NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 180. 2024 NFL Draft Summer Scouting: Tight Ends (Plus Mini-Mailbag)

Episode Date: June 27, 2023

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers kick off their Summer Scouting Series with the tight end position. The two talk about the names to know for the potential 2024 class, where they stand heading into the 2023 college football season, and give you their Top 5 pre-season rankings for the position.

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It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com slash BS, device and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV. NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital-only games. Welcome to the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. In this episode, we are once again jumping

into the summer scouting series with the tight end position. We're gonna go five through one, sending order to make sure we fill up all the suspense for who we have as our number one tight end in this class. But in this episode, we disagree a decent amount, especially in the rankings. And so you get a preview and extended previews, I should say, of a lot of these guys, about 10 different tight ends. So we're going to cover this class as best that we possibly can for you. I'm Trevor Sycamore. With me, as always, is Connor Rogers. Let's ring the bell. Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange podcast.

I'm Trevor Sycamore. That is the world-traveled Connor Rodgers back with you guys again, jumping back into the summer scouting series. Today, we're going over the tight end position. So you guys who have been hanging out with us throughout the summer scouting series today we are going over the tight end position so you guys who have been hanging out with us throughout the summer scouting series know how it goes connor and i are going to give you our top five tight ends going into the 2023 college football season for the 2024 nfl draft but we'll talk about plenty of guys as well probably talk about eight nine ten of these tight end prospects so you guys are ready to know the position once the nfl draft cycle really starts to kick things off. Connor, I said that you were the well-traveled world traveler

to start the podcast. And that's because you've been out of the country for a little bit, my friend. So how does it feel being back stateside? How is the PTO? Tell the people where you went and what you did. It was great. It's always nice to be home.

Obviously, it's just comfortable and get a little back into a routine and focus. But vacation was lovely. I was out of the country for 10 days. I started in Amsterdam, which for those that don't know, is in the Netherlands. I made my way down through Belgium and I've done that part of the trip before, but the rest was new. I went ghent in belgium i went to bruges in belgium i flew out of brussels and finished the trip in dublin which was just unbelievable dude it's um all great places not very hard honestly to get around a couple trains one quick flight from brussels to dublin the customs in in brussels is a wild ride though it's like somehow a three hour line because they had one person working but yeah it was it was pretty scary hours but my flight was late anyway so we made it a lot

of people did not make their flights it was turmoil but when i got to dublin everything was great because the guinness over there is just on a totally different level as well as the people that'll make you laugh so it's a great trip dude it's it's not you know the industry you and i are in it's this is it like you either go away in the dog days of June. Right. Or you got to figure out a lot of shit. I mean, you really do. So I looked at the calendar and I was like, and you know, my fiance works in sports as

well as does yours. So you guys really get it. We literally really live like parallel lives. Right. And it's just, I mean, it's like now or never. So it was a nice 10 days. Wasn't on the phone very much did not tweet really much at all uh my front desk sent one tweet that people caught on to

i didn't send it my front desk did um and it's great to be back guys got a front desk out here dude okay so i've never i've been to i've been to um amsterdam i've been to brussels but i haven't been again haven't been to dublin so i haven't been to any of those places, I'm sure that people listening to the podcast are going to comment about if they've been the things that they were able to do, but I'm going to, I'm going to rapid fire a couple questions off for you. Cause I'm curious about great vacations like this. I want to know the best drink you had, because I know you're a big, you guys are big beer drinkers. And I know that you were traveling the world, getting the different tastes of beer at every spot. You said the Guinness was next level in Dublin. So I wonder if that's going to be it,

but best drink, best meal you had. And then just like best sites, like where were you just like, God, what a beautiful place, whether it was a city, whether it was like, you know, the, the, the, the, the open grasslands or the, the, the landscape, wherever it was, just where was the best sites? Those three questions go. Great questions. So I can't say Guinness because now the Guinness is better over there, but I've had Guinness. So it's, you know, the wow factor can only go so far. It's like Coke and McDonald's, right?

Everybody says that Coke's better than McDonald's for some reason. That's actually pretty good. Yeah, pretty good way of putting it. So the best beer I had that we'd never had before was a house of Boone. If you want to look this up, it's G.E.U.Z.E. B.O.O.N. It is a sour beer from Belgium. I had it both. Me and my fiance had it in both the Netherlands and down in Belgium. It's a Belgian beer. It is bottled with a cork.

So it pops like a champagne it is aged hell yeah yeah it is aged anywhere from one to three years um it is a very very awesome bottle it's fun that you open it like a champagne it is it tastes unbelievable we looked up how much it would be to ship it from like if we didn't bring it ourselves so we just bring it from belgium i think it was 89 a bottle so and over there over there it's like nine euros right so it's like okay this is the only time we're gonna be drinking this until we're back we're gonna we're gonna need a couple more subscribers to the channel before you can start it's like unlocked a level 250 000 subscribers we're not there yet dude it's not like the boat

or the house or right yeah so the house of boone was is just it's unreal okay second one um you said was place or i feel like i skipped something meal meal and then like yeah play sites whatever okay mr s in dublin uh would definitely take that we split i believe a tomahawk i forget what kind of i mean just went all in on the steak it's it's one of those places too where like you sit in the front but you could see the kitchen in the back it's an open kitchen in the back with the grills and everything um that was out of this world out of this world that charred broccoli um obviously potatoes over in europe especially ireland phenomenal fried potatoes place i'll do two one in ghent you could see

the mystic lamb painting for those that don't know what that is it's a very famous million years old original painting so when i saw the mona lisa in france it's like a big deal you wait to see there's a million people there you walk in it's like the size of your laptop screen. You're like, okay, like not to shit on the Mona Lisa, but like most underwhelming sightseeing thing I've ever done in my life. And everybody says the same thing. Like you get there and you're like, I got to get to the crowd to see it. And then you take a picture and like, oh my God, that's the Mona Lisa. Uh, Mona Lisa stock down, mystic lamb, mystic lamb Lamb you walk through a cathedral and it's it's massive it's like a movie theater screen and it has shutters it opens up it's it's a billion years

old it's been stolen like 45 times so the history of it's really yeah it's insane that was really cool in Ghent and then I would say probably house in outs, right outside Dublin. It's like a beach area of Dublin. It's just, Ireland is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Um, and it's, it's amazing that 9 billion people don't try to live there, honestly, like it's, it's just special. So great trip for those that are listening and, and, you know, got to take away a little something or want to know travel spots, hit up the show and we'll help you out. But, and I know we have a lot of international listeners too, which is right. Which is always really, really cool.

I'm very jealous of where, where you all live and very glad that, you know, we get to do a little visit here and there. Yeah. Anybody who's an international listener of the show, an international addict, if you will, let us know if Connor hit up the right spots or if next time. Or did he just botch his entire trip? No, it's the beauty's in the eye beholder. When you travel, you don't even got to worry about that.

But like, I mean, listen, I haven't been to over to Europe in a long time. Uh, and so we are Jones in the go back. I'd love to have recommendations in that area. Anybody who's over there saying like, Hey, if you come over here, this is the must visit spot or must have meal must enjoy drink, whatever it is. We would love to hear that if you guys can give us some comments in the show so hey before we get the tight ends and i know people who are listening are like wow this is a really long intro well just if you want to talk just just skip ahead a little bit we're having a little bit of fun in this episode just because connor got back and then we also on twitter you can underscore n, who is he proclaims a huge fan of the show.

And I absolutely believe it because he fired off seven questions that could be in a mailback. He said, love to hear you two talk about these controversial topics. And they're not I, Connor, I don't think they're going to take up 90% of the show, but I do believe that we could fire through these bad boys rapid fire to give people like a mini mailbag and just to give a little salute to you who sent these questions to us. Yeah, they're great. Okay. So you have seen them. I have seen them. I haven't like overly prepared though. So that's good. I want them to be natural. Okay. All right. So this is from at you underscore NFL. So you guys can go hit them up and,

and get in on the questions next time. If you guys collaborate there a little bit. First question. How do you pronounce GIF? Now I just said it. So that's how I say it. I say GIF. Other people say that it's supposed to be GIF like peanut butter.

