2026 RSP A-Z Tight End Podcast: Matt Waldman’s RSP Cast

Welcome to the RSP cast. I'm Matt Waldman with the Rookie Scouting portfolio. Today's episode is a solo cast on the 2026 Titan class. It's an interesting group of prospects worth of your attention as an NFL fan, a Dynasty League GM, and in a few cases as a fantasy GM and redraft and best ball formats. I'm going to discuss one of two prevailing thoughts that I have about the 25 Titans that will be featured in the 26 Rookie Scouting portfolio pre-draft publication. It's going to be available for pre-order really right now since December. It's been available for pre-order. You can go to www.Matt Waldman.com and it'll be ready for April 1 download. So you you purchase it now and you get a login in a password and when it's ready, I'll email you and you can download it using that login in password. You also get a post draft in addition to that. See if you haven't purchased the RSP in the past, it's a PDF draft guide. It covers at least 150 players at the offensive skill positions of quarterback running back wide receiver in Titan. And it's been available for download every April 1 going on 21 years. And for over a decade, I've been delivering a post draft guide one week after the NFL draft and that's part of the subscription price and the price is only $2195. I know that there are a lot of people who are long time subscribers who probably laugh and say I don't know how you make a living. But this is how I make my living even with that low of a price. So if you enjoy the podcast, you like the YouTube channel, you like what I put on X or Blue Sky, mostly X. All that work is just simply me sharing a small amount of my background research for this publication. I go deep with the RSP and it helps you go deep with your knowledge so that you can go deep on your legmates. So, you know, I was in sales in another lifetime ago, but what I'm sharing with you is really a publication low on frills and huge on substance. New readers are always pleasantly shocked with what they get and I'll share more detail about the RSP a little bit later in the podcast. This is what I would call a C through W show on tight ends that will be like my previous solo casts in recent years. I'm sharing one of two things about these tight ends that I find notable in an alphabetical order. These thoughts are going to fall into categories of praise, criticism, lingering questions I might have or broader thoughts about the position. These are far from the complete scouting reports. If you want the full deal, again, 2195, MountWaldman.com, it'll get you what you're looking for. And if you're like most, you're going to get me feedback about the price, you're going to feel like you're underpain. And I am selling you, but it's, you know, I can sell you and also tell you the truth and I'm telling you the truth about that. Now, in the past four classes, they had promising pre-draft buzz, especially last year's class. But this year's class doesn't have the quite the same glossy shell. And after all, the comparisons between this class and the classes may actually prove useless. Because soon we might be entering what I would call, you know, if you're a stranger, things fan entering the upside down for tight end evaluation. Offensive football has been undergoing a transition in the NFL. And when opposing defenses put the clamps on Andy Reed and Patrick Mahomes spread offense in 2023, it's signaled the end of an era. And was giving birth to the league adopting compressed formations. Two tight ends, three tight ends, full backs, 12, you know, so you're looking at 12 personnel, 13 personnel, 21 personnel, 22 personnel. You know, these clamps were, you know, that the defenses put on off spread offenses were umbrella coverages. So they were designed to limit if not eliminate the deep passing game using nickel and dime defenders on the field and lighter linebackers who could cover the width of the field. And these defenders could also close ground on scrambling quarterbacks and limit the damage that mobile passers can inflict. So of course the natural response to this, something that I and other football analysts have mentioned for at least a decade, was that once we saw defenses catch up to the spread offenses, we'd see offenses then counter to the defenses, clamps to bigger fronts running the ball. You know, running the ball down the throats of these lighter defenses who were vulnerable to downfield football, but also, you know, using players in space in the underneath areas who could really exploit the weaknesses of some of these defenders. And during the past three years, we saw NFL offenses going away from 11 personnel as its base game. And in this place, we've seen those two and three tight end alignments, the Ravens and Lions, they were early adopters, the 49ers and Rams also got into the act. And, you know, if you are familiar with Max Tuscato, he is a new writer at reception perception dot com at Harmon's site. You know, he's a former tight end at Yukon, I believe, we'll