{"id":310789,"date":"2025-08-23T08:59:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T08:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/310789\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T08:59:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T08:59:18","slug":"te-cade-otton-would-stay-in-tampa-long-term-if-offered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/310789\/","title":{"rendered":"TE Cade Otton Would Stay In Tampa Long-Term If Offered"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buccaneers tight end Cade Otton<\/a> is set to play out the 2025 NFL season on a contract year. Tampa Bay\u2019s top tight end for the past three years, Otton expressed hope<\/a> for an extension in a recent media appearance (via FOX Sports\u2019 Jordan Schultz and Greg Auman), though he seemed to indicate that the feeling may not be mutual. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As a rookie fourth-round pick out of Washington in 2022, Otton immediately surpassed long-time backup Cameron Brate<\/a> for the top tight end honors in the wake of Rob Gronkowski<\/a>\u2018s second retirement. With Gronk out of the offense, quarterback Tom Brady<\/a> didn\u2019t look often to his tight end group to move the ball, so it didn\u2019t take much, but Otton\u2019s 42 catches for 391 yards and two touchdowns were all team highs at the position.<\/p>\n

He and fellow rookie Ko Kieft<\/a> \u2014 picked two rounds after Otton \u2014 were the only two returning tight ends in 2023. Kieft played much more of a blocking tight end role, earning more starts than Otton in 2022 but recording far fewer yards. Kieft was joined in that role by a sixth-round 2023 draftee, Payne Durham<\/a>. With Kieft and Durham in blocking situations most of the time, Otton once again quietly led the group with 47 receptions, 455 yards, and four touchdowns.<\/p>\n

For the third year in a row, the Buccaneers spent another Day 3 pick on a tight end in 2024, using a seventh-rounder to bring in Otton\u2019s former Huskies teammate Devin Culp<\/a>. Once again, Kieft, Durham, and Culp remained mostly nonfactors in the passing game, leaving Otton to post a career-best receiving line of 59-600-4, despite missing three games.<\/p>\n

The reason Tampa Bay hasn\u2019t come forward to discuss an extension yet may be the same reason they\u2019ve been taken flyers on late-round tight ends each year. Sure, they\u2019ve been appreciative of Otton\u2019s contributions as the leading tight end, but every year there\u2019s been an expectation that he might take off. Yet, despite the lack of a serious competitor, instead of taking leaps, Otton has merely continued taking steps forward. He\u2019s improved each year but not to the level of a clearcut TE1.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that this is Otton\u2019s last year in pewter and red (and, occasionally, Creamsicle). While he has his sights set on his future, Otton has 17 games ahead of him in which he can give Tampa Bay every reason why they should extend him as their tight end of the future. Otherwise, the Buccaneers may just go back to the draft for the position in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buccaneers tight end Cade Otton is set to play out the 2025 NFL season on a contract year.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,9341,7,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-310789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-cade-otton","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-tampa-bay","13":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","14":"tag-tampabay","15":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115077262005979850","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}