Jamari Johnson - Tight End - Oregon

[stag hunter]

He can’t block, or won’t block. He’s more of a slot receiver than a tight end and plays like it, lol

That was my takeaway from watching his highlights. My concern is that he’s not quite enough of either to make it in the NFL.

 

[Kwyn]

Teams last year played 12 personnel (2 TE) 25% of the time, which is the highest in modern football.

Sean McVay is always at the forefront of offensive trends and he’s even discussed going to a 13 personnel in some situations.

Tight end is really changing draft boards and, honestly, it’s taking awhile for us out here to recognize it. I started seeing this bigtime the last two years and that’s why after Ferg peaked in 2023 and has gone down since, I started obsessing over the position

Basically there are two types. Y tight ends and F tight ends

Y are the traditional dual threat tight end who can, and will, be excellent at blocking. Right now, this is Kittle and Kraft. This was Jason Witten. He never left the field because he could block like crazy and catch passes at a high level

F is the H back/vertical pass catching tight end. Think Brock Bowers and Kelce. They don’t line up hip to hip with the tackle most of the time. Before F tight ends existed, there was Jay Novacek. Noev routinely split him out into the slot or a step back off the line.

Ferg is a hybrid. He’s average or maybe above average at both but not excellent at either. Laporta and Trey McBride are this type, but both are obviously better, especially McBride

That’s why I’m so high on Jamari Johnson,

He’s a F in a Y body. He’ll be that elite vertical threat who outruns linebackers and bodies DBs into the turf.

Tight end is not a luxury pick anymore and first round is now where you shop if you want the best.

 

[Kwyn]

I posted this elsewhere in response to a comment that the offensive tackles were responsible for Jake’s decline

Dumping it here for when the draft rolls around and he’s had another mediocre year

—-
If he was being forced to “stay and block”, his usage would go down. It hasn’t. He’s getting just as many balls as ever.

• 2023 - 102 targets
• 2024 - 104 targets
• 2025 - 102 targets

Blocking?

• Ferguson lined up in the slot or split out 60% of his snaps last year.
• When he does chip and release jt takes about half a second off the route
• Spann-Ford is assigned almost all of the heavy in-line blocking duties while Jake is usually running routes (that’s the best term I guess for “run 7 yards and fall down”)
• When he is asked to block in the run game, he usually gets their DBs or LBs outside, he’s not helping the tackles block edge rushers.

My take: He’s slow, he can’t separate and he can’t break tackles.

He’s had two straight declining years but it’s not the fault of the offensive line.

Here’s last year

Receptions - 82 - 14th Overall (3rd among TEs)
Yards - 600 - 62nd Overall (13th among TEs)
Yards Per Catch - 7.3 - 132nd Overall (90th among TEs)
Fumbles - 3 - 1st among TEs (he had four in 2024)

He caught some touchdowns last year but that was, honestly, part of the problem.

He got the second most red zone targets last year and our red zone offense was one of our biggest issues.

I’ve already moved into the “Jake’s a problem and not in a good way” category. The only people he helped last year were his fantasy owners

 

[exciter]

Pickens and Ferguson replacement all in one.

Once we botch the Pickens situation, Dak will need another weapon. Assuming a Fluornoy can be a WR2, which is obviously a big assumption, I’m zeroed in on finding a replacement for Jake Ferguson, whose 0.3 YAC doesn’t strike fear into anyone

This is the type of player we need.

Need a title edit

Schottenheimer history as an offensive coordinator spans back to 2006 with the Jets.
During that time he's consistently underutilized the TE position.
So far it hasn't been much more than a glorified check down in his system reminiscent of what we witnessed with Ferguson last season.
In his 3 seasons with Seattle R Wilson produced 3 of his highest season passing yards and yet the TEs only averaged around 350-400 yards.
What makes you think that he'll be able to adjust his system enough after 20 years to make drafting a TE imperative?

 

[Kwyn]

Schottenheimer history as an offensive coordinator spans back to 2006 with the Jets.
During that time he's consistently underutilized the TE position.
So far it hasn't been much more than a glorified check down in his system reminiscent of what we witnessed with Ferguson last season.
In his 3 seasons with Seattle R Wilson produced 3 of his highest season passing yards and yet the TEs only averaged around 350-400 yards.
What makes you think that he'll be able to adjust his system enough after 20 years to make drafting a TE imperative?

Good post. I should have checked into that myself. He’s obviously not afraid to target a tight end as Ferg had over a hundred balls the last three years and Schottenheimer was the OC.

I’d like to see if he would adjust if he had an athletic tight end. It would be a miracle if Trigg got it together enough to let us find out but it would be nice to see.