Bowl caliber. Let’s see what he does this year before we write him off.

WALKEN
WALKEN
March 11, 2011 7:46 am

Disagree completely.

Butch007
Butch007
March 14, 2011 7:45 pm

This is a bad assumption coming from a dense point of view. With the offensive line being a huge question mark judging Celek’s ability to block the fastest rushers on the opposing teams generally doesn’t make a lot of sense. Whether it was a byproduct of the system, the calls, the lack of time to get rid of the ball or the QBs style of play it’s crystal clear that the 3rd, 4th and 5th receivers were ignored with the exception of McCoy and occasionally Cooper when he was in, so there’s no way to make any kind of educated evaluation of the TEs based on that.