No, I don't know. You say gif because you're not on an fbi wanted list it's gif it's i mean when i hear somebody say gif i immediately don't trust them i just think about the peanut butter like what do you mean the peanut butter totally well i say i say you a gif this morning will you send me a jar of peanut butter this morning what i think so all right 100 right. 100%. It's GIF. If anybody else is on the other side of it, you can comment,

but we'll just roast your ass in the comments if that's the case. I got to read number two because you're a bit of a wing connoisseur. This is true. This is very true. I mean, and I'm actually fascinated to know your answer on this. Which half of the wing is best? And Uriel says, flats are more flavorful let's be real do you agree Trevor I feel like wing diehards don't go flats it's so all right so

here's my answer for it and it's a little bit of a cop-out but I've got to stay true to my heart the higher floor to me is a flat because i just feel like you know you've got you've obviously got the the first bite on the one side of the flat you got the second bite on the other one you're getting the meat out of the middle and it's just like you know exactly what you're getting every time the floor is so high with that one with like drums you sometimes it's like the greatest bite you ever had because there are there are drums they're shaped so perfectly where you get you're able to get that full scoop of ranch or blue cheese or whatever it is and it's just like the perfect bite but there are other times when like the drums are shaped horribly or you get gypped and there's like

there's just not a there's just not a lot of meat on there so i i think if i had to choose i'd probably go drums but okay but the flat got the higher floor what do you think what's your answer i i go flats for a lot of the reason you explain but the ceiling of the draw it's just few and far between when it's really really done right i mean i listen i can't have you ever do the, uh, do you do the thing where you can, you can push the meat down on a, on a flat and get like the meat umbrella, you know, like people from Buffalo do that. You ever seen people do that? I don't think so. Yeah. I've had wings in Buffalo, but that's you.

You grab like the top of the flat and you like squeeze your fingers and you push down on it and so like all the meat i got you out and they literally call it like a meat umbrella because then you're holding the bones and then like the wild name wild name but i think let me make the meat umbrella today with my hands but i think i think you can you can scoop a sauce is better that way on a flat so this isn't getting better i'm changing my xbox gamer tag to meat umbrella the second is so good meat umbrella 69 is logged on to madden make sure you guys follow me on twitter add meat umbrella the second is so good meat umbrella 69 is logged on to madden make sure you guys follow me on twitter at meat umbrella oh jeez all right anyways okay so that's anyone that skipped to the tight ends is a sucker they're missing i promise this is as good as the show

is gonna get hit today i promise you this number i the piece. I'm going to bring the term meat umbrella back when we go through tight ends. Did you never leave? Oh, okay. No, when we get back to tight ends. Question number three. Milk, then cereal, or cereal, then milk? It blows my mind this question exists.

I've never in my life witnessed somebody pour a bowl of milk and then cereal into no i haven't i've never seen they don't exist they don't exist it's a complete myth it's a complete myth and if somebody does that like makes me think of like somebody pouring croutons into soup it doesn't even make sense it's just so it's such an odd move yeah no you put the you put the milk over the cereal. Yeah, you have to. I really hope that all of you are doing that.

And if not, comment on the show. Yeah, like and subscribe. Smash. Number four. Do you say on accident or by accident? The correct answer, I guess grammatically, I didn't look this up beforehand, is always by accident. And he says, always by accident. And he says,

explain on accident. Because when I thought about it, I was like, I think I use both. I do. It's like, I use both very interchangeably. If on accident is the first thing that comes to my mind, I have no hesitation saying that,

but I guess maybe that's not correct. I definitely say that though, even if it's not, but I also will throw in a by accident as well i think i say on more though i think i also say on right like oh they that was on accident yeah i definitely say on accident but sometimes i'll say bye all right all right number five when you get out of the shower do you get fully dry or minimal drying and then close like a psycho? Yeah.

I don't really. I like your commentary. I don't really. I don't understand how you would shower and then not get full. The only part of that that I could understand is maybe like hair. If you're doing something. Yeah, I don't dry my hair. Right.

Like I'll kind of do the, you know, the scrunch dry with the hair, but then, you know, especially if it's in the morning, we're preparing for this show, you know, we gotta be dressed to the nines. Then we gotta, you know, you gotta get the blow dryer in there to actually, you know, finish the job. But no, I, I fully dry. I don't really know how anybody could go half dry out of the shower. That seems kind of gross. I do a lot of lingering. Like if I have time and that's not always the case, I am usually just horrible figuring out time.

But if I have nowhere to go for the day and I shower, like I'll just linger, like just throw briefs on and just I'll air dry is what I'm saying. Oh, okay. So you, so you kind of are, you are a little bit of the, of a psycho as you're. Yeah. Yeah.

But I don't put my clothes on like while i'm still damp that's weird no yeah that's weird that's definitely definitely the air dry like i don't need to i don't need to just like scrub and scratch with the towel for an hour yeah luxury luxury is a work from home people i don't know what you want from me number six apple or android i mean yeah. Apple. One billion percent Apple. Yeah. Yeah. If you're a team Android, again, smash like and subscribe on the show, comment, and then

absolutely fight us in the parking lot. And then make a rival account. Right. Seven. This is the last one. When playing games, so I assume this is either like a type of board game video game something like that when playing games do you save slash hoard your quote-unquote lifesaver moves or things that you have in your back pocket or things like that or do you use them right away

i'm a i'm a big hoarder i think man yeah like i think of like any rpg like when it comes to like ammo supplies like i'm talking like all the way from red dead to the last of us to zelda um i am a big big hoarder i i can't i can't live on the edge like that no i can't either i can't i when i approach gameplay for whatever reason my default is like you've got to be prepared for worst case scenario you know like if somebody comes at you in a way that you didn't expect like you better have that extra ammo or like you better have that trap card or like're like, you better have like, you better not blow it. So I'm not a, I'm, I'm not like one of those. Let's get super aggro right off the bat. Right. I'm, I'm maybe more, maybe just more of a reserve player that way. But yeah, those are very fun.

Those are very fun. Uriel, that was awesome. Again, giving him a shout out at U Y U K E underscore NFL. If you guys have any fun answers to those questions, any big opinions on meat umbrellas, please, again, comment on the show. This is kind of an outside-the-box fun show, and we would love to hear from you guys there. All right, let's get into it.

Let's finally give the diehards what they are here to actually listen to, and that is for us to break down the 2023 tight end class, sorry, 2024 tight end class prior to the 2023 college football season. Connor, we always go from five to one, save the suspense for the end. But let me tell you, there's not a single person listening to this podcast that thinks that they don't already know who number one on this list was going to be, but it's going to be a fun one nonetheless, talking about these guys. Who did you have at number five? This was tough.

Number five often is that variable spot where you feel bad leaving someone out that you thought should be in it. And for me, this came down to really two guys because of their floor. I'll talk about the ceiling guy at the end of the show. And we talk about the extra guys. I didn't want to throw a ceiling dart into five. Two floor guys, both from the same conference in the end of the show and we talk about the extra guys i didn't want to throw a ceiling dart into five two floor guys both from the same conference in the big 10 it came down to kate stover and brevin spanford and okay and i went with spanford um honestly that like it's you can make the argument for either but i'll get into into Spanford because I know we're going to have time to talk about Cade on this show. He's massive, the tight end from Minnesota.

He's 6'7", 270. He is an excellent blocker, Trevor, an excellent blocker. He's a proven run blocker. Not only has he graded out extremely highly as a run blocker, he puts out really good tape of moving people off the line of scrimmage, blocking on the move, being a difference maker in the run game. And fortunately, we got to see in 2022 him unlock his receiving potential as well. He had 42 catches.

He had almost 500 receiving yards. He had two touchdowns. He's a good athlete. He has some clips of him hurtling defenders. There is, you know, he really reminded me of austin safarian jenkins when watching him same exact body same exact blocking in a really really good way and then you look at how big he is in the middle of the field and it's like okay if that guy is gonna catch the ball if i put it on him because he's so big so it was almost confusing watching him because i said didn't, why wasn't he in the draft? Right. I don't think he's a top two or three rounds kind of player, but as a 60 year senior this year, I don't know

how much he can improve on. I mean, he's a pro ready blocker. He's always going to be this kind of mediocre ish receiver, but adequate, fine, completely fine. Some red zone potential because of his size. If you looked at the ways teams will want to use Darnell Washington from last year's draft and you go through that process of span forward, you're like, okay, he could be my sixth offensive line people mover. He can catch the ball. There's some receiving potential here. And I really, really liked him.

