Agent's Take: Why NFL tight ends have been left behind by contract boom, plus 3 stars who could reset market
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- George Kittle currently tops the tight end market at $19.1 million per year on a four-year, $76.4 million extension signed with the 49ers in April 2025, with $22.4 million in his 2029 contract year when he will be 36.
- Trey McBride signed a four-year, $76 million extension averaging $19 million per year with the Cardinals roughly a month before Kittle's deal, and his $43 million in overall guarantees is the most ever for a tight end.
- Kyle Pitts landed just third on the TE pay scale at $17,666,667 per year via a three-year, $53 million Falcons deal in June despite a 2025 season featuring a career-high 88 receptions, nearly 1,000 receiving yards, and a second-team All-Pro nod, though his $36 million fully guaranteed at signing set a new tight end record.
- The blocking tight end market surged 35.48% in 2026 alone, with Darnell Washington's four-year, $42 million Steelers extension making him the first blocking TE to reach $10 million per year and Charlie Kolar's Chargers deal the first above $8 million.
- Tucker Kraft's agent Jack Bechta has been in discussions with the Packers since training camp opened in late July, with the Packers likely viewing a deal in Pitts' territory while Bechta — who also represents Kittle — may push for $22.75 million per year using Kittle's 2020 deal adjusted for cap inflation.
- Sam LaPorta is also in a contract year and repped by Bechta, and the Lions' pattern of waiting (Aidan Hutchinson's extension came at the end of October) could push negotiations into the season as they monitor his recovery from herniated-disc surgery.
- Brock Bowers becomes eligible for an extension as soon as the 2026 regular season ends January 10, and his camp could attempt to leverage Tyler Linderbaum's 50% center-market reset to argue for a deal above $30 million per year.
Why it matters: Three agents and three teams — Kraft, LaPorta, and eventually Bowers — now hold the keys to whether tight ends ever catch up to the QB/WR/RB/OL pay boom, and any one of them resetting the market would immediately re-price every other pass-catching tight end extension on NFL books given the 52% cap growth since 2020.
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