Carnell Tate Camp Update — August 31: Zero Catches on Six Preseason Targets
2026 NFL Season · Monday, Aug 31
Carnell Tate had his best day of camp in Thursday's joint practice — seven catches and two touchdowns by Jim Wyatt's count — and two days later closed the preseason without a catch on six targets across three games. Sunday's cutdown kept him in a six-man receiver room, which was never in doubt.
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Carnell Tate had his best day of camp in Thursday's joint practice against the Bears: seven receptions and two touchdowns, repeatedly targeted by Cam Ward, per Jim Wyatt at the team's website. Two days later, Wyatt wrote the other column himself — Tate finished the preseason without a catch on six targets across three games. He played the opening series of Saturday's finale, drew one deep target, and the zero held, per Wyatt. Those are practice hand counts on one side and game charting on the other, and this week they pointed in opposite directions.
That reframes the arc. Our August 20-third episode read Tate as a rookie cooled by the external tests, and the game column says the cooling continued — Ward and Tate still have not connected in live action, the answer to the question we left open before the Seattle game, and his first NFL catch is still ahead of him. But a seven-catch, two-touchdown day against another team's defense is not what a slump looks like. Whatever this is, it lives in the game column only.
The other question we left open resolved quietly: the stiffness that cost him a practice in mid-August produced nothing further. He practiced Thursday, played Saturday, and no injury item touched him all week. Sunday's cutdown then confirmed what a fourth overall pick's status always was — he is in the six-receiver room alongside Calvin Ridley, Wan'Dale Robinson, Chimere Dike, Elic Ayomanor and Xavier Restrepo, per Wyatt, while K.J. Osborn was released, per Adam Schefter at ESPN, Bryce Oliver was waived in a move the beat flagged as a surprise, per Paul Kuharsky at his site, and Mason Kinsey was waived after six years with the organization, per Austin Stanley and Easton Freeze at A to Z Sports. Chimere Dike caught four passes with two touchdowns in that same Thursday practice, per Wyatt — the targets Tate is working to convert have other claimants.
Back in June we previewed Tate with a deliberate refusal — draft capital plus camp buzz does not predict rookie production at a standard we would cite — and named two checkable things: the role, and where targets flow. The role survived every test including cut day. The conversion has not started. That preview needs no revision; it needs a regular season. We'll pick this up as Week One comes into focus.
_Data via nflverse._
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