Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - ALL-CONFERENCE TIGHT END CLAIMED: Kansas Jayhawks Get Carter Moses from Albany for 2026 Season

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Kansas Jayhawks boost their tight end depth with the addition of Carter Moses from Albany, sparking hope for a more dynamic offense. Can Moses’ blend of size and yards-after-catch ability transform the KU passing game and red zone execution?Derek Johnson breaks down the impact of Moses' FCS All-Conference pedigree, analyzes potential roles alongside Carson Bruhn, and explores how KU’s tight end room—including Jailen Butler and Leighton Cure—will shape competition and playmaking. Key topics include run blocking concerns, Moses’ drop rate, and the development plan for freshmen Kevin Sullivan and Jack Utz. With strategic roster moves and a deep look at Matt Lubick and Andy Kotelnicki’s tight end schemes, Derek Johnson asks: Will Kansas find a breakout star at tight end in 2026, or is more development needed for Big 12 success?Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub  Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Rocket MoneyLet Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at http://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDONGametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.RugietIf you’ve been thinking about taking the next step, now’s the time.Head to https://Rugiet.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGEto get 15% off your order for a limited time.Rugiet Ready. Feel present. Feel confident. Feel ready.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

KU's hoping that their newest tight end can part the Red Sea of the defense and find the opening for a touchdown. Carter Moses from Albany and all conference player from the FCS level rounds out the KU tight end room. You are locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network

and checking out all of our different commitment episodes. You can find all of them and all the players that KU was added here with Lockdown Jayhawks as well as KU basketball content here as well. We're going to be breaking out Carter Moses on today's episode of the show. Newest tight end edition from Albany at the FCS level, what he brings at the table, what potentially this means for the position room and the tight end room for KU is Scouting report, all that and more. Let's get started with the news that Carter Moses has committed to KU on Sunday afternoon.

And again, originally out of Albany, he was from Wilmington, North Carolina, attended Albany out of high school, where over the course of his career at the FCS level, 46 catches, 4994 yards and three touchdowns. He spent four seasons with Albany, one of those, a redshirt. So he will be a redshirt senior in 2026 after spending those four years with the Danes. And I think this rounds out the KU tight end room where, you know, we had a lot of conversation in the Jaylen Butler episode and that commitment of

trying to figure out what exactly, like, what was the idea there for KU, right? There's certain athleticism, things you'd be on tape, but there were some questions he had. And now, looking back on it when adding Carter Moses, I can't help but wonder, was Jalen Butler an upside swing for a guy with good athleticism

who hasn't put it together yet that you were able to get for a little bit cheaper because of the lack of production? knowing that you had a good chance to bring on Carter Moses, and you were going to need somebody who was a little less expensive to round out the roster and fit into your budget. I think it all kind of comes together now. This helps everything fit together like a Lego.

So I like Moses's game. To me, this will be one of KU's better tight ends here in the 2026 season. Let's break down why in just a second on Locked on Jayhawks. This episode is brought to you by Fandual Sportsbook. And of course, we have the NFL playoffs going on. We have college basketball season really taking over. culture football national championship game coming up. NBA, NHL continue to mosey on here. You can get in on all the action with Fandul. And right now for every NFL playoff game day,

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Visit Fandul, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. Grab your profit boost pack every NFL playoff game day with Fandul. Thanks for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks. Find the Every Day or Club anywhere in our show links, descriptions, where you can get ad-free versions of the show. So Carter Moses is a 6'5, 241-pound day. tight end. He had four catches in 2023, then 16 grabs for

126 and a touchdown in 2024. And then this past season had his best year. 26 snags, 321 yards, two touchdowns. He was named to the All-Conference second team in the CAA for Albany. So, you know,

that's a big get there. Now, some of the pro football focus numbers don't love him, which is kind of the case for both of KU's tight end additions. He has over 1,200 career snaps at the FCS level. He had a 54.8 grade in 2023, a 57.1 grade in 2024, a 56.6 grade in 2025. Now, as we talked about with some of our past tight ends, sometimes tight ends, I feel like get a little underrated on pro football focus. If, I don't know, just kind of depending on their role and what they're doing.

Like sometimes you can have a key block, but it just feels like those aren't given as much for a tight end necessarily. And so, you know, I think the hope is here with both Butler and Moses, if you're basing it off the profile ball focus, like maybe you can view it as okay, did the team underuse them? Was the scheme not right? Was, I don't know, like, do you have the ability with Matt Lubick and Indycodilniki to develop them a little bit more and give them a boost there? Just based on the way KU schemes, the tight end open, will that be a boost for these guys, right? Now, his career run blocking grade is also not great, kind of like Butler. you're talking in the low 50s, high 40s. He also had eight penalties in his really three big years of play.

