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To cobble together the perfect tight end, create the kind of player at the position you would get if you inputted all the physical attributes and then sought a computer-generated model, one would probably have to perform the kind of body-parts patchwork typically associated with the fictional Dr. Frankenstein.

You know, the hands of a wide receiver. The in-line blocking skills and the lower-body strength of an offensive guard. The toughness and determination of a great rebounding power forward. The churlish running ability of a fullback. The nastiness of a defenseman in hockey, daring someone to try to cross his blue line unchecked.

Mix those attributes together in some tucked away mountain laboratory, incorporate a well-place bolt of electricity, and watch Igor smile in amazement. Watch any offensive coordinator desperate to control the middle of the field, too, begin divining ways to get the ball to the tight end a lot more.

OK, so outside of the occasional Jeremy Shockey or Kellen Winslow or Tony Gonzalez, we agree the college game isn't regularly turning out such Frankenstein finished products. But even in a 2004 campaign when offenses are spreading the field not just to pass the ball but to create creases for the running game as well, and three- and four-wide receiver sets have made a remarkable comeback, there are definitely some tight ends who appear poised for monster seasons.

No, this isn't quite the golden age of tight ends, as one player at the position (who shall remain nameless given his inane remarks) suggested last week. But through three weeks, it certainly looks like a season in which the tight end spot has re-emerged as critical, and a year when practitioners of the game's most hybrid position have regained significance.

"After a 'down' period, a lot of teams have sort of rediscovered the tight end, definitely," acknowledged Chad Lewis of Philadelphia, one of two standout tight ends on the Eagles roster, along with L.J. Smith. "The pendulum has swung back our way a little bit now."

That is, in part, because of the point of emphasis on the illegal contact rule this season, a move designed to open up the passing game in general. It is also testament to the ability of team scouts to unearth some viable tight end candidates from the typically unusual places in which they seek out candidates for the position.

And so one of the top young tight ends in the league, Antonio Gates of San Diego, is a former basketball player who never played football at Kent State. Another is a onetime college wideout who simply grew into the position. There is a former college track and field star, a onetime high school wrestler, even an erstwhile prep-star quarterback. For years, personnel directors lamented the fact that most athletes with tight end athleticism had turned to basketball, or were perhaps playing defensive end in college.

Finally those talent evaluators stopped complaining long enough to understand that, to secure a tight end prospect, sometimes you had to be a little unconventional. The upshot of that enlightened approach is that, when you dig a little deeper, you don't always tap the mother lode but you can often strike something shinier than just fool's gold.

SIDE LINES
On-Line Two of the most lucrative contracts landed in free agency this spring were by Chicago Bears right offensive tackle John Tait (six years, $34 million) and Philadelphia Eagles left defensive end Jevon Kearse (eight years, $66 million). But when the two match up on Sunday at Soldier Field, it's more likely the subjects will be rushing the quarterback and pass protection, and not investment opportunities. For years, Tait was one of the league's top right ends with the Kansas City Chiefs, but now he is also expected to be leader and a building block for the young Bears offense. He will certainly have his hands full with Kearse, since "The Freak" is coming off a three-sack performance against Detroit last week, and seems to be hitting stride now. Even when he isn't collecting sacks, as was the case in a superb prime-time outing against Minnesota on Sept. 20, Kearse has an impact on the game. This figures to be a pretty intriguing tete-a-tete for both players.
The List With the season-ending knee injury suffered by Rex Grossman last week, the Chicago Bears will turn to little-used journeyman Jonathan Quinn on Sunday, and he becomes the team's 11th different starting quarterback in a 100-game stretch, dating to the beginning of the 1998 season. A look at the others and how many games they started: Player -- Year(s) -- Starts Jim Miller ('99-'02), 26 Shane Matthews ('00-'01), 15 Cade McNown ('99-'00), 15 Chris Chandler ('02-'03), 13 Erik Kramer ('98), 8 Steve Stenstrom ('98), 7 Kordell Stewart (03), 7 Rex Grossman ('03-'04), 6 Henry Burris ('02), 1 Moses Moreno ('98), 1
Stat of the Week The upstart Jacksonville Jaguars are 3-0 despite an offense that currently possesses the NFL's worst third-down conversion rate. Jacksonville has moved the chains on just six of 34 third-down plays, a 17.6 percent success rate. On the plus (and inexplicable) side, the Jaguars have converted all four of their fourth-down attempts.
Stat of the Weak The St. Louis defense led the NFL in takeaways in 2003, with 46, including 22 fumble recoveries and 24 interceptions. In three games this year, the unit has zero takeaways.
The Last Word Gruden "I can't even say how frustrating it is. Every year, you have Christmas, and you get some new toys. You'd like to be able to play with them a little bit before they get smashed." -- Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden on the injuries that have plagued his 0-3 team.

