Austin Hooper is headed for free agency, but Hunter Henry is not. The Chargers have decided to lock him up with the franchise tag.
With the tag, Henry will be guaranteed to make something close $11 million for this season. More likely, he and the team will work out a longer-term deal.
Henry has had problems with injuries (he missed all of 2018 and four games last year) but has been solid when healthy. He caught 8 TDs as a rookie. Last year, he caught 55 passes for 562 yards and 5 TDs in 12 games.
Hooper now stands alone as the premier tight end on the market. The Falcons used their franchise tag earlier on Grady Jackson, so they don’t have the ability to protect him – Hooper will be a completely unrestricted free agent. The 25-year-old has caught over 70 passes two years in a row. He’ll get the attention of teams looking to add pass-catching firepower at the position, with the Patriots, Packers and Washington perhaps involved.
The Falcons will be interested in re-signing Hooper, but with multiple teams involved, I’m expecting Hooper’s payday will move a notch above what Henry’s locked into getting with the tag.
Using PPR scoring, both Hooper and Henry were top-8 scorers at the position last year. That’s per-game scoring, adjusting for time missed.
| TIGHT ENDS PER GAME, 2019 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | St | No | Rec | TD | PPR |
| Travis Kelce, K.C. | 16 | 6.1 | 76.8 | .38 | 16.0 |
| George Kittle, S.F. | 14 | 6.1 | 75.2 | .36 | 15.9 |
| Austin Hooper, Atl. | 13 | 5.8 | 60.5 | .49 | 14.7 |
| Zach Ertz, Phil. | 15 | 5.9 | 61.1 | .42 | 14.5 |
| Mark Andrews, Balt. | 15 | 4.3 | 56.8 | .67 | 13.9 |
| Darren Waller, Oak. | 16 | 5.6 | 71.6 | .19 | 13.9 |
| Evan Engram, NYG | 8 | 5.5 | 58.4 | .38 | 13.7 |
| Hunter Henry, LAC | 12 | 4.6 | 54.3 | .44 | 12.7 |
| Jared Cook, N.O. | 14 | 3.1 | 50.4 | .64 | 12.0 |
| Tyler Higbee, LAR | 15 | 4.6 | 48.9 | .20 | 10.7 |
| Jacob Hollister, Sea. | 8 | 4.5 | 38.9 | .38 | 10.6 |
| Dallas Goedert, Phil. | 15 | 3.9 | 40.5 | .33 | 9.9 |
| Jason Witten, Dall. | 16 | 3.9 | 33.1 | .27 | 8.9 |
| Greg Olsen, Car. | 14 | 3.7 | 42.6 | .14 | 8.8 |
| Mike Gesicki, Mia. | 16 | 3.2 | 35.6 | .31 | 8.6 |
| Eric Ebron, Ind. | 11 | 2.8 | 34.1 | .27 | 7.9 |
| Ryan Griffin, NYJ | 13 | 2.6 | 24.6 | .41 | 7.5 |
| Kyle Rudolph, Min. | 16 | 2.4 | 22.9 | .40 | 7.1 |
| Noah Fant, Den. | 16 | 2.5 | 35.1 | .19 | 7.1 |
| Jack Doyle, Ind. | 16 | 2.7 | 28.0 | .25 | 7.0 |
| Gerald Everett, LAR | 13 | 2.8 | 31.4 | .15 | 6.9 |
| Darren Fells, Hou. | 16 | 2.1 | 21.3 | .44 | 6.9 |
| T.J. Hockenson, Det. | 12 | 2.7 | 30.6 | .17 | 6.7 |
| Tyler Eifert, Cin. | 16 | 2.7 | 27.3 | .21 | 6.7 |
| Jonnu Smith, Ten. | 16 | 2.2 | 27.4 | .19 | 6.5 |
| Jimmy Graham, G.B. | 16 | 2.4 | 27.9 | .19 | 6.3 |
| O.J. Howard, T.B. | 14 | 2.4 | 32.8 | .07 | 6.1 |
| Vance McDonald, Pitt. | 14 | 2.7 | 19.5 | .21 | 6.0 |
| Cameron Brate, T.B. | 16 | 2.3 | 19.4 | .25 | 5.7 |
| Jordan Akins, Hou. | 16 | 2.3 | 26.1 | .13 | 5.6 |
Teams looking for an older, cheaper tight end might kick the tires on Jimmy Graham or Delanie Walker. They’ve been released this week by the Packers and Titans. Greg Olsen will be 35 in May and is running on fumes; he signed for $7 million a few weeks back with the Seahawks.
—Ian Allan