This is part three in a series looking at San Francisco 49ers veteran players who are on the bubble and in danger of losing roster spots either this year or next. Part three today looks at tight ends Vance McDonald, Garrett Celek and Blake Bell.
Before the end of the season, former general manager Trent Baalke extended the contract of tight end Vance McDonald, effectively granting him a three-year, $19.7 million extension. The contract makes 2013 draft pick the 19th highest paid tight end, nothing to overly worry about.
Or is it?
Later in the offseason, the 49ers signed former Bears tight end Logan Paulsen (who played under Kyle Shanahan in Washington), drafted Iowa tight end George Kittle and signed undrafted free agent from Louisville, Cole Hikutuni.
Heading into training camp, the 49ers have some pretty good tight end competition. This should worry 49ers’ veterans McDonald, Garrett Celek and Blake Bell. McDonald and Celek have been inconsistent pass catchers and do not excel at run blocking. Bell has hardly been able to see the field, except in the case of injury to McDonald and Celek.
| Game | Game | Rece | Rece | Rece | Rece | Rece | Rece | Rece | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Player | Pos | G | GS | Tgt | Rec | Yds | Y/R | TD | R/G | Y/G | Fmb |
| 88 | Garrett Celek | te | 16 | 6 | 50 | 29 | 350 | 12.1 | 3 | 1.8 | 21.9 | 2 |
| 89 | Vance McDonald | TE | 11 | 11 | 45 | 24 | 391 | 16.3 | 4 | 2.2 | 35.5 | 0 |
| 84 | Blake Bell | 13 | 0 | 9 | 4 | 85 | 21.3 | 0 | 0.3 | 6.5 | 0 |
Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/16/2017.
As you can see from the table above, the the tight end crop last season did not exactly produce the kind of offense you’d expect except for limited situations. They did not offer the 49ers offense any chance to stretch the field horizontally.
Next we’ll get into each specific tight end.