5 Tight Ends Who Are Ready to Break Loose in 2015

Eric Ebron, Detroit Lions

Season: 2nd
ADP: 182nd (TE25)

During the 2014 NFL Draft, the Detroit Lions passed on the likes of Odell Beckham, Jr. and Kelvin Benjamin with their 10th overall pick with their eyes set on someone who could be the next Rob Gronkowski or Jimmy Graham.

And those lofty expectations fell flat Eric Ebron's rookie year with the Lions, as the tight end out of North Carolina only managed to play his way into fewer than half of the team's total offensive snaps, failing to top 250 yards receiving. And despite an impressive catch-radius afforded by his massive 6' 5", 250 pound frame and 32-inch vertical, he came away with just one receiving touchdown all year.

However, with another year under his belt and an impressive mini-camp in which he caught everything in sight and showed glimpses of the skills that made him so highly sought after coming out of college, the Lions are expecting big things out of their first-round pick.

Fellow teammate Golden Tate spoke on Ebron's sophomore season potential saying, "He has even more confidence than he did last year. He knows he can play ball and he knows he can be a force on this team. We're expecting him to do that, especially year two."

As I discussed earlier this offseason, despite a disappointing debut, Ebron's rookie year numbers are actually in line with the production of similarly built tight ends their rookie seasons. And along with the aforementioned Rob Gronkowski and Jimmy Graham, on average these tight ends too experienced a second-year leap.

If Ebron can make good on the extra work he's been putting in with quarterback Matthew Stafford and shore up the drops that were a big issue for him last season, there's a good chance that the second year man in Detroit can follow in the footsteps of these tight ends before him to have a very good 2015 season.