this may surprise you

by Spesh , Los Angeles, Sunday, February 22, 2009, 08:35 (6302 days ago) @ domer.mq

but TE usage has been surprisingly consistent. It definitely surprised me.

Here is a breakdown of red zone targets (not catches, but times the ball was thrown to a particular player).

We threw to the TEs in the red zone just 8 times in 2005 (Fasano 7, Carlson 1).

Not much better in 2006, either. We threw it to the TE 9 times (Carlson 5, Freeman 4). We actually threw it to Freeman all four times after Carlson's injury. Never did we throw it to him when he was the 2nd TE on the field.

In 2008, we threw to Rudolph 7 times.

In terms of who were our red zone targets in those years, here's some more info.

2005 (58 passes)
Samardzija - 41%
Stovall - 26%
Fasano - 12%
Walker - 7%
Schwapp - 5%
McKnight, Shelton - 3% each
Carlson - 2%

2006 (60 passes)
Samardzija - 42%
McKnight - 25%
Carlson/Freeman (#1 TE) - 15%
Walker - 5%
Grimes - 5%
McConnell - 2%
West, Anastasio - 2% each
2 balls were thrown away due to pressure

2008 (55 passes)
Tate - 25%
Floyd - 24%
Rudolph - 13%
Kamara - 13%
Grimes - 13%
Allen - 7%
Hughes - 4%
Parris - 2%