Official 2020 TE Thread

[Scoundrel]

7 minutes ago, HoboRocket said:

I disagree. It just doesn't have any top-tier prospects like 2017 and 2019 did. But I'd take this class over 2018 any day of the week. 

 

No. I don't know if ANY of us see it with him. He has a nice body and played for a big program. On the field, he's JAG for me. MAYBE better than that. He has upside, but honestly, if I'm taking a prospect with upside, I'm targeting someone from a less-storied program, because raw guys from big programs don't seem to develop in the NFL the same way small school guys do (probably because they've already had quality coaching, training, and development at big schools). 

That said, he's not a BAD prospect. He gives decent effort as a blocker and could be a decent receiver in the middle of the field. I'd be very happy if my team got him in round 4, and I wouldn't complain if he were a 3rd-round pick. 

There's a decent amount of prospects that I like starting in round 2. Here are my tiers for the class so far:

Round-2 Guys That Could Secretly Be Top-10 TEs

Harrison Bryant

Adam Trautman

Round-3 Guys That Could Be Good Starters or Excellent Niche Guys

Cole Kmet

Brycen Hopkins

Albert Okwuegbunam

Hunter Bryant

Jacob Breeland

Round-4 Guys That Have Shown Me Enough To Be Intrigued, But Either Sucked in Workouts And Had Suppressed Stats As A Senior Or Were Named Dalton Keene

One-Hit Wonder Jared Pinkney

Dalton Keene

Dalton is going to be good trying to tell y’all.

Sell me on Harrison. I wanted to like him, I liked the tape but his athletic ability and small size I don’t know. 

[SteelKing728]

Moss will dominate just like his dad!

[goldfishwars]

45 minutes ago, HoboRocket said:

There's a decent amount of prospects that I like starting in round 2. Here are my tiers for the class so far:

Round-2 Guys That Could Secretly Be Top-10 TEs

Harrison Bryant

Adam Trautman

Round-3 Guys That Could Be Good Starters or Excellent Niche Guys

Cole Kmet

Brycen Hopkins

Albert Okwuegbunam

Hunter Bryant

Jacob Breeland

Round-4 Guys That Have Shown Me Enough To Be Intrigued, But Either Sucked in Workouts And Had Suppressed Stats As A Senior Or Were Named Dalton Keene

One-Hit Wonder Jared Pinkney

Dalton Keene

Thoughts added, bearing in mind Tight End has proven to be the one position with the steepest learning curve for players coming out. Very few prospects come out and hit the ground running. Man even the Iowa guys last year, who were both touted as can’t miss prospects had a quiet first season.

Harrison Bryant - Tiny school + bad athlete = not a good combination

Adam Trautman - Tiny school, decent blocker – of all the tight ends I’m most intrigued by him, but yeah tiny school usually equals a steeper learning curve so you might be looking at year three before he contributes. 

Cole Kmet - So meh, such a meh prospect. He was never a feature of that Notre Dame offense and he can't block despite being huge. 

Brycen Hopkins - decent athlete, poor hands, absolutely smothered when pressed on tape 

Albert Okwuegbunam - Unbelievably raw, I don’t care that this guy runs fast – he literally doesn’t know what he’s doing on a football field

Hunter Bryant - Undersized, main selling point was supposed to be his athleticism and let’s just say he completely underwhelmed 

Jacob Breeland - Meh, eh, meh, uh, hmmmm

Dalton Keene - Have not seen this guy yet, perhaps he’s the great hope of the class. 

Jared Pinkney - Terrible athlete, average tape, couldn’t do anything at the Senior Bowl and just has nothing of anything to contribute to the NFL whatsoever 

For those who like Thadeus Moss for his in-line blocking, he’s under 6’2 and under 250 pounds. There’s just not many guys who succeed in that role at that size and he’s got very little else to offer. Probably will need to make it via the special teams route. 
 

[jebrick]

1 hour ago, goldfishwars said:

Yeah I've come to the conclusion that this class is trash. 

