Written By Sam Ekstrom
A year ago Tuesday, Kyle Rudolph stood in the muggy media tent to address reporters after receiving a 5-year, $36.5 million contract extension. It was a significant financial gesture that locked up the Notre Dame grad despite an injury-riddled 2013. Rudolph scored nine touchdowns in the 2012 playoff campaign and earned Pro Bowl MVP. With the NFL’s recent emergence of standout tight ends Jimmy Graham, Rob Gronkowski and Julius Thomas, it made sense for the Vikings to secure who they saw as a dynamic pass catcher that belonged in the league’s top pay grade. “I want to be the best tight end on this team,” Rudolph said that July day, “and I want to be the best tight end in the NFL.”
The season didn’t go as planned for Rudolph, who missed seven games with a sports hernia and didn’t appear 100 percent after returning to the field. Chase Ford and Rhett Ellison filled in for Rudolph and caught a touchdown apiece, but like so many other aspects of the 2014 Vikings, the tight end job was routinely in flux. Arguably the least chaotic piece of the tight end puzzle was the integration of tight ends coach Kevin Stefanski, who tutored the position for the first time in his career. “I was lucky enough to have Norv [Turner] and Jeff Davidson, who had coached tight ends in the past, so I could really rely on those guys,” Stefanski told Cold Omaha after Wednesday’s morning walkthrough. “The transition was, I would think, pretty smooth.”
The Vikings are pursuing stability in 2015 after the previous year was uncommonly wobbly, especially at the skill positions. The new coach and the new offensive coordinator took over a team playing in a new stadium and had their starting quarterback, All-Pro running back and top tight end taken away by Week 3.
Less than a week into training camp, all the necessary pieces seem to be intact, including in the tight end room, where the Vikings have four players with NFL experience and a promising rookie in MyCole Pruitt.
“We feel like we’ve got five guys that can go out and contribute on Sundays,” said Rudolph, “so it makes it fun, anytime you have a lot of competition in your room, it brings out the best in each of us.”
“The talent has a lot of range, very deep,” Ellison told Cold Omaha. “Everyone kind of has their own unique skills.”
“The beauty of our tight end room,” said Stefanski, “I think the oldest guy’s 25 years old, so it’s really a group that’s trying to help each other.” Brandon Bostick and Ellison are actually 26, but who really wants to be labeled a year closer to 30?
Each of the five young tight ends has something to offer. Rudolph, 25, has the most experience of the group and identifies as the “old guy.” He’ll be looking to have a bounce-back year and shed the injury-prone stigma. Ford, 25, and Ellison are both in contract years and received significant playing the previous two seasons in Rudolph’s absence. Pruitt, 23, was taken in the fifth round of this year’s draft after a stellar Southern Illinois career. Bostick was scapegoated in Green Bay for his costly gaffe in January’s NFC Championship, and while his path to the 53-man roster may be the toughest, he brings experience from a quality organization.
The day-to-day instruction of the tight end position is guided by the laid-back Stefanski, while the persnickety Norv Turner hovers behind the scenes and chimes in when necessary. “Whenever Norv notices something he won’t hesitate to point that out,” Pruitt told Cold Omaha. The oft-alluded-to route tree is the dialect they speak, the offense’s own code that dictates what steps to take. The drills are based around building versatility. All the tight ends learn the fullback position and practice lining up in the slot as well. “Those guys are playing the same position,” said Stefanski, “but it may be from the backfield, it may be from on the line, it may be from split out wide.”
“Fullbacks, they block all the time,” said Ford of learning a second position, “and they’re downhill, they’re hitting, and they’re blocking linebackers in space and stuff, and that always helps because if we’ve got to do that, if we’re blocking a safety in space, it’s good practice.”
Rhett Ellison, a fullback/tight end hybrid much of his pro career – deemed by Pruitt as his go-to guy for schematic tips – is used to getting shifted around between positions. It’s all part of the flexibility Turner and Stefanski are seeking. “It’s wherever they want to put me,” said Ellison. “Norv’s good at putting guys where they’re good at in those situations.” Stefanski echoes the same sentiment about Turner. “Norv’s been around a long time, so he knows what works and what doesn’t, and certainly with matchups he’s very cognizant of our guys and what they’re best at,” the former quarterbacks coach said.
The end goal for the Vikings is to have options; numerous options. Need to run off right tackle? Stick Ellison there for a lead block. Need a lanky target who can run a post route? Throw Ford in the slot. How about a deceivingly fast 260-pounder with ball skills? Insert MyCole Pruitt. This is what keeps defenses guessing. “The way that Norv just has a feel to create mismatches,” said Rudolph, “I think that’s the one great flexibility.”
“It’s the ultimate mismatch,” Ford told Cold Omaha. “DBs ain’t big enough and linebackers ain’t fast enough, and if they are they probably aren’t tall enough, so I feel like a tight end’s a mismatch all over the field.”
The league has become pass-happy in recent years thanks to new rules that favor the quarterback and reduce the amount of legal contact between defenders and receivers. This has bolstered receiving stats across the board and benefited tight ends financially. Nine NFL tight ends are currently playing within contracts worth over $35 million in total value, one of them being Kyle Rudolph. Former quarterback and ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer thinks the game is changing; that the tight end is one of most important positions on the field – behind only the quarterback. NFL.com’s Jeff Darlington points out how defenses are now forced to reevaluate their personnel to match up with teams who prefer two or three tight ends in a package. “It’s definitely more of like a down-field threat,” said Ford with a tip of the hat to the speed today’s tight ends now possess – his teammate Pruitt ran a 4.58 40-yard dash at the combine.
In 2015, you can’t have too many big-bodied pass catchers on your 53-man roster. As much as Stefanski would like them to, however, the Vikings can’t keep five tight ends. In all likelihood one or two will be released, and if it’s two, then one of the stalwarts — Ford or Ellison — will be a casualty on cut day.
In a competition like the one that’s currently ongoing in Mankato, the winner may be decided with some simple criteria. Who can speak Norv Turner’s language most fluently? “Norv always says, ‘Once you think you’ve got it,’” recalled Ellison, “’you pretty much only know about half of it.’”
Sam Ekstrom is a staff writer for Cold Omaha at 105 The Ticket and a play-by-play broadcaster in Burnsville, Minn. Hear him on 105 The Ticket Sunday mornings from 8-11 a.m. on “The Wake Up Call.” Follow him on Twitter @SamEkstrom for further insights.