‘It’s a Damned Good Year’ to Need a Tight End

The Green Bay Packers could have a massive need at tight end. In a rarity, a deep and talented NFL Draft class awaits.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Mar 5, 2023 2:16 PM EST

In this story:

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers own the 15th pick of the 2023 NFL Draft. Asked which prospects make sense at that spot, a scout asked for positions of need. Tight end, with Robert Tonyan and Marcedes Lewis set to hit free agency, could be one of the big ones.

The scout’s team also needs a tight end.

For the first time in a long time, “It’s a damned good year” for teams needing a tight end, he said. He went on to echo what Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said at the start of the Scouting Combine.

“So much of the spread offenses that have taken ahold in college football, they just started playing without tight ends or they really are playing with a big slot – the 225-pound slot receiver,” Gutekunst said.

“There were very few teams that were playing with traditional tight ends – a few in the SEC, a few in the Big Ten that played with traditional tight ends. It just seems to be a good year for them. I think it’s a little bit of an outlier, I don’t think it’s anything that we’re seeing in college football changing. It’s just a little bit more of an outlier than anything.”

While the scout didn’t think four would go in the first round, he said Notre Dame’s Michael Mayer, Oregon’s Luke Musgrave, Utah’s Dalton Kincaid and Georgia’s Darnell Washington are possibilities. Iowa’s Sam LaPorta and South Dakota State’s Tucker Kraft could make it six in the first two rounds.

The tight end group, from top to bottom, did not disappoint during their Saturday workouts at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Case in point: LaPorta. Relative Athletic Score takes a player’s size and athleticism and turns them into one 0-to-10 number. LaPorta’s 9.25 puts him seventh among the 15 tight ends who competed in enough tests to have a RAS. That put him barely in the top 50 percent of the group. However, going back to 1987, LaPorta’s RAS ranks 77th out 1,020 tight ends, a mark that puts him in the top 8 percent.

Here are the scout’s top six tight ends, listed in our order and not the scout’s, following Saturday’s workouts.

Notre Dame’s Michael Mayer (6-4 1/2, 249; 4.70 40; 8.08 RAS): It took only three seasons for Mayer to obliterate the school record book for tight ends. He caught 180 passes in his career, including 140 receptions for 1,649 yards and 16 touchdowns in 2021 and 2022.

He’s the best all-around tight end in the class. “I can block anybody you need me to block, but I feel like my red zone, my third down, I can really go up and get that ball, I can make contested catches and I can really route people up.”

Michael Mayer (Photo by USA Today Sports Images)

Utah’s Dalton Kincaid (6-3 5/8, 246; no workout following back injury): There wasn’t a more prolific tight end than Kincaid. As a senior for the Utes, he caught 70 passes for 890 yards and eight touchdowns. In two seasons at San Diego and the final two at Utah, he led all FBS tight ends with 2,484 receiving yards and 35 receiving touchdowns. He’s the best pass-catching tight end in the class.

“I think I'm one of the best pass catchers there is – not only in the tight end position but kind of throughout the draft,” he said. “I think that's my best strength. I think I'm developing as a blocker, and I have room to grow in that aspect of my game.”

Oregon State’s Luke Musgrave (6-5 7/8, 253; 4.61 40; 9.95 RAS): The production wasn’t great with only 47 receptions in 33 career games. He caught 11 passes for 169 yards in the first two games of this past season before a season-ending knee injury. His father and uncle were quarterbacks for Oregon. He is perhaps the most gifted tight end in the class.

“I’m going to put the full range of my skill set on display,” he said at the Senior Bowl. “I also want to prove that I’m a versatile player. I’m not just a pass-catching tight end. I’m a blocking tight end as well. You can move me around the formation because that’s where I really shine as a player.”

Georgia’s Darnell Washington (6-6 5/8, 264; 4.64 40; 9.90 RAS): Washington was mostly the blocker in Georgia’s two-tight-end groupings; Brock Bowers caught the passes en route to winning the Mackey Award as the nation’s top tight end. He is the most physical tight end in the class.

“He is like playing with a sixth offensive linemen in the run game,” NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah said before the Scouting Combine.

Here’s a full story from Saturday on Washington’s Combine.

Iowa’s Sam LaPorta (6-3 1/4, 245; 4.59 40; 9.25 RAS): The latest in a long line of high-quality Hawkeyes tight ends, LaPorta caught 53 passes for 670 yards and three touchdowns as a junior and 58 passes for 657 yards and one touchdown as a senior. Those are really good numbers considering the overall state of their offense.

“I'm really versatile,” he said. “I was utilized a lot in our passing offense. I'm a developing blocker but still competitive; I have a long way to go. I think I'm an instinctual player. I always seem to be on the same page as the quarterback.”

South Dakota State’s Tucker Kraft (6-4 3/4, 254; 4.69 40; 9.52 RAS): Kraft caught 65 passes for 780 yards to earn FCS first-team All-American honors in 2021. He missed about half of last season with an ankle injury and settled for 27 receptions for 348 yards and three scores in eight games for the FCS national champions.

“Mentally, it took a greater toll on me than it did physically,” he said of the injury. “I invested so much time into 2022 season trying to be tight end 1 on the board out of out of college, like a unanimous tight end 1. So, that hurt a lot. That hurt my pride.”

The wild card is Old Dominion’s Zack Kurtz. At 6-foot-7 3/8 and 255 pounds, he posted a 4.55 in the 40, 40-inch vertical leap and 4.12 in the 20-yard shuttle. He became the first player 6-foot-7 or taller with a 40-inch vertical since Mario Williams in 2006. With elite numbers in each category, his RAS was a perfect 10.0, putting him No. 1 all-time.

Kurtz was the No. 1 tight end recruit in the country and landed at Penn State. However, with his path to playing time cut off, he transferred to ODU. He caught 73 passes in 2021 but missed most of last season due to injury.