Rams reduced to playoff observers after season of setbacks

Associated Press

https://www.yahoo.com/news/rams-reduced-playoff-observers-season-205716528.html

Only five teams in the last 10 years failed to make the playoffs in the season after they reached the Super Bowl.

The Los Angeles Rams (8-7) officially joined that disappointing group Saturday night. Their last-second loss at San Francisco encapsulated so much of what went just wrong enough this season for coach Sean McVay and his star-studded roster.

The Rams were good in 2019, and they could end up as the league’s only team with a winning record to miss the playoffs. But a series of setbacks at inopportune times has left them third in the highly competitive NFC West, the only division with two 11-win teams.

Los Angeles is 5-7 since a 3-0 start to this season, stumbling through blowout losses and heartbreakers alike that have left them just outside the postseason picture.

Because so many of their expected difference makers didn’t get it done this season, they’re already headed into a long offseason with several huge roster questions And with equally huge financial commitments to navigate while they move into their palatial new stadium in Inglewood.

“You put so much into it, and you want to see more success collectively with the group,” McVay said Sunday. “You get to go through a lot of good and some bad this season. I think that’s forced us to learn a lot about ourselves. I know it has for me personally. Really my focus is on finishing this season out the right way. Once we get to that point where the season is finished, there will be a lot of good self-reflection.”

The Rams finish their four-year tenure in the Coliseum on Sunday by hosting the Arizona Cardinals (5-9-1), but the game was rendered irrelevant by their loss to the Niners.

Again, the Rams were good. They led for nearly the entire first half, their defense held San Francisco to 334 yards, and they made two gritty scoring drives in the second half.

And again, the Rams weren’t good enough.

They blew that first-half lead by giving up two touchdowns right before halftime, including an interception returned for a 46-yard score. The defense gave up 60 of its 334 yards in the final 2 ½ minutes on a drive to the Niners’ game-winning field goal.

The defense was more consistent than the offense in Santa Clara, just as it has been all season. But the defense also flopped at a few key points, making glaring errors that led to key scores by the Niners. The two third-and-16 conversions on San Francisco’s final drive will ring the loudest, but the Rams’ season-long ability to limit big plays evaporated down the stretch.

The loss still fresh in his mind, McVay cited “the consistency” as the Rams’ biggest flaw.

“I think there’s been instances in all three phases where there’s been some really positive things and then there’s been some other instances where I don’t think we’ve played up to our capability.”

WHAT’S WORKING

The Rams are still ninth in the NFL against the pass, and they leaped up to third in the league with 49 sacks after dropping Jimmy Garoppolo six times. That just makes those third-and-16 mistakes even more painful. But it’s clear the Rams have the ingredients for a stellar pass defense if they can keep most of those players around — which won’t be easy with Dante Fowler, Cory Littleton and Jalen Ramsey among those possibly in line for huge raises.

WHAT NEEDS HELP

Todd Gurley and McVay’s rushing game had another dismal evening in Santa Clara. The Rams have the NFL’s 24th-ranked rushing offense (94 yards per game) after managing 78 yards on the ground. Los Angeles was third in the league with 139 yards per game last season, and its yards per attempt is also down from 4.9 to 3.8. The problems are numerous, and McVay must solve them to avoid wasting another year of his wealthy running back’s career.

STOCK UP

Tight end Tyler Higbee’s late-season emergence as a receiver continued with his fourth consecutive 100-yard performance. That ties the franchise record for 100-yard receiving games in a tight end’s entire career, and Higbee did it all in a row.

STOCK DOWN

It’s difficult for McVay to sugarcoat Jared Goff’s inconsistencies after a game that showcased both his enormous talent and his capacity for game-changing mistakes. Goff went 27 of 46, making pinpoint throws and egregious errors in baffling succession. Goff is tied for 19th in the league in touchdown passes (19), but fourth in interceptions (16).

INJURED

Rookie running back Darrell Henderson is done for the season due to a high sprain of his right ankle. Ramsey played through pain in a strained knee ligament Saturday, but the Rams haven’t decided whether he will play in the finale.

