Position Coach Outten Feels Like ‘Proud Dad’ Watching Tonyan

GREEN BAY, Wis. – With no marquee additions to the roster, the Green Bay Packers’ mediocre offense badly needed someone to step up this season.

Robert Tonyan has been that person.

Tonyan entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2017. Entering this season, he had 14 receptions for 177 yards in 27 career games. He scored two touchdowns, moved the chains seven times and played 260 snaps.

In four games this season heading into Sunday’s showdown at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tonyan has caught 13 passes for 173 yards. He’s scored five touchdowns, created 11 first downs and already played 173 snaps.

“It is nice to get more opportunities,” Tonyan said after his three-touchdown performance against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 4. “I’m definitely an improved player from last year. We’ve got a good room, tight end room, and I can’t thank JO enough. He’s just been so supportive and encouraging. We don’t want anything to slip. If we want to be the best tight end room in the NFL, we’re not going to let stuff slip. Credit to JO for getting us right.”

JO is tight ends coach Justin Outten. His players, whether it’s an up-and-coming player like Tonyan or a grizzled veteran like Marcedes Lewis, swear by the guy who was a high school assistant coach in Houston as recently as 2015.

Outten has been handed third-round picks in each of the last two drafts, with Jace Sternberger last year and Josiah Deguara this year. But it’s Tonyan, the wildly inaccurate former Indiana State quarterback whose promising 2019 was derailed by an injury that required surgery, who has emerged as the potential salvation at the position.

His three-touchdown performance against the Falcons made history. According to Pro Football Reference, since 1950, only two Packers tight ends had scored three touchdowns in a game: Jermichael Finley vs. Chicago in 2011 and Keith Jackson vs. Tampa Bay in 1996.

“He’s come a long way as far as being an NFL tight end and learning the intricacies with it and just being involved in all facets of the game at that position, especially with this offense,” Outten said on Wednesday. “Fighting through injuries is going to be every person’s battle in this league. Nobody is going to go through an entire season and not have a nick on them.

“Battling through that adversity, battling through playing time, battling through the playbook, battling through being a tight end, that was a ton of stressers people have to go through eventually. What it does is it makes you better and stronger because you’ve been through those situations. You learn from those issues and mistakes you’ve had in the past and you use them to your advantage. That’s what he did.”

Tonyan emerged from Week 4 as the NFL leader with five receiving touchdowns; he enters Week 6 tied for No. 1 among tight ends. Those scores required only 14 targets. In 149 targets in 2018 and 2019, Jimmy Graham caught five touchdown passes. It’s also more touchdowns than future Hall of Famer Rob Gronkowski scored in 2018 (three for New England), 2019 (retired) and 2020 (zero for Tampa Bay) combined.

“It might sound weird,” Outten said of Tonyan’s breakout performance vs. Atlanta, “but it’s like a proud dad watching a kid go out and do his thing and it finally clicks. He’s worked his tail off the last couple years here. It just came to life in the Atlanta game, which was cool to see. He’s an emotional player and you’ve got to be an emotional person in this game because it’s a rollercoaster of emotions. You’re battling through adversity all the time and then, finally, when you get your chance and you’re able to capitalize, it’s really exciting to see. So, I was excited for him and so were his teammates and the rest of his coaching staff. It was cool to see.”

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