Positional analysis: Tight ends

Keeping up with our pre-draft positional analysis, ColtPlay looks at the tight ends.

Dallas Clark

2010 stats: 6 games/6 starts, 37-347-3 receiving

Contract status: Signed through 2013

Analysis: Clark was on his way to another awesome season when a wrist injury ended his 2010 season. If you extrapolate his stats, he would have caught 99-925-8 if he had lasted a 16-game season. Clark established himself as one of the league’s top receiving tight ends years ago, and has played at a consistently high level for years. He’s been Manning’s safety net on third down and the two have developed an extraordinary rapport. Clark has never been much of a blocker, but really doesn’t have to be the way the Colts use him. He appears to be over his 2010 injury and is currently filming a segment for the popular TV show Criminal Minds. He should be ready to reassume his role by training camp.

Jacob Tamme

2010 stats: 16 games/8 starts, 67-631-4 receiving, 4 special-teams tackles, 1 special-teams assist

Contract status: Signed through 2011

Analysis: ColtPlay never hesitates to point out when other Colts fans and media are wrong, and I’m not above scrutiny myself. Like many Colts fans, I was delighted when the Colts drafted Tamme in 2008, but after just six catches in the first 38 games after he was drafted, I have to admit I was starting to think he was a wasted draft pick (or at least too high a pick to waste on a good special teamer who added little to the offense). I was wrong. After Clark went down, Tamme caught fire, catching at least four passes in every game after taking over. In fact, he was actually a bit better than Clark was in 2010, at least statistically. While he is even less of a blocker than Clark, Tamme is an excellent player on special teams.

Brody Eldridge

2010 stats: 14 games/8 starts, 5-39-0 receiving, 1 special-teams tackle

Contract status: Signed through 2013

Analysis: The Colts often play with two tight ends and since neither Clark nor Tamme block better than big wide receivers, the other tight end has to be a blocker. That’s why the Colts drafted Eldridge – who started some games on the offensive line in college – in 2010. Eldridge had an up-and-down season as a rookie, working hard to master the Colts’ complicated playbook and to cover for the frequent mistakes by the offensive line. He’s a better blocker at tight end than the Colts have seen since perhaps the Reese McCall days and should improve in that area, but has yet to show he is anything other than an emergency receiver.

Gijon Robinson

2010 stats: 11 games/2 starts, 3-12-1 receiving

Contract status: Unsigned

Analysis: A former small-college fullback, Robinson plays like one. He’s a good run-blocker, especially on the move, but is overmatched in most pass-blocking situations. Although he has decent hands, Robinson is dead slow and does little with the ball once he has it. Over the last three years, he has started a bunch of games for the Colts, but appears to have lost his job to Eldridge.

Rob Myers

2010 stats: 0 games/0 starts,

Contract status: Signed through 2011

Analysis: When many fans see a guy who’s moved around the league a lot right out of college, they dismiss him as a failed prospect. I’m not so sure. Since not being drafted in 2009, Myers has bounced around from the Jets to the Eagles to the Bills to the Colts. Teams sign guys like Myers because they see something in him, and they cut guys like him for various reasons – often, it’s just a numbers game. I think Myers is a quality prospect, but he comes with baggage. The main problem he’s had is that he could never stay healthy. A high school lacrosse player, he went to Utah State. He played on specials as a freshman and then moved to backup tight end as a soph. Battling a groin injury, he caught 10 passes for 125 yards. In his only healthy season, Myers caught 21-320-3, for an incredible 15.20 average. Looking for big things out of him, Utah State faithful were disappointed that he missed his entire senior season with toe surgery. Since then, he’s bounced around the league, not really sticking anywhere. In the 2009 preseason, he caught five of eight passes for 44 yards and a two-point conversion. Two of the incompletes were not his fault, as Michael Vick threw to him out of bounds and Adam DiMichele threw in his general direction while being brought down. In the 2010 preseason with the suddenly tight end-rich Patriots, Myers caught three of four passes thrown his way for 50 yards. Notably, all three of his catches resulted in first downs, including on desperate heave over the middle on 3rd-and-18. I’m not saying he’s the next Ozzie Newsome just that you shouldn’t write him off just yet.

Of note: While Eldridge was nursing a rib injury, 325-pound backup center Jacques McClendon played “tight end” in short-yardage and goal-line situations. They even changed his jersey from 65 to 80 for four games. Justin Snow is listed on the roster as a tight end, but only plays on special teams as the Colts’ long snapper. He was a defensive end in college.

What about 2011?: If you keep in mind that the Colts have two positions here, you’ll understand it better. The Colts play two tight ends – one a bulked-up receiver who is expected to catch at least 80 passes a season and the other a slimmed-down tackle who is expected to help the run game. For the first position, the Colts have two more-than-capable starters in Clark and Tamme and a reasonable prospect in Myers (PS: he can’t block either). One could assume that Tamme is one of those Polian-style starter-in-waiting types, but since Clark is signed for longer than him, it doesn’t make sense. Instead, with Clark back, Tamme will have to make the best of it, catching passes when he can, shining on special teams and hoping general managers around the league remember how good he was in 2010 when he becomes a free agent after the 2011 season. At the other position, the Colts have Eldridge, who is solid and likely to improve. He could use a backup, but the Colts could opt to replace him with an offensive lineman again, should things go wrong.

Free agency: It’s unlikely the Colts will do anything here, but could bring back Robinson or Tom Santi, a product of the same draft class as Tamme who caught 18-171-1 and was hot-and-cold as a blocker in his career with the Colts.

Draft: Given the relative embarrassment of wealth at the position and the plethora of needs elsewhere, I would be shocked if Polian drafted a tight end. But we all know he has done crazier things.

Some stats:

Catch percentage

Tamme 72.04

Clark 69.81

Eldridge 55.56

Robinson 42.86

Yards per reception

Tamme 9.42

Clark 9.39

Eldridge 7.80

Robinson 4.00

Yards per target

Tamme 6.78

Clark 6.55

Eldridge 4.33

Robinson 1.71

First down percentage

Robinson 66.67

Clark 56.76

Tamme 52.24

Eldridge 20.00

YAC average

Tamme 4.76

Clark 3.68

Eldridge 3.60

Robinson 2.33

Average depth

Clark 5.71

Tamme 4.66

Eldridge 4.20

Robinson 1.67

Catches over the middle

Tamme 16-161-0

Clark 9-103-0

Eldridge 0-0-0

Robinson 0-0-0