TE Draft Countdown (Part 1) 2026

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Hi folks, welcome to another episode of Film Study.

This is Ken McEusey.

It's time for the first of our draft countdown shows.

Always a big time of year for me.

Join me through the first one.

Talk about the tight ends today.

It's Alex Kouley on us.

Alex, how are you doing?

Doing well, Ken, I don't know about you,

but as I scouted these tight ends, sometimes I was like,

oh, maybe I should like watch a little bit more about this one player.

I'll watch another guy instead.

And I was like, oh, he's pretty good.

I should put him on the list.

And then, you know, just keep going.

And it's a very, very deep class.

The rumors are true.

And excited to talk about it with you, I think for sure,

at least one of these people we talk about today will be a Raven in a few months.

A lot of flawed players here.

Lots of little problems with players.

Lots of bigger problems with some other players.

And you got size limitations.

You got the inability to hold on to the football.

You got all sorts of different problems.

But generally, a very good class of the day three players,

extremely deep, I agree with you.

And it's a little difficult to end up with the back end of the top 10.

There's definitely some players who I think are over projected in this group.

And we'll talk a little bit about that.

I'm sure we'll talk about some of them.

But let's start with your number 10 guy, the way we always do.

Actually, now, we need to talk about the Raven situation first.

I always forget that.

So Mark Andrews back for two more years likely.

That's the way that his contract is structured.

And I know a lot of people have looked on OTC and seen a large savings

for the second year.

There was actually a component of his 2027 salary,

which has already kicked in and effectively guaranteed his contract for that second year.

So he's easier for two years.

That's the nature of that deal.

Likely Cola, Ricardo, gone, of course.

In fact, Declan Doyle mentioned that they're trying to phase out the fullback.

I'm interested to know what you think that means.

Whether that means they're going to get rid of the fullback

or that tight end blinds up in the backfield

with somebody else for the 12 short yardage plays per season

or the 35 short yardage plays per season they need them for,

as opposed to having a 350 snap Patrick or card in a while.

Well, if you just, I mean, if you take a look at what the Bears did,

they definitely used like an H-back tight end as a fullback situation.

So I don't like fully buy that they're getting rid of the fullback.

I think what they really mean by that and not to say that we didn't see this for a card

is I think they want to have a player who starts in line and then comes out of the alignment

and into like a fullback position and maybe doesn't start there at the beginning of the formation.

A little bit more movement skills, a little bit more of a like pass catcher.

I think they're just looking for a lighter body in that role as my expectation.

It could be and you know, they certainly later than record is pretty much every tight end.

One of the largest men ever to have a reception in the NFL.

But if you look at the guy they picked up recently Durham's smith of blocking tight end,

very poor receiving career stats. He only broken one tackle in his entire career, 142 catches.

He's broken one tackle. That's kind of a funny thing.

He's positional depth. I don't honestly believe he's a surety in any way to make the team,

but I haven't seen his contract structure definitively to know what his guaranteed money looks like.

And if he's got 50,000 guaranteed money, that sounds like maybe okay, come on to camp.

You'll get something for that. But if he's got 25,000 of guaranteed money or zero,

then he's definitely not a sure thing to make the team. So we'll see how that comes back works out.

I definitely don't think he should block you from making a draft day selection that you covet.

Yeah. I mean, it's a short term deal, no matter what, your draft pick would be much longer

prospect. And yeah, I think they did that just to you know, bolster a room that only had one person.

I feel like if they make another move for the tight end, it could be after the draft of SARS-3

agency goes. But I think they want to let themselves, you know, maybe scoop up a few of these guys

in the fifth round, have the second one bust out, you know, things of that nature. But yeah, I definitely

think I have no reason to believe that that guy's going to block any of these tight end. I think

I think you could go to like 16, 17 on my list. And I would say he should make the team over.

So yeah, yeah, I would agree with that. Looking at my list, 16, certainly, 70 probably.

I mean, for one thing, all the guys down on day three, they're cheap talent. I mean,

Smite is also cheap, but he's market value for each year. If there's ever any kind of,

if he ever does anything really good for you, you might have to pay him more. And he's old,

so it's unlikely that he's going to open anything more than what he is right now. And

and he'll certainly be less than what he's been to date his career, given the fact he's what,

31 years old or whatever. The David Najoku thing, I don't really believe that makes any sense at all

for this team. He's had five and a half yards per target the last two years combined. It's not

all the Cleveland quarterbacks part of it's him. And that's just that's just not a good thing. In fact,

he should get probably more and possibly more marginal value targets out of being in a

on a team with a week other receiving options and maybe a week quarterback, but

it certainly hasn't worked out in terms of any positive numbers for him.

Rather than a pack holder. Yeah, by far, by far. And I'm not sure Najoku would be that expensive.

I mean, he might be two years, six million or something like that. I'm still not excited.

I mean, I'd rather take the chance. You know, it's like you've got a five of diamonds or something

and you've tried to decide if you discard this and draw again from the pile, you know, thing. I'm

I'm drawing again from the pile. Yeah. Definitely feels similar. I think I'm a little higher on him

than you are, but I agree that I don't know. I feel like if you're just a weird guy to have

as an Ravens uniform, not just because it comes from Cleveland, I just like, I don't fully see it.

