Fantasy Football Today - FFT Dynasty - 2025 NFL Draft Tight End Prospects! Warren, Loveland, Taylor, & More! (04/22 Dynasty Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

Jacob Gibbs joins Heath Cummings to break down tight end prospects in the 2025 NFL Draft class. They kick things off with Gunnar Helm (Texas) at 3:00, followed by Terrance Ferguson (Oregon) at 5:00. After discussing tier breaks in this class at 6:00, they dive into scouting reports, analytics, and dynasty outlooks for Tyler Warren (Penn State) at 10:34, Colston Loveland (Michigan) at 14:20, Elijah Arroyo (Miami) at 21:40, Harold Fannin (Bowling Green) at 26:30, and wrap up with Mason Taylor (LSU) at 38:09. Who has the upside to be the next fantasy star at the position? Tune in for everything you need to know about this exciting TE class on FFT Dynasty! Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday SUBSCRIBE to FFT Express on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-express/id1528634304 Follow FFT Express on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6qyGWfETSBFaciPrtvoWCC?si=6529cbee20634da8 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 FOLLOW FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 SUBSCRIBE to FFT DFS on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dfs/id1579415837 FOLLOW FFT DFS on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zU7pBvGK3KPhfb69Q1hNr?si=1c5030a3b1a64be2 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." Visit the betting arena on CBSSports.com for all the latest sportsbook reviews and sportsbook promos. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome to Fantasy Football Today Dynasty. I am your host, Heath Cummings, joined today by Jacob Gibbs, and it is time for the rookie tight end preview. And Jacob, I don't know that there's anybody better to be on this episode than you. You just wrote all kinds of words about this tight end class. Tell people about the work you've been doing on the class in general and about the newsletter, which where they can find a lot of these words.

Yeah, there's that's where those words are landing is the newsletter. It's going out. It's scheduled Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And hopefully in the morning is what we're aiming for. But I honestly haven't been in the flow of writing for the past few months. I've just been watching tons of film. And so kind of getting back into that and finding the rhythm there. But I think each morning that's gonna hit your inbox

and I'll just download you on all of this stuff I've been learning about this class. It's a really deep class and it's a really nuanced class. There's a lot of different types of prospects. We're gonna get into that with like comparing Elijah Arroyo to somebody like Harold Fannin Jr. Like they're so, so different. different types of prospects. We're gonna get into that with like comparing Elijah Arroyo to, you know, somebody like Harold Fanon Jr. Like they're so, so different.

And so yeah, there's just, there's a lot to talk through and I'll do my best to just kind of keep you guys updated on all of that as we get landing spots and figure out how these players are gonna impact these teams. On today's show, we will talk about the top five rookie tight ends and consensus rankings. That's Tyler Warren, Colston Loveland, Harold Fannin, Elijah O'Royal, and Mason

Taylor. We've got a couple of Jacob's favorites coming up next. I will tell you Jacob mentioned like it's a nuanced class and it was really interesting because we've got, we're hearing reports that maybe three of these guys are going to go in round one which generally signals very good things for fantasy production. Also, Ryan Heath quote tweeted one of my tweets this morning and we've had Ryan on the show before, we will definitely have Ryan on the show again coming up relatively soon, I hope, and mention the fact that, you know, it's not, at least based on the testing information we have an elite class based on relative athletic score. And this is a position that in the past, if you're not a first round pick, that seems to matter a lot in terms of fantasy production.

I think the way he said it was, this is the one position where guys can really consistently out produce their draft capital based on their athleticism. So that will be an interesting discussion as well, but let's get started with three questions for our good friend Jacob and I did this with Matt Waldman. I've done this with a couple of guests throughout this. We're gonna talk about the top five by consensus but I want to hear a little bit about your guys. So give me the elevator pitch for Gunnerhelm. Yeah that's a really good point by Ryan and I do think that as you get deeper into the Titan class, there are a lot of Titans where you're having to project them to sort of be

an outlier based on their skill set because their athleticism doesn't quite check all the boxes that you need and Titan more than really any position we've kind of narrowed it down to like you need to hit these boxes, you need to have these traits. But you know, you can succeed at the NFL level if you don't. There are a few Jake Ferguson's floating around that have had good careers in the right situations, and that's based on the skill set mostly. And that's where Gunnar Helm really shows up to me. And I think he's a great one to start with too, because his athletic test, I do think,

is affected by the ankle injury. I did a podcast with Davis Maddick yesterday, and he pulled up this, I was not ready for it, this ankle, this gruesome ankle image of Gunnerhelm, his foot that he did the combine testing on. And so I would take that, those numbers are the grain of salt with him. When you watch the film, he is athletic. He looks really smooth out there.

