The Buzz Surrounding Cade Otton In 2025

Let’s put the spotlight on Bucs tight end Cade Otton.

With the 2024 season firmly in the rearview mirror and the pre-draft process, free agency, the draft itself, OTAs and mini-camp also behind us, it’s time to ramp up the excitement for training camp and then, of course, the Bucs’ 50th season. As we did last summer, we’ll spend the weeks leading up to training camp focusing on some storylines and narratives surrounding some of Tampa Bay’s biggest stars in 2025.

We started with quarterback Baker Mayfield, then went on to the backfield duo of Bucky Irving and Rachaad White before moving on to the wide receiver trio of Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Jalen McMillan. Today, we keep things going with fourth-year tight end Cade Otton.

Will Cade Otton Continue To Dominate Snap Share At Tight End?

Until a knee injury cost him the final three games of the 2024 regular season, Cade Otton had become something of an iron man for the Bucs offense. While he only played 66% of snaps as a rookie in 2022, his 803 snaps were considerably more than the next tight end’s, as Cameron Brate finished with 355.

Otton’s iron man status really took off in 2023, as he started all 17 games and played 1,064 snaps, which was 96.5% of Tampa Bay’s offensive snaps. The next-closest tight end in 2023 was Ko Kieft, who played just 207 snaps, or 18.8%. And over the first 14 games of 2024, Otton played 856 snaps.

Week in and week out, he was outsnapping Payne Durham by a significant margin, and even though he missed the final three games with that knee injury, the 2022 fourth-round pick led the way in tight end snaps with those 856. Durham finished with 430, while Kieft played 104 and rookie Devin Culp ended up with 41, the majority of which came late in the season.

So, will Otton continue to dominate the snap share at tight end in 2025? It’s likely that he will, right? Former offensive coordinator Liam Coen didn’t use a lot of 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends) in 2024, and new coordinator Josh Grizzard seems likely to follow suit.

With so many talented receivers up and down the depth chart, Grizzard is likely to make heavy use of 11 personnel (one back, one tight end, three receivers), and he could certainly deploy the 21 personnel or “Pony” package that became a fan favorite under Coen in 2024, as that allowed both Bucky Irving and Rachaad White to see the field at the same time.

Without going too heavy on 12 personnel, there will typically only be one tight end on the field at a time. That will usually be Otton, but might Grizzard want to find a way to carve out a role for Culp, whose speed can create mismatches and more opportunity for explosive plays? The 2024 seventh-round pick out of Washington made some waves late last season when Otton was out, catching five of his six targets of 88 yards (17.6 avg.). Durham played well down the stretch and looked much improved all around last year, too.

Does that mean Culp or Durham will supplant Otton as the top tight end in the Bucs offense this year? No, of course not. Otton became far more of a complete tight end last year, and that’s why he’ll continue to get the bulk of the snaps at the position this year. But might that snap share become a little less lopsided? That could be the case. With so many weapons at receiver and in the backfield, how Grizzard chooses to use his tight ends is perhaps an overlooked storyline heading into 2025.

Can Cade Otton Be A Consistent Factor In The Bucs Offense?

With the strong finishes to the year for both Mike Evans and Jalen McMillan as well as the flashes shown by young tight ends Payne Durham and Devin Culp, the job Cade Otton did during a tough midseason stretch for the Bucs wasn’t talked about nearly enough when it came time to reflect on the season as a whole.

The season ended on a down note for No. 88, but he did have his best year as a pro in 2024. He finished the season with 59 catches for 600 yards and four touchdowns. The four touchdowns tied a career high, but his 59 catches and 600 yards crushed his previous career highs of 47 and 455, respectively. He also set new highs for targets with 87, and his 10.2 yards per catch average was also the best of his career.

The overall body of work for Otton was impressive, but what was even more impressive was the role he took on during the part of the season in which the Bucs were without Evans and Chris Godwin and McMillan had yet to really emerge. Otton became Baker Mayfield’s go-to guy during that stretch, which saw him record a 100-yard game against the Ravens before catching a single-game career-best nine passes for 81 yards and two touchdowns the following week against the Falcons.

The following week at Kansas City, he caught another eight passes for 77 yards and a touchdown. Without Evans and Godwin leading the way, it was Otton who drove the Bucs passing game.

Now (knock on wood), new offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard won’t have to ask Otton to play that kind of role on a consistent basis given the offense’s setup with Evans, Godwin, McMillan and now Emeka Egbuka, but might the 26-year-old tight end still manage to be more of a consistent factor in the Tampa Bay passing attack this year?

If the answer to that question is yes, the Bucs may be more dangerous than ever before. Think back to 2020 when Tom Brady was operating an offense with Evans, Godwin, Antonio Brown and a healthy and reliable Rob Gronkowski. That group was dangerous, and it had the kind of multi-faceted attack that defenses simply couldn’t match up with. Given the talent at wide receiver and running back heading into 2025, a consistently productive Otton could complete one of the most prolific offenses in the league.

What Does The Future Hold For Cade Otton Beyond 2025?

Will this be Cade Otton’s last year as a Buc, or will a multi-year contract extension come his way before his rookie contract expires and he becomes a free agent next March?

It’s a fascinating sublot to follow with the Bucs this year, as Otton has been a steady-but-largely-unspectacular player over the first three seasons of his career. He was a fourth-round pick out of Washington in 2022, and he has certainly been another Day 3 success story for general manager Jason Licht given that he’s been a consistent starter for the team for three-going-on-four years.

But is there more that he has to prove in 2025 in order for the Bucs to re-up on him heading into 2026 and beyond? Or is a new deal only a matter of time for Tampa Bay’s TE1?

Over three regular seasons thus far, Otton has played in 47 out of a possible 51 games with 42 starts. He has 148 catches on 219 targets for 1,446 yards (9.8 avg.) and 10 touchdowns. He was more of a chain mover than ever before in 2024, with 31 of his 59 catches going for first downs. That was after he totaled 22 first downs in 2023 and 19 as a rookie in 2022. The problems for Otton have been drops (11 over the last two years) and ball security (three fumbles over the last two years), but he has still seen his stock rise.

Otton’s playoff production has been pretty solid, too, as he caught four passes (all of which went for first downs) for 58 yards (14.5 avg.) in his playoff debut three years ago before posting 13 catches for 154 yards and a touchdown over two postseason games in his second season. After returning from his knee injury to play in last season’s Wild Card game, he caught two passes (both for first downs) for 32 yards (16.0 avg.).

Will Tampa Bay reward Otton with a second contract when his rookie deal expires, or will the team look to see if it can find an upgrade next offseason? It’s a harsh but fair question to ask, right? Otton is reliable, but might the team look to find an electric, playmaking type of tight end to build around going forward, especially with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin getting up there in age and the need to solidify a new core of pass-catchers coming in the near future?

Licht and the Bucs have shown a preference for rewarding their own in recent years, so the money may be on them doing so again with Otton, as well as a couple of other members of the 2022 draft class in Luke Goedeke and Zyon McCollum. But until we see it, there will remain an air of uncertainty over Otton’s future in Tampa Bay.