What is Celek's ceiling?
Eagles tight end Brent Celek broke out during his third season with the Eagles. What are fair expectations for 2010? And does he really have a chance to be the best tight end in modern franchise history?
What is Celek's ceiling?
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
At this time last year, the Eagles' tight-end situation was considered a question mark.
L.J. Smith was let go after six seasons here. And the Eagles did not select a tight end in the draft until the fifth round when they picked up Cornelius Ingram.
That meant the Eagles were going into the 2009 season with Brent Celek in the starting lineup. A fifth-round pick in 2007, Celek was coming off a 2008 campaign where he started seven games and totaled 27 catches for 318 yards (not including a strong showing in the postseason).
All Celek did in his first full season as a starter was pile up 76 catches for 971 yards and eight touchdowns, while averaging 12.8 yards per catch.
At 24 years old, he's now turned the Eagles' tight end situation from question mark to pretty much a sure thing.
I wanted to take a closer look at Celek's receiving performance in '09 to see how it compared to some of the game's elite tight ends.
First, the numbers. Here are the top 10 tight ends in terms of receiving yards last season:
| Rec. | Yds. | YPC | TDs | Plays of 20+ | |
| Antonio Gates | 79 | 1,157 | 14.6 | 8 | 18 |
| Dallas Clark | 100 | 1,106 | 11.1 | 10 | 11 |
| Jason Witten | 94 | 1,030 | 11.0 | 2 | 11 |
| Brent Celek | 76 | 971 | 12.8 | 8 | 16 |
| Vernon Davis | 78 | 965 | 12.4 | 13 | 13 |
| Kellen Winslow | 77 | 884 | 11.5 | 5 | 5 |
| Tony Gonzalez | 83 | 867 | 10.4 | 6 | 4 |
| Zach Miller | 66 | 805 | 12.2 | 3 | 9 |
| Heath Miller | 76 | 789 | 10.4 | 6 | 8 |
| JerMichael Finley | 55 | 676 | 12.3 | 5 | 9 |
I chose the categories I did to show that Celek is not the kind of tight end you might remember growing up, or even the kind of tight end we saw earlier in the Andy Reid era. He's a big-play threat. Among the top 10 tight ends, only Gates averaged more yards per catch. Celek's eight touchdowns were tied for third in the NFC and fourth overall among tight ends.
And he had 16 catches of 20 yards or more. Think about that. On average, you could count on Celek to make a play of at least 20 yards once a game during the regular season. What a luxury to be able to get that type of big-play production from the tight end. Only Gates had more (18) plays of 20 yards or more.
In terms of yards after the catch, I found some conflicting stats. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Celek averaged 6.0 yards after the catch, which put him at second among tight ends who had at least 50 receptions (behind Gates).
But according to Yahoo Sports, Celek averaged 5.1 yards after the catch.
The other aspect I wanted to look at was Celek's third-year numbers compared to third-year numbers of some of the other tight ends mentioned above. Here's how those stack up:
| Rec. | Yds. | YPC | TDs | |
| Brent Celek | 76 | 971 | 12.8 | 8 |
| Tony Gonzalez | 76 | 849 | 11.2 | 11 |
| Antonio Gates | 89 | 1,101 | 12.4 | 10 |
| Jason Witten | 66 | 757 | 11.5 | 6 |
| Dallas Clark | 37 | 488 | 13.2 | 4 |
Not bad, huh? More yards than Gonzalez in his third season. A higher average per catch than Gates. More receptions than Witten.
And keep in mind that Celek had only 11 starts under his belt going into his third season. Gonzalez had 16; Gates 26; Witten 22; and Clark 23.
So what's the point of all this? To show just how impressive Celek's growth has been. Celek, the Birds' personnel staff and the coaches deserve a lot of credit for that.
The Eagles were wise to lock him up to an eight-year, $34M deal last season. Granted, he's only done it for one year, and he has to stay healthy and continue to improve, but it's not a stretch to suggest that Celek could finish his career as the best tight end in modern (Super Bowl era) Eagles history.
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My man, HolmyDan! What can I say, great minds think alike. By the way, haven't seen any Phillies game day chats the last couple of days. Couldn't you yield your influence on philly.com and do something about that?...Anyways, like Mabus pointed out, don't sleep on Ingram. If he is recovered from his injury, then the Eagles could have two Pro Bowl caliber TE's on their roster. Cornelius Ingram is my sleeper on the offensive side of the ball this year.- O.K. O.K. I got a little carried away with that last post. Great minds? ehhhh, let's just go with goofy minds share similar rationalizations...
It's not hard to project that Celek's YPC might have been higher if the majority of balls thrown to him weren't behind him or at his shoe tops.— Eddieboy- his numbers were high because of mcnabb? Kolb will throw more to receivers? Celek's season high in receptions came in both of Kolb's starts: 8 rec 104 yds 1td, 8 rec 104 yds 0tds. 208 of his 971 yards came from kolb— victorygallop1998
guessing L.J. Smith has a drop ceiling...— bboybeballin- Hey Celek, watch your kornhole.— Kornholio Kolb
Comment removed.- 1/2 the YAC's were gained on broken tackles. I love Celeks refusal to go down easily. That alone makes his ceiling pretty high. Nobody has mentioned how much better his blocking has become. He's solid, it's his backups that worries me
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- He's going to have to do more to help Kolb from getting killed this year.— jimmyj
- And we shipped the guy who passed him all those balls to Washington...I am confused!!— Bigbadrookie
- Yep, nice numbers and a great player. AND at this time last year EVERONE was crying the blue's as how the Eagles were weak at tightend. Also (you missed it Bleue) he blocks VERY well. KK has a lot of weapons to work with but the key is still the O-Line. If Andrews plays well (I think he will) and who ever the fill in is for Jackson plays well, this offense will be solid. KK should keep them on the field longer than Donovan did and give the defense a little break. Time of posession, O-Line and defensive improvement are the three keys to this season.— craig123
- very nice article. at least someone is thinking outside the box over there. Lots to like about Celek this year with Kobb throwing a more accurate ball with better placement for yards after the catch.— phillydopes
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