I don't fully see I understand his role. You know, sometimes you look at these players and you say,

okay, I have a role for you. I know what I want to do with you. I don't really have that for

Enjoku, given the landscape of having a guy like Mark Andrews. All right. There's a you mentioned,

there's there are only those two tight ends currently swiping Andrews on the 90 man roster. So

very much under construction. And I'd expect by camp time, they'd probably have five tight ends on

the roster. And that would go down to either four or three for the season. I guess as if you're

going to try and keep a a reasonable tight end room during the season, you probably want four on

the roster. If you're going to use some 13 personnel, and you might have another one of the practice

squad still after that. So you might keep five during the season with four being on the roster of one,

like I said, on the practice squad. Yeah. I agree with that. Long history of two selections that

double-dipping at the tight end position at the second guy be better. Obviously, it's happened

multiple times, including with Mark Andrews, probably most most significantly, I say,

likely most otherwise significantly in terms of players there. Crocket Gilmore was in the

who was the guy? I want to say he's met somebody, but I've forgotten his name now and he was the

highly coveted one. Max Williams or something? Yeah, Max Williams. That's it. There, yeah. I'm

not sure there's a lot of differentiation, but let's go ahead and jump right in at number 10.

So we won't do honorable mentions until maybe the start of the second show. We can talk about some

before we get to our top guys. But who do you have at number 10? All right. I double-check the list.

We've got 10 here. No, so I just want to make sure my number is right. So Jake Enries of Texas,

605, 245 pounds. We're in a 4.62. So Gunner Helm was Texas last year. I feel like they have a similar

profile. It was a nice little substitution. It probably goes in a similar part of the draft.

One I really liked about him is that I saw the HBAC role. They used him in that role. I thought he

was productive in it. Solid and run blocking and also past blocking. I think one of the best games

you could have watched for him to see all parts of his film would be Ohio State Game.

But yeah, I think he was a nothing dominant player, but I thought he was a solid all-around talent.

Which I think is kind of what I'm hoping for the Ravens here. I struggled

mightily with ranking blocking and catching. I think this year I'm leaning more towards blocking

than I ever have before. And I think that's a byproduct of how the NFL is going. And also just

what are you doing for me tight end? In my opinion, my head, I always used to say, and I still kind

of stand by it, that I want to see receiving chops first and then develop the blocking, particularly

because of the college game. You don't see as much blocking now. But with that being said,

to really make an impact, they need to be a capable blocker. So I'm weighing that a little bit more

and hoping to see a little bit more of it in the college game. So yeah, he was my number 10 prospect.

Where did you where did you have him? I have Jack Andrews at number eight. So two years at Cal before his

year at Texas, well above average testing. I'm going to go through the receiving metrics and I

have this for everybody by the way. So I lined up all the tight ends and I got medians on everything.

Actually, let me make sure I have the medians. I think I've got that up here. No, I didn't I didn't

record the medians anywhere. Okay, that's bad, but I can tell you what that what they were anyway.

Yards per target was 7.7 at Texas. Yacht perception was 4.9 5.3 career 8.5 on the Yards per target

career 8 out of 8.2 pass a reading of 117.5 110.5 for his career. And you know, a little bit

bothersome because he is a bigger guy and he runs fairly quickly. Got a little bit of

you know, juice in terms of elusiveness down the field. Mysticals force were only 0.09 per

catch 0.10 career. What is nice about him is he's had a very high volume of inline play. So 65.2

percent career. He's been a consistent plus run and pass blocker. And that's despite some length

issues. He's got fairly short arms of 31 inches and just a 31 and 8 is the is the number I have.

And he's you know, he's as tall as most linemen. So you wouldn't figure him to have any shorter

armors than them. And yet he does. And that was bad. He had five targets in that citrus bowl

win over Michigan. Five for five in catches and targets. That was good. You know, if you look at

the tape specifically, he presents very well when he's crossing is much too fast for most inside

linebackers that will change a little bit at the pro level. But still there's not very many inside

linebackers who can run 462 and he does have a little bit of ability to wiggle at the top of the

route and force a misstep from an opposing player. Now a zone defender, typically, you know, if

they're playing downhill, they're not going to have the same kind of trouble. But I don't think

that's where Andrews will be used in the NFL. I think he'll be a crossing level two, level three,

play actions, seamrunner. When he does go out and you know, they'll use him inline as well for a

good amount. What I do like I think Andrews fits the Ravens needs fairly well. Being an inline

guy really makes more sense for what they don't have right now. You can cut, cut to a right or

Durham's right right away if you have Andrews on your team. I think it's big playability. You see

a really good stiff arm in there from him from tie to tie protects the ball well after the catch.

One thing you often see from tight ends is their compulsive hurdlers. I didn't get that

from watching Andrews tape. So that's a good thing. But yeah, a lot of a tight end. It's like they

try it every single time. It's just it's a high risk turnover play. They get they get helicoptered

and you know, and then there's just a very big risk that they're going to get hit a second time

and lose the football as they try to figure out how they brace themselves for impact.

One thing about Andrews is not a big play guy. Longest career catch is only 28 yards.

Really not much of a thread after the catch and that shows up in the yak per reception numbers,

which are typically higher in college. And what else is there to say? Very limited penalties

career. Only two college penalties in 2237 steps. Now why is that important? He's an inline guy.

So he played 65.2 percent in line and he's going to be on the edge of a run play a lot of times

as they try and bounce to the outside and he's not getting called for a bunch of holding calls.