He's hurtling guys, there were a number of hurdles in his film that he completed where he just looks a lot smoother than the rest of the tight ends that I watched. I think he's the third most pro ready tight end. He and Mason Taylor have a lot of similarities in the ways that they win. Soft hands, they're great. Hands catchers away from the body, they're great at going up and getting the ball, high pointing the ball and could probably be weapons on meaningful third downs in short, where you only need four or five and you run an outroute

to that tight end, you think you can trust them or in the red zone, you think you can trust them to go get a ball. I think both of those guys can do that. And I think Helm can do it better, but he is older. He is, I think 22m can do it better, but he is older. He is, I think, 22 or 23. But yeah, he was productive at Texas, which is not easy to do if you watch the Texas film.

The quarterback play there is frustrating, but he led the team in receptions last year. And he has put up decent production, given the circumstances and given the fact that he's competing with pro level wide receivers every step along the way. I really, really liked the skillset for Gunnihalm. Excellent stuff. Tight end number two that I wanted you to talk about.

Give me the elevator pitch for Terrence Ferguson. Ferguson is a little bit easier, um, because his athleticism does check out. It's not like quite a leap, but it's probably the best in this class because Elijah Roy didn't test. Ferguson has jumps, has speed and has size. And when you watch the film, he's not quite as smooth at doing some of the stuff that I hit on with with Taylor and Helm. But he's more like they're getting him on drags and stuff like that.

They're getting him on horizontal breaking stuff and just getting the ball in his hands. Then he has really impressive buildup speed. But he was decently productive. I just sent out some tweets this morning that are, this is the percentage of team receiving yards win on the field. And Ferguson is fourth on the list just behind Loveland, Fannin

and Warren and ahead of Helm, Arroyo and Mason Taylor. Very good stuff. Question number three and I think this is interesting because I know your rankings aren't the same as the way we're going to rank guys today but I've heard a lot of kind of different breaks in terms of the tears in this class, some people have Warren and Loveland together. Some people have Warren on Island and Loveland's with Fannin maybe, or Arroyo maybe, where do you see the tear breaks in this class? So it's clearly Loveland and Warren at the top for me. Um, and I actually think that Loveland is a decent bit ahead of Tyler Warren, especially if we're talking about fantasy football.

But even just for real life, I would have him ahead of Warren. And I consider putting him in a tier-Bizone, but that was a little bit too spicy. I don't want people to just turn the art, click out of the article immediately. I think he's really good. And we'll get into the conversation conversation with those two for sure because I do think it's really interesting They're in a clear tier by their by themselves. If you look at their data compared to past prospects If you're talking about the the difference makers that tied in those two are in or approaching that group And there's one other guy who clearly is in that group from a data perspective And I do have him in a tier his own if we're talking about fantasy football, and that's Harold Fannin, Jr.

for real life football, I totally get why somebody would put Mason Taylor ahead of him. Mason Taylor is really young. But I mean, Harold Fannin is really young, too. Right. Mason Taylor got on the field at LSU as a freshman. I think he's clearly a better physical specimen in terms of his ability to to block and be a pro level tight end. Fanon you're probably going to have to work around his limitations a little bit but I would have Fanon in his own tier for fantasy and then it's

Taylor and the rest of these guys that we're going to talk about today. A couple of pieces of housekeeping before we get to the first break and then jump really deep into this class. Remember to go enter FFT's draft contest. I've just put that up on the screen. There's a link in the YouTube chat. You can win a spot in our podcast listeners league and Adam Azer does a better job of explaining all the rules, but basically you need to get the pick right.

Don't tell me a guy's going to be in the type 10. You have him ninth and he goes second. That doesn't count. You got to get the pick and the player right. It's number two. Kevin asks, how early would you take a tight end in a 12 team super flex league where tight ends are awarded two points per reception? Thank you, Kevin, for the question and for the nice comment. I, I wanted to tell you guys, there will be another link coming a little bit later

in the show, probably around the second break. I want to put it out there and I have every day this week. I'm doing a rookie mock with you guys. Most of those I'm putting the link out there on X and as soon as it fills up, we run the mock. I write a little article about it today. Before I put it on X, I wanted to put it to you guys. So we'll put a link in the chat a little bit later.

