Can Crockett Gillmore Be the Ravens' Savior at Tight End?

The Baltimore Ravens have great names on their tight end depth chart. And I mean actual names: It doesn’t get much better than Crockett Gillmore and Phillip Supernaw.

But name value matters only for comedic purposes. That is troubling because right now name value is about all Dennis Pitta has while he contemplates his NFL future.

Then there's Gillmore, who's waiting to become the future and a desperately needed answer for what ails the Ravens at tight end.

Pitta has dislocated his hip in back-to-back seasons. That’s a devastating, career-altering injury, and he’s done it twice. The first dislocation came during training camp of 2013. The second time Pitta didn’t even need contact, crumbling by himself in Week 3 of 2014.

Initially head coach John Harbaugh expressed optimism when talking to Ryan Mink of Ravens.com about Pitta’s future. That was in December, and his stance changed to finger-crossing by February when speaking to Aaron Wilson of The Baltimore Sun.

Now we’ve reached the next stage with Pitta: praying.

Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti spoke to season-ticket holders during a conference call Wednesday. He looked to the heavens above when addressing Pitta's situation.

Pitta is only one season into a five-year contract extension worth $32 million, $16 million of which is guaranteed. 

At the time, his contract was the sort of risk that made knees shake involuntarily. Now in addition to those quivering knees, heads are either hanging in shame around Baltimore’s front office or looking skyward with Bisciotti.

Pitta showed promise in 2012 during a Super Bowl championship season, finishing with 61 receptions for 669 yards and seven touchdowns. Then the severe hip injuries started to pile up, and before that Pitta had already suffered three concussions. The damage report is lengthy for a tight end who will be 30 years old before the 2015 season.

The possible demise of Pitta's career means Baltimore needs a solution at tight end. More depth will certainly be coming after the draft, likely through a mid-round pick. Jeff Zrebiec of The Baltimore Sun recently passed along some educated speculation, saying Florida State’s Nick O'Leary (projected as a third- or fourth-round pick by Walter Football) has caught the Ravens’ eye.

But if Pitta doesn’t play in 2015 (or ever again), his replacement may already be on the roster.

What exactly is a Crockett Gillmore? A savior, hopefully.

The Ravens’ dire situation at tight end goes beyond praying for Pitta. In his absence, Owen Daniels had a perfectly decent 2014 season, catching 48 passes for 527 yards and four touchdowns. He was lured to the Denver Broncos as a free agent by former Ravens offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak (the head coach in Denver now).

The tight end cupboard is suddenly vacant in Baltimore, leaving all hopes and dreams at the position with a second-year player who was drafted in the third round and has all of 10 career receptions on his NFL resume.

The task ahead for Gillmore if he earns the starting job? Replacing two tight ends who combined to account for nearly 20 percent of quarterback Joe Flacco’s targets in 2014 (including playoffs).

Tight end	Games played	Targets
Owen Daniels	15	88
Dennis Pitta	3	20
Crockett Gillmore	15	15
Phillip Supernaw	6	3

Despite only appearing in three games before dislocating his hip again, Pitta was still targeted more times than Gillmore and Supernaw combined. That shows how heavily Flacco relied on him as a looming tower of humanity up the middle.

And more broadly, it also shows how heavily the Ravens featured tight ends—any tight end. Daniels finished only one reception behind wide receiver Torrey Smith. That leads us to another daunting percentage for Gillmore: Ravens tight ends were in the crosshairs for 22 percent of Flacco’s regular-season completions in 2014.

Crockett accounted for a small chunk of that total. Including the playoffs, he caught 12 passes for 151 yards while scoring twice. Those numbers don’t sparkle until they’re considered in the proper context: Gillmore didn’t play at least 30 snaps until Week 6, according to Pro Football Focus. Overall, he was on the field for only 41.0 percent of the Ravens’ offensive work.

Gillmore ascended to mid-round-pick status by being Colorado State’s leading pass-catcher in 2011, finishing with 468 yards. He eclipsed that total two years later, posting 577 yards during his final college season.

Much of that yardage was the result of constant grappling in tight spaces to make difficult catches. Team Stream Now highlighted Gillmore's bullish physical play after the Ravens selected him. 

The sample size he's provided professionally is clearly limited. Yet the looming 6’6”, 251-pound tight end still showed downfield burst up the seam, along with the ability to locate and secure heavily contested balls.

He may have recorded only 12 catches, but three went for 20-plus yards. One came in Week 17 against the Cleveland Browns, and Gillmore showed two fundamental skills for a successful pass-catching tight end: the ability to win physically and the ability to get separation.

In the third quarter, the Ravens lined up with two tight ends to the right side. Gillmore was preparing to be jammed at the line by Browns linebacker Craig Robertson.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

He created separation and then capitalized on it. The first step was accomplished with, well, a step. A strong one, but also a false one in the wrong direction. The quick juke and shoulder dip showed fluid movement for a man who’s carrying around a whole lot of body.

It immediately had Robertson off balance as he bit hard, jumping left while Gillmore went right. The 23-year-old completed the job by thrusting with both hands, clawing past Robertson and into the open field.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

Then he quickly accelerated ahead with bounding strides. There was a full step between tight end and linebacker by the time Gillmore planted to break off the route and head further downfield.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

The concern with Gillmore is how often that acceleration will show up and if he’ll be exposed after a higher volume of snaps against tougher defensive matchups.

During the 2014 scouting combine, he ran the 40-yard dash in a lumbering 4.89 seconds, which ranked 19th among all tight ends. His 10-yard split of 1.77 seconds was tied for worst, so the stopwatches say separation could become a problem over time. Gillmore will have to rely on his ample body to fight for space.

That isn’t such an awful thing, especially when that body includes Gillmore’s soft hands. Combined with an overall largeness, those cushy mitts will give Flacco a wide catch radius to target.

“He has natural hands for the reception,” wrote Rob Rang of CBSSports.com in his predraft evaluation of Gillmore. “He high-points passes, showing impressive hand-eye coordination, timing on his leap and overall body control.”

Gillmore has the foundation to grow and become another warm security blanket for Flacco. Is he a savior yet? No. But with Smith and Daniels gone, and Pitta’s future uncertain, he might not have a choice in the matter.