Steelers position review – Tight Ends
This is Part 7 of our Steelers position review series. If you haven’t read Part 1 – 6, please click the links below.
Steelers position review – Cornerbacks
Steelers position review – Safeties
Steelers position review – Linebackers
Steelers position review – Defensive Line
Steelers position review – Quarterbacks
Steelers position review – Running Backs
The next position that we’re going to look at is the tight end position.
Tight end is a strength for the Steelers…….sort of.
Part of the problem is that offensive coordinator Bruce Arians has a unique view of the tight end position. Arians is a firm believer in using a tight end as an H-back to serve as the primary blocker for his running back. Steelers fans have long complained about this approach and lobbied for a traditional fullback, or using two running backs so it isn’t always so obvious who is going to get the ball.
Arians has also shown a greater reluctance to throw to his tight end relative to many other offensive coordinators. Seventeen tight ends caught more passes than Heath Miller in 2010. Dallas Cowboys’ tight end Jason Witten caught 94 passes in 2010. That’s more than twice as many as Heath Miller caught (42 passes). Moreover, it’s twice as many as Heath Miller has averaged throughout his career (47 catches/season).
So in my opinion, part of the Steelers problem at tight end lies with the offensive coordinator, and not the players.
Heath Miller is one of the most talented tight ends in the NFL. He has sure hands, and seldom drops a pass. He’s also one of the best blocking tight ends in the NFL. But as mentioned earlier, Miller doesn’t get nearly as many opportunities to catch the ball as many of his contemporaries at the position. Players like Witten, Tony Gonzalez, Ben Watson, and Kellen Winslow play a much more integral role in their team’s passing attack.
Part of Arians’ reluctance to involve Miller more in the passing attack is probably due to the Steelers’ suspect offensive line. Because the Steelers’ offensive line has been a weakness for years, they are often forced to keep Miller at the line of scrimmage to help in the blocking scheme. If their offensive line were upgraded, I believe Miller would be freed up to catch more passes.
David Johnson is the Steelers’ H-Back. He’s a vicious blocker who is rarely targeted in the Steelers’ passing game. In fact, Johnson only has 6 reception in his two year NFL career. The Steelers use Johnson so seldom in the passing game, that I believe that they should do so every now and then just to catch their opponent by surprise. Having watched film of the Steelers, the opponent will NEVER expect them to throw to Johnson.
While Johnson is a very physical blocker, he has shortcomings at the position. He sometimes fails in picking up blitzes. He’s also not particularly fast, and sometimes seems to be in Rashard Mendenhall’s way when he’s trying to hit the hole.
The Steelers’ third tight end is Matt Spaeth. When the Steelers first drafted Spaeth out of college, I was excited about the pick. After all, I was envisioning Ben Roethlisberger throwing the ball to the 6’7″ Spaeth in red zone situations. Yet, in the 4 years that Spaeth has been with the Steelers, we’ve seldom seen him used in that fashion.
Spaeth has 36 total catches during his 4 years in the NFL, and has only reached double digit receptions once (in 2008).
Heath Miller missed games due to injury in both 2008 and 2010. In both cases, Spaeth proved to be a liability when he filled in for Miller. Spaeth drops balls that Miller routinely catches. Moreover, Spaeth is not a good blocker like Miller and Johnson are. Frankly, Spaeth blocks like a matador (although he has gotten slightly better over the years).
So if he can’t catch, can’t block, and the team doesn’t utilize his height in the red zone, I have to ask “why is Matt Spaeth on the team?”
Spaeth is a free agent this season, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Steelers let him leave without tendering an offer. His production (or lack thereof) can easily be replaced by a late round draft pick or an undrafted free agent.
The Steelers’ tight ends fit well in their current offensive system. However, if they were to use their tight ends in a more traditional fashion, both Spaeth and David Johnson would probably need to be upgraded. But until they do that, Johnson is probably safe in his role with the Steelers.
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Remember back in the Mark Bruener days, we would always say, ‘This year we are going to throw to the TE more.’ But, we never did. Now, we have one of the most complete TE’s in the game and we still don’t! (Witness the Super Bowl!) This is one of the many Arian-isms that drives me nuts. It started with the drafting of Spaeth in the THIRD round – a poor decision that made NOT throwing to the TE’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Then we had McHugh and now Johnson as H-backs (TE on the roster.) We are weak in this position except for #83. Add someone decent along side Miller and we would have great flexibility–imagine how open he would be as the defense keys on #83! I agree with your assessments above of our back-ups–they all should go. Alas, our needs are greater in other positions-partially because we do not use the TE effectively. If after the 5th round we can pick up a solid TE prospect (Housler 6’6″ 250; Smith 6’5″ 270; Oordt 6’6″ 260) or a solid FB (7th rnd or FA) who can block & catch out of the backfield, I would love to see us jettison the H-back concept and mix in more 2 back sets and double TE sets with Miller and a new TE. Say ,’Gracias & Adios’ to Spaeth (who is not a good TE) and Johnson (who is not a good TE or a FB), please. Let’s have young guys on the roster who have a chance of being a starter someday.
