Cade Otton Has Arrived Just In Time For Bucs Retooled Offense

Going into the 2024 season tight end Cade Otton was not considered one of the established stars on the Bucs’ offense.

Mike Evans is a future Hall of Famer. Chris Godwin is a former Pro Bowler looking to re-establish himself as such.

Baker Mayfield was coming off of one of his best seasons as a pro and played like a bonafide Top 10 quarterback last year. Rachaad White, for all of the struggles of the run game, was a legitimate Top 3 pass-catching running back.

The Bucs may have been missing an established wide receiver three, but there was plenty to suggest that wasn’t necessarily needed for the offense to shine.

And then there was Otton.

A former fourth-round pick, he flashed during his rookie year working behind Cam Brate for much of the season as he posted 46 catches for 449 yards and two touchdowns. Otton made a minor name for himself with some tough catches on seam routes from Tom Brady and some clutch, game-winning touchdowns.

Otton’s rookie year was a success. He led all rookie tight ends in catches and was tied for the most receiving yards. The Bucs were so happy with his performance that they rolled into the 2023 season with him as the starter, opting to not bring in any real free agent competition.

In his second season in Tampa Bay, Otton ranked 13th among all tight ends in targets (86), 14th in catches (60), 15th in receiving yards (610) and tied for 11th in touchdowns (5). Looking past the surface level stats showed a small problem with efficiency that lurked beneath his +90% snap count iron man facade.

Out of 39 tight ends with at least 31 targets, he was 33rd in catch rate, 37th in yards per route run and 24th in contested catch rate. Rounding out his game, Otton also struggled as a blocker, regularly struggling to seal the backside of split zone or gain the edge properly in mid zones. Everything about Otton’s game screamed “stop-gap” starter or high-end No. 2 tight end. He was certainly playing up to his draft slot as a fourth-rounder, but not necessarily out playing it.

But the Bucs remained faithful to the blue-collar Otton. This past offseason they once again planned on him remaining the starter, investing just a seventh-round pick in the position in Devin Culp and asking Otton to lead a room with a combined five seasons of experience between the four players.

Through the first six weeks of the 2024 season the pass-catching aspect of Otton’s game remained stable. But he had improved considerably as a blocker, becoming one of the better starting in-line tight ends in the game by that measure.

All that changed in Week 7 after Evans and Godwin suffered major injuries. Otton suddenly became Mayfield’s No. 1 target in the passing game – and delivered.

Cade Otton Is Actually Making Push For The Pro Bowl

Keep in mind that Cade Otton had publicly stated that he was trying to become a Pro Bowler this season. The only way that was going to happen was an eruption of sorts in the passing game in 2024.

“I want to be in the Pro Bowl,” Otton said back in May. “Obviously, a lot of receiving stats go into that, but I want to be a great blocker, too. That doesn’t always get recognized by the media or anything like that, but amongst our team, be known as someone they can count on to run behind or take care of guys on the backside of our runs. It’s kind of hard to quantify those things, but just building trust in our offense for blocking.”

Otton has certainly checked off the blocking aspect of that statement, but despite being the team’s third-most targeted player he had not made a big-time impact in the areas required to get national recognition for an award like the Pro Bowl. Then the injuries to Chris Godwin and Mike Evans came in Week 7 against Baltimore. All of a sudden Otton became the featured target in Liam Coen’s offense.

Over the past two weeks Otton has been targeted 21 times and he has done plenty with those targets, catching 17 of them for 181 yards and two touchdowns. His 81% catch rate in those two games is just a hair shy of Godwin’s 83% season-long rate. And Otton is averaging 2.03 yards per route run which would rank sixth among qualified tight ends and Top 30 in the NFL overall.

The third-year tight end is playing at an incredible level right now. With the loss of the Bucs’ two top targets, Baker Mayfield will need a reliable set of hands that can get open moving forward. Otton is proving to be that guy while a group of young receivers that includes Jalen McMillan, Trey Palmer and Rakim Jarrett find their way in elevated roles.

And with his increased role in the passing game, Otton now has 36 receptions for 344 yards (9.6 avg.) and three touchdowns. He is on pace for 106 targets, 77 catches, 731 yards and six touchdowns. Those numbers could put him in the conversation for that coveted Pro Bowl nomination. All of those stats track to be Top 10 in the NFL among tight ends.

Very few offenses in the NFL run through a tight end. Kansas City has been doing it for a few years with Travis Kelce, whom the Bucs will face on Monday Night Football in Kansas City. But San Francisco and Detroit, despite having extremely talented tight ends in George Kittle and Sam LaPorta, still deploy their tight ends as a part of an ensemble cast.

For the last 62 minutes on the field the Bucs have run their passing game though Cade Otton. I’m not sure they can continue to run the offense this way, but it has shown one thing.

Otton has proven to be capable of more than had been asked of him up to this point. And he he’s likely in store for a big pay day sooner rather than later because of it.