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The Football Guru

The Others 2018 - TEs

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If you want to know what exactly I'm trying to accomplish with this series of posts, click here and read the intro. Please understand what you see below is not my overall position ranking per se, but a ranking of the players I was able to evaluate given the time I had. With that in mind, here are the WRs as I see them:
1. Mike Gesicki
NFL Comp: Jimmy Graham
Gesicki is one freaky dude. In addition to the being the New Jersey Player of the Year in his final year of high school, he is also the school's all-time leading scorer in basketball, a state slam-dunk contest winner and four-time letter-winner in volleyball. His NFL Combine numbers back up that athleticism: 4.54 speed at 6-6 and 247 pounds, 22 reps on the bench, 41.5-inch vertical, 129-inch broad and 6.76 on the 3-cone (anything under 7.0 at his size is phenomenal). His 34 1/8-inch arms would make a lot of offensive line coaches drool. His hands (10 1/4 inches) are about as sure as they come. So the bottom line is this: if he can add the necessary strength to become even an average blocker without losing his current athleticism, we are probably talking about the next unstoppable force at the tight end position. Another minor concern is his unusually long stride length, which is a great thing for him to create separation downfield but less advantageous for him on shorter routes. In short, the further downfield he goes, the more dangerous he becomes. Regardless, Gesicki's floor should be as a field-stretching move tight end who dominates in the red zone. His ceiling could be Tony Gonzalez if he lands in the right system.
2. Hayden Hurst
NFL Comp: A younger Greg Olsen
To give folks an idea of what he is about, South Carolina did not hesitate to use Hurst on speed sweeps, and he looked like a natural doing it. With the exception of his age (he'll be 25 by the time the season starts), Hurst is pretty much everything a position coach could hope for from a prospect in the current spread-happy offensive world of college football. Hurst has a certain fluidity to his route-running, quick out of his release and can make an out cut better than some of the Day 1 and Day 2 receivers that I have evaluated. His hands are very good (one drop versus 100 career catches). He is an average blocker at best right now, but the fact he is even there at the moment despite a short sabbatical away from football - he was a minor-league pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates for two years - suggests he only needs a bit more time to become proficient at that. Hurst doesn't mind mixing it up after the catch either, as he is more than happy to put a shoulder down and pick a few extra yards. As an additional bonus, he made enough of an impression on his teammates one year after walking on to the football team to be named as a team captain - the first sophomore to ever receive that honor in school history. His biggest drawbacks are his age and the fact he needs to sell his routes better. Hurst also isn't explosive enough to consistently beat the NFL's best cover linebackers and safeties, but that's a small problem to deal with considering how few of those players actually exist. Tight ends usually don't contribute much as a rookie, but the odds are pretty good Hurst will be a pretty solid option at some point in 2019.
3. Dallas Goedert
NFL Comp: Tyler Eifert (w/o the durability issues)
South Dakota State utilized Goedert out of the slot quite often and occasionally out of the backfield in an effort to ensure he had a clean release and amplify the matchup quandary he presented at the FCS level. As is the case with most former basketball players who get turned into tight ends, Goedert regularly flashes high-end ball skills and body control. Draft fans might get a bit tipsy Thursday or early Friday night if they take a shot every time ESPN or NFL Network show off one of his one-handed catches. It's also worth noting Pro Football Focus charted him at 8.2 yards after the catch per reception last season, so the play doesn't stop once the ball is in his hands like it does for a lot of tight ends. Goedert gets the Eifert comp mostly because my enduring image of the oft-injured Bengal is his ability to stretch the seam and hit a vertical plane in the red zone that linebackers and safeties simply can't reach. Despite his near-prototypical size (6-5, 256), Goedert is strictly a "move" tight end at the moment, as he needs to show more effort as a blocker and play with a bit more urgency in general. With that said, he looks like a strong bet to be among the top 10 players at his position in the NFL in the near future.

 

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