Second- and third-year NFL players ready to break out in 2021: Offense edition

Tight-end – Adam Trautman

We’ve had relatively weak tight-end drafts the last two years, with 2020 lacking anybody worthy of a first-round pick.

After the once-in-a-generation type prospect of Florida’s Kyle Pitts this year to go with an underrated player in Pat Freiermuth from Penn State, the quality fell off dramatically.

In that 2020 class, I had Adam Trautman atop my positional rankings. I was a little skeptical about somebody from Dayton potentially going early as well, but he blew me away during Senior Bowl week. However, he ended up being only the fifth TE to be selected, with the second-to-last pick on day two.

After wanting to convince myself first before making a statement on this young man, I was kind of shocked to see him drop this far. He may not have elite athletic tools or a track record of dominant play against Power-Five competition, but he absolutely tore apart the FCS competition and then stepped up against some of the best players in college football down in Mobile

On the basis of those exploits, people really wanted to buy some Trautman brick.

Rookie tight ends rarely produce at a very high level – even though he aforementioned Pitts will probably rip that general statement apart this year. Even the two guys who led in receiving yards from last year’s class (Cole Kmet and Harrison Bryant) couldn’t quite reach the 250-yard mark.

Trautman came in just behind them. Over 15 games, he caught as many passes for 171 yards and one touchdown. Those numbers obviously won’t get anybody excited, but he did so on just one more target than the passes he hauled in, and averaged 11.4 yards per grab.

A big reason for Trautman’s lack of production was the presence of 12th-year veteran Jared Cook, who accounted for just over 500 yards through the air for a team that finished 25th in the league in pass attempts playing without Drew Brees or a banged-up version for the majority of the season.

However, Trautman’s role increased throughout the year and all but one of his games with the highest percentage of snaps came over the second half of the season, as he finished with just 73 total snaps less than Cook. Being able to take on more responsibilities that don’t involve him as a pass-catcher himself worked against him in terms of the chances he ultimately received.

The tape on Trautman as a receiver may be limited, but to go back and see the work he put in as a blocker was highly impressive for a rookie.

Listed at 6’5”, 253 pounds, he obviously has the size to be an in-line asset, but I really liked how aggressive he was at Dayton in that capacity, rolling his hips through contact and taking some smaller defenders for a ride, if not land on top of them.

While the level of physicality obviously reaches a different level in the NFL, you saw the rook display his power on numerous occasions. Whether it was putting safeties who were rotated down against heavier personnel on skates, or catching linebackers on an angle, you consistently saw excellent leg-drive and ability to re-direct.

It was really apparent when we saw him cave in defensive ends lining up in the C-gap and actually shove them over the center, at times combined with him climbing up to a linebacker and covering them up. Trautman is also great at sealing off backside pursuit defenders, often times ripping underneath their reach and walling them off, therefore forcing them to go through him.

Even though the sample size is limited, I still remember what I saw from him in the pass game in the draft evaluation process. Dayton’s all-time leading receiver excelled at creating separation on underneath routes by leaning into defenders and slightly pushing off, but he was also involved down the field a whole lot, where he really plucks the ball out of the air, often times through contact.

I went back and not only watched his 16 targets as a rookie, but also watched a couple of full games to see what he did when the quarterback didn’t go his way. And he was open on a few occasions when Brees checked it down rather than hit him on a dig route in front of a post.

To be honest, he didn't get to run to man, at least with free releases, as he was used in pass-pro or slipped out late quite a bit. Of the 16 passes that did go his way, four of them were delayed screens, a few routes where he curled back towards the QB, and the two times he did have some room to run came when he was pretty wide open on a shallow crosser and a post route.

Still, he turned nine of those into first downs, with 117 of 171 yards coming after the catch, while the guys going his way had a passer rating of 132.0.

I don’t believe Trautman has that quick burst of someone like Irv Smith Jr., who I just talked about, and he’s not very creative after the catch, but he deserves to be more involved in the pass-game.

That touchdown he had on a stick-nod against Tampa Bay was my favorite and he is very capable of presenting himself as a target if they allow him to threaten more down the field. With Jared Cook moving on in free agency, Trautman's chances should definitely increase and if his efficiency is even close with 50+ targets, he could finish near the top statistically among tight-ends, if you take Travis Kelce, George Kittle and Darren Waller tier out of the equation.

Quarterback play and who starts under center is still up in the air, but for all his flaws, Jameis Winston did throw for over 5,000 yards his last season as a starter and his top two TEs combined for over 1,100 of those. And even if they go with Taysom Hill, we did see the Saints have Trautman run those flat routes off RPOs and as a quick dump-off option in their RPO game, while not being scared to attack down the seams either.

He had the highest grade for a rookie at his position according to Pro Football Focus and he hasn’t shown me anything to suggest that he isn’t still the best all-around tight-end from that 2019 class.

Adam Trautman route running: 💯 pic.twitter.com/2ulE1O9o5w

— PFF College (@PFF_College) November 22, 2020