NFL · 11 hours ago

Ten Years Later, Robert Tonyan Is Still Making the NFL’s First Evaluation Look Foolish

Bo Marchionte

Host · Writer

Ten Years Later, Robert Tonyan Is Still Making the NFL’s First Evaluation Look Foolish

Maybe all 32 NFL personnel departments got Robert Tonyan wrong.

That was 2017.

Tonyan was an Indiana State receiver masquerading as an NFL tight end prospect, went undrafted and entered a league that wasn’t exactly waiting around for him.

Ten seasons later, he’s still here.

He extends his hand for a handshake.

Such a simple act of kindness and you know this isn’t going to be one of those interviews that require a crowbar.

Tonyan has been around too long for that.

He’s 32 now, playing a position he didn’t play when he arrived at Indiana State and occupying a spot on Pittsburgh’s 53-man roster that was hardly guaranteed when training camp began.

Three Tight Ends Made It

Pat Freiermuth.

Darnell Washington.

And the old undrafted receiver who apparently forgot to disappear.

“I came here for a reason,” Tonyan said. “I came here to help out the system, help out the culture, help out the young guys.”

Then he delivered the line almost matter-of-factly.

“We have two great tight ends, and I think I’m the third.”

No victory lap. No speech about proving everybody wrong.

Tonyan sounded remarkably uninterested in making the roster seem more dramatic than it was.

“I just came here, put my head down, worked,” he said. “Like I said, I’m in year 10. I’m still asking questions, still trying to get better, still being a sponge, still learning.”

That might be the most interesting part of Tonyan’s story.

Questions. Learning. Work.

Year 10 still sounds like Year 1.

And Pittsburgh isn’t some random landing spot at the end of a long NFL itinerary, either.

There’s history here.

Mike McCarthy was Green Bay’s head coach when Tonyan was trying to turn himself from a college receiver into an NFL tight end. McCarthy had Jimmy Graham, Lance Kendricks and Marcedes Lewis in that room.

He kept Tonyan anyway.

Tonyan remembers that.

“Mike trusted in me,” he said. “I was a quarterback-receiver from Indiana State, and he trusted me to go out there and be the fourth tight end behind Jimmy Graham, Lance Kendricks and Marcedes Lewis, putting me on the roster as a young guy.”

Nine years later, McCarthy’s assessment has become considerably shorter.

“Hell of a player.”

Sometimes three words carry the entire file.

There Is Another Familiar Face Involved, Too

Aaron Rodgers.

Tonyan played six seasons with Rodgers, catching 137 passes for 1,437 yards and 17 touchdowns during their time together in Green Bay. His breakout came in 2020, when Tonyan caught 52 passes and tied Travis Kelce for the NFL lead among tight ends with 11 touchdown receptions.

The quarterback who threw those footballs is now standing in the same Pittsburgh building.

Tonyan doesn’t treat that history as nostalgia. He treats it like part of his football education.

“I credit those two guys for having me early on in my career,” Tonyan said of McCarthy and Rodgers, “just getting me on the right mindset and right avenue to where I wanted to go.”

And where he wanted to go wasn’t necessarily obvious in 2017.

Tonyan had already begun changing positions during the draft process. At 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds, the body suggested tight end. His football resume didn’t.

But the league itself was changing.

Travis Kelce was emerging. Big bodies who could move, detach from the formation and function more like oversized receivers were becoming increasingly valuable.

Tonyan saw the door cracking open.

“So that big, moving, receiving guy was just becoming a big hit,” Tonyan said. “People were trying to kind of get on board with that.”

He got on board.

Then stayed aboard for a decade.

Detroit. Green Bay. Chicago. Minnesota. Kansas City.

Now Pittsburgh.

That’s a hell of a journey for somebody the NFL Draft once collectively decided it could live without.

Tonyan doesn’t seem particularly interested in correcting the record.

He already did.

“I knew once I got out on the field and started making plays, that speaks for itself,” Tonyan said. “I knew the rest would take care of itself.”

Ten years later, it still is.