A tough week for the Baltimore Ravens. They lost their nickel back, Tavon Young, with a torn ACL, and Dennis Pitta dislocated his hip the following day. Neither will play in 2017 (Pitta almost certainly will never play again). They would have been better off, apparently, simply not having that OTA.
The Pitta injury is notable, with him having led the team with 86 catches last year. A look at possibilities to fill that void:
Maxx Williams: Williams missed most of last year with a knee injury, but he was the first tight end drafted in 2015 – late in the second round. He had a serviceable rookie season, catching 32 passes. That’s not bad, considering Williams left Minnesota after his sophomore season. He caught 36 passes and 8 TDs in his final season with the Golden Gophers. I would call him the slight favorite to be the Pitta-type tight end. Might catch 60 passes, but let’s see what he looks like in August.
Darren Waller: I have interest in seeing what Waller looks like in the early exhibitions – how much he plays, and how they’re using him. They drafted him in the sixth round in the same year as Williams. He’s actually got better measurables. At 6-foot-6, he’s 2 inches taller, and he ran a 4.46 at the combine (Williams ran 4.78). Waller isn’t quite that fast now. He has bulked up. He was a wide receiver at Georgia Tech, and has been transitioning to tight end. Just maybe there’s something there. But way too early to declare him the next Shannon Sharpe. Waller caught only 10 passes last year, and he didn’t catch a lot of balls as a wide receiver in college. Small hands – just 9 inches. A lot of the best tight ends have big hands (Gronkowski, Jimmy Graham, Kyle Rudolph). If you’re a hands size guy, edge to Williams, whose mitts measured at 10.38 inches at that 2015 combine.
Benjamin Watson: Watson has some receiving ability. He caught 74 passes for 825 yards and 6 TDs two years ago with New Orleans. While it’s easy to say the Saints throw the ball all over the place, the Ravens have actually attempted more passes over the last two years (seriously – a league-high 1,355 in the last two seasons). The Ravens signed Watson to a two-year contract worth $7 million, figuring he’d come in and be a viable player for them, but he tore his Achilles and missed the entire season. He’s supposedly healthy now and will be given a look, but he’s 36 years old. If he’s right physically, he might be their best tight end.
Crockett Gillmore: He’s bigger (6-6, 260) than those other three, with more blocking ability. He could wind up as their primary in-line tight end, serving as more blocker than receiver. But it’s not as if he can’t catch. He had seasons with 45 and 47 receptions at Colorado State. The Ravens selected him late in the third round in 2014. He caught 33 passes and 4 TDs in 10 games in the 2015 season. Back and hamstring injuries kept him out for over half of last season.
Nick Boyle: Possible in-line tight end. Selected in the fifth round in 2015 (the same draft as Williams and Waller). Suspended for the first 10 games of last year for his second positive test for performance-enhancing drugs. On the one hand, that’s a downer. But at the same time I respect that at least he’s battling, trying to make it in a really competitive league. Like Gillmore, showed some ability to catch when he was in college, with 79 catches and 11 TDs his final two years at Delaware (same school at Joe Flacco).
Anquan Boldin: Boldin isn’t even on the roster, but John Harbaugh made some comments a month or so back about wanting to sign him. Boldin is built like a tight end, and could be used in a similar way to how they used Pitta last year. If they sign him, he’d probably line up in the slot a lot, using his big body on short routes. Boldin caught 67 passes and 8 TDs last year for the Lions.
It’s really a pretty wide open situation. We are putting the magazine together now. There’s a page in there where they asked rapid-fire pages of four different writers – myself, Andy Richardson, Justin Eleff and Michael Murillo. One of the questions was, “who will be Baltimore’s best tight end?” The four picked four different tight ends, with Williams, Waller, Watson and Gillmore each getting one vote.
I don’t see a lot of difference between the four. If you could have either the first choice of the group, or the best one out the field, I would definitely opt for the latter.
—Ian Allan