I don't actually have data that tells me exactly what those penalties were. Could have been two

fall starts for all I know. But the fact that he's only got two tells me he didn't have a big problem

with holding calls. I think Gunnar Helm had a big problem with penalties as I recall it and generally

general generally infantile behavior on the field that was fairly well caught numerous times

in terms of those those flags. So anyway, the basis of very well covered for the Raven speed,

agility play in line, big playability, maybe there. But it would be the one thing that is lacking

at least in his college record. So I had him at number eight, liked him as well. Awesome.

All right. I guess we move on to my number 10 guy and that's Josh Cuevas of Alabama.

Two years at Alabama, one at Washington, two at Cal Poly, which is an FCS program.

And there'll be 23 in September. It runs a 465, 46, 3245. It's a little shorter and shorter arms

as well with under 31 inches at 30 and 580s. With the exception of his 40 time, his testing is all

pretty met. His three cone time is 737. Excuse me, which is not good for a tight end.

Receiving metrics 8.2 yards per target. His yak per reception is at 6.6, though. That is

quite good. A dot of 5.6, passer rating throwing to him of 116.3 is last year, 108 career.

And his misstack was for sure good at 0.19 per reception, which is nice. So I take it with a grain

of salt in terms of his career stuff, but it was pretty much every bit as good last year with

Alabama. He's got five years and 170 career targets. There's a lot for the tight end class.

There are a few tight ends that have more targets than that. But half of those came at Kyle

Pauley in 2022 when he had a big year. So you got to kind of reduce the valuation there.

Played 54% in line. That's a little bit less than some of the top guys in this, but still a guy

who can block. I think he is a guy that you would depend on for a significant blocking role at

the NFL level. He's only had one play over 30 yards in 2025. 32 yard play was his longest.

It's several longer in the past, but I think he is one of the most elusive and dangerous guys

with the ball after the catch. And if you look at how Alabama used him, it's a lot of flat

and screen routes. He's constantly on a tape just dragging across the middle of the field.

He's either a late release or he's a guy they're actually trying to use in a clear out mode on

the short cut. So he kind of makes sense that he's not getting a lot of big. He doesn't have a big

eight out number at 5.6 for starters, but he has a fairly good yak number and that's part of it

and also would hold down his yard's perturget. So I wouldn't be too concerned about a 8.2

and unspectacular yard's perturget number like that. He was on the Mackie Award watch list.

So that was good. And I'm not sure if the high percentage of inline play in his particular case

with his link is going to translate to NFL success as a blocker, but I think he'll be more like Isaiah

likely where he maybe is flexed out or maybe takes advantage of moving to level two and three

and blocking smaller men. So the potential is out there to be an outstanding zone receiver

for Jackson. I don't think there's any question about that. But anyway, number 10 on my list,

I like him not quite as much as Andrews, but he's in some ways he's got some similarities for sure.

Yeah, I think it's a fair evaluation. I appreciate everything you said about Josh because he's

my number nine. And so we have him in the similar, similar area. And he was also the number one guy

when I was watching him and then preparing for this show that was like struggling to figure out

exactly what I wanted to say about him. Because what caught my eye right away is his sudden

quickness and his ability to fight for Yak. I really like that about him. I felt like he got

the third gear very quickly. And there's a couple really impressive movers. And that's what that

always catches my eye nicely. The other thing too, I think you kind of alluded to it. Another guy

that can line up in an age back type role. He is on the smaller side, but I did like his way

of getting to level two the way he engages in his blocks. I think that yeah, I think he could

he could play a similar role to Andrews on this team. I like him a little bit more. I think it's

just mostly the athleticism. But honestly, I can see the argument for either way, you know, with

Andrews, he's a little bit bigger. Obviously, and maybe just a little bit more well-rounded.

Well, I think Josh, like that his ability to fight for Yak, I just think that this quickness is

just special. It's something that really caught my eye. Okay. All right, very good. Definitely a

player I would be very happy with the day three selection of. And I think we're still talking

about guys, by the way, for what it's worth. And maybe you can toss it in there. I have

Andrews as really being a fifth round guy for the Ravens. I think he'd be of value in that.

I don't think he'd get a much later than that, but the Ravens have a couple picks in round five,

if I recall. And I have a coitus as being a guy that they could get in round five on a pretty

much a par value in round five or in round six as a true value. And he may be gone by then. And

my position always is if the player's gone by then, then he wasn't really a value at that point.

And there's going to be all kinds of people show up and they're they're advocates for any

particular player. It doesn't have to be Joshua Wilson and say that, hey, I you'll never get him

that late. And let me tell you, he's much more important than that. And just, you know,

I'd say look at how players drop in the draft in general. You know, there's there's 45 guys

every year that people are sure are going to be drafted in the first round. And there's like 32

every year that get drafted in the first round. That's the rules. So anyway, I think that he

may be a guy who falls, he may be a guy who is hanging around as still as they are in round six.

So the Ravens go. So we're through. We just did your number nine. So it's my number nine, right?