Welcome to the club

[Scoundrel]

2 minutes ago, goldfishwars said:

Thoughts added, bearing in mind Tight End has proven to be the one position with the steepest learning curve for players coming out. Very few prospects come out and hit the ground running. Man even the Iowa guys last year, who were both touted as can’t miss prospects had a quiet first season.

Harrison Bryant - Tiny school + bad athlete = not a good combination

Adam Trautman - Tiny school, decent blocker – of all the tight ends I’m most intrigued by him, but yeah tiny school usually equals a steeper learning curve so you might be looking at year three before he contributes. 

Cole Kmet - So meh, such a meh prospect. He was never a feature of that Notre Dame offense and he can't block despite being huge. 

Brycen Hopkins - decent athlete, poor hands, absolutely smothered when pressed on tape 

Albert Okwuegbunam - Unbelievably raw, I don’t care that this guy runs fast – he literally doesn’t know what he’s doing on a football field

Hunter Bryant - Undersized, main selling point was supposed to be his athleticism and let’s just say he completely underwhelmed 

Jacob Breeland - Meh, eh, meh, uh, hmmmm

Dalton Keene - Have not seen this guy yet, perhaps he’s the great hope of the class. 

Jared Pinkney - Terrible athlete, average tape, couldn’t do anything at the Senior Bowl and just has nothing of anything to contribute to the NFL whatsoever 

For those who like Thadeus Moss for his in-line blocking, he’s under 6’2 and under 250 pounds. There’s just not many guys who succeed in that role at that size and he’s got very little else to offer. Probably will need to make it via the special teams route. 
 

Dalton is king

[jebrick]

26 minutes ago, SteelKing728 said:

Moss will dominate just like his dad!

good try.  Thad is a good blocker just not showing enough athletic ability to be more than a TE#2

[HoboRocket]

28 minutes ago, Counselor said:

Dalton is going to be good trying to tell y’all.

Sell me on Harrison. I wanted to like him, I liked the tape but his athletic ability and small size I don’t know. 

I'm not worried about his size at all. If you like him, you go based off of his tape and what he demonstrated in Pre-Draft workouts, not his measurables.

He abused people in the run game and in pass pro at the Senior Bowl, and reportedly did the same in practices. He did that a lot at FAU, but there were concerns about the level of competition.

As far as his receiving ability goes, he's one of the most natural receivers in this class, regardless of position. He CONSTANTLY finds soft spots in the zone and tempos his routes excellently through zone coverage with almost a sixth sense of where defenders are in their drops or if they're breaking on him, even if they're behind him. His contact balance is excellent. He repeatedly doesn't get knocked down by contact, even when players come flying in and smash into him, and he forces defenders to drag him down every time he has the ball. He's excellent at tracking the ball, and has an uncanny level of awareness where it's almost like he can see the future. I guess the closest player I can compare that to is like with Cooper Kupp where it's almost like he knows exactly what Goff is doing, where the other receivers are, and where Goff is going with the football before he throws it. This enables guys like Bryant and Kupp to be in position when the play breaks down, when other players fumble, or if a pass deflects off of someone's hands (I'm thinking of Kupp's legendary touchdown in like his first game where the ball bounced off of Woods' hands at the goal-line and Kupp made a sliding catch off the deflection for the TD. Also, Bryant doesn't get bothered by hands-y DBs. There are numerous times on his tape where he's getting interfered with and still makes the catch, almost as if the DB isn't there in the first place. I think this happened against Southern Miss, but on one play he was in the flat in the red-zone and a linebacker came HURTLING in to hit him before the ball even reached him... The dude bounced off and ended up needing to leave the game because he injured his shoulder. By the way, Bryant caught the ball and took it in for a TD. There was also this play, don't remember EXACTLY who it was against, maybe Marshall, but it reminded me of that Adrian Peterson run in the 2008 season where he dragged like six guys twenty yards, or the Gronk TD in 2014 that was basically the same thing. Harrison Bryant dragged like six defenders like ten yards and eventually there were like nine defenders who dragged him down. I don't care if these are small school guys with bad instincts and tackling problems, or smaller frames, or whatever. I don't care about Combine measurables. It takes INSANE lower body strength and excellent balance to take that many hits and continue dragging people. And it's not just that freak play. Bryant drags people and powers through contact all the time. It's all over his film. He has very soft hands and, like I said, he's a pro at tracking the ball. He's also not afraid of getting beaten up while making the catch. His RAC skills are really among the best in the class, and he really makes you work to get him down. He's fast enough to create separation. His hips are very fluid, as he pivots very well and fools safeties on his route with his ability to whip them around. He's not really a side-stepper with how he moves, he doesn't juke people out of their socks, and he's always running straight. That could play into his lack of an impressive 3-cone because he doesn't really side-step or move that way. However, he can change the way that he's facing so quickly that I don't really think it matters. It's hard to explain, but yeah, he has very fluid hips, and he knows how to make sure that he's always running straight while still changing direction. 

