Part 2, TE: Is Tyler Warren the next Great American NFL Tight End?
This year's TE class is loaded, from the Gronk'ish tight end out of Penn State ("Better than Bowers") to Colston Loveland, Elijah Arroyo, Mason Taylor and several others. Here's what the scouts say.
This is the 41st year, and the fourth at Go Long, that Bob McGinn has written a position-by-position series previewing the NFL draft. Previously, it appeared in the Green Bay Press-Gazette (1985-’91), the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (1992-’17), BobMcGinnFootball.com (2018-’19) and The Athletic (2020-’21). Until 2014, many personnel men were quoted by name. The series reluctantly adopted an all-anonymous format in 2015 at the request of most scouts.
Second of 12 parts: Tight Ends.
Go Long is your forever home for unvarnished NFL coverage.
By Bob McGinn
NFL teams have been gobbling up wide receivers in the first round at a record pace in the past five drafts. Given the shortage of wideouts this year, look for clubs to dip early into what could be one of the finest collections of tight ends ever.
“I think this group has risen because the (wide) receivers are just mediocre,” an executive in personnel for an AFC team said.
Tight ends have been a first-round irregularity almost since the position gained its identity around 1960. The record for most first-round tight ends is three: in 1970, 1973, 1978, 2002 and 2017.
Since O.J. Howard went 19th, Evan Engram went 23rd and David Njoku went 29th in 2017, only five tight ends have been first-round selections.
Penn State’s Tyler Warren and Michigan’s Colston Loveland are first-round locks. Miami’s Elijah Arroyo and LSU’s Mason Taylor figure to fall next, possibly in the first round but almost certainly by No. 40. A month before the draft, one personnel man has all four with first-round grades.
“Loveland and Warren are 1-2, in either order,” another AFC personnel man said. “The next three are interchangeable depending on your flavor. You could even throw three more in there as starting dudes. The top five could all make an impact right away. There’s a lot of talent.”
Links to date:
Part 1, WR: Tetairoa McMillan, and then... what?
TIGHT ENDS
1. TYLER WARREN, Penn State (6-5 ½, 256, no 40, 1): Seventh in the Heisman Trophy voting, highest finish by a tight end since Notre Dame’s Ken MacAfee was third in 1977. “I don’t think I’ve seen a big ol’ guy like this,” one scout said.