2026 NFL Draft - Tight End Preview!!!

0:00What is up, Green Bay Package Fans. Welcome back to the Daily Draft. We've got another prospect position, Primer. I'm taking on tight ends today with Jacob Morley, Jacob how are you? I'm good, man. We're just grinding through these days, getting closer and closer to the Packers picking on day two, which will be odd. It ran about. Is this the first time since the Jordy draft that Packers haven't had a first-round pick? I was Kevin King technically a second-round pick. Didn't have a first-round either. Yeah, why did they not have a first with Jordy that just traded back, right? I think so. I think it was. Yeah, because they're not a Ted Ted would cut off his finger before he traded you a first-round

1:04pick, I think. Now, he'd trade out of the first round happily, but like having it already gone for a player, that's not Ted. Well, that's not really anyone. Is Brett the last guy that they did this for? I think it is. I mean, Parsons, Brett Farve. Who else have they traded a first-round draft pick for? Sure, yeah, yeah. It's a good point. So, whatever. We're a good point. We're already off the rails. We are. Tight ends, not Brett Farve, not, you know, Ted Thompson today. My first chance will be a really good tight end if you wanted to play a tight end. Let me tell you what. Anyway, sure. Let's talk about it. Yeah. Grab class. It's a really good class. And into the depth, I guess, more than a bunch of really exciting, like, multiple first-round options, I don't know that those exist. There's a dude, Kenyans a Deek, Oregon, is at the top, first

2:11round grade for me. Again, not a position of value, as far as your corner, tackle, quarterback, your traditional first-round positions. Tight ends, not one of them. Kenyans a Deek gets me a first-round grade, or sure. Then the class is extremely deep after that. And it's deep in a ways to where you can get specific things done. They set a record, this tight end class, this set a record for the number of tight ends invited to the NFL combine. More tight ends invited to the combine this year than ever. And, you know, whether you listen to Nate Tyson, Robert Mays, or Dane Brutler, just talking about teams know they can get tight end twos that they can use in 12 personnel and like round six and seven this year. They know there's real NFL tight ends that'll help them on special teams and can be their number two at the end of the draft. So, very, very

3:17exciting class. And, you know, we'll talk about it, but Green Bay may be in a position to look at one of these guys. Types, receiving types, if you're Packers Van, you're looking maybe as a Musgrave replacement, Eli Stowers, Vanderbilt is like that, Michael Trigg, Baylor is like that, Max Carl is like that, Texas is Jack, Endrees is like that. Then you talk about the Hosses that could give him that blocking tight end, talking about Eli Raridan, one of my guys, I like him out of Notre Dame, Justin, Jolly, or Jolly, I think he's a Houston kid, Miles Kitzelman, another big, big man. And then you got your freak shows in Wyoming's John Michael Gillenborg and Houston's Tanner Kozial, I think he was a badger at some point, but just like super alien athletes that maybe aren't very good yet. And, you know, those are always fun to draft a tight end because sometimes they work out really, really well too. My

4:21favorite guys, I like Kozial, I like Raridan, I like Trigg, and then I really like Sidiq, and I know that that's like a low-hanging fruit, but I think he's going to be a dude, like a legitimate, you know, one of these guys, depending on the situation, of course, but you know, one of the guys that you draft in fantasy football, I think he's going to be one of those tight ends that's not just another tight end. I think someone will and should make him the focal point of their offense, or maybe not the focal point, but maybe a 1-B. I mean, somebody that you actually run offense for, and who is not an outlet, I think Sidiq is that good. Who are some of your favorite guys? Yeah, I mean, like you said, this is a really, really deep year for the tight end class, and the tight end position is I think the hardest to scout because the, like, the hash marks are different in from college to football, and like, you think, like, why is that important for