see, you know, if he's correct about what he was talking about in recent weeks, we're going to see a shift in the offensive landscape and it may impact how we value tight ends. What he thought recent weeks is using AJ Barner as an example is that the Seavocs drafted Barner primarily as a blocker. I mean, if you watch Barner, I believe he was in Indiana, if you watched him, Indiana and then Michigan, you could, or maybe it was reversed. I know he played in the big 10, I just forget, I'm, you know, I'm going through all these guys, but Barner, I'm great blocker, good in line player, excellent hands, you could post up on you. He's built for an inline role, he's not explosive. His route gained beyond the shallow range of the field really isn't all that compelling. He's not an oversized wide receiver, but he's got the excellent hands, he excels at walling off or posting up linebackers and safeties during the first 10 to 15 yards of the line of scrimmage and he's got the power and contact balance that if you get him down hill in space with, you know, general misdirection or play action and the defensive flow to the opposite side. He's going to Barner in open space and he's going to run through some people. Now this strategy makes the big tight end and extension of the ground game. And these big options can also stretch defenses with seam routes, wheel routes and throwbacks off play action that make the over zealous defenders pay when they cheat to stop the short passes. Now, none of these routes I mentioned really require the specialized skills and techniques expected from wide receivers or move tight ends who are emulating a lot of what wide receivers do. There's just less expectation to beat man-to-man coverage when you're facing these umbrella coverages. And we've already started seeing this shift in the offensive landscape. We've seen it take shape with tight ends around the league. I mean, Packers, Colts, Browns fans, anyone listening to this? They know what I just described is something that's already familiar to them. I mean, Tucker Kraft, Tyler Warren, and Harold Fanon, Jr. earned most of their production on plays designed to let them rumble like old school fullbacks in open space. And now this strategy works on a regular basis if the opposing defenses respect the tight ends ability to block. So in the case of Kraft and Warren, they're big enough for defenders to believe the team could be running the football. And they both had, you know, Josh Jacobs and Jonathan Taylor. And so they, you know, defenses were expecting the run. Fanon maybe not fits the archetype as well as Kraft and Warren, but his skill after the catch may actually even mitigate any disrespect that opposing defenses might show if they were cheating in Fanon's direction early after the catch. Now, Max Cuscano posits that if enough teams adopt heavy alignments with multiple tight ends as their base sets, we're going to see an increased demand for blockers. And a decline in the leagues need for move tight ends with advanced route skills to defeat man to man coverage. According to Tuscano, if a tight end is a good blocker with size, you can catch his stock is probably going to go up. Conversely, the tight ends that will remain viable in these content sets are one of two archetypes. The first are going to be the five tool unicorns, you know, the guys who can a beat, you know, one beat press, two run receiver like routes, three catch the ball to high level, four carry the ball effectively and five block of the line of scrimmage right now. The unicorns in this, with this criteria were George Kittle before his injury and Colston, lovelin is arguably the next. You know, the other survivors in this change, if it happens are going to be the move tight ends who are good enough route runners, past catchers and ball carriers to earn more snaps and targets than either they're wide receiver two or wide receiver three on their team. They have to be that good that you don't feel like you'd be better off with a with your wide receiver to wide receiver three split wide from the formation or in the slot. Brock Powers, good example of a guy that immediately comes to mind as the this archetype. He's an okay blocker, but from an inline blocking standpoint, he's mediocre to slightly below average. Tramick Bride, another good example of that. Both of them can run routes, and they win the ball, and Bowers in his case, what he does after the catch. He's more like a wide receiver one. Tramick Bride is more like a really good wide receiver to who gets targeted like a wide receiver one, at least in Kyla Murray's version of the offense. Now, if Loveland or Kittle couldn't block, they'd probably be on this list as well. Kyle pits when he's playing at his best and getting exploited for what he does well, also qualifies as these good enough route runners, pass catchers, and ball carriers to supplant a wide receiver two, wide receiver three in the Beckengore. So, this is if Tuscano's correct about all this, and if that happens, we