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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Celek is doing a great job. Silly to worry about his individual stats in coming season. Offense was pass-happy rodeo in 2009. I'd be pleased if Eagles ran a bit more and used Celek as blocker. Balanced offense, better red zone and better short yardage performance are 2010 requirements. Celek, Ingram, Riley and Avant might thrive with shorter pass game and better planned red zone plays.— Smashmouth- because kolb is a short yardage passer and not a long ball qb the number of receptions for celek will increase. but the only way to keep the yardage the same or better than last year is for him to really push for the extra YAC. i think he will step it up and continue to produce big numbers. actually i think things will be better as the eagles will start going back to basics - quick short passes, use up the clock, march downfield and score while wearing down the opposing defense. mcnabb era was focused on big plays downfield. you cant win ball games that way. lets get back to good solid football and not novelty plays. go eagles.
- If he's stays healthy he will have outplayed his contract within the next 2 seasons. I wonder how the birds are going to treat him then.— jaydlaw
- Celek will probably get a lot of catches, the TE always does when the QB can't get the ball down field ...— AsValidAsYours
- craig123: Nope, not at all. No one has ever accused Celek of being a good blocker. In fact the Eagles have never started a quality blocking tight end for long in the Reid era. Not a priority, just like linebacking.— jimmyj
- OK, picture this. Ingram at tight end, Celek lines up at H-back. Comes out of the backfield on a swing route as Ingram flies down the seam, clearing out the zone. Options 2 and 3: Celek can either stay in to block for KK, or circle out as a safety valve.— mccloudmj
- He will have as many receptions, but, because McNabbs not throwing the pass ,he won't get numbers as good as last year????? What? Was McNabb blocking for him downfield!!?? And he is no Witten et.al.???? No hes not. He just has better numbers in the games!! Celek is at least in the top 3 Tight Ends in the NFL , AND, he has lots of time to grow. If your an Eagles fan, count your blessings !— feps
- He got all those catches because the QB cant throw the ball downfield?? guess those TEs that also got a lot of catches has a weak armed QB passing them the ball also. Right??— feps
- mccloudmj: What I'm actually picturing is the end of that play, where one of the OL's is frantically waiving in the trainer as Kolb lies motionless, crunched between two unblocked defenders!— jimmyj
- Brent did very well last year because KK was in there for 2 games, remember?, and that is also how KK throw 2 ints because he was only looking for Brent, I wish #5 was still here, well Brent will have to do more blocking because KK has no speed or ability to escape, thanks andy— will69
- Actually,he should have better numbers with Kolb. In Kolb's 2 starts last year Celek did better than his averages. Granted it was only 2 games, but Kolbs quick release and the additional experience on the young receivers will only improve Celek's game.— watsonmr
- QB who gets the ball down field successfully opens things underneath for the TE to not only get receptions but get yards after the catch ... QB who can't gets the TE receptions but no yards ... sorry, didn't know I needed to explain, I'll type slower for you ...— AsValidAsYours
- Celek if healthy will be a cornerstone of this team for a very long time. He has improved every season and will continue to do so. But, once Defense will be the issue with this team. The weaknesses at the Corner and Safety positions are just ridiculous in such a pass happy league. I do not believe they will be able to generate enough pressure on the QB to counter that weakness.— Murrayag11
- Murrayag, yep we look like a sitting duck for good passing teams. If the offense doesn't pan out, it doesn't look good.— tacklinjoe
- Actually it was a 6 year extension with 2 years left on his current deal. There's no way he'll be happy with his paycheck in another 2 years.— balitok
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