5:22these guys? It is. And it's tough. Like today, I threw out a name of people like, well, he didn't produce in college. I don't care, really. Like, I really don't. Like, I want to watch a guy on film that just moves different because I think a lot of that stuff you can teach, right? I think personally, I think the Packers need and are looking for kind of that tight end to in a sense that when he's on the field, it is not a tell what they're doing. And I love Luke Mushgrave. I think, I think Luke Mushgrave can still be a really good football player in this week. I think with the emergence of Tucker Kraft, though, it's probably not going to be in Green Bay. And so I think they're going to look more for a guy that fits into like that tight end to type role with a clear cut guy at one. And so two guys that I really like, you mentioned one of them already, but I'll talk about a couple more. So Sam Rausch, big kid, like almost 270 pounds, nine plus

6:26RIS type athlete. And he's a guy that people look at and say, well, he, you know, he wasn't a super productive receiving tight end at Stanford. Well, Stanford runs like that slow mesh offense, where it's really tough to watch these fast catchers generally. And I just think he is a guy. I mean, you're looking at it. So 267 994 RIS like he is a guy. You turn the film on and you say that guy moves different. Tall enough, let it guys from Stanford for tight end is like, yeah, they, they usually don't suck, you know, and so and the thing is like, you're probably not looking for a guy that's going to come in and be like Tucker Kraft. You are looking for that guy that can come in and do a little bit of everything. I think he's really good football player. I think his blocking is really good already. I think he has the size and athleticism to do a lot of things for this team. And then a guy that you talked about already is John Michael Gillenborg

7:27for out of Wyoming. Fun story about him. He did not play football until his senior year of high school. Ross, he had a scholarship offer from Wyoming after his third game, three games. D1 for him. D1 program says, hey, it might, it might have been Tim. It might have been. That would be actually really interesting thing to ask him. But three games in, they just say, hey, let's get on this guy before someone else does. We've seen enough. And you look at him, he's a, you know, same thing like bigger guys, like he's in that 250 plus range, which mind you, there's not a lot of guys in this year's draft class that are in that 250 plus range. There's a lot of guys in the low 240s, smaller type guys that are more of your like a move side end. Or guys that just, you know, they shed 10, 15 pounds so they could test really well. But that's, yeah. Which just adds to another reason why this position is tough to scout. Some of these guys are coming out there and running and doing their drones, not at a weight they play at. So I appreciate the guys that do this at 250 plus. And if you purchase the Green Bay

8:32Draft Guide powered by Packer Report, you can see who all those guys are that fit all the Packer standards and, you know, weight, all that stuff. So, and I just listed two of them. Two guys that are going to be very high on Green Bay's list in terms of like thresholds and things that they typically like. Two other guys that I think are really interesting in this year's draft class that maybe aren't necessarily like Packer's types, but they are just like just interesting players. I talked about this guy on the running back episode, but he is also listed at tight end. And that is Max Bradison, a place full back tight end, H back tight. I think that could be an interesting guy. I won't get into that too much for the, for the everyday areas where he talks about him quite a bit, but just the guy that I think Matt and Flora would appreciate and has rostered in the past. I think he's someone to keep an eye on. And then another guy, his name is Seiduke Trey Ori and he is a Frenchman and played basketball at Utah and then transferred to Mississippi State where he is learning how to play the tight end position. He is a smaller, I mean,

9:36he's only like 235 right now. I think he's basketball listed way. It was like 215 to 20. So he's already packed on some pounds. How much more can he do? I don't know. But obviously there are guys in the NFL that have a basketball background. If he does make it in the NFL and become a good player, they will say that every single time he catches a pass that he played basketball in college. But those guys tend to do well in the NFL. So he's an interesting name, probably a UDFA, the late day three type guy. But someone that I think is an interesting name. But those are just some of my guys that I think either, well, not that I think, that I know I either really like or I think are really interesting for the Packers. We'll be right back. Yeah, and I'll get into the Packers part of it, right? Number one, what is their need at the position? I think it exists, right? Musgrave might not be back. And then I think every other,

