2026 TIGHT ENDS BEST ON SHORT ROUTES
Short routes are the bread and butter of tight end production: flats, stick routes, quick outs and the option routes that keep a drive alive on third and four. The grade reflects how reliably the player gets open, catches the ball and picks up yards after contact in that range. Jason Witten (Tennessee) turned exactly this skill into a Hall of Fame career.
Below, draft-eligible tight ends are ranked by short route grade, with their medium and deep route grades, hands, blocking and overall rating for comparison.
