Stowers' Explosive Combine Performance

0:00On April 8th, Vanderbilt tied in Eli Stauer's turn heads at the NFL Scouting Combine with record-breaking jumps for his position. Standing six-foot-three-and-three-quarters tall, at 239 pounds, he hit a 45-and-a-half-inch vertical and an 11-foot. Three broad jump. Analyst Daniel Jeremiah compared him to Steeler's Star DK Metcalf based on those explosions, even though Metcalf was lighter and jumped a bit less back. In 2019, Stauer's clocked a 4.51 in the 40-yard dash, solid for a tight-end, but slower than Metcalf's 4.33. He dealt with a hamstring strain right before, having gone full speed until race night, and still outran some top wide-outs like Ohio State's car now. Tate. On the field, he bought out last season with 62 catches for 769 yards and four scores, snagging the John Mackie Award as the best tight-end in college ball. Teams are buzzing about flipping him to wide receiver, given his slot usage at Vandy and top yards after catch numbers.

1:03His measurables actually line up better with Buckeneer's vet Mike Evans, who ran a 4.53 at 231 pounds. At his weight, he'd be the heaviest wide-outs since Chase Claypool, but dropping some pounds could boost that speed like Benson Jackson did back in the day. The real hook is the money wide receiver's cash-in big compared to tight-ends. Top guys like Jackson, Smith, and Jigba average over 42 million a year, while even record-breakers like Tramick Bride top out around 19 million. Tight-end pay hasn't kept up with the salary cap boom, leaving a huge gap that makes the position switch tempting for a talent like Stowers. Rams' rookie Terrence Ferguson showed the blueprint last year, splitting our wide and heavy tight insets and averaging 21 yards per catch-on. Deep shots. If Stowers pulls it off, the upside is massive. Worst case, he slides back in line and still eats. Keep an eye on where he lands in the draft. From around the league, powered by AI, this is NFL News Today. I'm Corey with The Story.