So not necessarily the best blocker. I think a little bit more of a receiving tight end, but it's different because Butler, I think more of the athlete, although weirdly Butler has really low like yard after catch numbers, despite having a deep, you know, average depth of target. With Moses, I think the worry here is a little bit of the drops. So he's been targeted 81 career times as Moses. His reception rate is 57%.

That is on the lower end. We talked about Butler being in the mid-50s and that that was lower. Brun was at 50% that was lower. The other 3KU tight ends with Cure, Hanukkah, and Grun all had an 80% or higher as opposed to being in the 50s. He also had seven drops over the last two seasons with a pro football focused drop grade that averaged out to the low 50s. So those are not great. Here is something that I found very interesting, though. Again, you think of Butler, the guy they added from Old Dominion, you watch him and you're like, wow,

this dude runs like a receiver at times. You would think he's the big yard after catch receiver. Well, he only averaged 1.7 yards after catch per reception. In 2025, Moses averaged for his career at Albany five yards after catch per reception. That would have been top 15 for tight ends in the Big 12 this past season. If you combined Carson Brun and Deshaunica's yard after catch per reception, it would be less than the career average for Carter Moses. So I think there's maybe a little bit more wiggle or maybe it's just broken tackle.

Maybe he's like a strong runner than you might think necessarily. I think the idea is can you develop him a little bit more? I think those would be kind of the big questions here. I do think KU took a couple of swings at the tight end position. I don't think these are necessarily, you know, guaranteed to work out. but there are certain traits of both of these guys with Butler and Moses that you can see working for KU in different ways. So let's break down that tight end room coming up next.

This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks again for joining us here on the show. Don't forget you can check out Locked on College football or Locked on College basketball for your second list every day. Check out all of our commitment episodes as well. So I do like this edition with Carter Moses. I know some of the PFF grades poo poo it a little bit. But I can see the idea here.

And like the idea of pairing somebody with Carson Brune, it's going to be hard to get like somebody who is, you know, could get a bunch of playing time somewhere to necessarily sign up for this. So you take a stab on a guy coming up from the FCS level who was an all conference pick and you hope that your scheme, your system, your development can have him take a jump. And the same goes, you know, for Jalen Butler here, right? So you look at the tight end position now for KU, Carson Brun, the projected starter as a registered sophomore. And then it's a competition. I think Carter Moses, who will be Redshirt Senior, Layton Cure, he'll be Redshirt Senior, Jaylen Butler, who will be Redshirt Senior.

All of those guys go into competition for tight end two. If I was estimating right now, just projecting out of the moment, I would have Moses as the backup tight end. Then I'd have, you know, the competition between Cure and Butler from there. Maybe you'd give the edge to Cure just from the knowledge of the offense in this, what, third year at this point with the KU offense here. You could see anything working out. Now, the big question too becomes who plays kind of the Jared Casey role for KU,

like the role of basically a fullback, Hback, tight end hybrid. We saw Brune play a little bit of that last year. But if you're going to do that, then you're going to have to play, stick with Moses, Cure and Butler kind of as the regular tight ends. And maybe that's something KU's cool with. Or do they use one of those other guys in that role? I think that'll be very fascinating for KU and who develops into that. And then you might be thinking, oh, man, that's a lot of seniors on the rock.

who you're going to have to fill again after 2026. So Brun at least gives you, you know, more years there. But then the idea is with Kevin Sullivan and Jack Oots, two freshmen coming in that I like both of their, you know, tape and recruiting profiles coming in, that they can have a year to develop. And then maybe one of them can be your, you know, whoever wins the battle of the developing freshmen as a redshirt freshman come 2027 can, you know, be a second or third tight end for you, kind of like Carson Brun was in 2025. And then maybe you can add one veteran and maybe a depth beast or something in the portal, the following season as well. And at the end of the day, like, you know, I look at the offensive line and I see all these guys who are redshirt juniors. And I'm like, man, that's pretty cool for KU. Or like, I look at overall the team.

Like in general, there are a ton of redshirt juniors or juniors on the team. Like potentially you could have like if Cole Ballard starts at quarterback, you could potentially have nine, nine starters on the offense who are juniors. potentially on the defense, you could have six starters on the defense. Again, it depends who wins some of these competitions, six or seven, who are juniors. It's cool to look at that and go, man, if they can figure something out in 2026, those guys could all be seniors in 2027 and they could be like really good in 2027. But then you get to the off season between 2026 and 2027 and guys transfer away and, you know, whatever.

So it's hard to view it as like a multi-year project anymore. it really does feel a little bit more like you just have to go for the one year and, you know, see what happens from there and kind of adjust and cross the bridge as you get there. But yeah, I think that's kind of where we're out with some of these different positions. All right, that'll do it for this episode of Lockdown, Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. Check out all their other commitment videos and we'll see you next time on LOJ.