You can join that mock draft. And my plan is as soon as it fills after the show, we'll run it with a quick 60 second clock. It's gonna be a 1.5 tied in premium, not a two point tied in premium. But I think even in 1.5, Jacob, I would expect Tyler Warren to go no later than fourth possibly as early as second In 1.5. I certainly wouldn't want to take Tyler Warren that early, but I could see him going about Colston

Loveland in the top five. Yeah war Loveland. I think you could make the case Especially if your team that doesn't necessarily feel that competitive this year I think the upside for Loveland is massive. Like not Kelsey because that is a truly unique set of circumstances that Kelsey had for his career in terms of his offensive environment. But Loveland, I think has the talent to be a true, true difference maker as a receiver. So I guess you could reach on that kind of upside, but there's so many players that I just freaking love in this draft. I know, like I would just really have a hard time if Travis Hunter goes in the top five

and he says, I'm playing receiver full time, the team says he's playing receiver full time, I'd really have a hard time taking them over Hunter, over Amari and Hampton, over Ted McMillan, unless McMillan like lands on the Saints or something. Yeah, I think I would have a tough time putting these tight ends that high. And two points for tight end reception,

I think that it makes sense, yeah. All right, that will do it for opening segment. Let's take a short break and let's jump into Tyler Warren. Looking for the ultimate online casino experience? Step into the BetMGM Casino app, where every deal, spin and goal brings Las Vegas excitement into the palm of your hand. Take your seat at Premium Blackjack Pro where strategy meets top-tier gameplay. Drop in on the

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Discover your origin today. Learn more at CanAmMotorcycles.com. So you've already heard that he's not Jacob's tight end one, but Tyler Warren definitely the tight end one in the consensus rankings. I will say in the one QB mock I did yesterday that was not tight end premium, Tyler Warren went third. So there are some people that really, really love this guy. And I guess Jacob, let's start with this side of the evaluation. Why is he the consensus number one,

tight end in this class? Well, I mean, on big boards, he's like in the top 10 for so many people in terms of real NFL drafts. And if he gets that type of capital, you know, that's worth taking a shot on. He was really productive and he has some really cool highlight plays, just truly like spectacular hands for any player, but especially the tight end position. And that shows up a lot.

It's not just a few highlights here and there. He's, he's making contested catches over and over. I do worry a little bit about that translating because of the short arms. And I think defenders at the NFL level are just bigger and better and faster to that point of the catch. Um, and so he's, he's going to have to really like, I think it's going to be easier for people to get into his body and get to the catch point. But yeah, to take him that high, he really has to be similar to a Trey McBride kind of player or Brock Bowers, I don't think that he has that though. I don't think that's backed up by data or with a film.

I think so much of what he did was predicated on the role that he played at Penn State. And I suppose if a team decides that they're going to use top 12 draft capital on him, then maybe we'll see something similar. But I just don't know. Like, a higher percentage of his catches and targets came on screens last year than Harold Fannin. And people can't get over, like, how much Fannin's production was, you know,

not replicable and how much it was boosted by his, his offense and everything. And it's like, Warren had the same thing going really, like they really, really manufactured touches to him. And that's really rare to see that happen at the NFL level. So I want to talk about one other potential negative with Warren and you may not see it as one but how much do you care that he really wasn't productive in college until he was 22 years old and older than most people in the field? I yeah I don't think it's quite as relevant as um it is at

like wide receiver when we're talking about breakout age but it is noteworthy like that if you're if you want to try to compare him to like Brock Bowers, I'm going to shut that down immediately based off of this point, because it's like Bowers at Georgia, as a freshman with tons of NFL talent around him, was the guy. And was the guy every step along the way. And that's not the case with Tyler Warren. And then even the peaks of, you know, Bowers compared to him in terms of single season is not the same either. Um, but yeah, I, I, I don't think that's, that's super concerning. I think mostly like we see this, the skillset that he has, and it's not like a 24 year old

or something. Like we see this, he's rounded out by this point in his career and I do think it's ready to translate. Uh, Titan takes a long time to develop. So clearly you've, you've made it clear. You don't think he has Brock Bowers upside. Do you think he has Sam Laporta upside? So Laporta is, is a little bit more interesting.

Um, comparing them statistically, Laporta, you kind of have to take all of his numbers with a green assault because he played it at such a run heavy offense. Um, but if you do like look at at when it's like the percentage, the, the per route data or like the percentage of, you know, when, when they were on the field and they were passing, um, it is La Porta ahead of Warren, but it's closer than it is with somebody like Bowers. Um, I think the statistically, the more close comps are people like TJ Hawkinson and like Michael Maier. I think Hawkinson and honestly Maier's data is better. I think

Hawkinson is probably the best comp in terms of the way that he wins with short yardage yards after the catch and stuff like that. Let's get away from everybody else's number one tight end and get to Jacob's number one tight end, Colston Loveland. Not as productive as Fannin or as Warren in college, but you see immense upside here. Where does that come from? Yeah, you have to look under the hood a little bit here to see what's going on because there's a reason that the numbers were not good. And that's the, the offense was super dysfunctional.