10:39I think it's a very similar situation to the tail end of the running back room. The guys that aren't craft in Musgrave are fine. They're useful enough. But they're all guys that can be interchange, practice what, call up, call down, like, you know, Josh Wiley is kind of interesting, right? But you could find another guy kind of like Josh Wiley that's kind of interesting and they're nothing too of the tight end three, four, five on the roster. Messiah Swinson, you go up, like, it's just, it is what it is. The exciting stuff is craft in Musgrave. And that's it. And some people aren't excited about Musgrave anymore. You know, so what do you, as opposed to, because tight end is really from my perspective, you know, and this is terrible scouting, but it's similar to Ed Ruscher in that. If you just took the highest relative athletic scores against the highest consensus rank and you just drafted those guys, like filtered the consensus ranks by athleticism, you would have a nice hit rate

11:46on tight ends and Ed Ruscher's. You just would. Like, it's a freak's position. Past rushes and tight ended Tucker craft freak. Absolute stone cold freak. Every guy, look, I mean, you talk about, okay, name a hall of fame. Yeah, yeah, free. Yep, free. Guns all is free. Grunk free. Like, there's not really a guy that you look at and you're like, Oh, well, he was just like, Oh, he's a good athlete as a human being. No, he's a 90th plus percentile athlete for the tight end position. And so it's, it's a freak's position. And not to give away too much in the guy, like, there's a lot of positions that we have several things that they need to hit. The tight end position is not really one of them. We kind of lean into that where it's like, Hey, you need to be a really, really good athlete. The packers have tend to like guys that are a little bit more like with the higher density. And then, like age, be a younger prospect because I think they want to teach you. And I think tight end is a position that it takes a while to figure out how to do this thing. And by the time you learn how to do it,

12:51they'd prefer you be 25, 26, then 29, 30. And so especially if they want to give you a second contract. Yeah, absolutely. And so I think those really are the two things to keep an eye on. And like as much as I hate to say it because I, I, I am very much a watch the film guy first. Tight end is not really one of those spots. It's a spreadsheet position. I'm with you. I'm with you. Yeah. And so I think some of the guys that we just listed, you might go watch the film and be like, why is he in your top 100? Well, because he's big and athletic. And I know that makes me less sound like nerds, but like you said it, spreadsheet position. Absolutely. All right. Last thing. Do they take one before the sixth round? I think the case for this is you taking the 2027 tight end to this year. That like that's, that's, that's the case for it. Now, we've mentioned, you know, the holy positions, offensive line, defensive line, corner,

13:52nose tackle, you know, or, or, or you could throw receiver in there if you're looking to trade wicks because of how many guys are on expiring contracts. Tight end, you know, again, falls maybe not in that, that, that big deal, but gun to your head. Do they take one before the sixth round? I think they do. Just because you look at the way Goody has drafted in the past and he tends to attack the strength of drafts. And the tight end is one of probably the top three or four positions in this year's draft class. I think, you know, another, another fold of that too, is you look at last year with the interior defensive line group, who, you know, that was a really, really deep group as well. And ran away from him. And it did. And also you're in round six and you're looking around saying, you know, doing the John Travolta gift like, yeah, what's here? And obviously they they draft Brinson in round six. You probably would go higher in most year's draft classes, but they probably would have liked to take one sooner. And even so, like maybe, maybe doesn't fall that way. That's the other thing, you know, it's, it's a crapshoot. And you

14:52don't really know who's going to be on the board when you're picking. You have an idea, but sometimes things get away from you. But I do think they take one before round six, especially because I'm praying and hoping they actually value the special teams unit a little bit this year. And tight ends are typically guys that, you know, can really strengthen a special teams unit. So I do think they take one before round six. Yeah. I'm interested. I mean, if it's me and I'm hearing, hey, you can get a real tight end in round six or seven. And then I'm taking a real tight end in round six or seven. And I'm, I'm doubling it, put corner back or I'm, I'm taking, you know, one nose tackle and then one disruptive tackle or, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm taking a wide receiver, right? I'm, I'm using that luxury pick, something like that. So I'll say no, you said, yes, that's all right. For myself, Ross Suglum and for Jacob Morley, please buy the draft guide.

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