A season ago while with the Atlanta Falcons, new Indianapolis Colts quarterback Matt Ryan connected with tight ends Kyle Pitts and Hayden Hurst a combined 94 times. In fact, only once during the veteran’s final five seasons in Atlanta did the team fail to have a tight end catch more than 50 passes in a year — and that was 2017 when current Tennessee Titans tight end Austin Hooper caught 49. Go back even further and you’ll see the prolific numbers Tony Gonzalez put up during his time with the Falcons. Bottom line, Ryan has a long history of targeting his tight ends.
Now the question becomes what does head coach Frank Reich want to do? With four different starting quarterbacks in four years, it’s hard to get a read. In 2018, Andrew Luck’s final year, tight ends were targeted 168 times. In 2019, it was 146. In 2020, it fell to 119. Last season, it was just 103. Clearly, that’s a downward trend, but things could tick upward in 2022 with Ryan taking over a team that has only one established wide receiver in the form of Michael Pittman Jr.