I, I had a hard time getting through Michigan games in 2024. Fortunately, I found a YouTube channel that has cutups of every target in touch. So I didn't have to watch every play because I watched a couple. I watched every play for like three or four 2023 games and it was fine. It was fun to get back and watch JG McCarthy and it was good to get a glimpse of Loveland and what he could do as a blocker. And then I tried to do that for 2024 and I was like, this is legitimately the worst quarterback play that I've seen. And there were some really bad quarterback play last year at the collegiate there were some really bad quarterback play last year

at the collegiate level with some of these prospects, Luther Bird and all these guys suffered through some of it. And I don't think, I truly don't think anyone had it worse than Loveland and I've watched hundreds of games. So what I'll say with Loveland is his per round data and his like, when he was on the field, those numbers are nuts. They absolutely jumped off the page last year but he got hurt and that is something

that people get frustrated with is the injuries I don't I don't know what to say on that like he is a big physical guy I don't I don't know how that will translate level I don't see a reason why I keep getting hurt but when he's been on the field his production has been as good as anybody we've seen in recent memory. I wish that I had data that was like further back than 2017 because he trumps everything. And so we see his per route data steadily improve from his first season to his third season, culminating in a 40% target per route run rate.

So he's targeted on 40% of the routes that he ran in 2024. And what's so impressive about that is that that number wasn't boosted by screens. He only had six screens last year. Harold Fanon had 32. Tyler Warren had 33. So 24% of Warren's targets were screens. 21% of Fanon's were screens.

7% of Lo's targets were screens. 21% of Fannin's were screens. 7% of Loveland's were screens. And still he had the highest target per rep run rate that we've ever seen at the Titan position. Fannin crushed any previous target per rep run rate. His was 39%. Previously, the highest was Trey McBride at 33%. Fannin crushed that. And Loveland had a higher rate without the screens and that's just insane to me and people get a little bit fresher about the yardage production

This is part of it like he's not getting yak and it's like chicken or the egg I guess like people are like well, you know Office of designers are competent which I don't know that's always the right assumption But people do say that and so maybe the reason he's not getting screens Offensive designers are competent, which I don't know if that's always the right assumption, but people do say that. And so maybe the reason he's not getting screens is because he's not good after the catch. When I watched him, he's creating yards after the catch. He's tough, he's physical, he's fast. He's smooth.

I don't know why he wouldn't. I don't see anything skill-wise that would preclude him from being good at creating yards after the catch. I think it's possible that they were just like, go win and they were that's what a winner's receiver as a slot receiver as an inline player, just go be a route winner. And he did that he produced almost three yards per route run last year, in this offensive environment. So to me, like everything, I see

everything on film. And it's like this, this guy is, he's not winning every single route. He's occasionally getting knocked off his routes, but he is still really young. He just in 21 years old. And so to see him doing this, like I get a high level competition, big 10 defense is about as good as it gets. And then you look at the data and it's like, we haven't really seen anything like this at tight end. That's super, super exciting't really seen anything like this at tight end. That's super, super exciting to me. I think this guy's the limit with him. You can, and opposite corner can do anything with him because you can put him in line.

You can put him in the slide. You can put him out wide. You can create mismatches all over the field. You don't have to take him off the field. So let's get into the hypothetical here. Tyler Warren is a top 12 pick. How high does Colston Loveland have to be drafted for you to keep him ahead of Warren in this class? I think first round and it's possible if he goes in the second round to like the Chargers or something like that, like a really just prime landing spot that I would still put him out of him, but that would really be a reach and a banking on like the skill set

and what I, my conviction in him as a player because draft would really be a reach and a banking on the skill set and my conviction in him as a player because draft capital does matter a lot and getting that kind of capital for Warren and the discrepancy between the two would be meaningful. The data is so good, man. The fact that Harold Fanning just turned in the craziest season we've ever seen by far at tight end, led the entire nation in receiving. And if you just look at the plays where the player was on the field, Loveland was better, was more productive than him.