I liked him a lot. And obviously it was very close between him and Stover. Stover does a lot of the same things well, which was interesting. But this kind of size that Spanford has is very, very rare when you know how to utilize that size in the football field. Yeah. So I'm a little bit different with with both of these guys. I'm higher on Cade Stover than you are. But I'm a little bit lower on Brevin Spanford. So that's kind of a good way to intro my thoughts on him. I did think that we saw him decently similar. I just, I feel like, so I'm just a little bit lower

on what he is right now as a receiver, because you and I both certainly agree, he's an imposing blocker, man. I mean, just listing off his size he's six foot seven 263 pounds that's what minnesota has him listed at that's 95th percentile in height and 84th percentile in weight so this is a big boy like this huge this is a this guy has nfl caliber size right now so you know when i look at background, he was only a three-star prospect. He's from the state of Minnesota.

He played tight end. He played wide receiver. And he played defensive end in high school. So he played both sides of the ball because of that size. I think that everybody would feel like that would be the case. He started 26 games over the last two seasons. So he's got some great experience. Some PFF stats that you touched on as well,

but to give a little bit more context to him, elite 91.1 overall grade in 2022, which is fantastic over 2.0 yards per route run in each of the last two seasons. So when they're throwing this guy the ball, he's getting a decent clip out of there. Now, I think that that also stems from he's not running as many routes where he would be the decoy. Like when he's out there in the receiving game, when he's running routes, he's often first or second in the progression. Like they're trying to get him involved in the game. It's not a constant because of how much he is used. Like you said, is that sixth offensive lineman as a blocker, but it's good to see that when he is used as a receiver,

they go to him and when they do, it's normally a pretty good return on investment. 82.6 run blocking grade in 2022. So that's, again, fantastic there. 434 run blocking snaps to just 224 receiving snaps last year. So again, I mentioned he's a little bit more of a blocker than he is as a receiver. You hit the things that I liked about him pretty well. I think he's a ready-made pro

in probably the reasons why you would draft him. The two issues that I had from him and probably a reason why he just wasn't higher on this list is he is an imposing blocker. He's got some great strength to his blocking profile, but I didn't see that as much when the ball was coming his way as a receiver. Specifically, if you have a player that big, you know that, okay, he's a good athlete, but let's face it, he's 6'7", 263. So a lot of his catches are probably going to be contested. There's going to be a lot of guys around him. He's not running away from people creating these big throwing windows.

So I didn't think that his strength at the catch point was as good as it could be, given the strength that I've seen in his blocking profile. And I also felt that for a guy who's six foot seven, he didn't maximize his catch radius with those long arms as much as I wanted him to. So I had him tight end eight. I had him a little bit lower, but those were two areas. There are sometimes when we do these exercises where I've got guys, Hey, seven, eight, nine in the rankings where I go, that's kind of just because you are who you are. Span Ford, if he gets a little bit more reliable in those contested catch situations,

and if he's making the most out of that big catch radius, I'll probably say like, all right, man, like you've got a great floor as a blocker. I can put you in on any down. And now I like you in the areas and I'm probably going to use you, which is over the middle and in the red zone because you've got that shrink profile

now to your receiving game too. So that's where I saw him. That's why I'm a little bit lower, but we did kind of see him pretty similar. Yeah. I mean, I think it's also an interesting year where number five is not a very glorious spot. Honestly, it's right now. That's very true. Full transparency.

I know before we were chatting, you know, I watched 10 guys for this exercise. You watched 11. I've seen a handful of more, some of them from last year, like you're a second Eric all right. Include those in the 10, but I've seen them. And I, there wasn't anybody that commanded the fifth spot. I think somebody kind of fell into it because of what they are right now. And I can make the same exact arguments for Stover, but, and you know, you just help those guys improve on those aspects of their game but i'll i'll pretty easily admit or be blunt

about i was much more excited about four to one than five to one sure so number five for me and i could i could definitely see what you're talking about there for sure i got ben snot from kansas state i'm gonna i'm not gonna lie to the good people i really didn't know who Ben Sanat was until I got into this exercise. And I saw a couple of people saying like, Hey, keep your eye on this guy. I was like, I don't even remember hearing his name in college football. So plays for Kansas state. He's going to be a senior this year, six foot four, 245 pounds. So he's a little, a little bit smaller, a little bit lighter. That's 38th percentile in height, 17th percentile in weight. But I will say it feels like we are gravitating towards lighter tight ends. So that 245 weight number, I think it's a 17th percentile now. If we recheck that in three years, four years, I bet that's like 35 to 45th percentile, man.

Yeah, it's pretty standard. I just think that that's the way that the game is going. So anyways, that's his measurables there. How about this, Connor? Zero star recruit out of Waterloo, Iowa. Or I think Indiana. I can't remember which one it is. I should have probably clarified that in my notes. But anyways, zero star recruit from Waterloo,

which I think goes perfectly into his scouting profile and why I like this guy so much. Kansas State uses him in a variety of different ways. They use him in the slot. They've used him out wide. They use him in line, attached to the line of scrimmage. They use him as a wingback. I've seen him in a fullback position. He is the true do-it-all player. And when you find out that he was a zero-star recruit and that he has had to truly work his ass off for every bit of playing time that he has earned at Kansas State, it just magnifies kind of the workers' mentality, the workers' style of play that you see from him. I think he's a really willing blocker.

He is not afraid to stick his nose in there. When that ball comes to him, when they actually throw him the football, you can tell that he acts like this is the last time that he's going to get a pass. And I think his 66.7 contested catch percentage, it really speaks to that. Now he also had four drops,

which I was pretty shocked about because he consistently, I felt caught well through contact and the drops, I think more, more just concentration things than anything else. But I thought it was the adjustments personally. I mean, I thought he really struggled to adjust when the ball is away from him or he has to reconfigure his body.

That's where I saw those drops come up on tape. So and that's certainly I would definitely co-sign up with that as well. 16 explosive plays. So that's receiving gains of at least 15 yards or more. So, you know, they're using him in that ability, his strength. So I'll just list a couple of them off here that I have really versatile player. I mentioned all the different spots he could play in. Impressive ability to flip the hips. He just feels very natural in the

way that he moves. Of course, his body's a little bit smaller in size than you are going to talk about with some of these other tight ends. And so you want to see that, but you do see that I think he's an average athlete for the NFL level, but I at least think he's average, which is more than I can say for a lot of the other guys lower on this list that i'm worried about athletically he is not a body catcher i mentioned i i didn't like the fact that i felt like the body of the the ball was coming into the body of brevin span forward way too much that's not the case with vince not those arms are fully extended as much as they possibly can be and for his contested catch numbers to be all the way up with his arms fully extended you know that that's good a little bit too.

Some things that I'll say that he just needs to work on where his mentality for blocking is certainly there. Not afraid to contact at all whatsoever. He is a little bit too much of a shoulder blocker right now. He is trying to just punish and really punch the guys that he's going up against with a ton of contact at the very beginning when he runs into him. But there were definitely times when you could tell some of the more seasoned pass rushers, some of the more seasoned blitzing linebackers, they'd see him turn his body to throw that shoulder and they would just swim move by him or they would just immediately be able to roll off of it. So you got to square these guys up. And I think that he definitely can, but this is somebody who, when you understand his background and where he came from,

you see a lot of that style out there on the field. I think he moves really well. I think he is attentive to the techniques and the discipline part of playing the position to be a reliable football player. And I think that ultimately is why I have him at number five, because you mentioned it. A lot of guys that you could probably list at number five, and that's not really because of great reasons, probably low ceiling reasons. But I know that I can probably, whatever I'm going to demand of this guy, whether it's a rookie season, a second year, a third year, whatever, this dude is going to be a workhorse. And I think the floor for Ben Sanat is really high in this tight end class

because of everything that he's able to bring to the table. And that mentality of him going from a zero star recruit to somebody that we're now talking about at an NFL level. So that was my thoughts on Sanat who comes in at number five for me. He didn't make my top five, but I watched a lot of him and I see what you're saying with him. He kind of came out of nowhere. It felt like a little bit last year.

He had a nice season. He had some big time stretches. He plays really hard. He does make some tough catches. I was frustrated by some of the drops or the lack of it looking natural to him all the time. I think that you do see an okay athlete. I didn't think he was great after the catch.

I thought he was just okay. But like you said, at number five, you know, the door is kind of open when you hear us talk about these guys. And Sanat is somebody right now that is, you know, he's absolutely on the radar in the senior tight end class and not just on the radar, but probably pretty high on it too from what we've heard. Number four for me, this is where I thought it got a little bit more exciting.

