5 reasons current Pittsburgh Steelers tight ends are a waste of money

Don’t ask them to block

You would think that as much as Pittsburgh is paying their tight ends that they would be well-rounded, but that doesn’t appear to be the case at all. Vance McDonald was more of an inline tight end during his days on the San Francisco 49ers, but he’s either lost the will to block, or he was never very good at it in the first place.

In the first two games of the season, McDonald has earned a 42.6 run-block grade (which is good for 66th in the league among tight ends. This was much of his problem last year as well.

Ebron has never been a blocker at any point in his career, so it’s not a surprise to see him struggle in this area. Still, you would think that a pair of long-time starting NFL tight ends would be better at this by now.

Pittsburgh’s run game has struggled in terms of efficiency and overall production since 2017, and I’m willing to bet that the subpar blocking on the edge has something to do with their lack of big plays. Obviously, other factors go into play here, but if they aren’t blocking well, they are missing a whole element of the game.