That's it. That's just wild to me because Fannin's offense was designed to get him the ball every step along the way. And Loveland was just out there like saving them, like keeping them from like just turning the ball over every possession. Like it's, I don't know, it just blows my mind. You mentioned earlier about like if you're a team that's not necessarily winning now, you might be more likely to take one of these tight ends earlier in a tight end premium draft because it does take a long time for the talent to translate a lot of times as its position

and for the development to happen. But Loveland specifically amongst this class, do you think he's ready to contribute now or do you think he is more of a project? I think that he is, but I mean, if he like say he went to the Patriots or something like that and they were kind of like, we really need you to handle like 25% of the targets right away. I would worry a little bit about that. He is really young, but he's improved every step along the way. And I really liked what I saw from the skill set as a blocker. He's I was expecting this, like him to be a negative as a blocker, because people compare like Warren DeGronk and him to Kelsey. But I actually think his blocking is better than Warren. And I've heard that from other people who watch a lot of film as well. Like Nate Tye said the same thing. And he's definitely got the frame for it and the mentality. I mean, this guy was recruited by Jim Harbaugh.

It's not, you know, like he is a hard-nosed player. Right. So those were the easy two guys. Then we get to tight end three in the consensus rankings. And to be honest with you, there's a bit of a why from both Jacob and I, Elijah Arroyo is the tight end three currently on fantasy pros over in the consensus expert rankings at tight end in this class.

Uh, we're going to talk about Harold Fanon after the break, but I would wonder if like, is there a case that you can make for why Arroyo should be ranked this high? Because a lot of people are obviously. I am going to need to like dig into comparisons more to see if there's anything similar from because like from an average depth of target standpoint and athleticism standpoint that has translated because it would be pretty unique I think just thinking about the position and what we've had recently to see a player come in like this and be more than, be a consistent fantasy producer,

or even a, it doesn't have to be consistent, sorry, because it's tied in, we're talking about, but to be a fantasy producer. I think most likely a royal is going to be a real value add to an NFL team, but not somebody who's gonna see more than 8, 10, 12% of the targets. He's the wild card, you know, like like if he if the skill set is rounded out and he's more than just a vertical threat then you know we're cooking you know like if he's you know

Noah Fant plus like something like that then sure like that would be really really intriguing and when you watch him he's he's crazy man he flies like I wish he we would have got his testing because he's legitimately running away from DBs. That's one thing I wonder. Do you think it's possible that people are giving him the RAS boost without the testing? They just watch him play and it's so obvious how athletic he is that we're going to give him the athletic scoring boost without actually doing the testing? I think that has to be what's happening if we've got him at Titan 3.

I was really surprised to hear that. I have him tied in seven and I really liked Arroyo. I really liked what I saw in the film. It took him a while to really get to play. He had injuries and then even this year, they kind of eased them in. But once he got a full-time role, he was really productive. I heard a crazy stat from Josh Norris. I think he caught like all of his initial 11 targets and was averaging like 20 yards per target on them or something. So like he really like forced his way into a role and just was in insanely good this year, 12 yards per target by far the highest mark in the class in 2024. But he is you know, he's gonna be 23 years old as a rookie. And we haven't seen him ever, you know, demand targets at a high level, but I do think,

like we talked about tied in more than other positions, you don't have to get attached to the data. This, you know, that you can not be productive as a collegiate player, but then if you have the traits, you can end up, you know, having a productive NFL career. You mentioned the injuries with the Royal. I know you kind of weren't sure what to do with those with Colston Loveland. Are the injuries more of a concern with a Royal or you're just kind of shrugging your shoulders? I Mean, I just I never know what to say about this. Honestly, he's like he he I guess has a

Slider frame than some other tight ends He moves his body incredibly fast. So maybe he gets himself on a collision course more like I really don't know Would you view him as a high ceiling low floor prospect? Yeah, for sure. If he can, I mean, if he can get a team that like wants to design him looks and in addition to the the vertical seam stuff, like it maybe he's good with on screens, I didn't get to see him with the ball in his hands all that often because Miami had a lot of playmakers you know and It I think it made more sense to just go straight drop back and kind of let Kim Ward improvise

You know, but like maybe he is good with the ball in his hands I think he definitely has athleticism to to become that kind of a threat. So if that's unlocked then like all of a sudden You know, he's one of the most athletic tight ends in the NFL. And if he's in the right situation, that could be really fun. That's Elijah Arroyo. He is currently the tight end three in consensus rankings. He is not my tight end three.

He's not Jacob's tight end three. We're going to talk about Harold Fanon after the break. And that segment might take a long time because we both love him. But before we do, if you guys would like to do a mock draft in the next 30 minutes or so, Thomas, if you've got the link, there will be a link in the chat where you can click on that, claim your team. I'm trying to be a kind guy.

