Someone doesn't think Mark Andrews is a Top 3 NFL tight end

It's that time of the year. That time when we hit valley-SZN, which is to say the opposite of peak-SZN, which is to say the couple of weeks between the end of June and the end of July when players report to training camp and NFL news and content starts flowing again.

That time of the year, empty of fresh content, leads us to rank players, come up with silly stuff, and for some, it also means losing their minds overthinking stuff.

That might be the case if you check the Top 5 rankings put together by Matt Lombardo of Heavy.com, precisely, his entry published on July 22 touching the best five tight ends in the NFL for the upcoming 2023 season.

Unsurprisingly, Travis Kelce got the clear-cut no. 1 spot. Nobody is arguing against the Chiefs' tight end being the absolute best and most dominant player at the position, as it's been the case for the past few seasons.

Depending on your opinion of his game and talents, you might have a different pick for the second-best tight end in the league. For Lombardo, that man is George Kittle, which is pretty much a consensus pick for that rank no matter the analyst you ask.

The third spot, of course, should always be reserved for Baltimore Ravens tight end Mark Andrews... or is it? Not according to Lombardo, who thinks Dallas Goedert of all men deserves the no. 3 spot more than Andrews. Yikes.

"Consistency is the name of the game for Mark Andrews, even if the Baltimore Ravens‘ quarterback situation from week to week has been anything but over the past several seasons. Andrews has caught at least five touchdowns each of the past four seasons and surpassed 700 receiving yards every year over that span. In 2022, despite Lamar Jackson missing five games due to injury, Andrews still pulled down 73 passes for 847 yards and 5 touchdowns. If Jackson can stay healthy, there’s little reason to think Andrews won’t continue to be among the dynamic quarterback’s favorite targets, especially in the red zone, and a key figure in the Ravens’ offensive trajectory."

- Matt Lombardo, Heavy.com

So Lombardo thinks Andrews predicates his game in "consistency" even though the Ravens have not been consistent at deploying the same quarterback weekly with Lamar Jackson often missing time due to injury.

Lombardo points out correctly that last year, "despite Lamar Jackson missing five games due to injury, Andrews still pulled down 73 passes for 847 yards and 5 touchdowns." Not bad, was it? Not enough for Lombardo, feels like.

Worst of all is that talking about Goedert and reasoning his place in the rankings, Lombardo simply thinks that he enjoyed "a top quarterback situation" that helped elevate him. In fact, the blurb speaks better of Jalen Hurts than it does praise Goedert.

Goedert, playing under a healthy Hurts, racked up 702 yards on 55 receptions and 3 TDs. Again, Andrews caught 73 passes for 847 and 5 TDs, partially without Lamar Jackson throwing the ball.

There are bold takes. Then, there is wonky, blatanly wrong analysis. This was not a prediction made by Lombardo, it was an assessment of talent. And no matter the angle you look at the comparison from, Andrews should be way above Goedert in the tight-end pecking order.

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