Yeah, but I do. I think real quick while we talk about where these guys project, I think the

interesting thing that's going to happen with these tight ends is what's some market friction

with all these players in a big lump, right? You said, if you think to yourself, I don't mind,

you know, 10 through 15, but differently, I'm not saying I do. I'm just saying that the NFL

value where you might, you know, Ravens might. Will this depreciate their value and they go

later than you think, potentially? I also fear that people just saw the Seahawks with like a guy

like AJ Barner, they drafted a Royo too. I mean, he didn't do anything for him this year, but

you know, copycat league, maybe more people are going to want tight ends. So I'm just, I'm curious

to see where these tight ends start to fall. My expectation is anyone in my back five, you know,

five through 10, I expect to be a day three pick, maybe day three value. And then I think the top five,

I could see going day two or day one, but I also could see them falling out, right?

Depending on, particularly depending on if teams are just, there's plenty of them. We'll get one

eventually and push it and push it and push it and push it. Okay, you're saying, so I have one

guy who's above all the rest, but then I have three more guys who I'm not even sure, 100% sure

that they get drafted by day two. Well, my number two tight end almost certainly gets drafted in

day two. Number three and four, they might, they might have to wait until round four. And it's

that deep a class. And you're saying your top five are all going by day two, probably.

I'm not saying it probably. I just think that if they went there, I wouldn't be surprised and I

wouldn't judge the team for reach. I think it's really just going to come down to

how they, yeah, just want to value these players and look at the rest of the class. I think I'm

going to be a little bit higher based on what you're saying on the top five guys and they're

valued to the team. And probably, frankly, a little lower number one, but I can't wait to have that

conversation. So yeah, I think all in all the, I think it's going to be an interesting class,

for sure. I always love doing tight ends with you, Ken. And this year, I'm just like, I can't

quite put my finger on how it's going to fall and line up in the draft. I just think it's

going to be really interesting because of the depth. All right. Cornucopia for sure. And the next

guy, my number nine guy is the guy I'm probably most excited about at the tight end position

other than the number one guy. Okay, so this would be the guy. If the Ravens got him, I could just see

a million different ways to use him. And that's Riley Noah Kowski of Indiana, who just,

just, you know, won the national championship, obviously with them. But don't have an age on the

guy and is the biggest single knock he might have played Juco, but he's probably either 24 or 25

based on the fact that he's had forecast seasons. And there was some mention of some red

shirt before that, I believe. So he's probably his 24 or 25 in 2026. And if you have an actual age

on him, I'd love to hear it. I don't know. He's got no standout testing aside from his 40, which

was 466. And he's got some size limitations that you normally don't ascribe to being a tight end

at 6 to 250. So that's not your typical tight end size. Certainly in 31 and a half inches. But then

you watch the guy on tape. And he is a big play in progress. So regularly. And what he really

reminds me of is he kind of is to tight ends what AJ Brown is to wide receivers. It's just a big

guy is very difficult to bring down. You think about who the Ravens have brought in to, you know,

run their offense and whatnot. First of all, they've brought in a new running backs coach Faulkner

from Pittsburgh, who is the tackle breaking guy of all guys. They've said they're phasing out

record. This guy is exactly a phase out player, right? I mean, Ocasio is guy can line up, he can block,

he could be in the backfield. You move wherever you need him in the formation. He truly, you know,

changes how the defense has to look at it. Even though, you know, he's not Patrick record

card as a blocker, but he's a hell of a lot more as a as a receiver. Now, let's go for his metrics

for a minute. He is playing with Mentos, of course, so that really helped him, but not as much as

helped other players who are actually getting the ball down the field. Yards per target 10.8,

that's for a tight end, 10.8 yards per target this last year. Yack Perception was 7.7. It does

have a lot of red yards included in that, meaning yards that he gains behind a line of scrimmage,

get back to the line of scrimmage, which are still in Yack. A dot was only 5.3. Effectively, he's used

a lot for as an extension of the run game. The passive rating throwing to him was 130.0.

And 117.6 for his career. Now, here's where the number is really interesting because he's,

this is, this is what absolutely jumps out of the tape at me is Miss Tackle's Force Perception

were 0.31 and 0.22 for his entire career. So five years at Wisconsin, yeah, this is where I got

the the age thing. He began as a began as a walk on at Wisconsin in 2020. And he didn't actually

play his first games for Wisconsin until 2022. So he's been in college for six years. Yeah,

so he's an older guy. He's no doubt about it. It is extremely limited receiving history with

only 62 targets, but he really blossomed in his final year with with Mendoza and Mike Shanahan.

67.2% of his time was in line. So if it's the Ravens need there, I think you can move him around a

lot. He scored as a fullback in one of their games. It was versus Kennesaw State, but they were,

they obviously tried something different offensively to put him into the backfield and he ran for

it touchdown. And he has lots of big plays. So you think a guy like this, you know, 250 pounds

built like a bowling ball. And that's not really true. He's really built like a extraordinarily

muscular like almost like it's going too far to say this, but the build is not too dissimilar

from Derek Henry. Speed is not at the same level, but he's 6 2 2 50 and that's right around where

Henry is. And, you know, he's a he's a tackle breaking machine. So his big play is this year.

He had plays off. Let's get this right. Let me make sure I get over to his longs here.

Whereas we, you know, some of the other big players in this draft didn't have a lot of big plays.

He had a 43, a 39, a 29, a 37, and a 31. So those are plays over 25 yards anyway for the year.

And that's only on what 62 total, no, 36 total targets. It's just, he uses an extension of the running

game. He's, he's just much more than that good blocker. And I, I just think he adds a dimension

to the offense that's very different. I'm excited about him as a dynamic playmaker and, you know,

where you get him in the draft, which is probably the fifth or sixth round. Be a very exciting

addition at that point. I'd agree with that. He's unranked for me. No, not, I mean, he's not in my top 10.