So let's talk about his body and get that out of the way. He's 6'5", and in the 240s, so while he's thin, he certainly has room for growth. He has t-rex arms at 30 inches, which were the shortest measured among TEs at the Combine. However, he hasn't been caught reaching very often in the blocking game thanks to constantly-moving feet, and in the passing game length has hardly been an issue, because he is constantly making a play on the ball and beating defenders to it, and he is great at boxing people out and keeping his large frame in the way. As far as his track speed in shorts goes, it's good, but not elite. He didn't look like someone who was natural coming out of the start for his 40, but that's entirely understandable with his frame and lack of track experience. This guy is a pure football player. He doesn't really lose any speed in pads. His 3-cone wasn't very good, but it's fair to point out that he looked INCREDIBLY SMOOOOOTH once the football drills started. His gauntlet was probably the best at the Combine. He tracked the football very quickly and made catches outside his frame. He also was like the best performer in the blocking sled drills, with a real noticeable pop and great timing overall with how quickly he moved that sled. That feeds into the reports that he was the most impressive TE in the blocking game at the Senior Bowl.

 

[Scoundrel]

6 minutes ago, HoboRocket said:

I'm not worried about his size at all. If you like him, you go based off of his tape and what he demonstrated in Pre-Draft workouts, not his measurables.

He abused people in the run game and in pass pro at the Senior Bowl, and reportedly did the same in practices. He did that a lot at FAU, but there were concerns about the level of competition.

As far as his receiving ability goes, he's one of the most natural receivers in this class, regardless of position. He CONSTANTLY finds soft spots in the zone and tempos his routes excellently through zone coverage with almost a sixth sense of where defenders are in their drops or if they're breaking on him, even if they're behind him. His contact balance is excellent. He repeatedly doesn't get knocked down by contact, even when players come flying in and smash into him, and he forces defenders to drag him down every time he has the ball. He's excellent at tracking the ball, and has an uncanny level of awareness where it's almost like he can see the future. I guess the closest player I can compare that to is like with Cooper Kupp where it's almost like he knows exactly what Goff is doing, where the other receivers are, and where Goff is going with the football before he throws it. This enables guys like Bryant and Kupp to be in position when the play breaks down, when other players fumble, or if a pass deflects off of someone's hands (I'm thinking of Kupp's legendary touchdown in like his first game where the ball bounced off of Woods' hands at the goal-line and Kupp made a sliding catch off the deflection for the TD. Also, Bryant doesn't get bothered by hands-y DBs. There are numerous times on his tape where he's getting interfered with and still makes the catch, almost as if the DB isn't there in the first place. I think this happened against Southern Miss, but on one play he was in the flat in the red-zone and a linebacker came HURTLING in to hit him before the ball even reached him... The dude bounced off and ended up needing to leave the game because he injured his shoulder. By the way, Bryant caught the ball and took it in for a TD. There was also this play, don't remember EXACTLY who it was against, maybe Marshall, but it reminded me of that Adrian Peterson run in the 2008 season where he dragged like six guys twenty yards, or the Gronk TD in 2014 that was basically the same thing. Harrison Bryant dragged like six defenders like ten yards and eventually there were like nine defenders who dragged him down. I don't care if these are small school guys with bad instincts and tackling problems, or smaller frames, or whatever. I don't care about Combine measurables. It takes INSANE lower body strength and excellent balance to take that many hits and continue dragging people. And it's not just that freak play. Bryant drags people and powers through contact all the time. It's all over his film. He has very soft hands and, like I said, he's a pro at tracking the ball. He's also not afraid of getting beaten up while making the catch. His RAC skills are really among the best in the class, and he really makes you work to get him down. He's fast enough to create separation. His hips are very fluid, as he pivots very well and fools safeties on his route with his ability to whip them around. He's not really a side-stepper with how he moves, he doesn't juke people out of their socks, and he's always running straight. That could play into his lack of an impressive 3-cone because he doesn't really side-step or move that way. However, he can change the way that he's facing so quickly that I don't really think it matters. It's hard to explain, but yeah, he has very fluid hips, and he knows how to make sure that he's always running straight while still changing direction. 