Take tight end Eric Johnson of San Francisco, for instance, because plenty of franchises now wish they had, indeed, taken him in the 2001 draft. In the last draft pick he exercised as the 49ers general manager, Bill Walsh gambled on the former Yale wide receiver in the seventh round, and won. Johnson averaged 38 receptions his first two seasons, was forced to miss all of 2003 because of injury, but is on pace for 96 catches in 2004.

The 49ers haven't had a tight end lead the franchise in receptions since Ted Kwalick in 1973, but Johnson could snap that long drought.

And he might not be the only tight end in the league who, at the end of the season, sits atop his team's receptions perch. Consider this: Entering this weekend, there were three tight ends among the NFL's top 21 receivers, led by Randy McMichael of Miami, with 19 catches. Six teams currently list tight ends as their leading receivers. If that doesn't sound like much, well, only four tight ends led their clubs in receptions in the past three seasons and just a dozen in the last five years.

There are currently 15 tight ends on pace for 50 or more receptions (including both the Eagles' tight ends) in 2004 and 10 of those are on pace to finish with 60-plus catches. By comparison, only four tight ends had 50 catches in '03 and just two of those posted 60 receptions or more. The leading receiver among tight ends last season, Gonzalez, had 72 catches. There could be four or five tight ends this season who surpass that mark.

Even with the recent attrition at the position -- Winslow, fellow first-rounder Ben Watson (New England), Dan Campbell (Dallas), Jim Kleinsasser (Minnesota) and Rickey Dudley (Tampa Bay) all went on injured reserve in the past week, Todd Heap (Baltimore) is out with an ankle injury and Kyle Brady (Jacksonville) hasn't dressed yet after finger surgery -- there is an ample quantity of solid tight ends.

Alge Crumpler of Atlanta is a superb all-around player. Heap and Gonzalez are perennial Pro Bowl choices. Despite his grievances with the new, Tom Coughlin-designed offense, which uses him as a motion tight end or H-back at times, Shockey is prospering. Freddie Jones of Arizona has always been underrated. Although he has slumped since grabbing eight passes for 123 yards in the opener, Gates has incredible potential. McMichael is a talented player whose skills are matched by his passion.

The unheralded upstarts, players to definitely watch at the position, include Jason Witten (Dallas), Jeb Putzier (Denver) and George Wrighster (Jacksonville), among others.

"The tight end has always been a vital part of the West Coast offense and now we're seeing most (offenses) expand the role," said Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Greg Knapp. "There's been a little bit of a bump now, certainly, for the position. I think, for most offenses, you've got to have a good tight end."

Atlanta has one of the league's top players, Crumpler, at the position and he may be one of the best pure tight ends. An emerging young player who went to the Pro Bowl last season, Crumpler is a terrific two-way performer, a solid receiver with good blocking skills and natural size. He isn't one of the many tight ends who had to, in the words of Falcons general manager Rich McKay, "eat his way into the position." Not surprisingly, Falcons management is working on a contract extension for Crumpler, who is eligible for unrestricted free agency after this season.

Certainly a player who has benefited from a new offensive design, one which allows him to move out into the slot or to "flex" from the line of scrimmage, Crumpler is typical of a young player at the position who takes a while to develop at the NFL level. Another is New England starter Daniel Graham, a former first-round draft choice who struggled in his first two seasons in the league, but has made a quantum leap in 2004.

In only two games, Graham, always regarded as an excellent blocker but a guy with very inconsistent hands, has nine catches and three touchdowns. The former Colorado standout had just five touchdown receptions entering the season.

