On August 30th, the Green Bay Packers traded a 2028 7th-round pick to the Los Angeles Rams for tight end Mark Redman. Given that the Rams had eight tight ends at the start of the month, it’s no surprise they’d be open to getting rid of one of them. (As currently stands, the Rams have five tight ends on their 53-man roster.)
Before I went to the film, I took a peek at his RAS score.
After seeing this – a 6’6”, 263 lb TE who ran a 4.95 40 – I said to myself, “Guess he’s a Y TE who will major in blocking.” But I wanted to go to the film to see what I could find. I went through all of his snaps from the three preseason games this season.
Redman ran the occasional vertical route and had a little better speed than I had anticipated, but that’s not why the Packers traded for him. His longest reception in the preseason was working as the crosser on a boot concept.
So why did they trade for him? What did they see that could potentially work in this offense?
Redman has one very clear strength in his game. If you put him in-line and ask him to block down the line, buddy, he’ll block down the line.
If you tell Mark Redman to move a man out of a gap on a run play, he’ll do it. If you’re looking for his superpower, that’s it. He’s also no slouch in pass protection. He was asked to hold his own against the EMOL (End Man On Line) and showed that he was up for the task.
If you ask him to do much more than that, the holes in his game start to show up. I showed his big reception above, but that’s more about him working within the concept than doing any solo winning. (He also had a 22-yard reception on a vertical route where he just kind of got dropped in coverage.) He gives enough of a snap at the top of his routes to provide a little separation in quick game concepts, but he’s mainly going to be operating with 10 yards of the line of scrimmage.
Even his blocking is somewhat limited at the moment. I just showed a bunch of nice in-line blocking clips, but if you ask him to block on the move, he struggles lining up his man.
So what do we have in terms of this offense? We have a big strong man who can move men out of their gaps in the run game and hold up on the edge in pass protection. It’s a limited skillset, but he looks to be very good at both of those things. And you can work with that, especially if you’re going back to a more zone-oriented running game (and a lot of signs are pointing to that being the case).
If the only thing he could do was block, you’d be telegraphing your intentions a little too openly, but he can do enough in the passing game to not be a total burden. We saw how good he is as a down-the-line blocker, which opens him up to working the Slam route on the boot passing game (blocking down, then releasing and finding space down the line to the boot side).
The Packers offense is one that can work to Redman’s strengths when he is on the field. They don’t need him to be anything he is incapable of being. He’s still young (24 years old) so there’s still room to grow within his role. His lack of speed will likely always keep him in a somewhat limited role, but an elite blocking TE with a little nuance as a route runner is a welcome addition to any offense. I certainly don’t have high hopes for production this season, but, when he’s on the field, I’m going to be watching to see what he does.
Albums listened to: Talk Talk – Spirit of Eden; Sister Ray Davies – Holy Island