And I had UNC's Bryson Nesbitt. Okay. And when you look at Nesbitt play, number one, it's easy to watch because he plays with Drake May. So you're going to see one of the things I wrote down. So Nesbitt, 6 six five and a quarter 235 um one of the things that you know last year he finished with 35 catches 507 yards four touchdowns that's a pretty typical stat line you're gonna hear with a lot of these guys

um he really knows how to work back to the quarterback in the scramble drill because of playing with drake may that was something with him that i saw him have a knack for the first line though in my notes i wrote down it's just that was something with him that i saw him have a knack for the first line though in my notes i wrote down it's just that he plays with an edge in everything he does and he's not the heaviest tight end obviously i'm sure 235 would be pretty low in the historical percentiles and that's why i did write in the cons that it's a long shot he ever develops into an inline threat he's not going to be this guy that you put on the line of scrimmage and ask to block. You are taking him to be a move tight end. I thought viable power slot. There's some explosiveness into his routes. He will get his head knocked off to make a catch. He's got a big

catch radius for contested situations, and he's a dangerous seam runner. I mean, the speed he has can really challenge the heels of linebackers and put them on their heels and kind of have them sweating a little bit. So Nesbitt's a productive guy, but when you look at some of the playmakers that have left that UNC offense, I think the door is open for him to potentially have upwards of 700 to 800 yards and eight-plus touchdowns this year. I really do. I think he's got the rapport and the chemistry with Drake May.

I think he understands how to rapport and the chemistry with Drake May. I think he understands how to play in the pro game. And I think he's a good athlete. I really do. If you're asking for somebody to be this completely perfect, well-rounded tight end, he's not going to be your guy. But if you want somebody that can be this power slot receiving threat that has seen stretching ability, something that wasn't always the easiest thing to find in this class, then Nesbitt will be for you. Yeah. So he just missed my top five. He was one of those guys that I debated potentially being at that five spot. I ultimately didn't go with him because maybe I'm just not seeing him correctly, but I saw a lot of the strength deficiencies I felt like in his game, when it came to the fact that I agree with you completely, he's not going to be an inline player.

I just don't think that he is. Even when you watch him get out of his stance to run, he's not coming out low. Like he, he is immediately the second that ball was snapped. He is straight up. He just gets straight vertical. It doesn't make good for leverage when it comes to blocking.

And I think that UNC knows that. That's why they don't ask him to do it very often. If he is ever blocking, it's often in a split zone assignment where he's a wingback on the opposite side of the line of scrimmage. The offensive line's moving left. He's coming behind the line of scrimmage, moving right to take the defensive end or the linebacker that's coming crashing down that they're leaving open. But you do that, then he's completely up.

So it's just about squaring guys up in between the shoulders i don't think he's going to be an inline presence stall whatsoever did i have the numbers i think i have the numbers here uh maybe i don't i lied i lied once again very big shocker but yeah i i he's he's just somebody who you're not going to play him in line very much and so maybe i'm a little bit too harsh on that because i don't think the acceleration's great like he just he just seems very high-waisted and i feel like his his zero to 40 like zero to 30 takes a while but then his 30 to 60 like he's got the final gear you mentioned when he gets going yeah what he could be is a seam vertical player. That's what I love to see him in a vertical stretching offense. Cause I think that's where you're getting the most out of him because it might take

him a couple of extra steps to get from zero to 30, but then that 30 to 60, it's going to look like he's gliding and he's very comfortable behind the second level. You mentioned how smart he is. He's greatiding. He's very comfortable behind the second level. You mentioned how smart he is. He's great in between zones. I think there are times when he can flip the hips decently quickly, especially stop when he needs to stop against zone coverage. Bigger body, 6'5 guy. Measurables, let me look these up so that people have them really quick.

6'5, which would be the 66th percentile for tight ends. Listed at 235. And so that's, again, that goes into the lack of strength the lack of blocking profile that's just the second percentile of tight end so that's light which those numbers his alignment his snaps make you think that okay is this guy just going to be listed basically as a wide receiver in the nfl level maybe that is the case so he's listed as a tight end we're talking about him here on tight end day but he could just be wide receiver in the NFL level, maybe that is the case. So he's listed as a tight end. We're talking about him here on tight end day, but he could just be a receiver at the next level. I'll say this though. All the guys we're talking about today for the most part,

besides a very, very small handful at best are like fifth and sixth year players. He's had two years of college. He was a true freshman in 2021 so good note i actually lean on the optimistic side of him him ultimately being like 245 or 250 when his nfl combine comes because he's tall he's very tall very tall you know it's just once again when you're an old tight end it's so easier to have that many years of college weight and nutrition program where this dude like i think that you're i think your trajectory will benefit him because of his age i think that's fair that's a fair thing to bring up for sure um he's not my number four guy before i get to my number four guy gotta talk to the fantasy football people out there imagine this you draft the perfect team in fact you draft a team that is so good you've got lineup decisions

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If you've got a gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER. One per customer, opt-in required with a $10 entry fee. Bonus is issued as $10 DK dollars. Age and eligibility restrictions apply. Void where prohibited. See DraftKings.com slash promotions for details. All right, number four for me. I was torn on this one connor number four for me i assume is number three for you is jaheem bell so jaheem bell was wrong my friend but go on

okay i like it then we're gonna see him a little bit differently again maybe you're uh i think this is actually becoming a theme of the tight end show i did the jaheim bell thing last summer people can go watch it uh we'll get into it so i jaheim bell now he's playing at florida state was playing at south carolina listed at six foot three 233 pounds six foot three is in the 15th percentile of the tight end position. 233 pounds would be in the second percentile. So pretty low in weight there for Jaheim Bell. And the reason why is because he's kind of just this all-around player. And that's also why I have him at number four here.

And maybe some people have him higher. They like to bet on the athleticism because when you watch him, he's a fantastic athlete there out on the field. I just don't know how much you're going to utilize that as a tight end at the next level. Only 44 snaps as an inline tight end in 2022. He had 82, so almost double of that as a slot receiver. And then he had 168 snaps as a halfback. Now, South Carolina's injuries and their roster construction throughout the season, I think, went into that. But he's just not this traditional tight end. He's almost,

I don't mean to just say this because Debo also went to South Carolina, but he's this Debo Samuel, hey, this guy's just a true athlete for us and we're going to play him wherever we got to play him. That's great in college. That rarely happens at the NFL level. You just don't get that a lot. So he's not a seasoned tight end. In fact, tight end was the position that he played the least last year. A little bit of background.

Okay, four-star tight end from Valdosta, Georgia. Played tight end wide receiver in high school. He tore his ACL midway through his senior season in high school, which caused him to miss the rest of that final season of high school eligibility. He originally committed to Florida Go Gators, but he changed it to South Carolina in the end, spent three seasons in Columbia. Now he transferred to Florida State, so he's playing

at Florida State. Now, his stats are a little weird. I try to find PFF stats to give context to player skill sets and what we could see them being. The average depth of target last year was just 3.8 yards. That's really low. Now, of course, him playing most of his snaps

out of the backfield, that goes into that. You're not getting vertical down the field like you would be if you were a true receiver or a tight end most of the time. So I think you got to take that into account, but still, low average depth of target, that's kind of tough to see. What's not tough to see is the contested catch situation which i like 66.7 contested catch percentage um super versatile athlete excellent balance through contact he's

a really tough guy to bring down i just feel like he was i don't know i i don't know i don't know if misused in south carolina is is is the way to say it, but he just was not used like a tight end in 2022. And that makes his projection really difficult. Because if you want to sit here and say, no, no, no, no, no, forget about the snap counts that we saw at South Carolina. Don't worry about it. Florida State's going to use him in the right way. Well, okay. What's the right way? Because I just listed off the percentiles. If you want to call him in the right way. Well, okay. What's the right way? Because I just listed off the percentiles. If you want to call him a tight end, it's 15th percentile in height and he's second percentile in weight. So you're probably just using him as a slot receiver or a wingback.

Anyways, you're probably not going to have him on the line of scrimmage. All of that to say, this is a really good athlete. He is an explosive player. When you watch Jaheim Bell versus other tight ends in this class, you go, that guy's different. That guy's a better athlete than a lot of the other players that I'm watching, minus the meat umbrella himself, Brock Bowers. But that is where you kind of lose me with putting him a lot higher on this list is I just don't know how much you're really going to use this guy as a tight end. And I don't know exactly where his home position is if it's not tight end.

So he's number four. I think he's got to be in the top five just because of the caliber athlete he is. But that's my thoughts on Jeanne Bell. It's the conundrum I ran into and why I didn't put him in my top five. Okay. I don't know what he is anymore.

