{"id":203177,"date":"2024-12-04T12:30:45","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T17:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=203177"},"modified":"2024-12-03T22:13:17","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T03:13:17","slug":"tight-end-will-mallory-needs-more-reps-with-the-colts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/12\/04\/tight-end-will-mallory-needs-more-reps-with-the-colts\/","title":{"rendered":"This Young Tight End Needs More Reps with the Colts"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the glaring issues with the Indianapolis Colts offense is their lack of efficiency at tight end<\/a>. With the constant rotation, Indy does not have a true number-one guy. Over the last decade, the Colts have not had a dominant or reliable guy who can make plays both in blocking and receiving. The last time they had a tight end with more than 1,000 yards<\/a> receiving was in 2009 with Ring of Honor Dallas Clark. The last time they had a tight end with more than 500 yards<\/a> receiving was in 2018 with Eric Ebron, who had 750. The Colts are currently rotating four tight ends, but Will Mallory has been the dark horse<\/a> who has also had the least amount of reps.<\/p>\n

These statistics are glaring because the Colts have struggled to be a relevant team in the AFC since 2018, when they made it to the divisional round of the playoffs. Having a high-quality tight end is needed to be successful in this league. Across the league, the top teams all have top-tier tight ends. The Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> have Travis Kelce<\/a>. The Baltimore Ravens<\/a> have Mark Andrews<\/a>. The Detroit Lions<\/a> have Sam LaPorta<\/a>. Lastly, the Philadelphia Eagles<\/a> have Dallas Goedert<\/a>, just to name a few.<\/p>\n

The Colts leading tight end is Mo Ali-Cox<\/a> who has a total of 132 receiving yards. This isn’t good enough for a team looking to make the playoffs. The good news, however, is that the Colts have a young tight end who has a huge upside in Will Mallory.<\/p>\n

The Colts Need to Give Tight End Will Mallory More Reps<\/h2>\n

His Career Thus Far<\/h3>\n

Will Mallory<\/a> is in his second season in the NFL. He was drafted in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft. Listed at 6-5 and 239 pounds, Mallory has the traits to be a solid tight end, though he was never a big college prospect. So far in his career, he has 22 receptions on 33 targets for 236 yards and no touchdowns. The reason why Mallory is being highlighted as the dark horse is because of his efficiency.<\/p>\n

While he does not have a lot of reps, Mallory has been nothing but efficient<\/a> when his number is called. He does not have any drops in his career through 33 targets. His catch percentage is currently at 57.1%, and he finished with 69.2% last season, which led the tight ends. With such a small sample size this season, it’s hard to gauge just how good Mallory is. However, the Colts are not going anywhere with their current starters and need a spark at this position. Mallory has shown that he can be efficient, so it would be advantageous to give him more reps.<\/p>\n

The Importance of a Reliable Tight End<\/h3>\n

As mentioned earlier, the top teams in the league all have top-tier tight ends. For some reason, this tends to go hand-in-hand. Even the Colts of old, with Peyton Manning<\/a> and Andrew Luck<\/a>, had good-quality tight ends. Manning had Dallas Clark<\/a>, and Luck had Eric Ebron<\/a> and Coby Fleener<\/a>. The Colts current quarterback, Anthony Richardson<\/a>, does not have anyone. One of the biggest security blankets for a young and inexperienced quarterback (besides running back) is a tight end. The Colts have not given Richardson that kind of security yet. However, if this trend of inefficiency<\/a> continues, look to see Chris Ballard and the Colts make some moves with this position.<\/p>\n

Main Image: Marc Lebryk – USA Today Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Indianapolis Colts are deficient at the tight end position, but second-year playmaker Will Mallory could be the short-term answer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5012,"featured_media":203306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,54],"tags":[56,7800,7421,9995],"class_list":["post-203177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colts","category-editorials","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-indianapolis-colts-news","tag-indianapolis-colts-roster","tag-will-mallory"],"modified_by":"Isaac Zuniga","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5012"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203177"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":203307,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203177\/revisions\/203307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}