At this time of year, I mostly play around with numbers. You sort the stats every which way, and see who bubbles to the surface. And I just saw a notable stat that applies to Kyle Rudolph (who was recently released by Minnesota).
Rudolph is an older guy (he’s 31) but he can still play. The Vikings cut him loose for cap purposes. The veteran tight end still has some viable ball left in him, and I imagine multiple teams will be interested in bringing him in to be a contributor (either their main, starting tight end, or perhaps a team that uses primarily two tight ends).
Rudolph probably isn’t quite as fast or athletic as he was earlier in his career, but he’s more experienced. There hasn’t been a big decline in his effectiveness. His catch rates the last three years, for example, have been the three best of his career. Some of that can be attributed to the offense and the personnel around him (he’s been playing with Kirk Cousins, who’s more accurate than the other quarterbacks Rudolph has worked with). Nonetheless, I think Rudolph can still play.
Over the last two years (here’s the stat that caught my eye) 31 tight ends have seen at least 80 targets. Of that group, Rudolph has the best catch rate. He’s caught 67 of the 85 passes thrown his way. That’s just short of 79 percent, putting him just ahead of 2nd-place George Kittle.
I’m not arguing that this stat demonstrates Rudolph is one of the league’s dozen tight end. If I were assembling an NFL team, I would prefer to have either of the last two tight ends on this list (Dawson Knox, Mike Gesicki).
Point is only that Rudolph still has some ball left in him, and I think he’ll have a market. We’ll see where he lands, but some chance it will be in a situation where there will be some chance for him to finish with top-20 tight end numbers.
| TIGHT END COMPLETION RATES (last 2 years) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Tgt | No | Yds | Avg | TD | Pct |
| Kyle Rudolph, Min. | 85 | 67 | 701 | 10.5 | 7 | 78.8% |
| George Kittle, S.F. | 170 | 133 | 1,687 | 12.7 | 7 | 78.2% |
| Jason Witten, Dal.-L.V. | 100 | 76 | 598 | 7.9 | 6 | 76.0% |
| Tyler Higbee, LAR | 149 | 113 | 1,255 | 11.1 | 8 | 75.8% |
| Darren Waller, L.V. | 262 | 197 | 2,341 | 11.9 | 12 | 75.2% |
| Irv Smith, Min. | 90 | 66 | 676 | 10.2 | 7 | 73.3% |
| Austin Hooper, Atl.-Cle. | 167 | 121 | 1,222 | 10.1 | 10 | 72.5% |
| Cameron Brate, T.B. | 89 | 64 | 593 | 9.3 | 6 | 71.9% |
| Travis Kelce, K.C. | 281 | 202 | 2,645 | 13.1 | 16 | 71.9% |
| Dalton Schultz, Dall. | 91 | 64 | 621 | 9.7 | 4 | 70.3% |
| Jordan Akins, Hou. | 104 | 73 | 821 | 11.2 | 3 | 70.2% |
| Jonnu Smith, Ten. | 109 | 76 | 887 | 11.7 | 11 | 69.7% |
| Dallas Goedert, Phil. | 152 | 104 | 1,131 | 10.9 | 8 | 68.4% |
| Hunter Henry, LAC | 169 | 115 | 1,265 | 11.0 | 9 | 68.0% |
| Hayden Hurst, Bal.-Atl. | 127 | 86 | 920 | 10.7 | 8 | 67.7% |
| Jacob Hollister, Sea. | 99 | 66 | 558 | 8.5 | 6 | 66.7% |
| Mark Andrews, Balt. | 186 | 122 | 1,553 | 12.7 | 17 | 65.6% |
| Jimmy Graham, G.B.-Chi. | 136 | 88 | 903 | 10.3 | 11 | 64.7% |
| Tyler Eifert, Cin.-Jac. | 123 | 79 | 785 | 9.9 | 5 | 64.2% |
| Noah Fant, Den. | 159 | 102 | 1,235 | 12.1 | 6 | 64.2% |
| Jared Cook, N.O. | 125 | 80 | 1,209 | 15.1 | 16 | 64.0% |
| Gerald Everett, LAR | 122 | 78 | 825 | 10.6 | 3 | 63.9% |
| Greg Olsen, Car.-Sea. | 119 | 76 | 836 | 11.0 | 3 | 63.9% |
| Logan Thomas, Det.-Was. | 138 | 88 | 843 | 9.6 | 7 | 63.8% |
| Jack Doyle, Ind. | 105 | 66 | 699 | 10.6 | 7 | 62.9% |
| T.J. Hockenson, Det. | 160 | 99 | 1,090 | 11.0 | 8 | 61.9% |
| Eric Ebron, Ind.-Pit. | 143 | 87 | 933 | 10.7 | 8 | 60.8% |
| Evan Engram, NYG | 177 | 107 | 1,121 | 10.5 | 4 | 60.5% |
| Zach Ertz, Phil. | 207 | 124 | 1,251 | 10.1 | 7 | 59.9% |
| Mike Gesicki, Mia. | 174 | 104 | 1,273 | 12.2 | 11 | 59.8% |
| Dawson Knox, Buff. | 94 | 52 | 676 | 13.0 | 5 | 55.3% |
—Ian Allan