And honestly, I thought his best tape is that running back full, full honesty. I thought his best tape was just in the backfield and as a pure runner and however creative you want to get with handing him the ball or dumping the ball off to him. He's not a real tight end. And wow, it doesn't mean there's not a roster role for him at the nfl level because you can carry hybrid players whether you view him as a sixth wide receiver a third tight end a third or fourth running back or this chess piece spot of it all but it's tough man he is really exciting to watch what What's that? I'm looking this up right now.

I forgot to look this up before the show. If you were to say he's a halfback, his height would be 98th percentile. Ninety-ninth percentile. And his weight would be Brandon Jacobs. Come on, brother. It's like I'm just looking at the top top of the list and Brandon Jacobs is 267. That's insane. Dude, wild.

I was on a flight with him once. Brandon Jacobs? Yeah, I think he was flying for, it was when he was done playing, but like the Giants always have alumni come back and stuff. And like, I didn't bother him, but just like, he was a couple of rows away. And I'm just like, this is a defensive end. Dude, dude, stack. Like I couldn't, like I could believe how big he was.

But even when I'm like, God, he was a good running back. And he looks like a D end. Right. It would be 99th percentile in height and 93rd percentile in weight. So maybe you think here's a body type for you. Big ass running back. Latavius Murray, 6'3", 230. Isn't Latavius Murray the sneakiest 6'3", 230?

I think we've talked about this on this very show. Probably. And both of us... That's his listed height weight now. Whoa. Yeah, he's a great player. Interesting. And he's the reason he's 33 and still rumbling

but i don't think it's it's weird so i look back at our summer rankings and we each had jaheim bell at three we were very excited about him because you look at him and you think um johnny smith yes like last summer i think that's what we talked about. Right. And it's like, great. Like this is Johnny Smith. But what's Johnny listed at? It's gotta be similar, right? Johnny, Johnny Smith at the combine was six, three, two 48. So he's a full 15. So he's a full 15 pounds bigger than Jaheim Bell and 15 pounds bigger puts Only gets him at 28th percentile, though. Right. It's very tricky with him.

I just, I wanted to buy into the promise again, like I did last summer. And I just stopped myself. Yeah, I think that's great. I'm just like, I hope Jaheim Bell's, here's my other thing. Florida State's offense is awesome this year. Yeah, correct. They have stars at running back,

wide receiver, and quarterback. Like, why am i selling myself on well you know what florida state's gonna really have to unlock jaheim bell they don't he could be good there yeah they don't need him to be superman they got that at the other three positions so i hope it really works out for him i'm not writing him off as an nfl prospect at all but i couldn't put him in my top five so fair that's fair man fair i i had what you were talking about when you were mentioning how number five isn't super inspiring and how there's a behemoth at the very top of this class there's one other guy who i think we're both going to have at number two, who's very intriguing. It's very chalk top.

And then I think it's a lot of low ceiling players, mainly due to athleticism and bell, at least is a really good athlete. So I'm in the business of drafting athletes at, in a sport that demands that you be a good athlete. So that's why I ended up having a so yeah that's why it's that's why I ended up having a mid number four but it's I I all that to say I do agree with you I'm worried about what he's actually going to be at the NFL it's a good process though and it brings me to

number three for me where I kind of hope I I found someone here or think I'm projecting in the right way. And I look at Luke Lachey for Iowa. Oh, I didn't watch him. He's awesome. Did you say Iowa? Iowa. Which is. How do they do this? How do they.

How are they doing this? It's just they constantly do it. And you go back to the well. Like I laugh. Last summer, I had Laporta as tight end too. And this summer, like this summer, I enter. This summer, I had Laporta as tight end two. And this summer, like, this summer I enter, this summer I enter looking at Iowa's tight end that was playing behind Laporta, but not really,

as tight end three. It's right. How do they do this? When you watch him, so here's the game that I would recommend everyone start with. Laporta, at the end of the year, because of the meniscus, missed the game against Nebraska in November, in that game, Lashay had seven catches for 89 yards in a touchdown. And it's like, yeah, he's good to go. He's just in an offense that has somebody

older than him and more ready. Cause that's what what Iowa does he finished the year with 28 catches on 43 targets for 382 yards of four touchdowns but when he was the guy because Laporta missed the game against Nebraska he went off and you just watch the traits so he's 6'6 253 basketball background he's 6'6 253 yeah he's huge he's huge good athlete now I'm just mad you didn't tell me about him hands catcher excellent adjustments and quick transitions like he plucks

his hands are actually better than Laporta's he's not a better player than Laporta but he has better hands than Laporta he plucks everything out of the air he quickly tucks it in to run tough after the catch can grind out yards basketball background is evident with the athleticism than Laporta. He plucks everything out of the air. He quickly tucks it into run. Tough after the catch, can grind out yards. Basketball background is evident with the athleticism in his receiving game. Big strides, easily covers a lot of ground. And then as a blocker,

I wrote, he fires into his assignments with a lot of upper body power when blocking on the move. The cons of his blocking was he needs to avoid ducking his head. It gets him in a lot of trouble and he needs to develop more leg drive to sustain his blocks. He's kind of, he kind of shoots one bullet as a blocker. And it's like, I hope this upper body kill shot works instead of driving with his legs consistently. But I also look at him and go back to the conversation of the whole sixth year college tight ends compared to this guy, Luke Lachey, who has been at Iowa for two true seasons, much younger than a lot of these guys and go, he's 6'6", 253, likes blocking, he's strong. He just needs to learn how to do it more consistently. And he's already a great

receiver in my eyes. So I really like this dude. I really do. This is a school that coaches and trains the position as good as you'll ever see yep and i think he's ready to roll and i think he showed that in the game that laporta missed and he had a lot of other good games too but this guy's a really really good player and a really good nfl prospect i love it man i got i definitely gotta watch it like size alone that that at least you mentioning how big he is goes, okay, that's a tight end. Somebody we're talking about over here. You know what's crazy with him?

He's from Columbus. How often does that happen? I just read his little bio on Iowa. Did you see his dad played at Ohio State? I did. I totally missed that. That makes it even more absurd. His dad played at Ohio State.

He's from Columbus, Ohio. Ohio State must have not. I guess they they were like we don't care about you i'm not gonna question ohio state's recruiting they have a decent track record in my lifetime no i'll quit this dude oh shoot this dude's really good 24 7 um sports that's where i go to for a lot of my ranking stuff uh or my recruiting stuff they have a high school projection on him and they say eventual second third round player they say pro comparison tyler eifer nice okay same height all right nice job 24 7 don't they do that when they're in high school they do that when they're in high school? They do that when they're in high school, yeah. And they don't do it for every play.

Right. You know, like they only do it for the players that, you know, I think that they would deem it worthy to do something like that. Oh, he was recruited by Ohio State. Oh, dagger. But he didn't get an offer. Oh. Oh, no.

It's brutal. It is. All right. I think it's going to work out. I think it's going to work out for him. That's a good transition, though. Guy, I have a number three is Cade Stover from Ohio State. This is somebody who I watched at the end of last year,

and I was like, hmm? Maybe. We got something here? So he ended up going back to Ohio state. So he is still at Ohio state, but Cade Stover, I think he's going to be a lot more involved in the offense than he was last year,

even with their stud wide receivers that we will get to on next week's episode, but Stover's listed at six foot four, 251 pounds. You talk about being a tight end size. At least he's getting a lot closer to the middle of that percentile. He's 38th percentile in height, 43rd percentile in weight. So again, a little bit closer than some of the other guys that we've been listed on this show. He's got a pretty intriguing background,

Cade Stover does. Four-star linebacker recruit from Mansfield, Ohio. He was named Ohio's Mr. Football in the Ohio Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior after rushing for over 1,400 yards, getting 17 offensive touchdowns, plus recording 163 tackles and four interceptions as a linebacker. He's a great linebacker. Yeah. Stover also set the Lexington all-time scoring record in basketball as well. He committed to play football at Ohio State over Michigan, Oklahoma, Penn State, Texas, Wisconsin specifically. Initially recruited to play linebacker at Ohio State, but he was moved to defensive end before the start of his freshman season. So they wanted to put a little weight on him, get on the line of scrimmage. Played four games before redshirting that first season.

Was then moved to tight end during spring practice in 2020. Returned to linebacker the following season, I believe due to injury, because they wanted him to bolster to the depth there. And then he was once again moved to tight end for his redshirt junior year. Last year, caught five passes for 67 yards. No, actually that was the year before. So he just played a little bit sparingly.

Ended up having to play linebacker again in the 2020 Rose Bowl. So that was not this past bowl season, but the one before, again, due to injuries. So when you look at Cade Stover's overall tight end career, statistics, output, production. It's not going to wow you. But you've got to understand that this guy was recruited as a linebacker. And half the time, I don't want to say half the time, because it's not quite half the time. He's played tight end more than half the time.