I went ahead and just took the 12th pick. So I'm gonna take the very last pick. It will be a super flex, tight end, premium mock draft. And we're doing 60 seconds per pick. It'll probably be over in 15 to 20 minutes. We're just doing three rounds. So real, real quick thing here. But if you want to be a part of it, go click that link in the chat. I'll also, if it's not full when the show's over, I'll put the link out on X as well and finish, fill it that way. So you can have a couple of different opportunities to join.

Although if we have enough people from the show join, people on X will get no chance today, you'll have another chance tomorrow. Let's take a short break and then get into Harold Fannin. Unwrap the early days of your favorite hockey stars with Tim's new retrospective rookies hockey cards featuring exclusive NHL and PWHL players and retired legends. Collect them all only at Tim's at participating restaurants in Canada for a limited time. Collect them all only at Tim's at participating restaurants in Canada for a limited time. Okay, Jake. Harold Fannin Jr. In case some of you guys have been under a rock for the last few months, I just, I need to say these numbers. 117 receptions last year. 1,555 receiving yards last year. If you look over on sports reference at the college football page, and I, I use that every sport they have so often.

So thank you guys for that good work. You'll see that those numbers are both bolded and sized. And that's because he led all of FBS in receptions and receiving yards. And you're thinking, well, okay, so he's the best Titan. No, he led all of FBS in receptions and receiving yards as a junior. Well, I guess a senior technically, but he's, he's done now. He was a junior, right? Third year player at the very least, not old at all. Yes. He played at Bowling Green, but I don't understand how this guy is not in consideration for the top two or at least tight end number three, arguably the most insane

production we've ever seen from a tight end at the college level. Jacob, just keep raving about Harold Fanon. Yeah. Per Dane Bruegler, just started playing tight end as he entered college. He was a safety before that. So super young and still like could be adding to his feel for the game. I think it's really, he's one of the more interesting prospects we've had in a long time in any position. The production is wild. So I'll give you a few ways to contextualize it.

First, I do want to point out that the average 3.25 yards per route run versus Power 5 schools. That's more than any tight end in the time that I have the data. Tyler Warren's is at 2.05, Brock Bauer's is the next highest at 2.65 behind Fannin at 3.25. If I remove screens from that sample size, it drops to only a hundred rounds. So it's a small sample, but the yard per run average rises to 3.5. So when he was asked to win versus the best competition that he played on big boy routes down the field, he did. You watch him against Texas A&M against Penn State he has huge games 11 for 137 versus Penn State, 8 for 145

versus A&M got a touchdown in each of those I think he's really really good as a rat runner I know it's an unorthodox way of moving, but I think that that affects the defense, the way that he moves. I broke down his film, if you wanna search like Jacob Gibbs, Harold Fanon, you'll see a thread or two where I'm diving into it in more detail. I really liked what I saw from him as a rat runner.

I think it could be translatable, even though he looks awkward as an athlete. And he's, it's, you know, the straight line speed, I think it could be translatable even though he looks awkward as an athlete. The straight line speed, the top end of that isn't what you want necessarily, but he definitely has some athletic testing that was encouraging. I think it does show up in the way that he moves in terms of acceleration. The agility isn't quite there and the straight line speed isn't quite there. So it's gonna be really interesting to see

how that all comes together. But just yeah, a few more statistical points for you. So I broke down the career percentage of team receiving yards went on the field for some of the best tight ends to go into the draft lately. And basically they all fall in the 26 to 30% range. T.J. Hockinson, Trey McBride, Tyler Warren,

Don Kincade, Michael Mayer, Isaiah Likely, Brock Bowers, Laporta, all in that range. Colson Loveland for his career is at 33%. Harold Fanon is at 43%. If you do it by touchdowns, it's the same thing. 21 to 36, 37%. Actually, it's 21 to 31% as most of them, and then you have Bowers at 37%. Isaiah likely at 39%, and Fanon at 46%.

I think likely is the fun comparison. That's one that people make a lot. I think it was Coastal Carolina where he played. It was a small school similar to Fanon and he was really really productive But not as productive as Fanon not nearly as productive as Fanon by any measure total or you know per play measures The last thing I want to do with Fanon is I want to compare him to Trey McBride I also compared him to Dalton KK. You can find these on Twitter

It's a super dense tweet with a lot of different data points, whether it's athleticism or production or whatever. Kincaid, I think, is a really good comparison stylistically. I think they're actually really similar in terms of the way that you have to work around the limitations as a blocker and how that has limited Kincaid to this point in his career. It hasn't been a great fit with Buffalo. And the same kind of thing could happen for Fanon, especially if he doesn't get draft capital that suggests that a team has a clear plan for him. McBride I want to compare statistically.

