While the Pittsburgh Steelers have not been very good facing the tight end position for much of the season, recent weeks have really exposed their weakness in that area. Injuries at the inside linebacker position have put it under the spotlight—including for opposing offensive coordinators, who certainly seem to be exploiting that fact. And head coach Mike Tomlin knows their next opponent poses yet another problem for their pass coverage.
The Indianapolis Colts are a team that has a deep group at tight end and likes to utilize that depth, dressing four for most of the season. While they don’t have one standout contributor, the group as a collective poses a problem, especially for a defense struggling with that big-bodied matchup.
“They got a nice arsenal of tight ends and given how we’ve performed against tight ends of late, obviously that has our attention”, Tomlin said, via the team’s website, about the Colts’ tight end group during his pre-game press conference on Tuesday.
Third-year Kyle Granson has been the most frequent target in the group this year for Indianapolis, catching 22 passes on 38 targets for 264 yards and a touchdown. Veteran Mo Alie-Cox, who has taken on a more reduced role this year, has two touchdowns on just seven receptions for 104 yards. Second-year Andrew Ogletree adds another 147 yards and two touchdowns on nine receptions, while Will Mallory, the rookie, has 141 yards on 13 receptions.
Mallory has been seeing an increased role in recent weeks, targeted nine times over the past two games. He caught five passes for 46 yards this past week in the Colts’ loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Granson, meanwhile, had 72 yards on three catches the week before that.
Any of them could pop up with a play at any moment because the Colts are an offense that distributes the football. A full 15 different players have caught a pass in their scheme this season, although some of that has to do with injuries at the running back position.
Collectively, the Colts’ tight end group has accounted for 51 receptions this season for 656 yards and five touchdowns. That’s solid production for a passing offense that was quarterbacked by a rookie starter for four games and then a veteran backup the rest of the way.
WR Michael Pittman Jr. is the closest thing Indianapolis has to a force in the passing game right now, approaching 1,000 yards now on 100 receptions but with just four touchdowns. Only three players have at least 300 receiving yards.
Given that the Steelers have given up 66 receptions for 637 yards and five touchdowns to tight ends this season, according to Pro Football Reference, we should anticipate that the Colts’ tight ends should be able to produce similar numbers as they have this year, only a little more explosively.