KEY NUMBER

9-7 — That’s what the Rams’ record would be with a season-ending win over Arizona. This franchise hasn’t had three straight winning seasons since 1999-2001 in St. Louis. “You want to have those temporary milestones,” McVay said. “What we can accomplish this week is to try to establish a winning record based on where we’re at after 15 games. Is it where we wanted to be? I don’t think anybody would have said that before the season. It is where we’re at, and all we can do is handle it the right way.”

WHAT’S NEXT

The Cardinals and the final chapter in this lost year.

alyoshamucci

Game 15 … 9ers in SF …

So … where was that team the previous week? I’m literally still considering the fact that we may have thrown that game.

I liked the way we came out. I liked the way we played in the 2nd half on defense.

If it’s your year, you make those 3rd and 16s … it’s their year. So be it.

As you all know I’m a lifer concerned with dynasties … not games or even seasons.

The Great

1) Higbee. Coming into this year I was like “It’s time to replace him” … then we paid him. Then I was thinking … “Okay let’s draft someone who can take meaningful snaps from him that could be better.” Now I’m thinking “Okay, we need two TEs on the field most downs … Cooks is cut or traded. So if there’s an injury we need another TE in this draft in the mid rounds and McVay needs to craft a new offense that can run with 2 TE sets and equally pass” … because having two top tier athletes at TE hasn’t happened since Gronk and murder boy were on the Pats. I’m excited about that offense …

2) Dareus Williams … Has anyone ever seen a 6th at training camp come in and play at this level? Really happy going into next season with our DBs.

3) The playcalling … we ran more complex screens than Ive seen before and that changed the nature of their pass rush. Again this is Higbee helping.

4) Holding their run game to minimal gains.

The Good

5) Gaines was not getting pushed around. He’s a clogger and I want him to get more reps. Brockers can get turned and so can Joseph Day from what Ive seen.

6) Fowler in double digit sacks will get us a 3rd round comp. That’s what I want.

7) Aaron on an off year with double digit sacks.

8) Gurley getting the corner on the TD. He can still beat angles.

9) We were ready to play. Our game plan was solid.

10) Littleton breaking up the Kittle TD … 4 point play. I’m willing to spend whatever to keep him. Kittle isn’t going anywhere and we need an ILB that can cover him.

11) Excellent job by Ramsey drifting off his guy for that INT.

The Bad

12) I don’t not expect that level of rookie mistake by Rapp, but I want more leadership rather than reactivity from Ramsey.

13) Reeder as a backup is fine … but he’s a little slow.

14) Weddle has lost the step that he needs to be effective “every play” … he is still effective on some plays.

15) I wanted more playing time for Okoronkwo … but I’m guessing we’ll get it next week.

The Ugly

16) The pick 6.

17) I can take the blown coverage in the middle of the field … what I cannot accept is a 3rd and 16 from your own goal line without a massive blitz. Dude is standing in his end zone … he needs pressure. No excuse for that. Was that an assumption that he’d play for overtime? Great play by Jimmy G but there’s no way you let him make that throw without being moved off his spot.

PFF LA Rams@PFF_Rams
#LARams Jared Goff has the 4th-Highest Total Number of Yards thrown when under pressure this season with 1,120 yards

He also has the 10th-Highest % of Dropbacks Under Pressure this year among all QBs with at least 400 dropbacks at 36.3%

Suh-weet!

AD is 6th in the league in sacks (12.5)

How nutty is THAT?!

The rest of the top-16 sack leaders are edge rushers.

Given his position and rate at which he’s double-teamed… bow smiley

Barnwell on what went wrong and what’s next

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28348064/lessons-six-disappointing-nfl-teams-barnwell-went-wrong-next

Los Angeles Rams (8-7)

1. The offensive line collapsed. When I wrote about the reasons the Rams were likely to decline in 2019, I mentioned the offensive line as my biggest concern with the roster. They were replacing veterans Rodger Saffold and John Sullivan with untested second-year linemen Joe Noteboom and Brian Allen.

For a team whose offensive line had been both extremely effective and remarkably healthy in Sean McVay’s first two seasons, it was an obvious point of weakness. And the line has been a mess, although not necessarily in the ways we might have expected. Noteboom tore his ACL in Week 6. Allen looked like he belonged as a starter before suffering a season-ending MCL injury in Week 10.

