CINCINNATI (WKRC) – While the Bengals may not have a single elite tight end like Travis Kelce or George Kittle or Sam LaPorta, they have strength in numbers and flexibility that head coach Zac Taylor and his offensive staff have leaned into more over the last couple of seasons.
The Bengals utilized five different tight ends last season — Mike Gesicki, Drew Sample, Erick All, Tanner Hudson, and Cam Grandy — last season as each provided different skill sets, but as a group they combined for 129 receptions for 1,114 yards and four touchdowns. Gesicki and Hudson are more noted for their receiving ability, while Sample and Grandy were better blockers. All flourished in both roles before suffering a season-ending knee injury in the ninth game against Las Vegas that will likely keep him out this season, as well. Veteran Noah Fant was signed on Aug. 1 to fill All’s role.
“We’ve had a lot of these guys over the years now, so we’ve gotten comfortable with what our offensive identity is and how to utilize guys to their strengths and also understanding covering up tendencies where we can,” said Taylor. “It’s not unique to tight end rooms across the league. I think we’ve been fortunate that we’ve got real weapons in the pass game in there that not everybody has. I also think Drew Sample’s arguably the top point of attack blocker and protector in football. I wouldn’t trade him out for anybody in that regard. We’ve got a really good blend of guys, so it’s just up to us to continue to be creative in how we utilize them and how we combine them when there are two or three in there. When one is in there what are we doing? It’s been really fun to find ways to utilize a lot of guys who continue to earn opportunity. There are a lot of guys in that room earning that opportunity and we’re trying to find ways to utilize that.”
The diversity and success of the group led Taylor to utilizing more two tight end sets last season and he is expected to do it again this season.
“Us as a room we can pretty much do anything,” said Sample, who is entering his seventh season with the team. “We can split out, we can block inline, we can do everything. I think the staff does a really good job of tailoring game plans or tailoring our offense around everyone’s strengths. We have so many weapons and so many guys and a lot of us have been together both in the entire offense and in the tight end room. I think (tight ends coach) James (Casey) does such a good job of making sure everyone knows everything. That allows the coaches to put us in different spots and to mix and match. It usually is pretty seamless for us, which is great. It puts everyone in the best place to be successful and that helps us win games and be good offense.”
The challenging part of using the multiple tight end alignments is avoiding tendencies that specific groupings could set off.
“There’s going to be percentage tendencies, no doubt, but if you can find ways to get to that 20 percent or cast doubt, then you can’t just hone in,” said Taylor. “You don’t want anything to be 100 percent, that’s what you don’t want, but when everything’s in that 10-20 percent, then there’s going to be a doubt in your mind. There’s also times we lean into it and say, ‘We’re throwing the ball. Here we go.’ So there’s just ways we try to be efficient and explosive and those tight ends have been a big part in why we’ve been able to do that because of the roles they all play.”
When Gesicki or Hudson are on the field with one of the other tight ends they actually act as more of a third receiver and can create mismatches because of that.
“I think that’s a testament to guys like Mike and Tanner, who really the defense has to treat as a receiving threat so they stay in nickel and then that gives us six-man surfaces in the run game where we can take advantage of that,” said Sample. “We also have the personnel with Noah and Cam and I where we can get in 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends and two wide receivers) and get a base look. and that gives a lot of space to our receivers and Chase (Brown). It allows us to run the ball and be more well-rounded and it helps our play-action game and our dropback game. I think all our skills sets helps us morph into what we want to be and how best we can attack teams.”
Sample said it helps that even when there may be two non-passing catching tight ends in the game that there are two elite receivers on the field in Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
“Defenses are so worried about them that even if we’re in a run heavy set, we can play action and we have two of the best receivers in football,” said Sample. “We can max protect, we can get five guys out. There are a lot of different things we can do, so that’s the beauty of our offense – we can give different appearances and looks. What we’re all trying to make sure is to be as well-rounded as possible.”