might see the criteria for Tide N's flip flop from what it's been. You know, the make it simplistic, my thought would be to say we're going from the move Tide N's who are essentially over what oversize wide receivers being valued in 11 personnel sets as that second or third option in a passing game to now the oversized fullback whose good in line doesn't need to win man to man, but can win well in zone and rumble from you know, passes in the flat or screen passes and get you know, chain moving yardage and occasional big plays off of doing that, where even if they're good route runners, man to man, they don't need to use those skills. And we've seen a shift like this with skill players in the recent past and that's with wide receivers. I mean, Des Bryant was one of those dinosaurs, and if I want to say called my dinosaur or a laugh, we probably in his mid to late 30s now, but in the NFL terms of how it changes fast, he's one of the dinosaurs that roamed the NFL outside the hash and then a spread offence is infiltrated the league. We experienced a watershed moment during the draft when the analysts were still forecasting big receivers going early and then the small quick route runners were about to become the rage and it was kind of wearing that in between and I think that's where we've been with tight ends in recent years. But if you remember, you could remember how high big draft was on one time and on equanimous St. Brown, the Notre Dame receiver. If you remember, he was rated like by Mike Mayock and a lot of other big draft guys as like a top five talent on the wide receiver board and projected as an early round guy like a day one day to guy no later than early day three. And if you remember how much he dropped, that was a big moment as a watershed moment because in the years proceeding that moment, the the Eagles and a few other teams were buying into this height weight and BMI minimum for wide receivers. Now they misused the information and this was probably upon recommendation from some inexperienced consultants. I know that the Eagles hired a consultant who was spoused this idea and then the team was hasty in how they managed it. They eliminated receivers from their draft board entirely who fell below height weight minimums before they even screened their film to determine if they were possibly any compensatory factors that made these exceptions to this height weight BMI theory. I mean, after all, you look at Odele Beckham, Steve Smith, senior, you look at players like that who there's a lot of players in the league like that Jordan Madison who can play bigger Devonta Smith who can play bigger than how they look because of how they win as a contested catch player their explosion their ability to make people miss. But also time their ability to leap and win the ball and not have to take punishment, you know, massive punishment doing so on a regular basis. So let's remember, it's just worth remembering that this was kind of the background to why things started to change as spread offences became more in demand. The smaller guys made more sense in a lot of ways in terms of the skill sets that they offered. And football strategies are cyclical. So changes to the scheme also change the type of personnel that's in demand. If NFL offenses are trending in the direction of heavy condense sets, we're going to be reorienting what matters at that position when it comes to evaluating it. And that reorienting may have already begun and earnest without us knowing it. I mean, you look at Warren, Fanon and Loveland. They finished their rookie seasons as top 12 fantasy producers. AJ Barner was 14th. All four played in offenses that use 12 personnel to tight ends, extensively, if not as one of its pay sets. So Barner was not the player anyone anticipated to deliver fantasy value. And in nearly maybe tied in 14 isn't really fantasy value, but he certainly had good weeks. And you might have had to pick him up and use him and gotten some value out of it. But from the standpoint of trends, he might be that canary in the coal mine. And the skills teams demand from positions might flip flop. And that flip flop could begin with this year's class and greater earnest. So move tied ends that we might have anticipated to go on day two this year. And in early day three, they might find themselves still waiting for a call after the fifth round, while it might be the blockers who can catch, but not run man-to-man routes at a high level, who are cutting to the front of the draft capitals queue. So we're about to find out about a month and a half if these ideas are going to come into play. And if these ideas are going to impact our fantasy outlooks on the position. Well, the RSP is already preparing. We're going to have what are called depth of talent scores in the RSP. And this is, if you're new to it, you've likely seen explanations for the scoring system in each chapter if you've been familiar with it. If not, you're going to be exposed to that once you buy the RSP. Even if you've bounced around, you