More disconcertingly, the expected strength of the line — the tackles — has been a disaster. Right tackle Rob Havenstein, who committed only two penalties last season, committed eight in nine games before suffering his own knee injury. Andrew Whitworth hit the wall at age 38, as the superstar left tackle has clearly lost a step. Whitworth has committed a career-high eight holding penalties, tied for second most in the league behind Denver’s Garett Bolles. The Rams will likely need to replace Whitworth in their lineup next season without the benefit of their first-round pick, which went to the Jags in the Jalen Ramsey deal.

Should the Rams have seen this coming? They should have expected their offensive line to decline in 2019. Counting on Whitworth to stay at a Pro Bowl level this late in his career was always a big ask, given that just four tackles in league history have started anything close to a full age-38 season. I don’t think they could have expected Havenstein to decline.

How to avoid making the same mistake: L.A. isn’t likely to have much cap space in 2020, so it needs to use the remaining draft capital it has to supplement the line.

2. They’ve been hit by injuries. I was concerned about the Rams dealing with more injuries, especially on offense. McVay’s team had the league’s fewest adjusted games lost on offense in 2017 and its second fewest in 2018. For an offense that loved to run the same offensive personnel for more than 90% of the snaps when everyone is healthy, it’s tough to imagine that keeping up into 2019.

In addition to the three offensive linemen I mentioned, Brandin Cooks, Robert Woods, Gerald Everett, Tyler Higbee and Todd Gurley have all missed time with injuries. On defense, the Rams lost safety John Johnson to injured reserve with a shoulder injury and Aqib Talib (before he was traded) with a rib ailment, while Clay Matthews was out for three games after breaking his jaw against the Seahawks. Rookie Taylor Rapp, who took over in the starting lineup for Johnson, appeared to blow the coverage on the third-and-16 conversion that set up San Francisco’s winning field goal on Saturday.

Should the Rams have seen this coming? They might have wanted to believe they were immune to injuries after two extremely healthy seasons under McVay, but decades of evidence suggests that no team can avoid the injury bug. The Rams have built a top-heavy team by trading for stars and sending away draft picks, and it came back to bite them in 2019.

How to avoid making the same mistake: At this point, they have established their team-building philosophy. They’re not about to suddenly trade their stars away. They aren’t going to have great depth, and if their stars aren’t healthy, we’re going to see uneven seasons like 2019 in the years to come.

3. The offense lost its identity. I figured McVay would have an antidote to the 6-1 fronts that the Lions showed and the Bears and Patriots emulated last season in limiting what had been a wildly productive Rams offense. For most of the year, McVay hasn’t. Just about every team the Rams have faced has used those six-man fronts at least part of the time, and it has slowed down the outside zone and killed Jared Goff’s effectiveness on play-action. Goff ranks 31st in the league in passer rating on play-action in 2019.

What has been strange is just how McVay has handled the whole thing. The Rams eventually moved to a heavier dose of toss plays and duo runs to try to defeat teams that were cheating toward the edge, but those haven’t been quite as effective. Early in the year, the Rams were conservative with Gurley and framed that as a coach’s decision. In recent weeks, they’ve focused the passing game around Higbee and begun to keep Gurley on the field for virtually every play, even late into blowouts, with McVay saying he had been an “idiot” to keep Gurley on the sideline earlier in the year.

I would put a larger portion of the blame on Goff, because McVay’s offense is still creating makeable passes. Goff’s expected completion percentage is 66.5%, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. He is instead completing 62.8% of his throws. The only quarterbacks with 200 attempts or more who have a larger negative gap between their completion percentage and expected completion percentage than Goff are rookies Gardner Minshew and Dwayne Haskins.

When the Rams signed Goff to a four-year, $134 million extension in the offseason, expectations rose for the fourth-year passer. Saturday night’s loss to the 49ers, in which Goff mixed drives where he looked unstoppable with a pick-six and a dropped interception on the tying drive late in the fourth quarter, was a reminder of how flawed the former first overall pick still is after four seasons.

Should the Rams have seen this coming? The Lions, Bears and Patriots all used this tactic with varying levels of success at the end of 2018. It would have been naive to imagine opposing defenses wouldn’t emulate them in 2019, although I was also expecting McVay to have more answers early in the season.

How to avoid making the same mistake: McVay needs to come up with new solutions this offseason. The Rams are locked into their offensive core for the foreseeable future, so this won’t be solved by adding weapons around Goff.