McBride at Colorado State put up per-out data that blew me away. I'd never seen anything like it. It tied in before. Um, and his final season there. And I think he's a good comparison because we've seen him find success at the NFL level. He's a bit undersized. He's, let me see here. I've got this size comparison. He is one inch taller, five pounds heavier than Fanon. Fanon has a longer wingspan, vertical broad jump and bench press were the only combine test McBride participated in. Fanon beat him in all of those. I think McBride is a bigger better athlete but I don't think it's by a wide wide margin. I think he's a better blocker as well but I think it's possible Fanon is still young and not used to blocking. Like I said he played safety. It's possible that he could develop

in that area. 20 years old at draft day for Fannin compared to 22 for McBride broke out in year two. McBride broke out in year four. Both of them played at small schools. Each of them had four career games versus Power Four schools. Fannin had 29 catches for 381 yards

and three receiving touchdowns in those games. McBride had 21 catches for 247 yards and one touchdown in those games. McBride's yards per outrun rate dropped when he faced Power Forward Schools. Fannin's was steady, 3.25. McBride's is 1.91. All of it favors Fannin. I think there are similar profile, but like all of it is better for Fannin. So I just think that's really interesting. I don't think we have to just like assume that everything Fanon did was fraudulent because I definitely think you see him winning

in more ways than just design touches and yards after the catch. You see him routing people up and getting open consistently and making catches in tight windows. I want to just go back to something because Jacob said it. I just want to make sure you heard it. He's 20 years old. He doesn't turn 21 until July the 20th.

Yeah. Last year, the whole draft, any position last year as a 19 year old, he caught 44 passes for 623 yards and six touchdowns. There have been tight ends drafted very high in the NFL draft, that that was their best season in college. So there's a reason that Jacob and I both love this guy. I hope he gets good draft capital on a good landing spot, but we should to be complete at least talk about the concerns. So maybe you can just rank these concerns

because the three biggest that I see are the competition that he faced, the combined results, his athleticism and size and his blocking. How would you rank those three concerns in terms of fan and success in the NFL? I'll say the competition is number one because if the way that he wins

just simply doesn't translate then he's almost like useless. Like if it's it I'll say that's one with the blocking being a close to their 1A 1B because they go hand in hand like if the way that he wins doesn't translate then he can't play at all really because he doesn't block very well. But I do think that the blocking could improve. I don't really know why it wouldn't be able to improve. Like I said, he has very long arms and he is really young and he's still learning to play tight end. But yeah, the competition, even that, like because of, to be fair, Texas A&M had a ton of games or they gave a big place to big

players but like Penn State had a pretty solid defense and like to see him in his only opportunities to do it to do it to keep doing just do the exact same thing I think really like has me encouraged that he'll keep doing it like I mean I just up, I was curious how many screens Tremie Bray had in his huge season, 28. So four fewer than Fanon. The percentage of the total targets is probably actually higher than Fanon's. It's really like, I don't see any reason

to just like exclude Fanon from being able to translate what he did to the pro level. You can tell me I'm crazy. I'm giving you the opportunity but and I'm not projecting fan as the number one tight end. I'm not gonna rank him as the number one tight end although there's parts of me that want to. Am I crazy for thinking he could be the most productive tie down in this class. We'll see what the NFL says. I'm really, really curious where he's gonna get drafted. But no, I don't think that's crazy at all.

I mean, it's not crazy to say the guy who just had, you know, led the nation receiving could be a really good pro. I think he definitely could. He's young, he's really, really exciting. I definitely think that that's within the range of outcomes. Even with- Thank you, Ben. In terms of that draft capital, I've seen a lot of speculation, it seems like,

over the last week that he could be right at that 2-3 cutoff, maybe a late second, maybe an early third round pick. I don't care so much about that cutoff, but there is a point to where you get concerned. Is the concern is if he falls to day three. Yeah, I was about to look up round three tight ends. So like Trey McBride was an early round to pick mid round to pick. Um, I, I do think. Yeah. If he falls around three, that, that would be a little bit concerning, um, because, or you're saying day three, um, that would be a little bit concerning

cause then it's like, what he he might it might be a team it is just like not nearly as willing to give him the the leeway and I do think that that's going to be important is like is the team willing to like experiment with this and like grow with him as as because he is young and developing and like figure out how this works with him. Mark Andrews is around three pick. Travis Kelsey. Travis Kelsey is around three pick. Okay. Yeah, we've got a couple good ones. I'll feel a lot better about it if it's pick 65 than if it's pick 95. Round three. Like it's a long round. So, okay, that's enough on Harold fan. Let's get to tight end five.