So let's talk about his body and get that out of the way. He's 6'5", and in the 240s, so while he's thin, he certainly has room for growth. He has t-rex arms at 30 inches, which were the shortest measured among TEs at the Combine. However, he hasn't been caught reaching very often in the blocking game thanks to constantly-moving feet, and in the passing game length has hardly been an issue, because he is constantly making a play on the ball and beating defenders to it, and he is great at boxing people out and keeping his large frame in the way. As far as his track speed in shorts goes, it's good, but not elite. He didn't look like someone who was natural coming out of the start for his 40, but that's entirely understandable with his frame and lack of track experience. This guy is a pure football player. He doesn't really lose any speed in pads. His 3-cone wasn't very good, but it's fair to point out that he looked INCREDIBLY SMOOOOOTH once the football drills started. His gauntlet was probably the best at the Combine. He tracked the football very quickly and made catches outside his frame. He also was like the best performer in the blocking sled drills, with a real noticeable pop and great timing overall with how quickly he moved that sled. That feeds into the reports that he was the most impressive TE in the blocking game at the Senior Bowl.

 

He has short arms that concern me in blocking against NFL players

[jrry32]

On 3/4/2020 at 10:04 AM, goldfishwars said:

Thoughts added, bearing in mind Tight End has proven to be the one position with the steepest learning curve for players coming out. Very few prospects come out and hit the ground running. Man even the Iowa guys last year, who were both touted as can’t miss prospects had a quiet first season.

Harrison Bryant - Tiny school + bad athlete = not a good combination

Adam Trautman - Tiny school, decent blocker – of all the tight ends I’m most intrigued by him, but yeah tiny school usually equals a steeper learning curve so you might be looking at year three before he contributes. 

Cole Kmet - So meh, such a meh prospect. He was never a feature of that Notre Dame offense and he can't block despite being huge. 

Brycen Hopkins - decent athlete, poor hands, absolutely smothered when pressed on tape 

Albert Okwuegbunam - Unbelievably raw, I don’t care that this guy runs fast – he literally doesn’t know what he’s doing on a football field

Hunter Bryant - Undersized, main selling point was supposed to be his athleticism and let’s just say he completely underwhelmed 

Jacob Breeland - Meh, eh, meh, uh, hmmmm

Dalton Keene - Have not seen this guy yet, perhaps he’s the great hope of the class. 

Jared Pinkney - Terrible athlete, average tape, couldn’t do anything at the Senior Bowl and just has nothing of anything to contribute to the NFL whatsoever 

For those who like Thadeus Moss for his in-line blocking, he’s under 6’2 and under 250 pounds. There’s just not many guys who succeed in that role at that size and he’s got very little else to offer. Probably will need to make it via the special teams route. 
 

You need to watch Devin Asiasi. Motor ran hot and cold at times, but the way he moves at his size is unreal. A bunch of people are comparing him to Alge Crumpler (the prime version of him), and it's a good comparison. He has the size and strength to block. He shows the physicality and fire too at times. But that's where his motor ran hot and cold. Still, he's a 6'3" 265 pound TE who moves like a guy 20 to 30 pounds lighter, is fearless over the middle of the field, and has natural hands (just needs to cut down on the concentration drops).