4. The unsustainable stuff wasn’t sustainable. In my preseason column, I noted that the Rams had gone 6-1 in games decided by seven points or fewer, which has historically been almost impossible to keep up. The Rams are 2-3 in those same games this season, including a loss to the Seahawks where reliable kicker Greg Zuerlein missed a 44-yard field goal with 15 seconds to go in a 30-29 defeat.

Likewise, the Rams’ defense was incredible at recovering fumbles last season. Wade Phillips’ unit picked up 12 of the 14 fumbles it forced, while the Rams as a whole nabbed a league-best 71% of the fumbles in their games in 2018. There’s no track record of a Phillips defense or a defense managed by anybody recovering fumbles at that sort of rate over multiple seasons. This season, the Rams have recovered 48.6% of the fumbles in their games, with the defense down to an even 40%.

Should the Rams have seen this coming? I know the Rams are readers, so yes.

How to avoid making the same mistake: There’s not much they can do here. With a 16-game schedule, variance is going to swamp fumble recovery rates.

Inside the two dismal defensive plays that doomed the Rams’ slim playoff hopes

Rich Hammond

https://theathletic.com/1480024/2019/12/22/inside-the-two-dismal-defensive-plays-that-doomed-the-rams-slim-playoff-hopes/?=twittered

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Third-and-16. For an NFL defense, it’s a gimme. Many offenses don’t even try to convert it. For fear of making a bad-to-worse mistake, they run a draw and punt.

Nobody expected that from the San Francisco 49ers late in the fourth quarter Saturday night. Of course the 49ers, in a tie game, went for it, but then something really bizarre happened. They converted. Twice, in the final two minutes of a game the Rams needed in order to keep alive their playoff hopes.

Third-and-16. It’s almost impossible. The 49ers hadn’t converted any of their previous 14 attempts from that distance (or more) this season. The Rams’ defense, when faced with third-down plays of at least 16 yards since the start of the 2017 season, had stopped opponents from converting on 34 of 38 attempts.

Then it happened twice in less than 70 seconds, and because of it, the Rams’ season ended. They’re not going to the playoffs. They’ll be, at best, a nine-win team that finishes third in its (tough) division. Those two plays didn’t ruin the Rams’ season, or even solely cost them this game. There was a missed field goal, a terrible interception return for a touchdown and a handful of other lapses that set this table.

“I think those two plays are indicative of the effort that our defense gave,” coach Sean McVay said, “and it’s unfortunate that they ended that way because they had put together a really good performance against a tough offense. But those two plays hurt us and we’ve got to be better there.”

But really, third-and-16? Twice? The Rams, in a 31-31 tie, needed one stop on San Francisco’s ensuing drive, which started with a six-yard loss on a sack of Jimmy Garoppolo and an incomplete pass. On third down, Garoppolo threaded an 18-yard pass over the middle to receiver Kendrick Bourne.

That stung the Rams, who had one timeout left and thought, reasonably, that they might get the ball back near midfield with a chance to win. OK, so that wouldn’t happen, but after a one-yard run by Raheem Mostert and another sack, this one for a loss of seven yards by linebacker Samson Ebukam, the 49ers faced another third-and-16 play with less than a minute to go, and at least the Rams would go to overtime.

Of course they would, right? Entering Saturday, 12 of the NFL’s 32 defenses hadn’t allowed a single third-down conversion of more than 16 yards this season. Only five teams had allowed more than two all season. No team had allowed more than five, and it took Houston 14 games to do that.

It took only a few seconds for the Rams to completely unravel. On another third-and-16 play, Bourne and fellow receiver Emmanuel Sanders lined up to the left of the formation. They split at the snap, with Bourne heading toward the middle of the field and Sanders drifting toward the sideline.

Rams nickel corner Nickell Robey-Coleman stuck to Bourne, as he was supposed to, and Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey played off Sanders in a zone concept, expecting rookie safety Taylor Rapp to pick up coverage of Sanders. Only he didn’t. Ramsey passed off Sanders to absolutely nobody, as Rapp ran toward the sideline, away from Sanders and toward an area not occupied by any 49ers targets.

“I was supposed to be a little over the top on that concept,” Rapp said.

