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Sporting News, The, Dec 6, 2004 by Troy Aikman

I always knew I'd miss Jay Novacek when he retired. Because of a degenerative back condition, he never played again after we won Super Bowl 30, and the Dallas offense never was the same.

Novacek was an athletic tight end--a wide receiver in a tight end's body. Blocking was about all that was required of most tight ends at the time, but Jay's ability as a front-line receiver made our offense tremendously versatile and explosive. When he left, our offense went into decline.

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I don't think it's a coincidence that offensive production in the NFL is on the rise at the same time there is an abundance of tight ends such as Novacek. Tony Gonzalez has been doing it for years, but look at San Diego's Antonio Gates, Atlanta's Alge Crumpler, Miami's Randy McMichael and San Francisco's Eric Johnson. Each is leading his team in both receptions and receiving yards, which means they're not only catching lots of balls but getting downfield, too.

The Giants' Jeremy Shockey, Minnesota's Jermaine Wiggins, the Cowboys' Jason Witten and the Colts' Marcus Pollard and Dallas Clark also are huge contributors to their teams' passing games.

An athletic tight end creates more problems for a defense than any other player on the field. Let him run interior routes, and the tight end probably has the advantage over either a safety (bigger) or a linebacker (faster). Split him outside, and he'll create a size mismatch against any corner--and he'll still draw coverage away from other potential threats if a safety or linebacker picks him up.

Throw a guy like this into a two-tight end set, which typically is a run personnel grouping, and defenses don't know whether to go with an extra run stopper or a nickel back. These are not pleasant scenarios for a defense to ponder, and they're caused by a tight end who can make plays downfield as well as block.

Teams might lose something in the blocking scheme with these athletic tight ends; clubs probably would be better off in the running game with a bigger, wider body at the point of attack. That might have been true to some degree with Novacek in Dallas, but I always felt he was effective enough using his leverage and footwork to help us run the ball.

And I know after Jay was gone, we weren't very good. That wasn't a coincidence, either.

The Troy Aikman show airs at 5 p.m. ET every Thursday through the Super Bowl on Sporting New Radio. Listen online at radio.sportingnews.com.

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Sporting News, The, Dec 6, 2004 by Troy Aikman

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