Season Review: Tight End

During the 2019 season, three of Boston College’s top-six receivers were tight ends. The year before that, seven BC tight ends hauled in multiple catches.

The position was a staple of Steve Addazio’s 12-personnel, run-oriented offense.

But, following the Eagles’ 2019 regular season finale, Addazio was fired, and, soon after, what was once the team’s deepest position group grew extremely thin. Jake Burt, Korab Idrizi, and Chris Garrison—all of whom logged 20-plus receptions with the Eagles—graduated, leaving Hunter Long as the lone returning BC tight end with substantial game experience.

Despite the microscope on his play and, overall, elevated expectations for the NFL hopeful, Long thrived, putting up some of the best numbers at the position in program history.

Overview

Coming off a redshirt sophomore campaign in which he led the Eagles with 509 receiving yards, Long was almost a sure bet for a breakout season in 2020. The question became, though, how would new offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. use the 6-foot-5 tight end?

Long was heavily featured in Cignetti’s pro-style offense, which did anything but restrict the label of “perimeter player” to wide receivers. The Exeter, New Hampshire, native motioned in the backfield, skirted out to the flat, lined up in the slot and outside, turned upfield on double move routes—in short, he was used everywhere in nearly every way.

He became quarterback Phil Jurkovec’s security blanket and recorded catches in bunches. As the season progressed, defenses dialed in on Long, however, the extra attention he was getting simply opened up the field for BC’s wide receivers, who made the most of the opportunity. While Long emerged as a star, second-string tight end Spencer Witter got some looks, too. The redshirt freshman played 310 snaps, according to Pro Football Focus, reeled in a few critical receptions, and brought extra tonnage for run packages.

Season Stats

Long tallied 57 catches, the most of any FBS tight end this season, and the second most of any BC tight end in single-season history (Pete Mitchell had 66 in 1993). Long brought down six or more receptions in five games, including the Eagles’ first four outings of the year. To put that in perspective, before this season, Long had not caught more than four passes in a game during his BC career. He rounded out the year with 685 receiving yards—as far as tight ends go, second only to Florida’s Kyle Pitts, a potential top-10 pick.

Witter’s first career catch went for a 22-yard gain late in the third quarter against Texas State. The reception moved the chains on 3rd-and-13 and was part of a much-needed, 12-play scoring drive that cut the Eagles’ 14-point deficit in half. All in all, he had six catches for 68 yards and no touchdowns in 10 games. Not the same as Long’s four-catch, 103-yard, two-touchdown redshirt freshman season but a good start to his career nonetheless.

PFF Review

Long graded out as the best offensive player on the Eagles in 2020. And it wasn’t even the first time he’s done that in his BC career. Granted he played only 131 snaps as a redshirt freshman in 2018, but his 80.4 rating was tops on the team that year. This year, Long’s score of 83.3 was 14.7 points higher than his offensive grade from 2019, his first season of extended playing time.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the tight end’s best game on paper came in the season opener at Duke, where he snatched seven passes, including a one-hander and an outstretched 36-yard grab, for 93 yards and a touchdown. Long registered a 93.1 offensive grade in Durham. It was one of three games this season when he also earned a run blocking grade above 70. The other two were at Virginia Tech (74.5) and against Notre Dame (71.6). For the season, Long improved in that department significantly, jumping from a score of 42.9 in 2019 to an impressive 70.6.

Additionally, Long notched the highest receiving grade (83.2) on the team. When stacked up against the rest of the country’s tight ends, that mark was good for 21st. For reference, Pitts finished with a receiving grade of 96.1.

Witter, on the other hand, posted a 60.9 score in that category. Yet it’s worth noting that the West Hartford, Connecticut, product didn’t drop a pass and caught six of his eight targets. Witter’s run blocking grade (43.5), the second worst on the team, weighed down his offensive grade, which clocked out at 47.7.

The Good

Long was targeted more than any other tight end in the country this season, and it wasn’t particularly close. In fact, BC quarterbacks went his way 89 times in 2020. No other tight end was targeted more than 67 times. Now, of course, with COVID-19, the number of games played factors in, but such a disparity between Long and the rest of the field in that department is eye-catching. It speaks volumes about Jurkovec and Dennis Grosel’s trust in their tight end.

When BC needed to keep a drive alive, Long was there. Of his 57 receptions, 14 came on third down, and nine of those moved the sticks. He racked up 35 first downs this season, tied with Iowa State’s Charlie Kolar for the second most of any tight end in the nation (Pitts was first).

Not only was the Second-Team AP All-American reliable, but he was versatile, too. Close to a quarter of his targets (23.6%) occurred when he was in the slot, and 11.2% of the passes thrown his way were 20 or more yards downfield, according to PFF.

As far as Witter is concerned, the two-star tight end showcased speed in the open field and the ability to highpoint the ball. BC’s quarterbacks looked comfortable targeting him, and three of his six catches went for 10-plus yards.

The Bad

There wasn’t much Long didn’t do well in 2020. He did have three drops this season, two of which came against then-No. 12 North Carolina (he had nine catches in that game), but his 5% drop rate was never a concern. One drawback of his reliability was that BC quarterbacks might have trusted him a tad too much. Jurkovec and Grosel combined for a 92.2 NFL passer rating when targeting Long, the fourth-lowest yielded by BC’s qualifying receivers, per PFF. Because Long was a safety valve, the ball was occasionally forced his way, resulting in sandwich hits in traffic, interceptions, and a few close calls.

Long’s pass blocking grade wasn’t great either, according to PFF. It dipped in the back half of the season. Long failed to record a score of 62.0 or higher in that department in all but one of the Eagles’ final five games. Going forward, penalties will be something to monitor for Witter, who was the only BC player with three or more infractions and fewer than 450 snaps this year.

Biggest Surprise

It wasn’t surprising to see Long shatter his career highs and emerge as a John Mackey Award semifinalist. He had the potential to do so the year prior yet wasn’t targeted nearly as much.

What was a bit unexpected was how little playing time the other Eagles tight ends got this year. During Cignetti’s last stint as an offensive coordinator—2015 with the St. Louis Rams—tight ends Jared Cook and Lance Kendricks ranked second and fifth on the team, respectively, in receptions. Of course, that might have purely been Cignetti putting his best players in position to succeed rather than favoring the position group.

And, besides, the scheme he implemented this year included fewer two and three tight end sets in the first place. So, again, put the emphasis on “a bit” before “unexpected.” But it makes next season all the more intriguing in terms of figuring out who’s going to start at the position and if there will be more of a rotation because, aside from Witter, it was really all Long this year.

Looking Ahead

It appears as if Witter will have the inside track for the TE1 job. That said, it will be interesting to see if three-star Class of 2020 recruit Charlie Gordinier can give him a run for his money. The Red Bank Catholic product, who ranked 18th among New Jersey recruits in his class, popped up in the practice reports this summer and also has a 6-foot-5 frame. Notably, Gordinier had offers from LSU, Michigan State, and UCLA. Hans Lillis is another three-star tight end from that class, and his development is worth watching as well.

Drew McQuarrie is a name to keep in mind. McQuarrie was a quarterback for John Stark High School in New Hampshire, then converted to tight end when he got to BC before switching to defensive end at the end of the 2017 season (which he redshirted). He moved back to tight end ahead of the 2019 campaign and has been there since. McQuarrie appeared in five games in 2019 and was targeted once this season.

It’ll be practically impossible to replace Long—at least next season. After all, he and Mitchell are the only two Eagles tight ends to earn AP All-American honors. Still, a committee effort could complement BC’s budding wide receiver corps.