Here’s the dots for the third-and-16 that ended the Rams season. I’m not sure what Taylor Rapp thought the coverage was supposed to be. pic.twitter.com/IakGOYwEnZ

— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) December 22, 2019

The 49ers, and thousands of their fans, noticed, and just as Rams linebacker Cory Littleton took a leap in his direction, Garoppolo stepped into a long throw toward the wide-open Sanders, who completed the 46-yard pass play and got the 49ers to the Rams’ 23-yard line. Three plays later, they kicked a 33-yard field goal for a 34-31 victory that dropped the Rams to 8-7 and ended their slim playoff hopes.

McVay said the Rams were “in a certain call that entailed some communication” but said he didn’t “want to get into the specifics of what should have occurred on that.” Ramsey had no such qualms.

“We were in a form of two-man,” Ramsey said. “We had an adjustment to check to, because they were (in) condensed splits. I played my technique, trusting that he was going to be over the top. He wasn’t. So that’s what happened.”

Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey after losing 34-31 to the Niners. pic.twitter.com/euSiIYoqab

— Lindsey Thiry (@LindseyThiry) December 22, 2019

Don’t scold Ramsey for being honest. He was asked what happened on the play and he explained it. Ramsey didn’t disparage a teammate and Rapp, in a separate conversation, owned up to the error.

Also, don’t forget Garoppolo’s role in this whole fiasco. He actually stood in the pocket and made the throws. That couldn’t have been easy, given that the Rams had spent the previous two quarters hitting him like a blocking sled. The Rams sacked Garoppolo six times in the second half, yet he stood in the pocket while it collapsed around him and made two world-class throws. Of course, they got help.

“(The Rams) played a two-shell defense,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said, “and you’re going to work Bourne in the middle if it’s a two-man type deal, but the safeties got so high and wide. I think it was somebody (Rapp) got flat-footed in the middle of the field and we were able to get over the top of them. It was a good throw, great route. Sometime we tried for earlier in the game, but we didn’t get the right coverage for it, but we got it there and the guys made it happen.”

What a strange journey for the Rams’ defense. After last week’s dismal effort in defeat to Dallas, the Rams couldn’t have been stronger in the first quarter. On the 49ers’ first three drives, the Rams allowed only one first down and recorded an interception as they soared to a 14-3 lead with a sharp offense.

The 49ers rallied and took a 24-21 halftime lead, but one of those San Francisco touchdowns came courtesy of Rams quarterback Jared Goff, who threw an absolutely dreadful interception that Fred Warner returned 46 yards for a touchdown. The Rams rallied on both sides of the ball in the second half, though, and Garoppolo looked skittish even though he made enough throws to keep his team in the game.

On the latter third-and-16 play, Littleton nearly got his extended hand to Garoppolo’s arm.

“I feel like we put good pressure on them,” Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald said. “We was there. He stood in the pocket and made those good throws. We were about to get him. If we had a second longer, we would have had him, but he made two good pass plays to help his team win.”

And they cost the Rams’ offense a chance at redemption. Near the end of a quiet second half, the Rams — trailing 31-28 — woke up and drove 41 yards in seven plays to set up Greg Zuerlein’s game-tying 52-yard field goal. McVay was mixing his play calls effectively and Goff, after the One Big Gaffe at the end of the second quarter, had been throwing with accuracy and rhythm.

Given one more chance, after a third-down stop, the Rams seemingly had a good chance to drive down the field again and score, or at least take some momentum into overtime.

“Yeah, you hope so,” Goff said. “That’s where you tip your cap to what (the 49ers) were doing. They had a couple good conversions there at the end of the game and were able to finish. You go back in the game and you can look at a million plays. Myself personally, I’ll look at that pick six for a long time and wish I wouldn’t have pulled the trigger on that. Maybe it would have been a different game and we would be talking about something else right now.”

Instead, it’s over. The Rams, a year after a trip to the Super Bowl, will be done after next Sunday’s home game against Arizona. They will face an offseason full of questions, not only about the shortcomings of 2019 but about how they can improve amid a challenging salary-cap landscape.

The Rams aren’t going back to the Super Bowl, or the playoffs, or extending to three years their run of 10-win seasons. It is, by all measures, a failure, one that will take a while to unpack.

“It’s extremely disappointing,” Goff said. “It’s not even close to the standard we want to hold.”

