Gunnar Helm

Rookie TE year: 44 catches, 357 yards — and the highest catch rate in the entire 2025 rookie TE class.

Helm's rookie season: 44 receptions on 55 targets for 357 yards and 2 TDs across 16 games. The defining number is 80.0% catch rate — best among all 2025 rookie TEs with meaningful volume.

For comparison: Tyler Warren (67.9%), Harold Fannin Jr. (67.3%), Colston Loveland (70.7%). Helm was +9 points ahead of the class average in catch rate on a 4th-round rookie contract. That's not a TE learning the pro game — that's a TE already playing it.

Week 12 vs Seattle: 7 targets, 6 catches, 51 yards — Helm's best yardage game as a rookie.

Week 12 vs Seattle was Helm's best yardage performance: 7 targets, 6 catches, 51 yards on an 18.4% target share — his largest single-game workload.

Week 15 vs San Francisco followed up with 4-for-4 for 49 yards and a TD (his second score of the year — he had first grabbed one in Week 8 vs Indianapolis). Two of his five-best yardage games came in a four-week stretch.

80.0% catch rate, 5.5-yard aDOT — Helm's role was short, safe, and effective.

Helm's efficiency numbers define a possession-tier TE role: 44-of-55 receptions (80.0%) on just 303 receiving air yards — average depth of target of 5.5 yards.

For context: the average TE aDOT in the NFL runs 8–10 yards. Helm's 5.5 places him firmly in check-down / underneath territory. Tennessee used him as a chain-mover, not a seam-stretcher — and his 80.0% catch rate ranks 5th among all qualifying 2025 TEs (min 40 targets), sandwiched between Jake Ferguson (80.4%) and Dalton Schultz (77.4%).

That efficiency on 55 targets is sustainable — it's not inflated by a handful of garbage-time catches.

Among 2025 rookie TEs: Helm leads the class with an 80.0% catch rate — on the fewest targets of the top 5.

In raw receptions, Helm is 5th in the 2025 rookie TE class — Tyler Warren (76), Harold Fannin Jr. (72), and Colston Loveland (58) were targeted far more heavily.

But in catch rate, Helm leads every rookie TE with meaningful volume: 80.0%, versus 70.7% for Loveland and 67.9% for Warren. He did more with fewer chances. Year 2 storyline: what happens when he gets Warren-level volume?

For context: Bowers had 112 rookie catches in 2024. Helm's 44 is 5th — but his second-half target share tells a different story.

Bowers reset the rookie TE benchmark in 2024 with 112 catches for 1,194 yards. Helm's 44/357/2 is a different tier — he ranked 5th in the 2025 rookie TE class in receptions.

What the raw rank misses: Helm's average target share was 8.7% in the first half of the season (Weeks 1–9) and 13.1% in the second half (Weeks 10–17). The Titans increased his role as the season matured. For a 4th-round rookie TE, that in-season trajectory is what separates a developing option from a redshirt.

Bowers was a clear-cut Week 1 starter. Helm earned his role by midseason — a meaningful distinction.