know, you may bounce around the rankings and scouting reports and things like that. But depth of talent scores have defined criterion values that score how well players perform tasks related to their position. And this RSP criteria is defined and weighted to a professional standard of the performance. So separating against press coverage, route running, pass catching, blocking. These are some of the main things in the tight end depth of talent score criteria and they count for 75% of what you're going to find there. Only 15% of that 75% has been for blocking. And that mount has been designated as such for years because it's good enough that excellent blockers who can perform duties of a move tight end, they end up getting an edge with good to great marks overall because they're the potential five tool unicorns of the position. But blocking has been the lower priority in an NFL environment that's used spread, offenses, where really route running, defeating press coverage and pass catching are have been more important to those high profile producers. So if the trend max to sconto forecast becomes the predominant reality for NFL tight end opportunities, then blocking is going to have to become more valuable and separating and running routes against man to man is going to become less valuable. So to anticipate this potential trend, I've created a new depth of talent score that's going to anticipate these changing values. Now the RSP is keeping the old depth of talent and that's what it's using for its default rankings right now. But I'm introducing what's called the in line depth of talent score, which I'll use the abbreviation high depth and the rankings and tables that you'll see in the publication. And this is what I would say is my first pass at forecasting the new valuation of tight ends if heavy alignments with multiple tight ends become the norm and replace most spread systems in the NFL. And it's pretty simple. Instead of blocking accounting for 15% of the score like it does for my more move tight end oriented depth of talent, it's now 30% and equal in value to pass catching in the in line depth of talent. So separation and routes that accounted for 30% with the original score is not only going to account for half that in the in line score. So what I've seen when I've looked back at my past rankings when I've applied this to all my past evaluations because I'm not changing how I evaluate the player from watching film, I'm just changing the weights of how I value them in my analysis of what they do. And that's what's when you have a good process like the RSP, you, you know, what you look for and what you watch and how you define what you're watching should remain the same. It's how you score it and value it that you can have flexibility with based on what the demands are for the league. So you know, when I look back at this, the Brock powers of the football world still maintain high value because they possessed rare talent as receivers at the position, even with the line depth score. Now they were exceptional outliers, you know, in terms of this type of scoring because Bowers is just mediocre as a blocker compared to a lot of inline guys. But because he catches so well, it gives him an exceptional value. But there are guys who now in this particular scoring system, the top blockers who can catch regardless of route running or not as important, you know, in terms of man to man routes and that, they'll be the predominant top talent in this evaluation format. So you're going to get two evaluation formats with this in the 2026 RSP and you can see if NFL teams lined up drafting these big oversized fullbacks over these oversized wide receivers, you can refer to that ranking from the pre-draft publication and see how I evaluate them ahead of, you know, what we've been doing in the past. We don't know if this trend is going to continue, but you'll be seeing the inline depth scoring for the first time this year and we'll be ready for it. So, you know, 2026 could see be that change and the change for the foreseeable future. And if we stick with recent history though and just look at the oversized wide receivers, the move tight ends with this 2026 class, there's nine tight ends who could develop into weekly contributors in this class. Now there's seven prospects within two to three years who probably could warrant serious fantasy consideration as high in contributors as move tight ends. There's five that I believe could become weekly starters and these are the projections if we're looking at spread offences. Now if we find ourselves in what I joke is Max Tuscano's dystopian tight end world, there are only three to four move tight ends with a chance to develop in the high end contributors instead of, you know, the seven that I mentioned, only half that. That's, you know, that changes things dramatically. There are six tight ends with inline capabilities and pass catching talent who could develop into fantasy values in the Max Tuscano dystopian tight end world or the upside