I knew before the beginning of the season, when Reggie Kelly and Ben Utecht got put on the IR, that the position of tight end would be thin. I wasn't worried though. There was Daniel Coats and Chase Coffman, the rookie out of Mizzou. Coffman played in the spread offense throughout college and never really played a true tight end position, he lined up more like a slot reciever. I figured that if he could learn to block, he would be good and could stretch the middle of the field. Well, things didn't go the way I expected them to at all.
Instead of Coffman, who may be dead.. who knows, Daniel Coats has been getting the start and J.P. Foschi has been sharing some snaps with him. Both of them are absolutely terrible. Coats can't catch anything. I don't think he has fingers. The way he catches (or tries to catch) makes me think that instead of hands, he's got two ping-pong paddles attached to his wrists. He almost blew the Baltimore game for dropping not one, but two touchdown passes from Palmer that were right on the money, and I hold him partially responsible for blowing the Houston game.
Foschi isn't much better. He may have better hands than Coats (ping-pong paddles slathered with crazy glue) but he's slow and obviously can't hold on to the ball. Both Coats and Foschi fumbled passes in critical moments yesterday when Carson was trying to mount a comeback drive. Reggie Kelly may not be the best pass catching tight end but God do I miss him. At least he can catch and when he catches he doesn't hand the ball to the closest defender.
This brings up a few good questions. How bad does Coffman have to be to still not be getting playing time after seeing how bad Coats and Foschi are? I know it can't be his catching ability. The guy broke Big-12 records and Mizzou records and won the John Mackey Award (best tight end in the country). Can he really be that bad at blocking? If we won't be seeing Coffman in the near future, what are the Bengals going to do to fix the situation? Are there tight ends in the free agent market? Probably nobody better than who we have right now. The trade deadline is tomorrow, will the Bengals trade for a better tight end? Probably not. All I do know is that something has to change. Either find a new tight end or find some prosthetic hands for Coats.
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