LMU93

Rams played one of three toughest schedules this year

At least according to sources I’ve looked at, including Pro-Football-Reference (t-1st), TeamRankings.com (1st), and others.

Just a factor we should keep in mind. Rams finished the season 2-5 vs. playoff teams and if they beat Arizona will be 7-2 vs. the rest of the league.

PFF ReFocused: San Francisco 49ers 34, Los Angeles Rams 31

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-week-16-pff-refocused-san-francisco-49ers-34-los-angeles-rams-31

The 49ers struggled against the Rams’ interior defensive line, and they fared especially poorly against Aaron Donald. Center Ben Garland and right guard Daniel Brunskill seemed to struggle the most against Donald, as they lost several exchanges with him.

The Rams seemed to know that they had a problem on their hands with the 49ers’ defensive front, so they used rollouts and play-action in an attempt to slow the ‘Niners down. This worked for a while, and Jared Goff did make some nice throws, but Goff’s game will be marred by the pick-six that he inexplicably threw to Fred Warner.

Robert Woods was the best offensive player for the Rams on Saturday night. He was effective on many of the Rams’ successful play-action rollouts, and he finished the game with eight catches for 117 yards.

Aaron Donald had another extremely disruptive game against the 49ers. He was a force both rushing the passer and in run defense, and he finished the game with two sacks.

Jalen Ramsey played a part in two turnovers in this game. He made a great play in zone coverage to read Garoppolo’s eyes and come up with an interception. Ramsey also caused another pick when he broke up a pass on a slant pattern and popped the ball into the air for Darious Williams to intercept.

My vote.

I am just not discouraged by that game. In the 2nd half they fought back and tied it. That’s on the road against the 2nd ranked defense (1st against the pass). Without a running game (72 yards on 24 carries). All they had on offense was the passing game. Yet they fought back and tied it.

SF allowed only one other 300+ yard passing game all season, and that was against New Orleans.

Granted giving up 2 3rd n 16s will go down as one of the worst Rams defensive blunders ever.

But they managed to play a good game on offense (with some bad moments but still–coming back from your own mistakes is a good thing). And that’s with 3 inexperienced injury replacements on the OL against one of the top 5 defensive pressure teams (the Rams achilles heel).

….

Nick Wagoner@nwagoner
Seahawks fall to Arizona. Doesn’t change much for #49ers next Sunday in Seattle. Niners win or tie would wrap the NFC West division. A win would clinch the No. 1 seed. A tie could mean anything from 1 to 3, pending other results. And, for now, Niners ascend back to No. 1 in NFC.

TurfShowTimes@TurfShowTimes
#LARams LT Andrew Whitworth on 2020: “My intention is to play football.”

Could the 38-year old shun retirement yet again to saddle up next season? And how would that affect the Rams’ setup in free agency?

TurfShowTimes@TurfShowTimes
Chandler Jones is the best least-known player in the NFL.
A Steven Jackson-type situation where he’s just isolated as a talent on some very bad teams in his prime.

Lindsey Thiry@LindseyThiry
Sean McVay said that CB Jalen Ramsey’s knee injury is continuing to be evaluated.

I love when we get DLmen this upset. We are doing our job then. And then he punches the wrong player and gets ejected. 😂 pic.twitter.com/EL70m6CvMu

— Geoff Schwartz (@geoffschwartz) December 22, 2019

Michael Silver@MikeSilver
After last night’s game, @RamsNFL LT Andrew Whitworth, who recently turned 38, told me he hopes to keep playing in 2020: “My intention is to play football. We’ll see if it works out.”

Football Perspective@fbgchase
Over the last 3 years, quarterbacks who took 6+ sacks and threw 2+ interceptions were 1-18, with the one win coming against a rookie Josh Allen/Nate Peterman Bills.

Garoppolo became the second to win with those negative plays last night.

==

https://www.therams.com/news/five-takeaways-performances-a-bright-spot-for-rams-loss-49ers

Higbee’s late-season emergence is showing exactly why the Rams gave him a four-year extension in early September.

With his 104 yards on a team-high nine catches, the former Western Kentucky star posted his fourth consecutive game of 100 or receiving yards.

How rare is the feat Higbee accomplished? He’s only the fourth tight end to do so, according to NFL research, joining Travis Kelce, Jimmy Graham (twice), and Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez.

Not bad company to be in.