7 Days Until Kickoff: Tight Ends in Good Hands with Tonyan
Note: This is the fourth in a series of positional stories focused on the big story lines entering Week 1 of the NFL season.
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Football is a game played by humans. As such, Robert Tonyan will drop a pass someday.
Well, maybe he’ll drop a pass.
Tonyan caught 52 passes last season with another eight in the playoffs. That gave him a combined total of 60 receptions – the most for any receiver or tight end in the NFL without a drop, according to Pro Football Focus. No tight end since Dallas’ Jason Witten (77 receptions in 2015) caught more passes than Tonyan without a drop.
“Just reps and having a pretty good quarterback isn’t all that bad, either,” Tonyan said recently. “(Aaron Rodgers) puts it right there and now it’s my job is to catch it.”
Tonyan was the NFL’s ultimate breakout player last season. A quarterback-turned-receiver at Indiana State, Tonyan had a total of 14 receptions for the Packers in 2018 and 2019. In 2020, he almost matched that reception count with his 11 touchdowns. If you were wondering whether Tonyan might be a one-hit wonder, don’t count on it following an exceptional training camp.
When the ball is in the air, Tonyan is like a black hole. Anything thrown in his neck of the galaxy gets sucked into his hands. Whether Tonyan was streaking down the field or roaming the back of the end zone, Rodgers has supreme trust. That trust started late in 2017, when Tonyan was added to the practice squad and Rodgers was finishing the rehab of a broken collarbone.
Not unlike Green Bay’s underrated receiver corps, the tight end group offers a little something for every occasion. There are starters at each spot. Tonyan is the new-school, pass-catching tight end. Marcedes Lewis is the old-school blocker. Josiah Degaura and Dominique Dafney can win as a fullback on one snap and as a slot receiver the next.
“You couldn’t have a more variety of players in the tight end room,” Deguara said. “There’s obviously Marcedes and then Bobby and then me, Daf. We make each other better in there, I think. Seeing how different players do different things and how different people do things well and you do things well, you’re able to feed off each other. I think that’s what makes our room special, and we have a great time in there and we just try to get better every day.”
With experience, talent and versatility, this group could be as good as it gets so long as Deguara, a third-round pick last year who missed most of his rookie season with a torn ACL, is as good as the team believes.
Just how good? The bar has been set high. Last season, Tonyan (11), Lewis (three), Dafney (one) and Jace Sternberger (one) combined for 16 touchdown catches. Green Bay’s tight ends combined for 14 over the previous four seasons. It appears to be the most touchdowns ever scored by a Packers tight end corps, topping the 13 delivered by Paul Coffman (nine) and Ed West (four) in 1984.
“It’s been awesome” having everyone back, tight ends coach Justin Outten said, “because you can have those outside-the-box questions for those guys. It’s been really, really exciting just so they can see the big picture. You start to expand their eyes. You’re not just looking at your position, you’re looking across the board. You’re testing them. We play the ‘what-if game’ all the time. The ‘what-if game’ is, ‘What if that happens in this play? What is your answer?’ And they’ve got to come up with it right away.”
Green Bay's tight ends have the answers. Will any defense have the ability to ask the right questions?