But there's a good chunk of his time where he was playing college football at the linebacker level or defensive end level. Essentially, if you combine all the time that he has played tight end, it's basically just two years of playing tight end. That's about it. And if you heard his high school stats, he had a lot of rushing yards as well. So this dude has just played all over the field. He has yet to truly hone in on the tight end position

like I think he has been able to over the last two seasons. So I would say that this upcoming year for Stover, there is reason to believe, even as a redshirt senior, that this is the best is yet to come for him. The thing that I like about him a ton is how high his floor is. He is a fantastic blocker in space. He understands how to block at the line of scrimmage. He's got the linebacker and the defensive end background he knows how those guys operate and he often uses that to his advantage his athleticism i think is very fluid for a player of his size he's he's a guy that i think is a fantastic tight end two option because he's got a lot of experience as a wingback player with the step with him being a

step behind the line scrimmage which allows him to then be a split zone blocker, like we said before, coming behind the line scrimmage, and also be used as a lead blocker. I think he's a great lead blocker, man. You get him out in space, he's got that athleticism, hand-eye coordination, timing, experience, everything, to line up linebackers or safeties who are coming up to him, sealing those last couple of blocks, and seeing guys like Maya Williams or Travion Henderson go flying behind him.

So I think that he is such a high floor because of that kind of background that he has and the kind of player that he is there. Look, he's not the most explosive athlete or have the best top speed. I think that both of those will probably be average at best areas in the NFL. That's why I think the ceiling form is probably a tight end too. But again, in this class, you take that. I thought, yeah, I'm with you. That is a rely. That is a, I can draft this guy and get something out of him on my football team type of a player. So lower of a ceiling, but a lot higher of a floor before, um, or for where we're,

we're, we're coming at for him. So that's the way that I look at him. I got him at number three and I'm sitting here saying, hey, this is a tight end two type of player. So that tells you how I'm kind of looking at the class at this point, but that's what I thought of Cade Stover overall. I'm with you. I mean, I have him tight end six. And if he finished his tight end three in this draft

because of his floor, it just wouldn't shock me at all. It wouldn't shock me at all. He does a lot of things well. He's not ever going to be asked to take on a large receiving role in an offense that has superstar talent at the skill positions. They don't need him to do that. And he seems completely fine handling that kind of role. Yep. So now we get into the final two and it's, I mean, you don't just do rankings like for shock factor and creativity, right? This is the reality of where they stand.

And you're going to see this pretty consistently, I think, throughout draft media. Maybe not. But number two for me, Jatavion Sanders from Texas. And interesting player, right? Former big time recruit really had a breakout season last year. He's six, four to 41. He's a good straight line athlete last year in his breakout season. He has 54 catches for 613 yards and five touchdowns. That receptions number of 54 was the most for a tight end in Texas program history. Pretty impressive for a program like that. I wrote down can use his size

and speed to make real tough middle of the field grabs can shield defenders when making a play on the ball unbothered by contact at the catch point straight line athleticism stands out yes will pancake smaller box defenders in the run game love to see that when there's a maybe a small you know college linebacker, some outside linebacker, should be like 225. He will look at a guy like that and I could put you in the dirt. The negative balance issues after the catch

that shocked me, it was, and to kind of paint the picture of the Texas offense, Sanders, they get him going on constantly on these chips, kind of chip blocks

and releases or screens or dump offs it's a lot of short scheme catch and run targets and I think he has potential in a better role like as a real tight end running real routes all the time in this kind of role where it's very short dump offs to get up field I saw some balance issues where he just wasn't able to get his footing he wasn't able to get upfield and make a move as much as you'd like. I think he's more of a move blocker right now. Some inline force. I don't see him as a guy you put on the line of scrimmage and you're going to ask him to down block and, and handle defensive ends or even true NFL size three,

four outside linebackers. But with safeties, slot corners, slot players, lighter edge outside linebackers at college. I thought he did a good job he's an interesting player because the potential for this guy is really really high I thought he started to tap into it last year I still saw a massive gap between him and number one I don't like this isn't like a first round player in my eyes but his receiving, it's really good right now with a chance to be even better because of the athleticism.

And that excites me. I kind of want to see this offense take the training wheels off him a little bit. Now, it also might be the training wheels on a young quarterback where they're like, we need our great weapon to have the ball in his hands to make things happen. But I really think this is somebody that can eat up the middle of the field running a full route tree. And for the glimpses I saw of him doing that were very impressive. Yeah, I would agree with you. I don't think this is somebody who is a first round type of a player yet, but I think that at least he can be.

And I, there's just not many in this tight end class that you would say the same thing about. He's a former five-star player. I don't know if you had mentioned that, but played basketball in high school wide receiver and defensive end his stats are pretty are pretty great actually so um last year of high school i believe uh he was named first team all district um at defensive end had 20 tackles for loss 11 sacks two forced fumbles three passes broken up while also catching 47 passes

for 763 yards and seven touchdowns when he was on offense he chose texas over basically any school in the country like every major school offered this dude a uh i almost said a contract but a scholarship but like kind of contract right now so um so obviously like texas got a good one in that regard i agree with you man I think the movement skills are fantastic. A couple of the things that I specifically wrote down, I think is a very natural mover, very fluid for a player who is 6'4", 240 pounds, which is what Texas has him listed at.

I noted this specifically as well. Excellent speed and explosiveness when he is getting out of a three-point stance. There are a couple of guys who look stiff high-waisted not as flexible not as explosive when they're getting out of this three-point stance this dude's played tight end and he's played defensive end he understands how to explode out of a three-point stance so where i do hear you i don't know how much you're gonna want him to play in line even if you've got him in like a jumbo package where you got 12 personnel on the field if you've got him in in a three-point stance you know this dude could get up the field

quick you're you are not reserved about that so the versatility still stands there even if the blocking is i agree with you not as good as it can be when he's going up against smaller players you mentioned it sometimes just the sheer size he can push over those corners in space but i will say that um i didn't hate his blocking profile but he was let me make sure i get it so i i say that he is more of a quote get in your way type of a blocker than like a people mover. You know, I watched him as a wingback coming behind the line scrimmage. And there were times where it was like, all right, defensive ends crashing down. Sanders is coming up.

It's about to be just like a train on train. And he just is like, boop. And he just kind of like, just, I'm way oversimplifying a violent game while I sit here in a computer chair doing a podcast. It was good though. But it's just like, he just kind of like gets in'm i'm way over simplifying a violent game while i sit here in a computer chair doing a podcast good though but it's just like he just kind of like gets in front of him and he gets in front of him in a way where he does his job well enough to where roshan johnson or bijan robinson can like get beyond where they need to get beyond but you notice if he has to maintain blocks especially against trench players, he can't.

Or he just doesn't. He doesn't right now. He doesn't have that strength profile in his game. His game as a receiver is much better than his blocking profile. But that's okay. He's a five-star for athletic reasons. You're going to use this guy a lot more in the passing game because of it. So the little SparkNotes version of them that I have on here, because I

have him at number two as well for it. People weren't already privy to that. Sanders shows you that five-star recruiting tag right away when the ball is snapped and you see him move. He is a big time problem for defenses in the passing game for how well he gets out of his stance and into his routes. He's comfortable making the most out of a massive catch radius, which is a big plus. And you can get plenty of yards after catch radius which is a big plus and you can get plenty of yards after catch from him i didn't notice the stumbling and balance part though i now that you say that when i go back and watch him i will keep that in mind he's not a people mover in the blocking game but he is adequate to still be on the field and get in those inline

situations where he can make the most out of that explosiveness so that's the way i see him as well very excited to watch what happens with him over this upcoming season because as a former five star and as a guy who i think is going to be a big part of their offense i gotta believe that uh he's probably going to be in next year's class so i hope it comes after a really great season connor before we get into um the guy who is number one, we have a Manscaped read. Manscaped, once again, sponsoring the podcast. Everybody's favorite ad read.

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It's smooth sack summer, boys. So get on board or get left behind. What a great transition. Take care of your meat umbrella. Into the human meat umbrella himself. I mean, he really is. The one and only Brock Bowers from the University of Georgia. Connor, we both are going to have plenty of words to say about this dude. Yeah. Run wild if you want. No hard feelings here. Okay. All right. I'll go first. So I'll just start by saying this. This is going to be one of the highest prospects I've ever graded from a numbers perspective.

