The New York Jets, under offensive coordinator Chan Gailey, rarely used their tight ends offensively in 2015. After Jets tight ends Jeff Cumberland and Kellen Davis combined for 95 yards and one touchdown on eight receptions in 2015, they expectedly improved in 2016, but not by much.
New York Jets Tight Ends End of Season Review
Kellen Davis
When you make three catches for 18 yards and a touchdown, odds are that you will put up better numbers in your next season. However, those odds were not in Davis’ favor. 2015 could actually have been considered Davis’ sixth best season of his nine year career in terms of receiving. While his 2010 season was eerily similar, his postseason performance made up for it.
2016 was not a great year for Davis as he caught no passes on one target. He only played in eight games for the season because he sustained an elbow injury in the middle of November.
While he is mostly a blocking tight end, he is not considered one of the better blockers in football. The Jets only re-signed him to a one-year, veteran-minimum deal. Still, he started in seven of those eight games in which he participated. As already mentioned, Gailey’s offense does not utilize the tight end in receiving schemes. The starting of Davis was a testament to that approach.
Brandon Bostick
Brandon Bostick was another tight end on the Jets in 2016 who functioned similarly to Davis. The Jets picked him up on a one-year, $600,000 contract after he did not play in 2015.
Bostick, the Jets smallest tight end, did not do much either in 2016. He finished the season with eight receptions for 63 yards on 11 targets. Most of that came in Weeks 12, 13, and 14 when he had five receptions for 43 yards.
Bostick played in all 16 games and started seven. He was the primary starter after Davis went down with injury.
Austin Seferian-Jenkins
The Jets picked up Austin Seferian-Jenkins on September 26. He was waived by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after he was charged with driving under the influence on September 23. That was his second DUI arrest as he also got one in 2013 while he was in college.
The Jets decided to give him a chance and while they weren’t pleased with his actions, they decided to start him with a clean slate. After all, the talent was there. The 6’6”, 262 pound tight end had 42 receptions for 559 yards and six touchdowns in 16 games (12 starts) across the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
While he only had 44 yards and a touchdown on three receptions in the first two games of the season with Tampa, that was more than any Jets tight end. By that point the Jets were the only team in the NFL without a reception by a tight end.
Among Jets tight ends, Seferian-Jenkins performed the best, but not by a lot. He was inactive in Week Four to give him time to get used to Gailey’s offense. He made his debut with the Jets in Week Five and made two catches for 17 yards. An ankle injury caused him to miss the next three games. When he played again in Week Nine, he made no catches on one target.
In Weeks 12-16 he got into a little groove. He had eight receptions on 14 targets for 93 yards. Unfortunately for him, he left Week 16 with a hamstring injury and the same injury kept him out of Week 17.
He finished his time on the Jets in 2016 with ten receptions on 17 targets for 110 yards.
Eric Tomlinson
Most Jets fans probably don’t even recognize Eric Tomlinson‘s name. This 24-year-old tight end actually played in seven games. Nonetheless he was put in just for blocking as he accumulated no stats in the receiving side of the game. There’s not much else to say about him other than he’s built like a tight end at 6’6” and 263 pounds.
Overall
There’s not many positive remarks that can be said about this group of tight ends. Seferian-Jenkins is the lone bright spot, but he didn’t show much due to injury and switching teams after his DUI. He is very confident that he can make an impact on the Jets, however.
“Absolutely,” Seferian-Jenkins told NJ Advance Media in December. “I will be that guy. No doubt in my mind.”
Unless the Jets draft or sign a tight end, he looks to be the guy for next season at this point. Based on what they already had, the transaction didn’t hurt and still has time to work out especially with a new offensive coordinator.