[CWood21]

On 3/4/2020 at 7:44 AM, goldfishwars said:

Yeah I've come to the conclusion that this class is trash. 

It's not good, but I wouldn't say it's that bad.  Probably have 1-2 that carve out an above-average career, a few average starters, and maybe a couple of quality backups.

[Ozzy]

Jacob Breeland was having a career year before the injury, 400+ yards and 6 TDs in only 6 games, impressive athlete on the field at 6-5 250.  He will drop in the draft unless he works out great even if he can workout at the pro day, but kid can play when healthy and should be a steal.

 

Cole Kmet has only really played one season getting consistent action, was a baseball player and I am sure part of his focus was on that especially early in his career.  But hard to not like him, 6-6 252 and can run and has long arms and big hands.  In the 2nd round he is great value and physically he absolutely looks the part.

 

Albert Okwuegbunam obviously has massive upside, sure at times he disappears but that offense is kind of odd and the QB play this year was clearly not up to par.  There is a ton to work with physically there.

 

Adam Trautman could be a star in the NFL and is another player who is a great value, same with Thaddeus Moss and Harrison Bryant.  Asiasi could be a gem in the middle rounds with the fine season he has had.  Deguara is a physical beast with some pass catching ability, Pinkney has great potential and if he plays like he was as a JR he could be a fine player.  Sean McKeon has some ability, Dalton Keene can ball, Charlie Woerner is underrated, Cheyenne O'Grady has talent and Ahmad Wagner has a lot of upside as well.  Hunter Bryant is very undersized but hard to not be impressed with his athletic ability as a HB type.  Hopkins is a fine athlete, thought he would time better in the 40 but made some huge plays this year and is a hell of a pass catcher, the kid had a great season this year with freaking 830 yards receiving and 7 TDs.  That is a historically great season for a TE who played with backup reserve and young QBs most of the season.

 

Sure it is not a super star group but some of these guys could become very good players and would be a great value in the mid to late rounds.  Sure might not be one taken in the 1st round but there is a ton of guys and all have a chance to become something in the league and could develop into fine tight ends.

 

 

 

 

[jebrick]

43 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

Albert Okwuegbunam obviously has massive upside, sure at times he disappears but that offense is kind of odd and the QB play this year was clearly not up to par.  There is a ton to work with physically there.

What I do not like about AO is that he has not shown any improvement in 3 years.  He could end up being an Ebron with all of the plus and minus.  I have him as a 4th rounder. 

 

Trautman  is my solid #2  behind Kmet at this point.

[Ozzy]

Just now, jebrick said:

What I do not like about AO is that he has not shown any improvement in 3 years.  He could end up being an Ebron with all of the plus and minus.  I have him as a 4th rounder. 

 

Trautman  is my solid #2  behind Kmet at this point.

Sure Okwuegbunam is super raw but he played in a passing offense especially the past two seasons, not a standard run based offense with bootleg or much play action passing.  In the right system with the right coaching he could do much better.  There is a crap ton to work with there athletically but yeah he is not a 1st rounder like I thought he was before the season.

Trautman I love, awesome TE and should be a great 2nd or 3rd round pick, he has good feet and hands, and physically is put together as well.

[jebrick]

16 hours ago, Ozzy said:

Sure Okwuegbunam is super raw but he played in a passing offense especially the past two seasons, not a standard run based offense with bootleg or much play action passing.  In the right system with the right coaching he could do much better.  There is a crap ton to work with there athletically but yeah he is not a 1st rounder like I thought he was before the season.

Trautman I love, awesome TE and should be a great 2nd or 3rd round pick, he has good feet and hands, and physically is put together as well.

Super raw meaning as a 3 year player ( with injuries limiting) he is not a good route runner or blocker but he sure is athletic.  As I said, 4th round.

[HoboRocket]

I really like Raphael Edwards as a super-sleeper or UDFA, too. Never really got consistent play time due to injury, but dang he interviews very well, showed out in DII CGS, practiced very well, and worked out showing really great measurables at his size. He just switched from basketball to football last year. Anyways, I really like him as a super sleeper.