Upon Further Review: Welcome To The Tight End Renaissance, Which Has Been In The Making
- Record day for tight ends — 20 TE touchdown catches on Sunday (most ever); Raiders-Saints alone featured four tight ends combining for six TDs.
- Tight-end renaissance — TE passing TDs jumped from 178 in 2024 to 231 in 2025 and are on pace for ~289 in 2026, with heavy use of 12-personnel and nine TEs taken in the first three draft rounds.
- Quirky QB trend — the first two rookie QBs to take snaps this season were undrafted (first time since 2000), and teams starting non–Week 1 quarterbacks are 6-0 so far.