If you want to play tight end, you better be able to catch the football. More and more, that seems to be the mantra of the modern game.
Casual fans have stopped evaluating tight ends by their blocking technique and shifted almost exclusively to their receiving abilities. Catches, receiving yards, touchdowns … that’s what makes a tight end popular. Keeping a defensive end away from the quarterback or opening up holes for the running back are simply bonuses, at least to some.
But don’t tell that to Dayton Valentine, a junior tight end at Kansas State who has risen to captain and cracked the John Mackey Award watch list a year after catching (get this) two passes for eight yards.