But I see a lot of those qualities that you do, smaller size. And then when he said Derek Henry,

I was like, yeah, that's not too, you know, that's not incorrect. I think it's a very fair comp,

which, you know, is really saying something. A little bowling ball of dynamite. Definitely a good

blocker. Each back potential, like you mentioned, take, took some carries in college.

Good finishing on blocks. You know, the smaller build is interesting from a tight end perspective.

I think you put it well that he would just be almost like a dynamic playmaker and like a chess

piece. I don't know if like I would fully classify him as a tight end. But you know, that's where

you'd be on the roster, right? Like it makes sense. It's similar to like tight end record, right? Like

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Yeah, I get why you had them there. I think it's exciting. And yeah, that's a great pickup.

All right, that's my number nine. And then we have your number eight.

All right, so this is my like little darling. I'm curious if he's on your radar.

I think I mentioned though to you at the ballgame. Carson Ryan at BYU, 604-250.

Not evaluated at the combine, which is really disgraceful because of his mustache. He was at

Utah before BYU. I believe he did a mission. Natural hands, very smooth hips. I think like the

thing I really liked about him is that no wasted movement. He caught the ball and got up field very

naturally. Tough to tackle. I like the fact that he got the ball. Now he played for BYU,

right? But I think he got the ball in a lot of like got to have it moments. He was a heavily

relied upon guy. I like the blocking. I think he's very willing and I engage well. Yeah, I like

this guy. I think he's fun. And he's my like dark horse. Okay. Have a dark horse.

He did not make my top 19. So I did not look at him and I appreciate you. He and me,

and now I'm going to look at him before draft night and we'll probably have some him somewhere in

the grays on day three when we're doing our interactive report. I appreciate having a new name

brought up. This happens probably once every other show that this somebody I've never even looked

at is mentioned as a player. But I do appreciate it and I'll make sure I take a look at him.

I think mustache you say. Sure does. It's a great mustache. It gets busier as the season goes on.

But I think I think the funny thing about about Carson Ryan too is I was talking about him to

Jason, a whole film. So I'm a mutual friends. And he's like, yeah, I just put him on the board

between you and Zeratniak and his crew. If you were advocating that, like, yeah, I got to look

at this guy and he just made it to the board. So I think he's getting he's laid to the people

to the process for a lot of people just because he wasn't invited to the combine. So he's a little

under the radar. You know, for how many tighten the most I think ever were invited to the combine

this year. And they couldn't find room for Carson. So anyways, I really like him. I think he's a

fun player. I think he the thing I like about him as well as he's just a well-rounded tight end.

And I really value that coming into this year. Okay. All right, fair enough. Everybody's

got to have one of those. Jack Andrew uses my number eight guy. So we're down to your number seven

guy. Okay. Lake McGree at USC 64243 pounds. Definitely a seamstretcher in dynamic. I like

this ability to high point the ball and he uses his body to make the catches. You know, block out.

Kind of had that basketball player mindset. Fifth year senior. I thought it was a good route runner.

He set up defenders as well. I like his blocking and he definitely engaged down the down. Good

and pass pro in line and as a move guy. He's definitely one of those like I said at the top of

the seamstretcher. He's a definitely an athlete. I thought he could have some explosive plays for

us. And this is starting where you start to get into more of the playmakers. I feel like in this

group. Well, definitely has some good receiving stats career. 120 passer rating throwing to him

this year. And let's a career. Let's look at that. 105 done a good job of not allowing

interceptions. Decent contested catch player doesn't drop the football. A dots low. And his

yak perception is not particularly great. And then how is his overall year is, let's look at

your 1142 and one thing that's not bad at all. All right. Another guy you've you've gone five hole

on the again. He's not my top 19. So be interesting to see where some of the other services have

him ranked. But he's definitely not my top 19. Anyway, I appreciate you bringing him on. That's

another player I have to take a look at. So we'll have some honorable mentions of your honorable

mentions. He's who have made the top 10 here. That's that's great. And I apologize for not having

much to tell you. It's happened. I'm expecting you to do it to me. Well, I better because there's

names on my list that that that I really like. So my number seven guy is Sam Roush of Stanford.

Okay. And let me get down to my Roush notes here. One of the things about doing this is I always

have to be a couple of shows ahead at least minimum. And so it's that you know, I've got looked at

the cornerbacks and I've looked at the interior offensive lineman sale since and something you'll

forget what I was thinking about the guy. But 66267 of 4740 short arms be 23 in September.

He's got testing that's above average pretty much across the board. It's really just that

measurables in terms of his arm length. That's a problem. But really lousy yards per target number

last year and and for his career. They did not play with with particular great quarterbacks or

particularly great teammates period at Stanford. So that's part of it. Decent Yacht per reception.

Not really a big tackle breaker and terrible pass or rating throwing to him at 69.0. He's a lot

higher on some other lists. He had 177 career targets at Stanford. He was the primary focus of the

2025 offense. You don't really want to be that on a very, very bad team to think about what happened

to Hollywood Brown or Mark Andrews when it's Tyler Huntley throwing him the football and how much

they're they're receiving statistics hurt because of it. You don't throw the ball down the field

as much anymore because you don't have a quarterback with a lot of pocket awareness. You have to

scheme the ball out of his hands, which means you make him a five yard. Either those guys a five

yard A dot, which just restricts their value dramatically. So I think Roush had some of that

going on. He played 65.6% in line, which is probably one of the things I really like about him.