"I think it's just a matter of maturity, learning what's expected from you, maybe getting a little more comfortable with the offense," Graham said. "Things just seem to be coming a lot easier so far this year."

One element that has made the receiving component of the game more facile for tight ends is the NFL's move during the offseason to make the illegal contact rule a point of emphasis. Linebackers can no longer grab and paw at tight ends beyond the five-yard "jam" area and offensive coordinators are increasingly designing sets to clear out the middle of the field and create mismatches for their tight ends. There is also this gambit: When offenses go to "spread" looks, defenses usually counter by removing a linebacker, and replacing him with a "nickel" or "dime" cornerback. While the corners are better cover men, they are almost always at a natural size disadvantage when matched up against a tight end in a one-on-one situation.

"So now, you just find a soft spot (in the secondary), and kind of 'post up' just like a basketball player would," said Heap of Baltimore, one of the game's best pure receivers at the tight end spot. "You can use your body to shield off defenders and, since they can't put their hands on you, they can't fight through you so much to get to the ball. Beyond that, I just think we're starting to see, in general, tight ends who are better receivers. The position really is on the way back."

Around the league

	Rivers

It should surprise no one if this is the week in which quarterback Philip Rivers, the first-round choice of the San Diego Chargers, makes his debut. Yeah, we know, that's an easy prediction, given that the former North Carolina State star and fourth player taken overall in the draft this week supplanted Doug Flutie in the No. 2 slot on the club's depth chart. But there is more than simply the public circumstantial evidence to indicate that Rivers is close to getting onto the field. As the No. 2 quarterback, Rivers is getting considerably more practice snaps than he had been. But beyond the ramped-up workload, there are indications from San Diego coaches that some staffers clearly are anxious to get Rivers into the lineup. Maybe he won't save the season, or salvage their jobs, either, but the feeling is Rivers will give the Chargers a better chance to win than does starter Drew Brees, who is slumping. From an organizational standpoint, switching to Rivers makes sense, since Brees won't be back in 2005 anyway.

As initially reported by Jason Cole of the Miami Herald, the Dolphins have discussed a possible management position for Jim Steeg, the NFL's senior executive director of special events. The mere germ of an idea might well be the best notion that any Dolphins employee has hatched this year. Certainly it ranks way ahead of the trade for quarterback A.J. Feeley, in which Miami surrendered a second-round draft choice in 2005 for a guy who has thrown as many touchdown passes to the opposition (two) as he has to players dressed in the uniform as him. The man who runs the Super Bowl, and who has overcome even more headaches than the Dolphins currently face, is leaving the NFL office after the Pro Bowl game. As we've noted here in the past, replacing Steeg will be no small feat, and everyone in the league knows that. But Steeg has had the itch for the past few years to seek out something new at this point in his professional career and there is no bigger challenge right now than trying to straighten out the bumbling Dolphins franchise. A few years ago, Steeg was interested in interviewing for a position with the Falcons, but new owner Arthur Blank had already settled on Ray Anderson for the vice president job. We doubt that floating Steeg's name to people close to Blank was the only attempt made to land a high-profile team job. And we doubt, as well, that the Dolphins are the lone franchise interested in hiring Steeg, a remarkable administrator who has put out a lot of fires for the league. Steeg, who worked for the Dolphins in the '70s as their business manager, might not have the hands-on football experience some teams desire. But, hey, it was the hands-on football people who helped excavate the huge whole in which this proud franchise now resides. With current Dolphins team president Eddie Jones sounding more and more like he actually is going to carry through this time on the retirement that has been rumored for several years, owner Wayne Huizenga could do far worse than to hire Steeg as his replacement.

