Draft Prospect Profile | TE Albert Okwuegbunam, Missouri

Albert Okwuegbunam

Height: 6-foot 5
Weight: 258 lbs
Grade: r-Junior
School: Missouri

Albert Okwuegbunam flashed the type of speed at the NFL Combine that garnered San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle notice a couple of years earlier.

Okwuegbunam's 4.49 40-yard dash time was tops among tight ends and better than many elite-level receivers. You add that to his impressive resume at Mizzou, and you can see why his name has been popping up in conversations regularly since the combine.

After redshirting, Okwuegbunam immediately flourished as a red zone target for then quarterback Drew Lock, who is currently under center for the Denver Broncos. His big frame and athleticism allowed him to haul in 11 touchdown passes as a freshman and take home second-team All-SEC honors.

In his three seasons at Mizzou, Okwuegbunam has been a walking first down machine. He has averaged over 10 yards per reception for his career. He has also caught 23 touchdowns.

There’s no doubt that he is a pass-catching tight end, although he still has a lot of refining to do in that area. He struggles with precise route running and creating space on shallow and intermediate routes, but he has the speed to pull away from defenders and be a force on over and vertical routes.

He is also fantastic in the red zone, which would make him immediately valuable in the NFL. He understands how to high-point a ball. He can twist and contort to pluck a ball out of the air.

The thing that he--and quite frankly many elite college tight ends these days--needs to work on is his blocking. He doesn’t latch on to a defender when he blocks them. He doesn’t seem to show the same aggressiveness when attacking a defender like he does when he attacks a football.

It is hard to decipher if his blocking was not better because there was not an emphasis because of his immense receiving talents or if it was due to the shoulder injuries that he dealt with in both seasons, or if it is merely a want-to thing and he didn’t want to.

Why He’s a Fit

With the retirement of Rhett Ellison, the Giants need another tight end. If they do not add another legitimate receiving threat to the offense, you could see a lot of multiple tight end sets, so it would be vital to have guys adept at pass-catching and Okwuegbunam fits that description.

Offensive coordinator Jason Garrett will use multiple tight end sets, and he likes big, athletic receiving tight ends. One could see the Giants kicking the tires on Okwuegbunam.

You could also see him having an immediate impact on special teams. With a head coach like Judge who made his bones as a special teams coach, look for the special teams to be upgraded and an emphasis made on being more dynamic.

Okwuegbunam would fit that initiative perfectly. That is where he could use his combination of size and speed to bolster every special teams unit.

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