Tight End Production Not Up to Expectations

February 7, 2007 by Steve Hanway

When it was announced that Bill Callahan would be coming to Nebraska, many of us thought that the Huskers would finally take full advantage of tight end Matt Herian. Things got off to a good start in 2004 before injuries ended Herian's season and kept him on the shelf for 2005.

Herian returned in 2006 but was never quite the same. The Huskers managed to get a respectable 336 yards and 10 touchdowns from the tight end position in 2006 (less than half of that from Herian). Still, if you'd asked Husker fans what they'd expect from the tight ends and Herian in particular, they'd probably have said a lot more yards.

In truth, the expectations were probably never right to begin with. Look at the most productive tight ends in the NFL in recent years (say Tony Gonzalez, Antonio Gates, Todd Heap, Jeremy Shockey) and the common element is a strong running game. None of these guys plays in the west coast offense.

Fans who thought an offense with more passing would mean huge tight end numbers probably weren't paying close attention. It's not that the west coast offense tight ends put up bad numbers, it's just that the offense doesn't give them the boost that a big running game does.

The west coast offense is so pass happy that teams don't key on the run game. When linebackers and safeties key on the run game, that creates big opportunities for tight ends (remember Tracey Wistrom's gaudy yard per catch average). LaDanian Tomlinson makes Gates deadlier, just as Priest Holmes and Larry Johnson made Gonzalez more dangerous, etc. The reverse is also true. Heap creates space for Jamal Lewis, Shockey for Tiki Barber, etc.

Think back to the Louisiana Tech game to open the 2006 season and the Huskers were pounding the ball. There were 48 rushes for 252 yards and three touchdowns. No coincidence that the tight ends got open for 108 yards and four more TD's.

While the Huskers have a nice stable of backs, it's likely that Sam Keller will be dangerous enough to keep safeties and linebackers honest against the pass, which is why I wouldn't expect to see a whole lot of yards to tight ends in 2007. Even with a 55% run-pass ratio, the 2006 version only got about 6% of its yards from tight ends. I would expect that won't change too much under Bill Callahan.

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