Above average running pass blocker, but he does have 12 penalties in 2479 college snaps. So

one every 206 207 roughly. He's only got three plays of 30 plus yards in 177 targets. Now

Noakowski, for example, had four out of whatever it was, 37 or something, 36 last year. So

definitely not the same there. He had a 69 yard play, which against Boston College, you can see

that the PC safety just took a terrible angle on the play to allow it. And that might be in the

first game of the season, because it was a big yak player recall. No, that's not the plan I'm thinking of.

Anyway, it was in Boston College. I'm not going to actually in a previous. No, I'm not going to

I'm looking at Lake McCree. Never mind. Never mind. I'm just looking at the right thing. I know I've

got this. I know I've got this playbook is 18 plus 51 for a touchdown where the PC safety took

a really bad angle. A 50 yard play versus Pittsburgh. That was on an extended play where he found

space behind the defense behind down the right sideline. That was a good one. A lot of underneath

throws that both boosted his yak, reduced it as a dot, and probably reduced his yards per target.

All three of those things. You say, well, how can it how could it increase his yak and reduce his

yards per target? The answer is red yards. So if you throw the ball to somebody four or five yards

behind the line of scrimmage, the first four or five yards they have is yak and only get some

to zero yards per target on those in place. So that's the reason why. In fact, there are there

are players Ray Rice in one of his years with the Ravens who had more yak than receiving yards

in a year. It's like 735 to 733 or something and one of this is a big old purpose years.

Real good red zone target. Roush is with his size. Stanford went just 13 and 34 in his four seasons.

So he's played with really bad players. He needs to develop into a better blocker at the NFL

level. And I think if you look at what he could be the upside is a Charlie Kohler and his NFL value

because he's already been the focal point of an offense. Like like Kohler was at Iowa State

and and he'll certainly be a primary role will be on special teams and as a move and blocking

in line guy you know the Swiss Army knife move around a little bit but he's mostly in line

would Roush be. So anyway I'm I had him at number seven largely because of the Kohler similarities

I saw and the opportunity to replace him. Nice that's fair. He was my number 11 so he just barely made

it out of our list here. Played rugby growing up. Did a good three come for his size like you

mentioned kind of the relative athletic score of Roush given his size is pretty good. I think

he had like a 112 speed score. A lot drops though. Don't like to see that you mentioned the penalties

I didn't know about that. I think his athleticism aids him in his and his run run and pass blocking.

I think he's one of the best blocking tight ends in this class. However that athleticism really

doesn't wow you when it comes to I guess his dynamic nature after the catch. I know he had some

of those big plays but I just feel like there's a lot more dangerous athletes in this class

comparatively. I would agree I think the quarterbacks that threw in the football were kind of

dangerous to stand for success also so it it it seven interceptions career in balls thrown to him

and what that says is you're probably a number one target who's getting overused and

as lower value marginal targets and we've seen that from Mark Andrews at times in the past as his

year over year quarterback rating throwing to him was dropping during the years where Lamar was

injured in the second half and even one in 21 where Lamar you know really had some of his first

bad stretches of playing football he had a bunch of interceptions throwing to Andrews that

you know that were largely because Andrews was his bailout target at the end and so he looks for

him when all else fails so that's a good way to fail. Yeah and just to wrap it up I thought he was

cleaning past protection definitely drives guys in the run blocking game wouldn't be disappointed

at all if we draft him on day three so yeah I think and also like if you just scout the helmet

right stand for tight end it's uh you know they usually work out recently all right

make sure I'm in the right place here okay um let's let's go one more let's do your number six

since we already have not a lot of overlap in our groups and then we'll maybe name some

honorable mentioned guys and then we'll go to the top five at the beginning of the next show

all right for me number six is Joe Royer since an adi 605 247 definitely

has some elite speed it was a focal point of his offense um he's able to use that speed to create

yak um I think his move blocking is his best blocking attribute um my struggle with ends at the

next level um let's see did you have him in your list yes he's he's number number 12 not in my

top 10 but he's number 12 so he is on my honorable mention group um do you want me to

talk about receiving metrics or anything okay yeah go ahead fantastic yards per target last year

of 12.6 a lot of it was yak so that's that's just fine however you get it pass a rating throwing

in the football 158.3 that is how perfect my friend perfect that's pretty throwing in the

football I didn't know that that's a president did not have did not have a ton of mistakles forced

uh he's he's average 0.14 0.17 career um he did not get used when he was at Ohio state for 21 to

