The Ravens TE Room Is Underwhelming. Even The Coaches Can't Really Spin It Otherwise

The Ravens are short on tight ends.

Perhaps, woefully short on tight ends.

They are at least a Darren Waller short at tight end, and probably more than just a Darren Waller short. July and August are the time in the NFL calendar centered around hype and false hope. It’s when all the key veterans are undoubtedly in “the best shape of their lives” and youngsters are “about to make the leap” and in a Ravens camp with no shortage of all of the above narratives in abundant supply across their roster, not a peep about the promise or progress of any of their tight ends. Veteran or newbie.

Hmmm.

Now, it’s still early of course. Okay, not for Mark Andrews, who looked cooked last year and whose contract extension – the timing of which was more to rub it in the face of ongoing tight end Isaiah Likely that an actual reward for anything trending in the right direction with Andrews – will be a massive mistake. And he isn’t explosive and he has no twitch and he can’t even run like he used to or jump like he used to at a position where those are carrying traits now more than ever.

Good luck with that one.

And no one has been overtly impressed with the two project tight ends they drafted because they are project tight end and late-round picks with huge holes in their game as it pertains to the NFL. We had general managers and scouts we fully trust break them down for us in the spring, and we aren’t expecting much from either this season. Plenty of time for them prove everyone wrong, but even Ravens tight ends coach Zack Grossi made it clear where rookies Matthew Hibner (133rd overall) and Josh Cuevas (173rd overall) stand after Tuesday’s practice.

“Pleased with the way those guys have approached things so far, but we’ve got a long way to go,” Grossi said, in what could go down as quite the understatement.

I believe this is the worst position group on the roster, and it’s not particularly close. Long-term, maybe they have a diamond in the rough or two for down the road, but short term they need impact options at this position if Andrews is what I think he is. And they simply doesn’t exist. And general manager Eric DeCosta better to ready to step in and fix it, because the wide receiver room aint brimming with proven NFL difference-makers, either.

Good on the Ravens for landing a legit blocking tight end in Durham Smythe in free agency, who knows the system from being under Ravens coordinator Declan Doyle in Chicago – HYPER. But that ain’t gonna do much for two-time MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson in trying to unlock deep options in a brand new offense being installed by a 30-year-old coordinator calling plays for the first time.

Work To Be Done

As for how far this group needs to go, they haven’t been shining even in drills that are designed by their very nature to showcase them. They aren’t flashing. As Grossi explained it, a lot of what Hibner and Cuevas are being asked to do in the full panorama of NFL tight end duties is “very foreign to them” and vastly different from anything they were asked to do in college.

That’s the reality. This is projection and guesswork in spades with this group. The Ravens passed on grabbing more polished top college tight ends to grab developmental edge Zion Young in the second round, and that gamble could have major ramifications on how this season plays out.

“We’re throwing a lot at them,” Grossi noted, “and they’re doing a good job of just working, just keeping their head down and not getting too worried with the results right now.”

Cuevas said: “They’re giving us a lot of stuff really quicky. And going from that college offense to an NFL offense, it can get pretty overwhelming.”

Gulp. An understandable gulp. But gulp.

Holding up in the trenches in the NFL – even if just engaging a block for an instant before releasing – is a whole new world for these two. Grossi said he is “pleased with how they are attacking it,” but just basic footwork and hand placement – as rudimentary as it gets – is part of their learning curve.

“Look, you have to be able to block in this league as a tight end,” Grossi said. “You have to be able to win the C Gap - all the different places we put tight ends. We put them on the ball and off the ball. We do two-back runs.

“We line them up at receiver. We do perimeter schemes … zone schemes and gap schemes. So, you have to be versatile, and you have to be able to handle different blocks.”

Color me concerned about every individual in this room, save for Smythe, as well as the total construct of it. There isn't one metric with Andrews that isn't in steep decline and he's never scored a postseason touchdown and comes up most small when it matters most. Losing Likely and Charlie Kolar in free agency is a big deal.

“The room is built around Mark, and everybody compliments him,” as Grossi explained it.

That’s precisely the problem.

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