We've reiterated several times in this space that we don't believe the game passed Joe Gibbs by during his 11-season absence from the league. But anyone who watched the Washington Redskins' loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night might now want to agree with our other consistent premise: That just because owner Dan Snyder made a big splash in luring Gibbs from retirement didn't necessarily mean things were automatically going to go swimmingly in the coach's first year back. Gibbs made horrendous errors in judgment, game management, clock management and play-calling on Monday night. They were the kinds of untimely errors for which other coaches, say, Mike Martz, would be roasted by the media. To their credit, some members of the Washington media jumped off the bandwagon long enough this week to document the Gibbs Gaffes. Then again, there remain some blind loyalists now suggesting Gibbs might need another year or two to get his kind of players in place. Wait a minute. Wasn't the offensive line said to be a quintet that just needed the kind of guidance Joe Bugel could provide to finally reach full potential? Sure, we know the loss of right tackle Jon Jansen to an Achilles injury in preseason was a killer, but the rest of the unit hasn't performed well, either. And does anyone really believe that Snyder traded for quarterback Mark Brunell and for tailback Clinton Portis without having the Gibbs imprimatur on those deals? C'mon, he endorsed those trades, figured he could work with those players. But the coach's public support for Brunell aside, the veteran quarterback doesn't have a lot left, at least if Monday night was any indication. Brunell ended up with excellent numbers but they were exaggerated by a late-game comeback, and his arm strength, no matter what Gibbs claims, is lacking. One of the hallmarks of past Gibbs-designed offenses was a quarterback who could rifle the long ball, especially the deep "out" pattern, and Brunell can't do it. As for Portis, well, some of the preseason suggestions that he wasn't quite an optimum fit for the offense might have been accurate. Make no mistake, Portis is a marvelous runner, a slasher and dancer of the highest order. But if you take away the 64-yard touchdown run against Tampa Bay in the opener, the first time Portis touched the ball for the Redskins, he really hasn't done much. On his 71 carries since then, Portis, who entered the season with a career average of 5.5 yards per carry, is averaging a pedestrian 3.5 yards. He has just five rushes for 10 yards or more since that initial carry. More than one-third of his attempts in three games have netted one yard or less. Square peg in the round hole? Tough to tell, since the Washington offense hasn't created sufficient holes, square or round, for Portis. This looks like a slow, predictable offense so far, and offense is the side of the football that gets most of Gibbs' personal attention.

	Carson Palmer Quarterback Cincinnati Bengals Profile
	2004 SEASON STATISTICS Att Comp PaTD RuTD Int Rat 117 64 2 0 5 60.9

The Cincinnati offense has now gone 30 straight possessions without a touchdown, and quarterback Carson Palmer has been inconsistent, but Bengals coach Marvin Lewis isn't ready to reach for the panic button. Nor is he inclined to go to the bullpen and call for Jon Kitna, who led the team to an 8-8 record in 2003, and who is still quietly favored by some of the Cincinnati veterans. No doubt, Palmer hasn't played well yet, but the Bengals woes, as noted in the past, go way beyond him. Cincinnati hasn't run the ball well and the Bengals defense still hasn't stepped up against the run. Let's face it, Palmer is essentially a rookie quarterback, and all that clipboard monitoring he did during his 2003 rookie season isn't helping him on the field right now. It's always difficult to apply the learning side of the game to the performing element and that is particularly true at quarterback. On another Palmer-related note, at a time when some players around the league are losing big money because of injuries that will preclude them from reaching incentive levels (Kellen Winslow and Charles Rogers among them), the Bengals quarterback better hope he stays in the lineup. Should he be benched anytime soon, Palmer would probably fail to trigger some of the incentives and escalators in his contract and the deal might suddenly look a lot more ordinary than it currently does.

Speaking of the injured Winslow, now out for the rest of the season, he will forfeit at least $5.3675 million of his contract, since he won't trigger so-called "one-time" bonuses in his deal. Those bonuses stipulated that Winslow had to qualify in his rookie season in any one of 10 categories. If he failed to do so, the "one-time" bonus evaporated. There has been ample criticism of Winslow's agents, brothers Carl Poston and Kevin Poston, for including the "one-time" elements of the deal. Hey, we're never going to defend the Poston tag-team, not with the brothers' track record. But the "one-time" bonus clause, if not all that common, isn't exactly rare, either. Is it a gamble? No doubt. Because if a player is injured early on, as was Winslow, the money is gone. But 2003 first-rounders like linebacker Terrell Suggs of Baltimore and wide receiver Bryant Johnson of Arizona had the "one-time" components included in their deals and easily collected. Suggs earned $1.05 million extra and Johnson banked an additional $1.7 million just by reaching the minimum 35 percent playing time benchmarks.

