I’m putting in a late prop bet. Kendall Blanton. I think he’s going to go over 28.5 receiving yards.
The Rams placed Tyler Higbee (knee) on injured reserve Friday, so they’ll be starting Blanton at tight end. He’s their guy, and he looked just fine last week, catching all 5 of the passes thrown his way, for 57 yards. The previous week (while on the field for only 8 plays) Blanton caught both of the passes thrown his way (for 18 yards).
To me, it seems like Blanton is coming on and should perform well in that tight end role. He caught only 4 passes in the regular season, but that’s because he wasn’t playing much.
Blanton also wasn’t a big factor as a pass catcher at Missouri, catching only 22 passes in 10 games in his final season, but he was similarly underused there – stuck behind Albert Okwuegbunam (who’s been a nice second tight end for the Broncos alongside Noah Fant).
Blanton will get the chance to play now, and he’s been with the Rams for three years, practicing in their offense. I think he knows what he’s doing. He’s caught a couple of touchdowns in preseason games – seems to move pretty well. He caught 44 passes for 476 yards and 6 TDs at Missouri.
With Higbee out, I think Blanton will be on the field for pretty much every play. That’s the way it tends to play out in Sean McVay’s offense. There have been only 20 games this year where a tight end has been in a game for all of his team’s offensive plays, and Higbee is the only guy who’s done it six times. Blanton will be that guy.
As for the prop bet, I don’t consider it to be a slam-dunk gimme. I haven’t looked at all the different wagering sites (I’m in Washington State, so some of the sites I can’t even see), but one I saw had Blanton at 3.5 catches for 28.5 yards. That’s in line with how Higbee has performed. In 18 games, Higbee has averaged 3.9 catches for 37.5 yards. He’s gone over 28.5 yards in 12 of his 18 games, and he’s gone over 3.5 catches in 11 of 18.
A two out of three success might not get you excited, but keep in mind also that the Rams have been using their tight end more recently. Higbee had gone for 40-plus yards in six straight games before getting hurt against the 49ers (and in that game, Blanton went for 57, keeping the streak alive – I think he’ll get used).
I guess in general, I consider Blanton to be a little bit more similar to Higbee than most others.
| TIGHT ENDS WHO DON'T LEAVE THE FIELD | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Opp | Result | Tgt | Rec | Yds | TD | Plays | Pct |
| Dawson Knox, Buff. | at NE | W 33-21 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 1 | 79 | 100% |
| Ricky Seals-Jones, Was. | at GB | L 10-24 | 7 | 6 | 51 | 0 | 72 | 100% |
| Logan Thomas, Was. | NYG | W 30-29 | 7 | 5 | 45 | 0 | 71 | 100% |
| Ricky Seals-Jones, Was. | at DEN | L 10-17 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 0 | 70 | 100% |
| George Kittle, S.F. | at PHI | W 17-11 | 4 | 4 | 17 | 0 | 70 | 100% |
| George Kittle, S.F. | GB | L 28-30 | 9 | 7 | 92 | 0 | 70 | 100% |
| Tyler Higbee, LAR | at NYG | W 38-11 | 5 | 5 | 36 | 0 | 66 | 100% |
| Austin Hooper, Cle. | BAL | W 24-22 | 6 | 5 | 30 | 1 | 65 | 100% |
| Tyler Higbee, LAR | DET | W 28-19 | 8 | 5 | 46 | 0 | 65 | 100% |
| Tyler Higbee, LAR | at GB | L 28-36 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 62 | 100% |
| Tyler Higbee, LAR | ARI | W 34-11 | 4 | 3 | 46 | 0 | 60 | 100% |
| Tyler Higbee, LAR | at IND | W 27-24 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 59 | 100% |
| John Bates, Was. | at NYG | W 22-7 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 59 | 100% |
| George Kittle, S.F. | at TEN | L 17-20 | 3 | 2 | 21 | 0 | 59 | 100% |
| Ricky Seals-Jones, Was. | KC | L 13-31 | 6 | 4 | 58 | 1 | 59 | 100% |
| David Njoku, Cle. | LV | L 14-16 | 5 | 3 | 29 | 0 | 56 | 100% |
| Logan Thomas, Was. | LAC | L 16-20 | 3 | 3 | 30 | 1 | 55 | 100% |
| Logan Thomas, Was. | at BUF | L 21-43 | 4 | 4 | 42 | 1 | 54 | 100% |
| Tyler Higbee, LAR | CHI | W 34-14 | 6 | 5 | 68 | 0 | 52 | 100% |
| George Kittle, S.F. | at LAR | L 17-20 | 5 | 2 | 27 | 1 | 51 | 100% |
| Ricky Seals-Jones, Was. | NO | L 22-33 | 9 | 5 | 41 | 0 | 82 | 99% |
| John Bates, Was. | at CAR | W 27-21 | 3 | 3 | 23 | 0 | 66 | 99% |
| Dalton Schultz, Dall. | at KC | L 9-19 | 8 | 6 | 53 | 0 | 66 | 99% |
| Dawson Knox, Buff. | at KC | L 36-42 | 4 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 63 | 98% |
| Cole Kmet, Chi. | DET | W 24-14 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 57 | 98% |
| Dawson Knox, Buff. | IND | L 15-41 | 10 | 6 | 80 | 0 | 55 | 98% |
| Tyler Higbee, LAR | at SF | L 10-31 | 5 | 3 | 20 | 1 | 54 | 98% |
| George Kittle, S.F. | at GB | W 13-10 | 6 | 4 | 63 | 0 | 53 | 98% |
| Tyler Higbee, LAR | TEN | L 16-28 | 10 | 5 | 51 | 0 | 76 | 97% |
| Tyler Higbee, LAR | at TB | W 30-27 | 7 | 4 | 51 | 0 | 70 | 97% |
| Rob Gronkowski, T.B. | LAR | L 27-30 | 11 | 4 | 85 | 0 | 70 | 97% |
| Mike Gesicki, Mia. | at BUF | L 11-26 | 4 | 3 | 48 | 0 | 67 | 97% |
| George Kittle, S.F. | at DAL | W 23-17 | 3 | 1 | 18 | 0 | 63 | 97% |
| Zach Ertz, Ariz. | IND | L 16-22 | 13 | 8 | 54 | 0 | 63 | 97% |
| Tyler Conklin, Min. | LAR | L 23-30 | 5 | 4 | 44 | 0 | 61 | 97% |
| Noah Fant, Den. | at PIT | L 19-27 | 4 | 3 | 20 | 0 | 58 | 97% |
| Tyler Higbee, LAR | at BAL | W 20-19 | 9 | 6 | 69 | 0 | 56 | 97% |
| Dawson Knox, Buff. | NE | L 10-14 | 6 | 2 | 14 | 0 | 56 | 97% |
—Ian Allan