The Tight End situation is a disaster

Of all the personnel failures the Colts have had over the past few seasons, one can argue that the current tight end situation is the biggest failure of them all.

Before the season started, the Colts committed to keeping Mo Alie-Cox around at a 5.9M cap hit. The 5.9M figure is higher than that of Jonnu Smith in Miami, Will Dissly in LA, Zach Ertz in Washington, Mike Gesicki in Cincinnati and Austin Hooper in New England. You would figure that by picking up his contract at that price that the Colts would look to work him into games more. Well that hasn’t been the case. Alie-Cox has only played on 44% of downs and has had little to no impact. The reality is Alie-Cox is nothing more than a backup tight end who should make at most 1.8M a year, and the Colts are using him like that. The issue is Chris Ballard and the front office keeping that contract, instead of cutting him and saving that entire amount, which they could’ve spent on other players or a better tight end. Alie-Cox’s play has deteriorated over the past couple of seasons and most analysts, including myself, expected that he’d be cut to save the money as his play didn’t warrant the hefty price tag.

But Mo Alie-Cox isn’t the only issue. The trio of Kylen Granson, Drew Ogletree and Will Mallory have offered absolutely nothing over the past few seasons. How many big moments or big games have they delivered? How many clutch plays have they delivered? All three of those players have 4 combined games with 4 or more catches over the past two seasons. They must be good blockers, right? Ogletree is a good run blocker as Pro Football Focus ranks him as the 8th best run blocking tight end in the NFL this season. However, Granson and Mallory rank towards the bottom and the eye test confirms that. So while Ogletree offers very little as a receiver…

…he at least offers value as a tight end as a blocker, which is enough to keep him on the roster. Granson and Mallory on the other hand, are dead weight.

The Colts have the worst tight end situation in the league and top teams are thriving with great tight ends. The Chiefs have Kelce, the Lions have LaPorta, the Bills have Kincaid and Knox, the Eagles have Goedert, the list goes on and on for the top teams. The tight end is an important hybrid player in today’s NFL, so to have a weak tight end on the field at all times is a disadvantage as there is always a tight end on the field and a good one creates mismatches.

The miscommunications the Colts have with their tight ends, especially with Richardson at quarterback are unacceptable. The play below is an example from last week, but there were many instances early in the season with Granson and Richardson, plus some even in the preseason, which I wrote about in this article. They aren’t connected and with Richardson as your long-term answer at quarterback, you need to find guys he’s connected with.

Last draft, the Colts had the opportunity to trade up to get Brock Bowers and the Colts tried to trade up to get a player (perhaps Bowers) but he ended up going to the Raiders and the Colts took Latu with their first round pick. Bowers has become a star from day 1 for the lowly Raiders and while Latu has been very good, in hindsight, the impact that Bowers would’ve had would’ve likely been larger than the one Latu is currently having.

The Colts will need to find a tight end this coming offseason and it will need to be priority number 1. The tight end spot cannot be a position that is continually overlooked from this front office, as a strong hybrid tight end can be a strong support player in the run game and a reliable possession player in the pass game, two things which should only help Anthony Richardson and the offense.