While the subject is money lost, let's note that injured Oakland Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon, who some have suggested will never play again following the fractured vertebrae suffered last week, figures to be out $2.5 million now. Gannon rebuffed a lot of attempts in the offseason to reduce his scheduled $7 million base salary. Then, finally, the week before the regular-season opener, he reworked his deal, lowering his salary to $4.5 million. The restructured contract, however, allowed Gannon to earn back the difference of $2.5 million just by reaching modest performance standards. Unfortunately, his injury will almost certainly prevent Gannon from posting sufficient numbers to cash in. Then again, the bigger concern is Gannon's health and his future.

	Rex Grossman Quarterback Chicago Bears Profile
	2004 SEASON STATISTICS Att Comp PaTD RuTD Int Rat 84 47 1 1 3 67.9

The season-ending knee injury suffered by Rex Grossman last week might have been even more painful for the Chicago Bears brass than to the second-year quarterback. This was to have been a season that concluded with general manager Jerry Angelo being able to assess whether Grossman, a surprise first-round pick in 2002, qualified as the team's quarterback for the foreseeable future. Now, even assuming Grossman returns from his injury and opens 2005 as the starter, Chicago coaches and team officials won't be fully able to evaluate the former University of Florida star until December of '05. Just a personal opinion based on scant analysis, but it looked like Grossman was becoming a quarterback with whom the Bears could eventually win. He may not be the most talented guy, but coordinator Terry Shea appeared to have done a nice job with Grossman, a fiery and competitive leader.

No denying the loss of Grossman was a big setback in Chicago. But if you're looking for the most catastrophic loss from last week's injury-filled schedule, consider Philadelphia fullback Jon Ritchie. The seven-year veteran is a superb lead-blocker, excellent receiver, good blitz-pickup guy, and he will be missed. His absence might force the Eagles, who are usually a well-balanced team, to skew even more toward the pass now. Things are going well for coach Andy Reid and the Eagles but heaven help them if tailback Brian Westbrook goes down for any extended period. Also notable is that Ritchie and tailback Correll Buckhalter, both on injured reserve, are eligible for unrestricted free agency after this season.

Minnesota tailback Onterrio Smith, the Vikings' leading rusher, benefited from the league's typically backlogged grievance hearing calendar, but his good fortune is likely to run out next week. Smith faces a four-game suspension for a repeat violation of the NFL's substance abuse policy. But his appeal was delayed at the outset of the season and he got to play in the first three games, a boon for the Vikings, who were without injured starter Michael Bennett. In those three games, Smith rushed for 198 yards and posted a robust 421 yards from scrimmage overall. But the appeal is now scheduled to be heard next Wednesday and, based on the speed at which the process moves, Smith might be sanctioned by the time Minnesota, which has a bye this weekend, resumes play. The good news for Vikings coach Mike Tice is that Bennett practiced this week and appears ready to return to the field on Oct. 10.

	Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila Defensive End Green Bay Packers Profile
	2004 SEASON STATISTICS Tot Ast Solo FF Sack Int 6 4 2 0 0 0

Although he brought consistent outside pressure last week, Green Bay defensive end Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila has zero sacks through three games, and some are wondering if "KGB" is logging too many plays. Of a possible 182 snaps, Gbaja-Biamila has played 165 of them. Stats have hinted in the past that KGB's sack rate really has no correlation to the number of snaps he plays, but teams have been running right at him this year, and the veteran end hasn't been a very good anchor. Let's face it, the Packers are shelling out a lot of money for Gbaja-Biamila to rush the quarterback, not play the run, and right now, he is doing neither very well. Injuries on the defensive front have left the Packers short of manpower at times, but it might be imperative on the defensive coaches to give KGB a rest once in a while and, thus, to maximize his pass-rush opportunities.

