Why 49ers TE Garrett Celek Will Break Out in 2016

San Francisco 49ers veteran tight end Garrett Celek could be a major factor in head coach Chip Kelly’s offense in 2016. Let’s break down what to expect from this offensive weapon.

One of the most often overlooked positions of the San Francisco 49ers roster is the tight end position.

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The 49ers have benefited from some of the league’s best tight end play with former pass-catchers Vernon Davis and Delanie Walker. Both are no longer with the 49ers and, heading into 2016, the depth chart includes Vance MacDonald, Blake Bel, and Garrett Celek — though not necessarily in that order.

The TE best positioned to break out for the 49ers this year is Celek.

Bell is young and is a rising star in his own right. He’s athletic and big and fits the mold of a typical Chip Kelly tight end, who can catch anything over the middle. But he’s a second-year player and still developing. And MacDonald is more of a liability than anything, dropping several passes throughout his career with San Francisco, some that led to interceptions in the same game.

This positions Celek, who inked a new four-year contract worth $14 million last February, to breakout in Kelly’s offense, that relies as much tight ends as it does receivers.

Celek has had a lukewarm career so far before ending up with the 49ers in 2014. Through 11 games in 2015, Celek had 19 catches for 186 yards and three touchdowns before ending up on season-ending injured reserve.

But, as always, the limited stats don’t always tell the whole story. Per Pro Football Focus’ player grades, Celek graded better in both the pass and run blocking categories, though compared to the rest of the league, he was fairly average, ranking 25th overall among all NFL tight ends:

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(Image: Pro Football Focus Player Grades)

All three of Celek’s career touchdowns came from inside the red zone, and all were with San Francisco last season. He will likely see an increased workload inside the red zone, since his large frame and catching ability present a multitude of problems for opposing teams. The 49ers under Kelly are likely to use Celek in variety of passing concepts like such as “boot” and “stick-nod.”

Every team runs a variation of the play-action boot pass, but the basic formula is the same: fake hard run to the backside, leak a player into the flat who shows block first, run a deep vertical or out route on the front side and, usually, two crossing routes to the play side — one middle and one deep cross.

The progression goes high to low with the deep vertical route as the primary read, the flat route second and the crossing routes third, though the ball tends to make its way to the flat or crossing routes first.

Oct 11, 2015; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; San Francisco 49ers tight end Garrett Celek (88) catches the ball to score a touchdown during the fourth quarter against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports /

During Week 1 against the Minnesota Vikings, the 49ers lined up in a three-tight end set, with McDonald as the outermost tight end and Celek lined up inside of him to the left. Davis was opposite them in tight to the right.

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(Image: NFL GamePass)

At the snap, quarterback Colin Kaepernick fakes the run to running back Reggie Bush to the left, boots right and finds Celek across the middle for 15-yard catch in traffic. The throw is behind Celek, but he helps his quarterback out and finds a way to snag it out of the air.

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(GIF: NFL GamePass)

A favorite route concept of the 49ers, and one that Kelly likes to employ, is the “stick-nod” concept. Two of Celek’s touchdowns were caught on this concept inside the red zone.

The stick concept features a vertical stretch, a horizontal stretch, and “stick” where the receiver will “stick” or plant his foot and turn to look for the ball. In a zone, this could either carry him out or turn sit him a hole in the zone. Stick-nod is double-move route out and then vertical that an offense will use when defenses over-pursue the stick portion of the route.

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(Image: NFL GamePass)

In Week 5 against the New York Giants, Kaepernick hit Celek for a five-yard touchdown on a stick-nod. The safety and flat defenders get too shallow and flow toward wide receiver Anquan Boldin and Bell, and Kaepernick finds Celek over the top of the defenders.

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(GIF: NFL GamePass)

The 49ers ran a variant of the stick-nod in Week 9 against Atlanta, where they isolated Celek to the left. The shallow crossing route by wide receiver Bruce Ellington froze the Atlanta safety, and quarterback Blaine Gabbert fit the ball in the void created by the defense.

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(GIF and Image: NFL GamePass)

It’s clear the 49ers under Coach Kelly will look to utilize their tight ends more, especially for a team that struggled in the red zone the last two seasons (29th in 2014 and 31st in 2015). Contrast that with Kelly’s Eagles last season, who finished 15th in red-zone efficiency.

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The additional work Celek should see will hopefully alleviate a lot of those deficiencies in the offense.

Next: Jaquiski Tartt's New Role?

All statistics, records and accolades courtesy of Pro Football Reference unless otherwise indicated.