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2019 NFL Draft - Wide Receivers & Tight Ends


Forge

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On 1/2/2019 at 6:34 PM, Ozzy said:

I agree, I like him as well.  He seems to have a big time burst for a man his size, will see how he times.  Is crazy skinny which is not great and tailed off a little as the season ended, but he has a huge wingspan and I love how he presses downfield and makes big plays.  Hard to matchup with and has really came out of nowhere, is an interesting player for sure.  

He didn’t fade at all, his QB went out and the entire offense fell apart. 

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1 minute ago, Forge said:

The one two years ago was thought to be pretty good at this time. You think it's stronger?

You talking about 2017 I'm assuming?  Maybe it's a bit of "Shiny New Toy" syndrome, but the 2017 class was good, but not great.  OJ Howard was by far the best TE prospect, and David Njoku had enough physical tools that left you wondering.  But beyond that, there wasn't a whole heck of a lot.  It had a few H-Back types (Bucky Hodges, Jordan Leggett, Gerald Everett, etc.), and a few guys you thought could turn out to be solid starters (George Kittle and Jeremy Sprinkle).  I think we could legitimately see 4-5 TEs go in the top 64.

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3 minutes ago, CWood21 said:

You talking about 2017 I'm assuming?  Maybe it's a bit of "Shiny New Toy" syndrome, but the 2017 class was good, but not great.  OJ Howard was by far the best TE prospect, and David Njoku had enough physical tools that left you wondering.  But beyond that, there wasn't a whole heck of a lot.  It had a few H-Back types (Bucky Hodges, Jordan Leggett, Gerald Everett, etc.), and a few guys you thought could turn out to be solid starters (George Kittle and Jeremy Sprinkle).  I think we could legitimately see 4-5 TEs go in the top 64.

Yeah, 2017. At this time of that year, I remember people considering Hodges / Leggett  / Butte as potential 2nd rounders. Njoku / Howard / Engram all looked like first or early second rounders. Kittle's bump didn't come until the combine, obviously, but once that happened, he was viewed as that early Day 3 - Late day 2 (bottom of the third) type sleeper. Obviously, didn't end up like that, but I just remember people being completely infatuated by the depth of that class. 

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5 minutes ago, Forge said:

Yeah, 2017. At this time of that year, I remember people considering Hodges / Leggett  / Butte as potential 2nd rounders. Njoku / Howard / Engram all looked like first or early second rounders. Kittle's bump didn't come until the combine, obviously, but once that happened, he was viewed as that early Day 3 - Late day 2 (bottom of the third) type sleeper. Obviously, didn't end up like that, but I just remember people being completely infatuated by the depth of that class. 

Jake Butt tearing his ACL late in the year definitely put a damper on his prospect status.  But Bucky Hodges was always that WR/TE tweener (not quite like Evan Engram), and Leggett was just a guy who most thought would be a better pro than college player, but never really had anything really going for him.  The '17 class might be a bit more top heavy, but the '19 class is deeper and stronger overall IMO.  And I think there were quite a few who thought Kittle would be a solid starter, but I don't think many thought he'd be as good as he has been for San Francisco.

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On 1/8/2019 at 6:35 AM, SmittyBacall said:

How good is this TE class?

Got a lot of good value in Sternberger, Smith(AL), Okwuegbunam,Wilson,Smith(Stanford), Mack,etc.

 

I can speak for the Hawkeyes

 

Fant- Athlete. He should jump off the page at combine. Will run fast, do well in drills, have a ridiculous vertical. Limited in who can select him though. He plays more like a TE/WR hybrid. Not greatest blocker. Depends who grabs him. If you expect him to be an inline TE, not for you. If you run him out wide and goes to a team that utilizes their TEs in the pass offense, sky's the limit. 

 

Hockenson- Has not officially declared but I'd be shocked if we don't hear by Friday he is declaring. Swiss Army Knife TE and quite good at near everything. Elite blocker, Good route runner. Won't stand out like Fant- will at combine but will put out better than expected in terms of 40 and vertical. Deceptively athletic. Good team guy. Absolute room ready plug in and play guy. Big fan of him. I've seen comparisons of Witten. Iowa develops TEs and he's one of the better ones to leave IA

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Just now, Hawkeyejam said:

Got a lot of good value in Sternberger, Smith(AL), Okwuegbunam,Wilson,Smith(Stanford), Mack,etc.

 

I can speak for the Hawkeyes

 

Fant- Athlete. He should jump off the page at combine. Will run fast, do well in drills, have a ridiculous vertical. Limited in who can select him though. He plays more like a TE/WR hybrid. Not greatest blocker. Depends who grabs him. If you expect him to be an inline TE, not for you. If you run him out wide and goes to a team that utilizes their TEs in the pass offense, sky's the limit. 

 

Hockenson- Has not officially declared but I'd be shocked if we don't hear by Friday he is declaring. Swiss Army Knife TE and quite good at near everything. Elite blocker, Good route runner. Won't stand out like Fant- will at combine but will put out better than expected in terms of 40 and vertical. Deceptively athletic. Good team guy. Absolute room ready plug in and play guy. Big fan of him. I've seen comparisons of Witten. Iowa develops TEs and he's one of the better ones to leave IA

Are the Hawkeyes going to actually speak well of their tight ends this time to NFL scouts? ;)

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2 minutes ago, Hawkeyejam said:

Can I ask what you actually heard the scout say about Kittle?

Here were the quotes that given from scouts that were assigned to evaluate him in college in an Athletic article earlier this year. 

Quote

“He didn’t fall, he was over-drafted. Just an average player at Iowa, and they (the coaches) crushed his football character at the school,” said a scout who was assigned to study him.

and this one

Quote

“I was way too low on him,” said another NFL executive who did a scouting visit at Iowa. “But Iowa didn’t exactly sell him as a legit dude.”

 

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1 hour ago, Forge said:

Here were the quotes that given from scouts that were assigned to evaluate him in college in an Athletic article earlier this year. 

and this one

 

 

That's so strange to me. I thought he was going to be a superstar. Loved his blocking -- he was clearly the most tenacious blocker in the draft -- and then when he blew up the Combine I thought he might go 2nd / 3rd. Shocked he fell, surprised Iowa didn't give him a good review, but not at all surprised that he's exploded in the NFL. 

Hockenson reminds me a little of Gronk. What do they feed those TEs over there?

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3 hours ago, Forge said:

Here were the quotes that given from scouts that were assigned to evaluate him in college in an Athletic article earlier this year. 

and this one

 

Well the first "quote" is a scouts opinion and the 2nd one wasn't trash talk. 

Kittle was an average TE at Iowa. We knew he had some crazy athleticism but his production didn't match what he was capable of. He did have some nagging injuries and was a good player for Iowa. I don't Iowa dogged him though. He still has a real good relationship with them from what I'm told.

 

As for the "crush his character opinion" I believe it to some extent. Iowa is very meat and potatoes. They have rules against players being on Twitter and Instagram while on the team. Kittle is an eccentric guy and Iowa had been burned by a few earlier.  I think Pat Angerer was on the Pat McAfee show last year and actually had a talk with Kittle when he was Iowa to focus and make the best of his opportunities. Seems like he did just that. 

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