Every Wednesday from now until preseason I’ll be going through each position group in the NFC South. I’ll rank them from worst to first. Here is a list of the positions already covered:

Quarterbacks

Running Backs

Wide Receivers

We will now finish up the playmaking positions on the offensive side of the ball with tight ends.

Tight Ends

4. Carolina Panthers

Tommy Tremble

Ja’Tavion Sanders

Ian Thomas

There is a reason the Panthers earned the first pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. And with them having traded it away the year prior there is

a good reason they may be in play for the first pick of the 2025 NFL Draft as well. Many parts of the team’s roster are still sorely lacking in talent.

Bucs CB Zyon McCollum and Panthers TE Tommy Tremble – Photo by: USA Today

Tommy Tremble is most likely going to be the opening day starter as tight end is a position where rookies rarely come out of the gate starting. He is entering his fourth year in the NFL and has a career yards per catch rate of under nine and less than 600 total receiving yards. The former third round pick out of Notre Dame is a default starter who isn’t particularly good at any facet of the game but can give the Panthers replacement level play until their backup is ready to take over.

That brings us to Ja’Tavion Sanders. The former Texas Longhorn was viewed by many as the second-best tight end in this year’s draft, but he fell all the way to the fourth round where the Panthers happily took a bet on his playmaking upside. He averaged over 16 yards per catch and eight yards after the catch in his final year in college and can serve as a talented “Y” or move tight end in an offense that will want to feature a lot of 12 personnel. Sanders gives this room some upside down the line.

Ian Thomas will likely serve as the Panthers TE3 after agreeing to renegotiate his contract down to a $1.3 million salary this year. After Carolina has given him numerous chances across multiple coaching staffs to become a starter the organization now seems resigned to hoping he can be an adequate backup for a team in transition.

With a default starter, a high risk-reward #2 and a TE3 who’s star has fallen, the Panthers rank last in the NFC South for tight end rooms.

3. Tampa Bay Bucs

Cade Otton

Payne Durham

Ko Kieft

Cade Otton has made steady progress over the past two years and is now considered a capable starter. But he lacks upside to be a true top-ten difference maker at the position. But he is a reliable pair of hands to work underneath for two high-end receivers in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. Otton topped a 70% catch rate in 2023, which is a minimum qualifier to be considered a starting-level tight end in today’s NFL. He also upped his target share to 12.7%.

Bucs TE Cade Otton – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

He still has room to grow and will need to become a more effective blocker in order to not be a candidate to be replaced every season, but if he can do that, he has a decent chance to turn into a Dalton Schultz-esque player. Schultz just signed a three-year, $36 million extension with the Texans after becoming a key component in C.J. Stroud’s rookie success. Otton will need to prove he is a better intermediate option to increase his average depth of target and create more yards per route run, here he ranked 42nd out of 46 qualifying tight ends last year.

I am projecting Payne Durham to win the TE2 role for the Bucs this year. Durham had two highlight-reel catches last year near the goal line that could foretell his best role in the NFL. At 6’6 and 253 pounds with strong hands he is the perfect red-zone weapon. Durham will have to show that he has progressed as a blocker in training camp to earn more playing time in year two.

Ko Kieft could be in danger of losing his roster spot this year. Since the Bucs selected him in the sixth round of the 2022 NFL Draft, he has been known as a blocking tight end with limited upside as a pass-catcher. Kieft has lived up to the second part of that billing, catching less than 60% of his 14 career targets. But he has been more of an adequate blocker than a standout. And with no high-end trait the Bucs may choose to pass him over with rookie Devin Culp who will offer more as a receiving threat with his track speed.

With more reliability and less upside the Bucs have a limited ceiling with their tight end group when comparing them to the rest of the NFC South.

2. New Orleans Saints

Juwan Johnson

Foster Moreau

Taysom Hill

Juwan Johnson may not be a household name across the NFL, but the former undrafted free agent has carved out a niche for himselfas a solid starting NFL tight end. He was unable to capitalize off of a strong 2022 season, only catching 37 passes for 368 yards and four touchdowns last year. But that was in part due to missing three games and playing through some nagging injuries. He still managed to post the second-best yards per route run of al the starting tight ends in the division.

Saints TE Juwan Johnson – Photo by: USA Today

With 15 touchdowns over the past three years and 11 in the past two, Johnson is the best scorer at the position in the NFC South.

Behind Johnson, Foster Moreau is the best and most reliable backup in the division. After four years as a quasi-starter with the Raiders Moreau is reuniting with his former quarterback Derek Carr for a similar role in New Orleans. Moreau doesn’t stand out in any single facet of the game but provides quality hands and functional blocking to where you feel comfortable with him on the field. His three-year deal was an under the radar signing but may end up being one of the Saints’ best moves of the offseason

Taysom Hill continues to hang around as a thorn in the rest of the collective NFC South’s side. The Swiss army knife is a gadget player who has a tendency to rattle off big plays as a wildcat quarterback who can do a little of everything. Over the past three years he has thrown for 1,301 yards and seven touchdowns and run for 1,350 yards and 16 scores. But one thing he really hasn’t done much of is receiving. Over that same time period he has just 419 yards receiving and four touchdowns. Now, the vast majority of that came last year as he totaled 291 yards and two touchdowns.

But with an aDot of just 5.7 those targets were more gadget-like and the Saints don’t really trust Hill as a blocker in a traditional tight end role.

But the overall combination of playmaking (Hill/Johnson) and high floor (Johnson/Moreau) has the Saints ranking second in the NFC South for tight ends.

1. Atlanta Falcons

Kyle Pitts

Charlie Woerner

John Fitzpatrick

While Pitts was originally seen as a generational talent who hasn’t quite lived up to his billing, he is still far and away the most talented tight end in the division by a wide margin. And while his counting stats have fallen on hard times over the past two seasons due in part to injury, it has also been in large part do to misuse by former head coach Arthur Smith.

There were 30 TEs with at least 42 targets during the 2023 season

Kyle Pitts was last with just 40.7% of his targets located 0-9 yards downfield

That number was even lower in 2022, at 37.5%

operation Get Pitts Gimmes in 2024 pic.twitter.com/WrrgYq9oTc

— Josh Norris (@JoshNorris) June 3, 2024

Pitts can win at all three levels of the field, produce yards after catch and create mismatch nightmares for defenses. The key for him is to get back to an offense where he is featured. In his rookie season Pitts had a 20% target share, caught 63.6% of his passes at an average depth of target of 11.6 and produced 2,02 yards per route run on his way to a thousand-yard season. He led all tight ends in yards per catch, ranked third in receiving yards and fifth in yards per route run. No other tight end in the division has even come close to sniffing those numbers.

Falcons TE Kyle Pitts and Bucs ILB Devin White – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Since then, Pitts’ target share and catch rate have fallen to 16% and 57%, respectively, while his average depth of target has ballooned to 12.7. Essentially, Atlanta took him from a three-level threat and turned him into a two-level guy by throwing to him less with lower percentage options. Count on new offensive coordinator Zac Robinson to reverse those trends by getting Pitts the ball in space off of motion while attacking the entire field. He is a good bet to have a big bounce-back season.

If Pitts does go down with a multi-game injury this room falls from first to worst quickly. Charlie Woener is a four-year vet with 15 career targets. He logged a career-high 313 snaps last year as a blocking backup. John FitzPatrick was a sixth-round pick by the Falcons in 2022 who got his first taste of NFL action on offense last year playing 18 snaps.

Pitts wins the Falcons the number one spot in the NFC South all by his lonesome, but this is as top-heavy as any position room in the entire division.