Five bold tight end predictions for 2019

Trey Burton is a top seven tight end

Justification: 10^th most receptions among tight ends last year, fourth most receiving touchdowns and 13^th most receiving yards. Yet he’s sitting in the high teens on most draft boards. Chicago sources label him as Chicago’s “irreplaceable” player. They say they are confident he’s ready Week 1 as he works through a sports hernia. I’d be naïve not to label that as a red flag but everything coming out of the team last year and in comments this year has me thinking he’s a key piece of this offense.

Evan Engram doubles his reception yards and touchdowns this year

Justification: He had 577 yards last year and 3 touchdowns. This means I’m predicting he has 1,144 yards (something Zach Ertz, Travis Kelce and George Kittle did) and he has six touchdowns (something that Eric Ebron, Travis Kelce, Zach Ertz, Trey Burton, Cameron Brate, and Jared Cook did last year). Odell Beckham Jr is gone, Golden Tate might be the best WR and given the uncertainty with who plays more this season between Eli Manning and Daniel Jones, I defer to Tight End being an easy solution in an offense that will be utilizing Saquon Barkley heavily.

Travis Kelce has a 75+yard touchdown

Justification: From a tight end?!? Well guess what, he did it in 2016 and the last four consecutive seasons he has scored at least one 40+ yard reception. Here is how it will unfold, a play will breakdown, Travis will say “screw it I’m going long” and Patrick Mahomes will hit him with a 50 yard ball in the air that Travis then shakes off one safety and runs the remaining 25 yards to the end zone.

Vance McDonald has a 12 reception game, almost doubling his previous career high receptions of (seven)

Justification: I think Big Ben is going to utilize Vance quite a bit this year with Antonio Brown gone and Le’Veon Bell out of the picture. Last year he utilized Vance more than any previous season and Vance had around 4-5 receptions per game. In addition I think JuJu Smith-Schuster will keep defenses deep enough to open up the middle of the field for Vance. I think the game will be one of the Cleveland matchups as Pittsburgh exposes the middle between the solid D-Line and Secondary.

Kyle Rudolph is a top 10 tight end

Justification: He’s sitting in the 20s in a bunch of lists but with the competition around him, I think he flourishes this season. Irv Smith Jr is right there fighting and I think we see the Vet thrive in this atmosphere. Plus I think the Vikings and Kirk Cousins have a bit of a bounce back year this season.