The way that I have my scouting sheets and scouting breakdowns, I take everything from measurables to combine results, production, all that stuff into account uh i gotta think that brock bowers is going to be one of the top 10 players that i've i've really ever scouted since i really started to to do this so i guess i i've been doing it since like 2010 but you know five or six years of that was very basic level so i would say like since 2015 this is going to be one of the top 10 prospects that I've ever graded. He's incredible, dude. Background, a little bit of background, four-star tight end. So how dare people not give him that five-star label?

Four-star tight end from Napa, California. Who is from Napa, first and foremost? I mean, talk about tricking everybody. Yeah, I'm from wine country and now the baddest mfr you'll run into on the field growing up bowers played a variety of sports including football basketball baseball and soccer not a shocker when you watch him uh out there on the football field uh his parents both played sports at utah state uh his dad was an offensive lineman his mom was a record-breaking softball pitcher.

As a freshman in high school, he played quarterback for the team's junior varsity team, running the triple option. Bowers then was elevated up to the varsity team when he was a sophomore, and he played tight end as well as linebacker. He's a true freshman for Georgia. Bowers was named SEC Freshman of the Year and was an all-SEC first-team player and an all-American second-team player as a true freshman. In 2022, he was named a first-team All-American, so he jumped up there,

and he won the John Mackey Award as the nation's best tight end. Little note, I can't remember if I found this in George's bio or where I found this, but he has never, Connor, never made less than a B letter grade in school. Incredible. He's got the brains. He's truly incredible. So here's my, here was where I wondered

if I would sound like a contrarian with Brock Bowers because before I really watched his film, I did the measurable inputs of him. He's six. Georgia has him listed at six foot four, 240 pounds. I don't know if he's that big. I thought he was 230. I think he's-

Why did I have that? He's 230 in some places. And then I think some places have him at like 235. And then one place I looked at him at two 40, a lot of places have him mid two thirties. Connor, if he is just, if he is even 240 pounds,

that is still just the sixth percentile for a tight end at the NFL level. If you make, if you say that he is two 30 or two 35, where he's listed at in other places, that's like first percentile for the tight end position. They also have him listed at six foot four. I'm not so sure he's six foot four. I think he's probably more like six foot three,

which would be like 15th percentile. So Brock Bowers is not going to be this home run, passes the eye test or the get off the bus test type of a player he's just not but holy shit and this dude play the game of football 92.2 and 90.5 receiving grades as an underclassman a true freshman and true sophomore. 24 explosive plays of 15 yards or more last season were the most for a tight end for any FBS school. And 76.5 contested catch percentage in 2022 was top 10 of any receiver in the FBS. It's nuts. Just to list off some of the strengths that I had for him, because there are so many. He is a true power slot

or big slot kind of a receiver. Just such a very, very good athlete for a receiver who is that big. Even if you say, oh, he's a little bit small for a tight end. For a receiver who is six foot three, 230 pounds, incredible athlete. Really good blocker in space, especially when he's lined up in the slot. Consistently looking for extra blocking work. I mean, his, his head is on a swivel at all times to block the work ethic, the play through the whistle, that mentality, unbelievable for him. It's what every single coach is looking for. He is a reliable and effective red zone threat as an outside receiver for fade passes. That is incredibly reliable.

He is a natural yards after catch receiver and more than just natural. I would say incredible. Super strong hands for contested catches in all situations at any point in the field, whether the ball is coming into his chest, whether it's way above his head, whether it's at the peak of his catch radius to the left or right, whatever. This dude has super strong hands. The one weakness I have on him is that the weight factor of him being like 230 235 ish weight will limit his effectiveness as an inline blocker but his blocking technique is so good that he will even be able to hold himself against outside linebacker type players the only real

area of his game that i'm worried about is if you get this dude lined up against a 260, 265-pound true defensive end, yeah, he might struggle a little bit just because the weight profile is a little bit further down. But if he gets between 240 and 245 at the NFL level, maybe that's not going to be a problem at all. Final thing that I'll say about him before I alley-oop it over to you, this is my spark notes for him. Bowers would have been a first-round pick if he could have declared as a true freshman. He is the total package for a modern-day tight end. He gives you everything that you would want from a big receiver perspective, is excellent blocking in space, and is a puller, and has zero reps. Zero. Where he is not giving it his all,

no matter what his responsibility is. This is a easy slam dunk top 10 overall draft pick. 100%, 100%. He's George Kittle. Every great thing about George Kittle, this guy has. And the block, I mean, maybe not the total killer as a blocker yet, but I think he's going to get there.

The way they use him in the screen game, his ability with the ball in his hands after the catch, the jump ball ability. I mean, fascinating high school situation. He, I think he played quarterback as a freshman on JV, right? Yep, yep. Then sophomore year, the team is 0-10. Oh, I didn't know that.

I'm pretty sure that they were 0-10. Then as a junior, when he is officially a tight end receiver or whatever, you know, officially designation was, they go from being 0-10 to being in the state playoffs because he has 1,500 yards and 14 touchdown catches he's a one man football team i was about to get senior year was canceled because of covid i was about to get on him for the 0 and 10 and say oh tight end wins you know it's just not it's not looking good for and then he said fuck you trevor like literally i read somewhere and I might butcher this story, but I read that even in his, I think, junior year,

maybe going into his junior year of high school, nobody was really recruiting him. Nevada. Only Aubrey had. Yeah, until he went to some, I don't remember if it was Elite 11 or the Nike camp or whatever. And every coach in America was like, who the hell is that? Yeah, one of those moments.

Yep. Who is this? And the rest is history. The rest is history. Now he's one of the best players in college football. He's been one of the best players in college football. I think the combo with Brock Bowers is going to reach the low-hanging fruit question of, is he he better prospect

than Kyle Pitts? Right. And we'll have that combo when we do the tight end rankings in January or whatever it is. He's unbelievable. Unbelievable. What blew my mind when watching his tape from start to finish in 2021 to now was that he had earned the jump ball high point target trust immediately. Immediately. True freshman. And it's like, he's down there somewhere. I'm like, are you kidding?

You're on Georgia, the best team in the country. And they looked at him like that. Todd Munkin, the offensive coordinator, Stetson Bennett, one of the oldest college quarterbacks we've seen in a long time. Like guys that have been through a lot. Stetson Bennett, his dad. Look at this 18-year-old. And they're like, yeah, this dude's it.

So, and he's everything that's perfect for this game. He can play multiple alignments. Did you read the snap counts? No, I actually did not read the snap counts. So the last two years, 20 from the backfield, 633 in line, 631 from the slot, 169 out wide. And that's not counting that he's also played special teams. It's just, he catches everything.

He's great after the catch through contact or no contact. It was so hard to write down negatives. I literally wrote two notes. Can be over-aggressive, lunger when run blocking. Hope he can add 10 pounds. That's it. Yeah, right. That's it. And then the pros were

like 80 lines and you read most of them. It's just. He's such a good player and I'm not really going to spend the time right now to do the whole how high can a tight end go or how much better does a tight end make your team? This guy's one of the best players in the draft undoubtedly undoubtedly and he's going to be a phenomenal pro it's it's almost a shame he has to play college football this year i know georgia fans probably cringe hearing that but it's it's almost a shame i don't i don't need to see anything else yeah if hold on what year are we in 2023 2023 if rock bowers were eligible this past season okay or this past draft class do you think um we'll go through the draft and say where where would he go yeah like where

would he have gone who's picking oh he'd have gone three arizona wouldn't trade the pick i don't think arizona trades probably probably yeah and to play devil's advocate and say that the return was just too high that arizona had to trade that pick he goes what sixth uh sixth arizona right yeah well arizona arizona moved from three to twelve but then yeah they went back up for paris i mean the argument is he'd go in the top 10 yeah i mean by chicago at 10 he can't i think he'd go three i think he goes like you're in i don't think you're insane at all i think i think he would go three or he would have gone five. I think Seattle picks him at five. Right?

Yes. I mean, you don't have to agree with me. I didn't mean to put you back to a good corner. No, I do. I'm looking at all the teams right now and I'm just... It's the conversation is there. He's that good. Probably.

He's like a Pete Carroll dream. He's that good. Probably. He's like a Pete Carroll dream. He's from California. He's an incredible blocker for your run and get for your run game, your pass game, especially receiver because wide receiver one in this class went 20th. Like teams would have been starving to pick Brock Bowers in this past draft class. Yeah.

