Imagine two hypothetical tight ends playing in teams at the National Football Conference.
Tight end no. 1 has 54 catches, 572 receiving yards, a touchdown and eight drops. When targeted by defenders, the tight number 1 produced a pass rating of 56.1. He catches 56.8 percent of the targets and averages 6.0 meters per target. Through DVOA, the collection no. 1 ranks 40th out of 43 players qualified for this position.
Tight end no. 2 has 49 catches, 551 receiving yards, 10 touchdowns and zero falls. When targeted by the defenders, the collection no. 2 produced a pass rating of 148.0. He catches 89.1 percent of the targets and averages 10.0 meters per target. According to DVOA, the collection no. 2 ranks 1 out of 43 players qualified for this position.
Pro Bowl voters chose tight end no. 1 to represent NFC over the tight end no. 2.
Of course, the first player is the New York Giants, Evan Engram, while the second player is the Green Bay Packers, Robert Tonyan.
Engram will be Pro Bowler, while Tonyan is one of the biggest Pro Bowl lunatics.
Here is the comparison above in the form of a graph:
| Evan Engram | Robert Tonyan | |
| seizures | 54 | 49 |
| targets | 95 | 55 |
| Capture% | 56.8 | 89.1 |
| Receiving courtyards | 572 | 551 |
| Touchdowns | 1 | 10 |
| Yards / target | 6.0 | 10.0 |
| Evaluation of passers-by when targeted | 56.1 | 148.0 |
| Drops | 8 | 0 |
| Rank DVOA (of 43) | 40 | The first |
| Yards on the route | 1.28 | 1.64 |
| The first descents | 28 | 30 |
| fumbles | 1 | 0 |
Tonyan is the first of the recipients and heads caught in the catch percentage. He is equal to Travis Kelce for leading the NFL in touchdown catches and became only the third tightest end in franchise history to reach 10 touchdowns, joining Paul Coffman (1982) and Keith Jackson (1996). After catching a touchdown against the Panthers on Saturday, Tonyan now has at least one score in five consecutive games. He and Kelce are the only tight ends that have an average of at least 10.0 meters per target. In general, Aaron Rodgers has more landing passes when targeting Tonyan than incomplete ones. With 10 catches to touch and an average of 10.0 yards on target, Tonyan is on track to be only the fourth tightest final in history to reach both marks in a single season.
Engram, one of the most inefficient and inconsistent tight ends in football, dropped more passes (eight) than Rodgers had incompletions targeting Tonyan.
Pro Bowl often doesn’t make much sense. This is still one of the most puzzling voting decisions in recent memory. In almost every way, Robert Tonyan is a tighter ending than Evan Engram, as the numbers clearly illustrate.