
The Facts: No offense received more yards from the tight end position last season than the one Sean McVay ran for the Redskins, which prompted Rams GM Les Snead to make the following pronouncement: "Expect big things from Tyler."
Diehards Line:
As ESPN.com's Alden Gonzalez reminded readers, Higbee is the 6-4 tight end selected in the fourth round of last year's draft. Snead made that comment at the end of a response to a question about Higbee's production from the NFL scouting combine on March 2. Seven days later, the Rams released their starting tight end, Lance Kendricks, leaving Higbee as McVay's primary target from that position. The Rams will eventually add more depth -- probably through a draft expected to be particularly rich at tight end -- but Higbee should expect a major spike in targets next season -- which isn't a high bar. Higbee was only targeted 29 times and caught 11 passes as a rookie last season. In the two years that McVay served as play caller, Washington's tight ends were fifth in targets (289), fifth in receiving yards (2,397) and tied for third in touchdowns (20) during that time. A bulk of that production was absorbed by Jordan Reed, who compiled 153 catches for 1,638 yards and 17 touchdowns from 2015-16. But the Redskins' tight end group took another step forward with the presence of veteran Vernon Davis, who added 44 catches for 583 yards in 2016. McVay identified tight end as "a position that we’ll look very closely at moving forward.” But he'll also rely in-house on Higbee, who, like Reed, profiles as a big, physical tight end who can also line up as a receiver and make an impact on the outside.