- Chig Okonkwo was the fantasy sleeper after his rookie season: Okonkwo’s effectivity was off the charts as a rookie, however he wasn’t in a position to combine nice play with excessive route totals till the 2024 fantasy playoffs.
- Potential for top-12 end: If Okonkwo maintains his elevated late-season snap share and builds chemistry with Cameron Ward, he has the potential to be a top-12 fantasy tight finish for the Tennessee Titans in 2025.
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Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
PFF’s Fantasy Football Player Profile sequence delivers probably the most in-depth fantasy soccer evaluation accessible for the 2025 season.
Using PFF’s unique information, we consider participant efficiency, competitors for touches and the way teammates and training staffs
Last up to date: 7:15 a.m. Thursday, June 19
Player efficiency
Chig Okonkwo was a fourth-round decide by the Tennessee Titans in 2022 as an undersized tight finish with wonderful pace and athleticism. Over the final three seasons, the one tight ends who’ve been sooner are Jonnu Smith and Darren Waller, based mostly on NGS monitoring information.
Okonkwo began his profession third on the Titans’ depth charts. Austin Hooper was the first receiving tight finish, Geoff Swaim was the first blocker, and Okonkwo was the first backup in each. He was wonderful on a per-play foundation, ending with a excessive goal price on his restricted routes. His 2.62 yards per route run was tied for probably the most by a decent finish in a season within the final three seasons. He was tied with George Kittle from this season, and the third-place tight finish completed with 2.23 yards per route run.
The Titans moved on from each Hooper and Swaim for 2023, including Trevon Wesco to be their blocking tight finish. They drafted Josh Whyle and had Kevin Rader additionally play notable snaps. The Titans’ run-first offense restricted his routes though he was on the sector for a excessive share of go performs. His 403 routes had been the 18th-most amongst tight ends regardless of enjoying each sport. His massive performs disappeared, and he was remarkably common. His yards per route run had been lower in half, however his routes greater than doubled, resulting in a slight improve in fantasy factors.
The Titans gave Josh Whyle a extra distinguished function in 2024 and swapped out Wesco for Nick Vannett. The Titans ran extra performs in 2024 and requested the tight ends to remain in and block much less usually, resulting in extra routes run by their tight ends however a decrease share of these had been by Okonkwo. He began avoiding extra tackles, however his quarterbacks weren’t essentially taking benefit. His 0.71 averted tackles per sport was the sixth-most amongst tight ends.
Okonkwo’s function within the Titans’ offense developed because the season progressed. He averaged 57.4% of Tennessee’s offensive snaps over the primary 10 weeks of the season, and that elevated to 72.4% over the following seven weeks earlier than struggling an belly harm early in Week 18. He caught a 70-yard landing go in Week 12, resulting in the next goal price over the remainder of the season. In the fantasy playoffs, he caught 22 passes for 182 yards, together with a 17-yard run. While he couldn’t be used as a fantasy starter all through the fantasy common season, his 43.9 fantasy factors throughout the playoffs had been the fourth-most behind Trey McBride, Sam LaPorta and George Kittle regardless of not scoring a landing.
After the season, head coach Brian Callahan had loads of nice issues to say about Okonkwo’s improvement as a decent finish, which is a promising signal for his future.
Projected function
The Titans opted to not re-sign Vannett however as an alternative drafted Gunnar Helm within the second spherical. Helm will doubtless compete with Josh Whyle for the run blocker function on early downs and two-tight-end units. Going again to move coach Brian Callahan’s days with the Cincinnati Bengals, they sometimes had a much bigger run-blocking tight finish like C.J. Uzomah or Drew Sample and smaller receiving tight ends like Tanner Hudson, Irv Smith Jr. and Hayden Hurst. Helm by no means graded significantly nicely as a run blocker, however he had loads of expertise as a blocker at Texas.
Ideally, Okonkwo will decide up precisely the place he left off final season. In his final two wholesome video games, Okonkwo performed 76% of Tennessee’s snaps in 11 personnel, 87% of the 12 personnel snaps, and 100% of the 13, 21 and 22 personnel snaps. If Okonkwo continued this for the entire season, that will be wonderful for his fantasy potential.
Okonkwo would have completed sixteenth in fantasy factors per sport amongst tight ends if he had his late-season route price blended together with his season-long manufacturing per route.
The Titans made a number of modifications to their broad receiver room, including Tyler Lockett, Van Jefferson and a number of other Day 3 and undrafted rookies. That, blended with Calvin Ridley, offers Okonkwo minimal competitors for targets relative to all different tight ends within the league.
Impact of teammates
Okonkwo will probably be in his second season with Brian Callahan as head coach. His offense seemed very completely different in Tennessee in comparison with the Cincinnati Bengals with out Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase or Tee Higgins. The Titans ran the ball far more usually and had been extra keen to throw to tight ends.
There is an opportunity the Titans will probably be extra pass-heavy this season with Cameron Ward at quarterback. Ward had a low deep goal price, low first learn price and nice accuracy on quick passes, which is all excellent news for Okonkwo. However, Ward additionally doesn’t have numerous expertise throwing to tight ends. There is an opportunity Okonkwo finishes second on the staff in targets, however that relies upon utterly on his means to achieve chemistry and Ward’s belief.
Bottom line
Okonkwo has proven he has the pace and big-play means to be a fantasy beginning tight finish and has had the enjoying time to be a fantasy starter. He didn’t put that every one collectively till the previous few weeks of final season. Okonkwo is usually a top-12 fantasy tight finish subsequent season if he retains the enjoying time he needed to finish final season and features chemistry with Cameron Ward.
Footnotes
- Statistics in tables and charts had been chosen based mostly on their means to foretell future fantasy efficiency on a per-game or per-opportunity foundation or to explain the participant relative to others on the similar place.
- “Opportunities” are outlined as passing dropbacks, dashing makes an attempt and routes run as a receiver.
- Numbers are supplied both by season or based mostly on the previous three years. For rookies, solely faculty statistics are included. For non-rookies, solely NFL statistics are thought-about, no matter whether or not they performed in faculty inside the earlier three years.
- As faculty competitors is less complicated than NFL competitors, most rookies are prone to see a decline from their historic numbers.
- Only FBS information is taken into account for school gamers and comparisons.
- Kneel-downs are faraway from dashing information to offer cleaner quarterback dashing price statistics.
- The desk colours on this article vary from blue (indicating good/excessive) to pink (indicating dangerous/low).
- All percentiles and shade codings evaluate the given participant to others with a excessive pattern of alternatives. Generally, the cutoff is one-third of the attainable alternatives within the pattern. If a participant doesn’t meet the brink, they’re nonetheless included within the comparability, although their outcomes could seem higher or worse than anticipated as a result of smaller, much less predictive pattern dimension.
- Information on utilization classifications and their significance might be discovered right here for operating backs, broad receivers and tight ends.