All right, there we go. Brock Bowers is number one draft class. Yeah. All right. There we go. Brock Bowers is number one. Is there anybody else? I know we kind of talked about a couple of other players that did not make your, Oh, can I shout out Trey Knox?

Yes. I'm going to, I'm going to shout out Arkansas tight end Trey Knox. Who now transferred, right? Yeah. He plays, sorry.

He, I, he plays for South Carolina now. I actually need to literally update that as we are doing the show. So he he played at Arkansas and now he's going to play

at South Carolina this upcoming season. I'm not going to lie. Knox was in the conversation for tight end five for me for this show. Wow. He is six foot five, 250 pounds now.

South Carolina's got him listed at 250. What was he as a recruit? He was really small as a recruit because he was a wide receiver as a recruit. He played wide receiver for the first two years to Arkansas, played a ton as a freshman, didn't really play a lot as a sophomore. They moved him over to tight end his junior year. He was still figuring things out there. Last year was his first year where he i think he actually looked comfortable playing tight end and now he transferred over to south carolina to try to get a fresh start

so he they have him at 250 now and i saw a picture of him it's legit they beat they beefed this dude up to actually be able to play on on on the line of scrimmage he was doing everything with the wings taking the flat wings just making meat umbrella after meat umbrella you gotta you gotta later you gotta do it dude uh he was he was 215 he got to arkansas weighing 215 and i was 250 he is super up and down right a lot of the fundamentals for playing the tight end position are not consistent for him yet. But the highs for him are absolutely there. He, again, moves super well as a former wide receiver for a guy who is now playing on the line of scrimmage. The overall grades have been low for him.

He's never posted a season where he's graded above 65.4. He never had a receiving grade above 67.4. But after the film that I watched, I'd be okay betting on that to this year maybe be his highest yet. Here's something to note, though, from his transition from you know, why did you ever do a tight end? Run blocking grade went from back-to-back grades in the 40s in 2020 and 2021 to 74.2 made a massive jump last year finally confident as a tight end as a blocker with 348 run blocking snaps so the more that he has been able to do this

the better he has gotten it's what makes me feel like the best is yet to come for this dude um the highs of him as a blocker i mean you watch a couple of those games he plays what game was it i think i haven't i think i noted here the cincinnati game go watch the scenes for everybody out there go watch the cincinnati game the arkansas cincinnati game at the beginning of 2022 last year he puts a defensive end that outweighs him by like 40 pounds on his ass twice in that game. One of them, it's just a straight shoulder to the chest and he de-cleats this guy. And you can tell the right tackle who's next to him, who is supposed to actually take that block

on after the chip, like looks down at the guy who's laying there and just then looks over at Dre Knox and he's like, who are you? Are you sure what just happened? So that's a funny moment there. He's a really great natural receiver receiver, I think. And again, I just felt like he was underutilized at Arkansas after watching a couple

of games from him last year. It just felt like they didn't want to run the offense through him. I don't know if there's a reason why, like he was there for three, four years. I don't know if they, you know, something beyond the field, locker room, work ethic, bad relationships, different coaching staff than the one that brought him in. I don't know what the difference is. I don't know what the deal is, but I got high hopes for this dude to play pretty well at South

Carolina. So I wanted to shout out, shout out Trey Knox in this group. I love it. I'm excited. I didn't get to watch him, but I'm excited to now. It makes me wonder, like we did a YouTube series. You and I go to Arkansas for three weeks. How much, how much muscle mass do we gain? Oh, that's a good, we just live in our stock exchange. It lives in Arkansas on campus for three weeks and we lift and eat with the football team. We don't practice. Cause we die by day two. I mean, look at the size of these these guys we'd both just like be doing the

podcast in like hoodies with giant shakes at all times like all times like yeah is there anybody else that you want to shout out or i'll shout out one that i hinted at my dart throw at five and i didn't pick him but just knowing where he transferred he transferred from memphis to old miss to play for lane uh caden priscorn oh i didn't watch him six five and three eights 260 he had a monster year for memphis last year he had 48 catches over 600 yards and seven touchdowns. I'm curious if he just kind of blows up at Ole Miss because he just had a huge receiving year for Memphis. I'm fascinated to keep an eye on him.

You know, and then you get to watch a lot of other guys like Theo Johnson at Penn State. You talked about Sanat. Yep. Actually, we talked about a lot of guys because we had a lot of variants in our three to five rankings today. Yeah. Eric Hall, who we watched last summer, transferred Iowa he'll be there tight end two you watch

Trey Knox um Tennessee got a big transfer McCallan Castles from UC Davis see what he could do out there you know you're a sec from Stanford didn't have a good year last year which was disappointing Trevor your guy Arik Gilbert, now at Nebraska. There's a lot of names to go through in this. I'm proud of you that you are officially on the, I'm not buying into Arik Gilbert until I see it. No, I mean, he's not even on this list. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't watch it.

He's got a shot at Nebraska now. Right. Dude, he's insanely talented. But yeah yeah you absolutely gotta see it you're a second eric all i have um as uh lower graded tight ends i just didn't see nfl level athleticism from either of those guys they're they're well all's a blocker and you're a sex kind of this lost in between receiving all all has it's it he's such a, here, I'll read kind of my spark notes on him. Eric All is a perplexing eval. He has the mindset and mentality of an athlete and a good receiver,

but he has major deficiencies in his athleticism to show for that. His twitch and change of direction and acceleration are just not pro level the way that it feels like his style of play is. Feels like a tight end three and a special teamer to me. So, like, again, like, I think that he could be a reliable dude, maybe on the line of scrimmage as a blocker and a good special teams player. But it's almost like you watch him and he's got, like the football IQ is there for him.

He's got this mentality of an athlete, but I'm like, man, he's just not moving the way that you would need him to move at the NFL level. So, I mean, I guess he'll be interesting to see if he's got some more juice in him this year, maybe if something was bothering him last year. And that was a reason why I kind of noted that in his scouting report. Same thing with Juracek. I just didn't think he was athlete enough

to really make a big difference at the NFL level. But I know he had a down year as well. So, all right, everybody, let us know what you think about this tight end class. Some of the guys that we mentioned, some of the guys that we didn't. We know that you guys bring some great players to the table that maybe we didn't even have a chance to look at when we were going through our top tens,

but we would love to hear from you either way. Or hey, even if it's responses to those questions that we had at the beginning of the podcast when we were having some fun. Hit us up on YouTube. That is the best way to get in on the conversation. YouTube.com backslash at NFL Stock Exchange. If you are already watching and listening

to this bad boy on the platform, if you haven't hit like and subscribe yet, do it. Reward yourself with a meat umbrella when you're done. Yeah, do that. Connor's got to figure out how to afford these $89 beers. So we need you guys to subscribe. That's the price of one. We need you guys to subscribe to the podcast.

We'd absolutely love you for it. If you're an audio only listener, you can get in on the show and give us your feedback on what you heard on this episode at Tampa Bay tray at Connor J Rogers on both Instagram and Twitter. We will be back for the wide receiver episode. So we are going to have a wide receiver episode for you guys next week, but it's going to be a little bit different. With the 4th of July holiday coming up next weekend,

I'm going to be away from my desk for a little bit, but we are going to watch wide receivers this week and have a show ready for you. I think it's going to come out Thursday the 6th if I had to give you guys a guesstimate for when we'd be able to watch a lot of these guys because wide receivers you gotta watch a lot of them like we're gonna we're gonna watch anyway 15 to 20 20 plus wide receivers whatever we can get to before that episode so

we know you guys love that one maybe yeah I think we could do top tens with that one y'all y'all love uh when we are very thorough with wide receivers. We know a lot of Debbie people and fantasy people like that podcast as well. So we want to make sure that we put in the hours and we put in the work to make that one as deep and as thorough as possible. So just want to let you know, it's not coming on Monday of next week, but it is coming. I think at some point, probably on the on the 6th is what I would guess. Connor, you got anything else before we get out of here? You gassing up the boat for 4th of July weekend? There might be a little gas in the boat.

There might be a little gas in the boat. Oh, yeah. If you guys are out there drinking Modelo, send us a picture on Twitter or Instagram. Enjoy a nice Modelo at a barbecue on a boat. If you're driving the boat, you better not be drinking the Modelo. But if you're just enjoying the boat casually,

you can send a picture of your Modelo. But yeah, yeah. No, I think that that'll be great. Hopefully everybody out there has a safe and fun 4th of July weekend, whatever you guys are doing. Make sure that's the case so you can tune in to the next episode, which is the wide receiver ranking here on the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. I'm Trevor Sigmund.

That's Connor Rogers. We'll see you next time.