23 he spent three years there but since then the last two years since an adi he's had 108

targets 45.5% in line so he's much more of a flex guy that's near the bottom he's near the bottom

of run blockers as pf scored it you know one thing it's very hard to score very very difficult

to score run blocking effectively for a tight end without relying on some metric like pf

now the problem is this if you look at highlights you see all their their good run blocks in

none of the bad ones if you look at individual games you have to watch a lot of individual games to

get any kind of sample size that's large enough for tight end run blocking to be really significant

but there are people out there who are you know one of the traits based is that is the is the term

that's used they will over project from minimal data what they think they have seen and that that

that's the other side of this that could be very bothersome so you have to at some point you have

to go to a hit spread that mechanic and somebody who's been scoring it regularly and and I do trust pf

to largely get that right particularly when you're dealing with a median for the group as a whole

and so Royer is a guy that's you know is is you know like a 45.5% in line guy and not a particularly

good run blocker I think that he's he is a guy if you look at him if you look at his size you look

at the way he moves he's a guy that they could train up to be an I say a likely like blocker where

he he's specifically lined up to take on level two or level three players in the run game

and the Ravens run game has always had elements of that that you know are you make use of of a

marginal blocking talent and all of a sudden he looks good whether it's a wide receiver or a tight end

or those that there's a primary to categories it would be in or maybe even another running back

certainly a fullback but but you know Royer is a guy and and I would have any objection at all I think

he's a fifth or six round guy for for the Ravens I think he's the probably the second guy taken if

they if they took a tight end if it took him as the first I don't I don't know if I'd be that excited

in terms of you know I think they want to get one of the top 10 guys at least as I as I have scored

as the first guy they take awesome yeah he broke Travis Kelsey's record which is kind of cool

as Cincinnati definitely a fun player and he made your top top 12 so that sounds too

bad who did you have in number six oh you're muted sorry about that again the bingo card hits

again say wait the I'm not I'm not going to go to number six I think we'll hold it for the

beginning of the next show okay but I thought we could do a few more honorable mentions and guys

who just didn't quite make it and you don't have to name everybody and give away all the goodies

from the next show either but who did you have that we the highest ranked guy that we haven't

talked about yet on your list Marlin Klein from Michigan he placed Lovelin nice athleticism

which definitely I think translates as receiving and blocking sticky on his blocks looks for work

and I thought he had nice hands away from the body I it's a projection didn't really see it on

the film but H back potential I had him as number 18 on my list a seventh round pick or

undrafted and I'd be it still be okay having him if he's the second tight end the Ravens get and

this is that that's absolutely fine didn't have a really quality run blocking resume I didn't

have any pressure events as pff you know pff doesn't score partial so we don't really get a great

notion of it from that played 53.8% of his time in line not a great contestant catch player

despite having perfectly good size and and and speed and and I mean 6 6 and 32 and 3 8 inch arms

there's nothing wrong with that and runs a 461 40 so that's all good but he has here's the here's

one of the kisses of death all of that he's got one career mistackle forced so when you see him

he he generally is a dragger he's trying to drag people for an extra yard or a half but he's

not particularly elusive in the open field or dangerous or he has some mega stiff arm that he's

going to throw at people he's he's pretty much a catch and go down guy all right I'll take

one me will me name about three guys here total I won't go we'll go to be 2dp this is my my

number 11 guy was Eli Raradon of Notre Dame a guy we've certainly seen play a lot he might even

be on your list which is a danger for me naming him now he didn't know 14 okay yeah

you can start while I go find my notes here oh sure yeah I mean I was expecting the Notre Dame

tight end to show up for you guys at least we'll talk about him you know he exists he had to

need injuries to start his college career I was productive afterwards I thought

um the no touchdowns this year was a little bit concerning production concerns um but yeah

there's definitely some athleticism there I I thought though he had no other gear lots of players

caught up to him in the open field which I don't love to see I just think he wasn't

plus enough in blocking for me to uh deal with that deal with the lack of top end speed I mean

it's it is it didn't really have a ton of targets either at Notre Dame for a guy who is mostly a

flex tight end he's 46.6 percent in line um you know roughly 40th percentile if you go by pff

is both a pass and run blocker I did like his catch radius he has some ability to catch the ball

going going backwards and forwards and generally speaking when you're looking at catch radius what

will really show up on tape is the is the ability to reach back for the ball or the ability to have a

high vertical catch radius where you're you're extending and you have good leaping ability and

oftentimes that comes with the fearlessness so clearance more had tremendous vertical ability to

get off of the old Ravens receiver who caught two touchdown passes in the 2004 game at the

meadowlands but uh he had alligator arms out the wazoo that he really you know got was a

freight of contact and so you know a rarer than I think you see more of that less uh fear good

box out player uh which makes it a good contesting catch player so there were like things to like

about him and again in a normal year um the number 11 tight end might be a guy I'm not even that

excited to get um I'd be very excited if the Ravens got Eli Rear and he's a fifth six-round

player and and that's probably where the Ravens would have to draft him if they want to get him

one more for me one more yeah Oscar Delp out of Georgia 65 to 45 uh was hiding behind

Brock Bowers for a while but once he left he didn't really step up in the production game

unfortunately he had a hairline fraction of his foot so he was able to participate at the

combine um but he did uh do his best you know at the pro day and uh had a good showing there it seemed

definitely a good blocker I think uh Georgia believed that he was more valuable to them as a blocker

than as a past etcher uh kind of see that in in this film of the way he was utilized uh really

limited route tree which I didn't like to see uh kind of short arm some of the catches

um those were just a few there's a few red flags on his profile honestly even at 13 like

I don't know if I would love the scene just because of the the it's one of those funny things like

I think he's a better like overall football player but if the Raven selected RJ Maryland who's

deeper on my list you know he's just a natural receiver late hands like dynamo uh just seems like

a natural football player and uh and playmaker like I'd be a little bit more excited about him even

though I had him ranked lower all right fair enough um dealt you know I had a at a decent career at