Ram asked in the chat, when are we starting the mock draft? We're starting the mock draft as soon as this show is over, as long as the mock draft's full. I saw in the chat, it looks like we have two spots left. So if you want to jump in, there is a link in the YouTube chat and we'll do that super flex tight end premium mock

as soon as we get done here. But we have one tight end left and I don't think there's any reason to think that like this guy's a long ways behind everyone else in terms of the NFL size or in terms of the type of impact you could have on NFL team. It's Mason Taylor. So what's your eval on Taylor? He he's really underwhelming from a data standpoint.

And so like at first, as I started my process, I hadn't gotten to his film yet. And I was just really confused why he was ranked so high other than being young and being Jason Taylor's son. But I really liked his film. Like I said, I did like Gunnar Helms better. But I do think that like he showed a lot of translatable skills. Made some really, really nice catches along the sideline. Fluid athlete, and he's super strong. I thought that didn't necessarily

show up in his blocking all that much, but you is still young. And so that might be something that just needs technique to unlock. 28 inch press it wraps is pretty insane. So, yeah, I get it. Like, I think it's clear like how a team could see this and like have a vision for him just being like the every every down tight end. But for fantasy, he's somebody who I'm if I'm going to be in, it's like, oh, maybe I'll see if I can just buy him dirt cheap in a year or something. Cause it's probably

going to take a while for him to contribute any meaningful receiving production. And he is like fan in 20 years old, a couple of months older. So again, like you said, a very young guy, um, great pedigree, great, um, great abilities in terms of just athletic abilities, maybe not receiving abilities. He looks to me like someone who could be much more valuable to an NFL team than a fantasy football manager. Is that fair? Yeah, that's that's where I'm not with him. I do think that like he can get open on those out breaking routes and it's pretty smooth with the ball in his hands, but I just don't see an NFL team like prioritizing that when you've got other pass catchers.

No, I think he is the type of tight end. We have these every year, but he's the type of tight end who has 600 yards receiving, but scores 10 touchdowns. So he finishes his tight end seven that year. Yeah. I think he could sneak into those kinds of years for sure. Probably not early though. But he doesn't have the upside of a Fannin or a Loveland or a Warren of maybe being a 20% target share guy within an offense. No, I didn't see that. That's going to do it for our rookie tight end preview. I want to finish up with one more question, Jay, because I've had a joke going in my articles and on this show for five years, probably every time we say how deep tight end is at the beginning of the year, we get another

terrible tight end season where tight end 12 averages like nine fantasy points per game, and there's 16 guys who do that. I've heard a lot of people talking about this tight end class and how exciting it is and how we're going to have depth at the position because of these guys. Is this going to be a fooled you once again, or is this the class that combined with Bowers and McGrath, Biden, La Porta, we're actually going to have a depth of young talent at the tight end

position and the position is not going to be awful. I have been fooled too many times so I'm gonna just say that yeah it's probably going to be more of the same. It's just not a position like I said with Tyler Warren like it's really rare that offensive designers are like I want to get my tight in the ball, you know, like the NFL has the absolute best of the best players and like the talent at receiver right now is so insane. And then also almost any running back that comes into the NFL at this point is like a capable pass catcher, you know, it's like, it's like a clear red flag when they're not. So like, I just, it's rare that we see the tight ends matter for fantasy. Um, and if I'm looking at this class and being honest, like the people who are the most likely are Fannin and Loveland and then Warren and beyond that, I just don't, I wouldn't be surprised if none of them are ever priority pieces for an

offense. One more rapid fire question. Cause Ram tells me we've got 12. As soon as Jacob finishes this question, I'm going to end the stream. I'm going to jump in the chat and start jumping the draft and start the draft. What are your three favorite landing spots for a tie down in this draft? Who do you, who do you think is going to draft one early and who do you want to see these guys go to?

Hmm. That's a good question. I haven't thought about it. People bring up the Colts a lot, but I don't think I would put that up there. So I'm, I think the chargers are clearly one and then the Broncos probably. Do you have anything off the top? I was going to say that I'd really like for the Chiefs to draft Harold Fanon and have him play Ryan Kelsey for one year and then just have a feature role in the offense. People keep bringing up the Chiefs as a landing spot for these tight ends, man. I want Jared Wiley to be good and come

back. I want Jared Wiley to be good and come back. I want Jared Wiley to be good again. Jacob you were awesome. Thank you to Thomas for running everything. Thank you everybody who was active in the chat and is getting ready to draft with us. We will talk to you on Friday with a round one. The Paramount Podcast.