1Have you ever thought of having a Steeler Mock Draft contest?
2“Spaeth drops balls that Miller routinely catches. ”
Spaeth drops balls my grandma could catch and she’s been dead for 20 years (sorry Grandma).
Yes, I too would like to see a 2 TE set. The Patriots (I know, I know) have used 2 TE sets with 2 TEs who can catch, not something teams tend to be able to match up well against (even if they have better nickelback than Gay).
3The Steelers didn’t bring in any tight ends for visits yet… but… at Arkansas’ pro day they spent time talking with D.J. Williams. He’ll probably go early, but I think Spaeth will be dropped (although Arians seems to like him for some reason) and believe a TE will be picked in this draft. I believe Johnson has potential and think it’s too early to let him go.
There are a few guys that may fit the Steelers’ schemes, and they may be had in later rounds: Virgil Green from Nevada, Julius Thomas from Portland State (I like him best), Jordan Cameron from USC, and Lee Smith from Marshall.
I’d love to see the Steelers pick up Owen Marecic from Stanford, the best FB out there this year, but as long as Arians is around (remember, his new contract is only for one year… hooray!!) so will an Hback be around.
4I agree, Spaeth needs to go. Johnson is a good blocker, which is what we need right now.
Also, We don’t involve our TEs as much in the passing game due to their blocking responsibilities. Improve the OL, the TEs won’t need to block, and we’ll see Miller utilized a lot more.
Arians used to be terrible, but he is improving a lot. I used to bang my head against the wall watching his old horrid playcalling, but he has improved in that regard. Keeping our TEs in to block is necessary due to our bad OL play and Ben’s style of play. He holds the ball and extends the play, for better or worse. Ben’s release isn’t at a Manning level to where he can release it fast enough to avoid hits. (not Ben bashing, he’s saved us with his play repeatedly) I digress: point is, Arians is improving, like it or not. He’s at least better than what the Ratbirds have. Cam Cameron may be my favorite assistant ever, just for being Baltimore’s Achilles’ heel.
I like John #21′s idea with the mock! I like seeing what my fellow Steelers fans are thinking.
5John#21,
Yeah, it does seem like we’ve been waiting for the Steelers to throw to the tight end for decades. Frankly, I don’t think I’ve been happy with the way they’ve used a tight end since Bennie Cunningham manned the position. Even when we had Eric Green, I always felt that the Steelers could/should have thrown to him far more often than they did.
As far as doing a mock draft contest, I’m open to the idea. How would it work? If you guys are interested, I’ll make it happen.
6@Jim,
7C’mon now, let’s be fair. There’s no way that Spaeth is worse than your grandmother. His talent is probably only EQUAL to her’s, but it’s not worse.
Regarding a Mock Contest:
I borrowed this format
:
Scoring:
You get 4 points for picking the correct player in the correct draft slot
You get 3 points for picking the correct player in the correct round but wrong slot
You get 2 points for picking the correct player with a bonus selection or picking a correct player, but in the wrong round.
Scoring example:. You guess (5.151 Joe Schmo – RB – IUP)
If the Steelers take Joe Schmo at 5.151 you get 4 points
If the Steelers take Joe Schmo at 5.166 you get 3 points
If the Steelers take Joe Schmo at 6.188 you get 2 points
bonus:
tiebreaker 1: How many defensive players will the Steelers select:
tiebreaker 2: How many players over 300 lbs will the Steelers select:
You can chose any player you want with the bonus slots, but they will only be worth 2 points. You can mock trades if you wish. ex.(steelers trade down from 1.18 to 1.26 and pick up 3.88)
Tiebreaker questions will only be used to break ties in the top 3 slots.
It’s a start-if someone has a better idea or more ways to score points-post it!
8I think I understand your format.
It sounds like everyone would only guess who the Steelers are going to pick and in which round. All other teams would be irrelevant. Is that correct?
9Correct. We could make it more involved like do a Mock for Round 1 for all teams AND do a Steelers Mock. Depends on the interest level. Haven’t seen a lot of opinions from your faithful contributors…?
10