Position Group Breakdown: Tight End

July 16, 2025

by Alex Zeese

Last season, the team dramatically overhauled the tight end room, bringing in a seasoned former star tight end Zach Ertz and rookie Ben Sinnott. There were some very interesting tight end prospects in this season’s draft, guys who I personally liked and thought that Adam Peters could target in the 2nd or 3rd round. However, continuity ended up being the plan this season, and the team did not spend any major assets to upgrade the room. Let’s start with the guys who are returning this season.

Zach Ertz, 6’5” 250 lbs, 34 years old, Stanford
Ertz’s most recent season was a renaissance of sorts, although he didn’t put up the gaudy numbers he once could in his prime. He still proved to be a plus-level starting tight end, and that reliable safety valve target you need for a young QB to have success in the NFL. With the team never quite finding a reliable 2nd receiver, Ertz ended up taking on that role. He had 66 catches for 654 yards and 7 touchdowns, his best single season in 3 years.

The concern with Ertz will continue to be his age and health – i.e., if he can be relied on to play a full 17-game season or not. It would be smart for Washington to try to balance his workload a bit more this season with some of the younger members of this group. You know, develop players.

John Bates 6’6” 259 lbs 27 years old out of Boise State
Washington rewarded John Bates with a somewhat surprising 4.3 million contract last offseason. Bates is widely seen as one of the best blocking tight ends in the NFL, and the value that they placed on retaining him proves it. Bates has turned out to be one of the few successful draft picks of the Ron Rivera era, as a backup/blocking TE.

Seriously, Ron was such a bad GM.

Obviously, as a blocker first, conventional offensive numbers are not going to give you a good understanding of his game. Bates has 61 catches for 592 yards and 2 touchdowns in his 67 games. But he’s not here to catch balls; he’s here to kick butt and chew bubble gum, and I do not know the status of how much bubblegum he currently has in his locker.

Ben Sinnott 6’4” 247 lbs 23 years old out of Kansas State
A lot of the talk about Sinnott this off-season has been about how his rookie year was a disappointment.

It’s likely that the performance of Zach Ertz somewhat hindered the opportunity for Sinnott to get looks in the passing game. He finished last season with just 5 catches for 28 yards. Those aren’t the kind of numbers you want to see out of a 2nd round pick. Equally frustrating was that he was only able to get on the field for 27% of the offensive snaps.

Washington needs to really push him hard this off-season, for them to get such little production out of their two offensive weapons they drafted last season is concerning.

Colson Yankoff, 6’4” 225 lbs, 25 years old out of UCLA
Let’s talk about Steve’s favorite player, Colson Yankoff… we all know why Steve loves him so much… That’s right, because Steve loves special-teams players! Yankoff spent virtually no time on offense, playing just six snaps, but he did have 101 snaps on special teams, where he amassed 4 total tackles.

Cole Turner 6’6” 240 lbs 25 years old out of Nevada
Do you remember back when Cole Turner was one of those pre-season heroes for the fanbase? Those days seem a distant memory at this point as Turner dropped down the depth chart under the new front office. He didn’t see the field last season, but in 2023, he has 11 catches for 120 yards.

Washington did bring in two new players to compete at the tight end position. While the odds are low that either of these players will be able to supplant any of the top 3 key contributors we all would expect to make the roster they may have an outside chance at a depth spot on special teams or a place on the practice squad.

Lawrence Cager, 6’5” 220 lbs ,27 years old, out of Georgia
Cager was raised in the Baltimore area, so he’s somewhat of a local. He’s been a career journeyman in the NFL, spending time with the Jets, Browns, and Giants from 2020-2024. In those years, he has appeared in 21 games, had 19 catches for 189 yards and 2 touchdowns. His senior year in college at Georgia, he had an impressive 33 catches for 476 yards in just 8 games.

Tyree Jackson, 6’7” 249 lbs, 27 years, Buffalo
Jackson is a giant former quarterback who started 3 seasons in college at Buffalo and played for the DC Defenders of the XFL just before the pandemic. He has transitioned to tight end, spending time on the practice squad for the Eagles and Giants, but keeps finding himself injured. Jackson remains a long shot to transition to tight end. He does have an intoxicating size, but he was never really known as a running quarterback. However, that type of versatility, to be able to play tight end and quarterback, is something to keep an eye on when it comes to the practice squad. A player who can be utilized in different roles each week to help the rest of the team prepare has value.