Kudos to unsung Denver defensive coordinator Larry Coyer, who isn't very well known once you get east of the Rockies, for doing what some better known predecessors (like Ray Rhodes and Greg Robinson) couldn't do. Coyer has fashioned the Broncos unit into a very solid defense, one that currently leads the league in fewest yards allowed, and he has done so by combining young players with still-serviceable veterans. Coyer and line coach Jacob Burney are getting good play out of some guys many people felt were used up, like the venerable Marco Coleman, who had nine tackles last week. The Broncos currently have nine defensive linemen on the roster and tackle Ellis Johnson, recently acquired from Atlanta, is set to come off the exempt list. Of those 10 linemen, seven were added as free agents over the last two springs: ends Coleman, Raylee Johnson and Anton Palepoi and tackles Ellis Johnson, Luther Elliss, Mario Fatafehi and Darius Holland. There are just three home-grown linemen -- Trevor Pryce, Reggie Hayward and Monsanto Pope -- on the roster.

	Aaron Stecker Running Back New Orleans Saints Profile
	2004 SEASON STATISTICS Rush Yds TD Rec Yds TD 33 147 1 10 39 0

Even some New Orleans officials were (pleasantly) surprised by the performance of tailback Aaron Stecker last week while filling in for the injured Deuce McAllister. But give Saints officials plenty of credit for finally locating a viable backup tailback. Soon after the 2003 season concluded, Saints brass identified two pending free agents as priority players for them. The first was defensive tackle Brian Young, whom they wanted for his leadership and tenacity, but who is currently injured. The second was Stecker, a class act in the locker room, and a tailback who always seemed to produce in Tampa Bay when he was given a chance to play.

The league's trade deadline arrives Oct. 19 (just two weeks from next Tuesday for those of you not close to a calendar) and, while there has been plenty of dialogue, the swappin' won't be commensurate to the unusually high level of trading that took place during the offseason. Green Bay could move disgruntled corner Mike McKenzie to New Orleans, but the Packers won't significantly lower their trade demands. Tampa Bay is likely to sit on holdout wide receiver Keenan McCardell. And it seems that no one really wants Larry Johnson, the Chiefs' first-round pick just a year ago, and a tailback that Kansas City would love to dump. One problem for the Kansas City brass, which has been trying hard to deal Johnson for nearly two weeks now, is that he isn't a West Coast-style tailback, so that eliminates roughly a dozen teams from being interested in him. And since Johnson never plays -- he hasn't dressed for 13 of a possible 19 games and his résumé includes only 20 rushes -- there just isn't sufficient body of work with which to evaluate him.

It doesn't have nearly the significance of the trade deadline, but another date of some import passed this week. Now that the league is through Week 3 of the schedule, the waiver claims system is based on a team's record for the current season, and not how the teams finished in 2003. If there are multiple waiver claims on a player now, he is awarded to the club with the poorest 2004 record. Until this past Tuesday, he would have gone to the team with the worst record last year.

Punts: There are 28 players in the league who individually have more rushing yards than the Miami Dolphins have (142) as a team. … Looking for a young player who has been noted as unmotivated in the past but who is having a monster year so far? Take a gander at Tennessee defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, a former first-rounder often criticized in the past for lack of effort, but who had 13 tackles last week. … The Bengals had just three players on injured reserve for all of 2003 and were the last team in the league a year ago to place a guy on the IR list. This year, Cincy has placed 11 players, most recently starting middle linebacker Nate Webster, on injured reserve. … The Bengals, by the way, travel to 2-1 Pittsburgh on Sunday, toting 41 consecutive road losses to opponents with a winning record. … Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden is 1-7 versus Denver's Mike Shanahan. .… San Diego cornerback Sammy Davis is struggling and the former first-rounder could be in jeopardy of losing his starting job. … The Eagles have scored on 16 of 33 offensive possessions in three games. Through the first three contests of 2003, they had scored on just seven of 36 offensive series. … Indianapolis left offensive tackle Tarik Glenn, called for just one holding penalty the entire 2003 season, was flagged three times last Sunday. … For the first time since his rookie season, New York Jets tight end Anthony Becht, a former first-rounder, has gone consecutive games without a catch. It is unlikely that Becht, an unrestricted free agent next spring, will return in 2005. … The Cleveland Browns have scored zero first-quarter points this season. …The Raiders, who play at Houston on Sunday, have lost 11 straight games away from home.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com. To check out Len's chat archive, click here .