Packers bringing back Robert Tonyan
The veteran tight end is coming off an ACL injury.
By PackerAaron
#Packers have agreed to a one-year deal with TE Robert Tonyan. Includes a voidable year.
— Tom Silverstein (@TomSilverstein) March 19, 2022
Tonyan had his 2021 campaign cut short after suffering a torn ACL in the Packers Week 8 game against the Arizona Cardinals.
Due to the injury, it always made sense on Tonyan's part to retrun to the Packers on a shorter deal and play in a pass happy offense with Aaron Rodgers throwing him the football.
Tonyan had a breakout year in 2020, with career highs in catches (52), receiving yards (586) and touchdowns (11).
There's a decent chance that Tonyan won't be one hundred percent in time for the start of training camp due to the ACL, but he should be able to contribute early in the 2022 season.
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Comments (30)
k.rock87_SoCalPackerBacker
March 19, 2022 at 06:38 pm
Yay! I'm happy that we have him back.
Now we just have to make sure LF and/or Rodgers will target him as much as he was targeted in 2020. I can't wait to have him back on the field!
And... isn't there at least one player on every team that goes out with an ACL issue? It used to be hamstrings, not it's the knees.
HackAttack
March 19, 2022 at 06:52 pm
I feel he will be a top target once’s he is healthy. Do we know when he will be 100%?
dblbogey
March 20, 2022 at 10:08 am
With an ACL, sometime between now and never.
BirdDogUni
March 19, 2022 at 07:59 pm
Very happy Big Bob is coming back, because AR likes him. I'm still greedy and hope we draft another TE, in the hopes of finding a Kelce or Kittle in the 3rd or 4th round. (Maybe 5th round this year?) Hopefully, Gutey and his scouts have done their due diligence and know exactly who they want.
Crankbait
March 19, 2022 at 11:01 pm
Too slow..... we need another Finley.
BirdDogUni
March 20, 2022 at 12:35 am
A guy who drops 2 of 3 balls? No thanks. ; )
stockholder
March 20, 2022 at 08:23 am
Trey McBride is the best choice. @58
PatrickGB
March 20, 2022 at 09:32 am
Drops 2/3 Balls? That was not my impression. In eight games, Tonyan caught 18-of-29 passes – those 11 incompletions more than all of 2020 – for 204 yards and two touchdowns. After a four-game stretch in which he caught just 6-of-13 for 32 yards, Tonyan got rolling by catching 4-of-5 for 63 yards vs. Washington and 3-of-4 for 49 yards with a season-long gain of 33 vs. Arizona before the injury.
Thegreatreynoldo
March 21, 2022 at 01:37 am
I don't believe BDU was vilifying Tonyan for his hands. Rather, Finley's hands were definitely suspect. A similar TE to Finley, Jared Cook, is out there as a free agent. Cook has good years and bad years with drops. Cook is 35 and his Adot dropped, though he was in his first season with LAC. Lord, Cook was drafted in 2009! Finley was drafted in 2008.
LLCHESTY
March 22, 2022 at 02:51 am
You definitely read that wrong. BDU was talking about Finley. Tons of potential that never really came to pass, though like MVS teams had to account for him when he was on the field.
Shinesman
March 19, 2022 at 11:51 pm
Tonyan has been a cautionary tale for me. He had 1 good season. And it was an odd season because he did most of his damage in 4-5 games. And many plays it seemed he was just forgotten by the defense. He isn't a Kittle or Kelce or Ertz or even Higbee. I think he really is still trying to get his role down and would not overreact to a couple good performances by him
LLCHESTY
March 22, 2022 at 03:01 am
After his big 2020 season I said that was probably his best year, his peak Paul Coffman if you will. Coffman had a monster season in 1982 and never really came close to it again, although I think he had 9 TDs the year after. It sounds like his deal is for $3.7 million which seems fair. It's a gamble if he can't play for the first 6 weeks or so but given the depleted state of the weapons Rodgers has to throw to it's a gamble worth taking.
Spock
March 20, 2022 at 08:04 am
How does a one year contract "include a voidable year"???????????????????
PeteK
March 20, 2022 at 09:26 am
Creative accounting, ask a very wealthy person's accountant. They have more tricks than a magician. LOL
HankScorpio
March 20, 2022 at 10:57 am
So the Packers can rob from the future to pay for today.
Spock
March 20, 2022 at 03:36 pm
LoL, Hank. That makes as much sense as anything. :)
Thegreatreynoldo
March 21, 2022 at 01:39 am
Much like an ARM or a mortgage with a balloon payment down the road. I remember interest-only mortgages as well.
jannesbjornson
March 21, 2022 at 01:49 pm
Along with a collapsed economy.
stockholder
March 20, 2022 at 08:20 am
Tonyan will be here only 1 year. The TE position needs more. Trey McBride is the answer. This guy can catch the ball. @#59 A solid pick.
LLCHESTY
March 22, 2022 at 03:05 am
Well which is it, 58 or 59? 😉
PeteK
March 20, 2022 at 09:32 am
We now have two young promising TEs without a large future cap hit. In my opinion DT and WRs still top choices followed by T and then TE.
frankthefork
March 20, 2022 at 10:21 am
A bit of good news for the Packers TE room. But, due to the serious injury, Bobton is half the man he was; hopefully, he recovers 110% by Mid-season. More work is needed to get this TE group up and ready. Lewis, Everett, or Cook, plus an early-round draft pick(2-4) can help round out this room.
HankScorpio
March 20, 2022 at 10:56 am
A career high of 586 yards in ML's TE friendly offense with Rodgers throwing the ball is nothing special. Before he got hurt, he was about 11 yards/game off that pace. That's a pretty significant step backwards from "nothing special". The per game average goes to 408 over 16 games.
Prior to his "breakout" season of nothing special, he was playing about 45% of the ST snaps. Once he "broke out", that fell to 10%.
Sounds to me like the Packers are treading water with someone that is coming off a major injury, not all that good on offense in the first place and backs it up by being even worse on STs. I hope they didn't pay much above the vet minimum with a modest signing bonus. However, the TE room in general is in awful shape. Another body cannot hurt.
LLCHESTY
March 22, 2022 at 03:08 am
Context. Without Bakhtiari he had to do a lot more chipping before released. 2021 will most likely be looked on as his best season but that doesn't mean he's lost all value.
ImaPayne
March 23, 2022 at 08:33 am
answer: he came dam cheap
davekenya
March 20, 2022 at 12:16 pm
Good re-sign -- I'm definitely supportive. We'll see what he can offer once he's recovered.
Of course, he and Douglas not possible w/o Adams moving on.
Here's my unrelated random thought for the day:
Why did Brady say he decided to 'unretire' after 40 days? Timing-wise was it related to seeing that AR did not go to Denver (or retire) and so didn't want to see AR run roughshod throughout the NFC?
egbertsouse
March 20, 2022 at 04:20 pm
Hey Gute, instead of rounding up The Usual Suspects (I thought I needed to use a different movie reference, I’m tired of Groundhog Day.) why don’t you try to improve the team! In case you forgot, you didn’t win the Super Bowl last year.
KKB
March 20, 2022 at 06:35 pm
IMO Billy Turned will be back too - on a team friendly contract/
Since'61
March 21, 2022 at 01:58 pm
If Tonyan makes a full recovery this is a good move. However if he loses half a step or a full step due to his injury he won’t be very effective since he will be too slow.
We need a TE with speed who can effectively threaten the middle of the field. We have had enough of TEs who can be covered by NTs. Thanks, Since ‘61
Starrbrite
March 21, 2022 at 10:21 pm
Yep—good analysis—agree.