Particularly early in camp, we see a lot of players popping off in interviews, making eye-rolling claims. Add Gerald Everett to that list. He thought it would be a good idea to suggest he and Tyler Higbee could be a better pair of tight ends than what coach Sean McVay worked with in Washington (Jordan Reed and Vernon Davis).
Why?
“We’re very confident in Gerald and I can appreciate his confidence,” McVay said in a story posted by the Los Angeles Times. “But let me tell you this, if they are better than those guys, we’ll be in good shape this year.”
While Everett’s comments were ill advised, the Rams do at least intend to use their tight ends a lot more. He was productive enough at South Alabama that the Rams selected him in the second round. Everett caught 90 passes and 12 TDs in his two years there. (The photo shows Everett at the combine.)
And the Rams selected another pass-catching tight end in the fourth round last year. Higbee likely would have been selected in the second or third had he not been involved in a drunken brawl a few weeks before the draft. That resulted in him pleading guilty to felony assault charges.
The Rams currently have Higbee working as their starter, with Everett more likely to be used as a secondary, pass-catching option. They might both catch plenty of passes. Too early for me to consider selecting either one of them, but I think there’s a decent chance one of them will be a top-20 player at this position. Let’s look at them in the preseason games, and then perhaps we can start think about selecting one of them in the late rounds.
McVay is putting in a new offense, and that should make a big difference.
Over the last two years, the Rams have put up the 2nd-worst tight end numbers in the league (using standard fantasy scoring). In the same two years, McVay’s old team (Washington) put up the 4th-best numbers, averaging 76 yards, with 20 TDs in 32 games.
| TIGHT END PRODUCTION SINCE 2015 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | No | Yards | Avg | TD | Points |
| New England | 181 | 2,725 | 15.1 | 26 | 428.5 |
| Tennessee | 219 | 2,576 | 11.8 | 19 | 371.6 |
| San Diego | 195 | 2,183 | 11.2 | 25 | 368.3 |
| Washington | 218 | 2,399 | 11.0 | 20 | 359.9 |
| Carolina | 186 | 2,452 | 13.2 | 13 | 323.2 |
| Philadelphia | 234 | 2,603 | 11.1 | 10 | 320.3 |
| Indianapolis | 191 | 1,959 | 10.3 | 17 | 297.9 |
| Kansas City | 193 | 2,304 | 11.9 | 11 | 296.4 |
| Seattle | 167 | 2,097 | 12.6 | 12 | 281.7 |
| Cincinnati | 139 | 1,611 | 11.6 | 20 | 281.1 |
| Tampa Bay | 143 | 1,638 | 11.5 | 19 | 277.8 |
| New Orleans | 171 | 1,833 | 10.7 | 15 | 273.3 |
| Cleveland | 155 | 1,877 | 12.1 | 14 | 271.7 |
| San Francisco | 142 | 1,735 | 12.2 | 13 | 251.5 |
| Minnesota | 164 | 1,616 | 9.9 | 13 | 239.6 |
| Chicago | 162 | 1,584 | 9.8 | 13 | 236.4 |
| Baltimore | 193 | 1,762 | 9.1 | 10 | 236.2 |
| Jacksonville | 161 | 1,568 | 9.7 | 12 | 228.8 |
| Atlanta | 127 | 1,547 | 12.2 | 12 | 226.7 |
| Houston | 156 | 1,542 | 9.9 | 11 | 220.2 |
| Dallas | 174 | 1,628 | 9.4 | 8 | 210.8 |
| Green Bay | 137 | 1,326 | 9.7 | 12 | 204.6 |
| Pittsburgh | 145 | 1,441 | 9.9 | 9 | 198.1 |
| Detroit | 130 | 1,437 | 11.1 | 9 | 197.7 |
| NY Giants | 167 | 1,437 | 8.6 | 8 | 191.7 |
| Oakland | 130 | 1,260 | 9.7 | 10 | 186.0 |
| Denver | 131 | 1,482 | 11.3 | 6 | 184.2 |
| Miami | 113 | 1,111 | 9.8 | 12 | 183.1 |
| Buffalo | 133 | 1,399 | 10.5 | 7 | 181.9 |
| Arizona | 96 | 1,162 | 12.1 | 9 | 170.2 |
| Rams | 130 | 1,336 | 10.3 | 5 | 163.6 |
| NY Jets | 26 | 268 | 10.3 | 1 | 32.8 |
—Ian Allan