Georgia uh certainly and uh he is below max british on my list if that gives you any idea of just

how much I I'm not really high on him 133.9 the rating throwing to him for his career never had

an interception thrown his way on 94 career targets so it's not like there's nothing to like

I just don't think he's anything really special as a receiver I think mostly um I would probably call

him a system played in that Georgia guy who really benefited from the other players around him and

how good they were um so his targets were or ended up being of higher quality and a lower defensive

assignment value then some of the other uh stunts it shows that shows up in like yards per out run

he never had a big yards per out run numbers 1.23 career when I look at a yards per out run

run number is to think about how many eligible receivers you have per play 5 and then multiply

your 1.23 times 5 is 6.15 um you would not be happy with that for your quarterback as a yards per

attempt number so you wouldn't you really wouldn't um uh you can't be too thrilled about a guy

like that in terms of what he brings you so always been a secondary receiving option probably

benefited from that um at Georgia and uh again 7th round no problem um in in terms of uh of having

him uh you know really earlier than that I I'll he's he's there for somebody else to take

because I think there's a lot of other guys with day 3 at a lot of other half awesome all right

I have I know guy a guy who a lot of people otherwise have higher is Dalin Bentley of Utah

because he's been a fairly high volume player but he's he played juco at snow college that went

to Utah and I don't believe I have an age on him I don't have an age he's 25

okay wow I didn't know that that's that I would have him lower if I know that so my my notation

is no age probably 23 in 2025 but you have an actual birth date that goes with that

I heard I heard he was 25 from uh what's his name um building the beast guy um I'm blanking

with his name now okay yeah okay so the the beast guide that usually has more of those yeah it's

not out yet but yeah like I always have the birthday okay yeah he's he's basically a CIA you know

yeah it's a very very valuable thing because agents are going out there and they're wiping

this crap off for players and yeah he has been a guy who's broken tackles fairly regularly

he's got a .21 mistackle rate in 25 which matches basically is career number you know decent

passive rating throwing them all at 109.5 um he made only four of 15 contested catches and that's

despite being really good size I mean 64-253 but he also has 33 and 8-inch arms

the 24 bench reps were in 462 I mean that's a guy you would expect to do a little bit better there

Utah was very good though and he was a focal point of their offense does find space well in

zone you know it's he's a valuable pass catcher there's just a lot of guys who can make a play with

the football in this class and and I don't really believe the download families at the top of that

list anyway I'm that's that's where I had him yeah same same area for me with Eli and Oscar so

yep all right so you you had him outside of your top 10 anyways I did when I did yeah all right

all right Alex always great talking football with you we we have the pleasure of

being an opening day today with you so if you're if you're there for the Orioles this will be out

on Friday you'll hopefully be listening to this and we'll just still be in the after glow with

that first Orioles win and wondering just how many of these remaining 161 games are they going to

be able to take but I thought you know I could day for the Orioles on the on the on the first day

really showed up with a fine pitching performance even though Rodgers pitched himself out of trouble

a few times yeah I feel like it's a game they won the one last year you know like that's the the

big thing I thought is there wasn't much offensive production for a while there they finally got

on the reliever just a few runs but they were able to be you know that double play that they turned

to limit you know runs there I think yeah overall I was really happy to see that game I'm hoping

to see more games that we win where we only score two or three runs right yeah like that's that's

the thing well I think those really missing from the team last year they just even when they get a

good pitching performance sometimes they just wouldn't score and this time they didn't just enough

so definitely excited big day for Kobe Mayo at the plate I thought I felt in the plate

ended the field but obviously turned to double plays which is great including a really nice one

that he kind of went to the ground to his left to to snag the ball and then and start a very

quick double play but he was one of the only guys who made solid contact off Logan in the first

what six innings of the game I mean they had one whole time and and he blasted two foul balls

on consecutive pitches down a left field line so I thought that you know I'm I'm bullish on

what Mayo can provide prior to Westberg and holidays return I guess mostly Westberg will take

over at third base it'll be when Westberg returns that's when Mayo presumably will lose his job

maybe I really hope he gets back I got his jersey he's one of my favorite players on the team but

I don't know man that elbows just seems like a taking time bomb so I'll see yeah but see it's

it's it's just it just sucks you go through these things where it's your pictures every year but it's

the hitters too and there everybody's missing time and you know the one of the things I've become

dispirited with about football is how much every season comes down to injuries and you know I love

the game but but it's just just too high a luck factor involved in injuries that the terms has a

huge determinant in every season so anyway frustrating all right we'll tell us where

people can talk football with you online sure you can find me at pleonis.com I'll definitely

share this show on the website when it's out you can also find me on X and blue sky and

threads and all the great places all right Alex thanks a lot for coming on of the folks out there

if you have a draft strategy show you'd like to do hit me up and DMs are always open on Twitter

you want to contact me on reddit the same thing is is possible I'll get back to you very quickly

if particularly if you have a good idea for a show I want to mix in some of these with some of

these two part draft shows the tent be very you know very lengthy and hopefully at the depth

that people enjoy and I hope you also join us for draft night and I'm sure Alex is going to be

on for at least some part of it at least I hope so and we'll have a lot of panelists talking about

the thing we'll be working on an interactive spreadsheet and whether you're a panelist or a

person who is watching you'll have a chance to contribute to that and that's a lot of the fun

of the of the show we have Alex thanks again for coming on thanks Ken we'll talk to you next time

on film study

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