Analysis of Roster (Part 5)- The Tight Ends

Tight End

Starter: Dustin Keller

Backups: Ben Hartsock, Matthew Mulligan

Key Losses: None

Analysis:

Dustin Keller, the 3rd year TE out of Purdue, must have been very happy when Brian Schottenheimer said he was coming back as the Jets’ offensive coordinator. In Schotty’s system, Keller doesn’t have to block that much and can focus on his strength- his receiving abilities. It was known that Keller was a poor blocker, but it was his speed and playmaking abilities that enticed the Jets to move up and draft him. As a rookie, Keller became one of Brett Favre’s favorite targets on 3rd down, catching 48 passes for 535 yards and 3 scores in 2008.

In 2009, Keller had nearly identical stats to his rookie campaign. However, early in the year Keller and Sanchez did not appear to be on the same page. There were many times where Sanchez threw the ball to Dustin, but Dustin wasn’t turned around yet or wasn’t looking for the ball. Sanchez appeared to develop better chemistry with Keller late in the season and into the playoffs, where Keller became a key component to our offense.  Keller spent a lot of time in the 2009 offseason with D’Brickashaw Ferguson tryin to improve his blocking abilities. This extra work definitely helped, but Keller still needs to work on his blocking in order to become a full time starter in the Jets’ run heavy offense.  I expect Keller to have his breakout year in 2010, becoming Mark Sanchez’s go to guy on 3rd downs. Since the Jets don’t really have a solid slot WR on their roster, look for Keller to get a lot of looks over the middle of the field.  I predict Keller will catch 60+ passes for roughly 750 yards and a half dozen touchdowns.

Late in the 2009 off-season, Ben Hartsock was brought in by the Jets to be used solely as a blocking tight end. In his first year on the Jets, Hartsock was in on many running downs and was a big contributer in the success of the league’s best rushing attack. Hartsock, however, had a few extremely crucial penalties that may have cost the Jets a game or two during the 2009 season. In the overtime loss to Buffalo, Hartsock had a holding penalty that cost the Jets a first down and pushed Feely out of field goal range. Rex Ryan said that a possible reason for these costly penalties was because Hartsock was signed to the Jets late in the offseason, and missed a lot of work in camp with coach Bill Callahan. Regardless, Hartsock is a good blocker and seemed to keep the penalties down late in the season. Hopefully that trend will continue into the 2010 season, or Ben Hartsock does not have a future in green and white.

The Jets have also added another TE to their roster, Matthew Mulligan from Maine. Mulligan has been mostly a practice squad player for his NFL career, having been on both the Dolphins and the Titans before landing on the Jets. I think the Jets brought in Mulligan to add some depth to the position, since Hartsock was a free agent and his return was questionable. Like Hartsock, Mulligan is no real threat in the passing game and is better used strictly on running downs. Don’t expect to see much playing time from Mulligan this season, unless Hartsock can’t keep his penalties down.

I may be in the minority here, but I think the Jets need to add a balanced tight end to their roster. Keller is a great receiving end and Hartsock can take care of the blocking, but the Jets need a tight end that can do both. There were way too many times last year where the Jets had an offensive tackle as an eligible receiver. A player similar to Chris Baker would be a good fit in this offense. Since the Jets run a good amount of 2 TE sets, it would be nice for the opposing defense to respect both TEs as passing threats, and not just Keller.

Tags: Analysis of Roster 2010, Ben Hartsock, Dustin Keller, Matthew Mulligan