down as we call it. Of those six four of these inline tight ends probably wouldn't have earned meaningful passing game production in a spread attack. That's a significant difference between who has potential fantasy value with the scheme as a determining factor and that's why we should be prepared to cast aside history if we see strong indications through the draft that there's a weed league wide change for two tight ends. So this is the kind of analysis in addition to scouting reports that you're going to find in the rookie scouting portfolio pre-jaff publication. Again, you can go to matwaldman.com and get it for 2195, you get the post draft along with it and updates in a newsletter that gets sent to you multiple times throughout the year. I also sell dynasty rankings and projections where I give you cheat sheets and some commentary along with projections that I update multiple times a year and the cheat sheets are for long build and win now type of formats and you get my thoughts on that as well. All that's rooted though in the study of players that I do on tape through the evaluation system that I've created that's my own analytical system that I've been doing for 21 years and building on that for 21 years. So again, matwaldman.com is where you can find it. You will be pleasantly shocked. So let's get started with these tight ends. I'm going to mention one of two things that I like about these guys or that I think they need work about. I mean, just prevailing thoughts positive, constructive, or otherwise. So we're going to start with Carson Ryan on a BYU. He also played at Utah and at UCLA. I think pound for pound. Carson Ryan is the best blocker in this class. Now he's listed at 250. So that's not like a 260, 265, 270 inline guy. But when you watch this guy block, whether it's on the wing, whether it's working across the formation to seal somebody on the perimeter or to work more as a fullback in the middle of the field and be a lead runner or a stock blocker or a combo blocker in line or even taking on defensive ends in the run game or in pass cover protection. He's really good. I love how he sets up blocks. He has a good, he has a lot of tight ends are too impatient with sending up blocks. They rush to the point of attack. The defender sees them, you know, take an angle too fast and then they just go the other way and the blocker misses his assignment or only gets part of it. Ryan's good at meeting the defender halfway when he has to work down field and setting up the block by maybe taking a direction that baits the defender where Ryan wants him to go and then is able to seal the guy off, taking the correct shoulder, closing the gap well, using his hands effectively. He can punch a lot of tight ends don't strike well. They just extend maybe with a jab, it passed a double jab, but they don't keep their hands tight. They don't get inside to the chest plate. They don't upper cut. If they do upper cut, they don't roll through their hips to really generate power into the strike and then that stands the defender up and gives the tie-down a chance to then dictate terms because the defender's off balance. They're straightened up, leveraged wise and now you can get the hands in and start working them with footwork and being able to steer them in a direction. Ryan does all that very well and he does it whether he's a stock blocker or whether he's an inline guy or a lead blocker and that makes him a tough out even for good defensive ends. I've seen him handle my, University of Miami's defensive ends even in moments where you're going wow, it's impressive for a 250 pound tie-down to be able to do that. Do I think that he's going to take on Mike Parsons and Miles Garrett that way? No. We're not expecting a tie-down to win like that. The only tie-down who probably could do that a little bit reasonably well in the past would have been a Rob Grinkowski type. There was only one of him. But what you're going to ask Ryan to do, he's not going to embarrass himself as often as other tie-dens would of his size. If he were left on an island with a NFL defensive end, he would give a quarterback more often than not a fighting chance to buy some time, at least get a quick hitting throw off. And that's pretty darn impressive for a guy who's 250. So as a blocker, I thought pound for pound best in the class, technique-wise, motor, toughness, concepts, versatility, it's all there. Now he's got an underrated vertical game too. He's not super fast, but he uncovers late. He's one of those receivers that I've seen at UCLA, at Utah, and BYU. Eventually the quarterback has played with him enough to go wow. I can throw a ball to him downfield more than 20, 30 yards downfield, and he's covered and he's going to uncover where I throw it late and win the ball. He wins trust throws with jump up and throos, where you jump up and high point it, coming back to the ball. He also can kind of sneak and cut off a defender or make a late move where he's, you know, pinned tight by the defender and make a late move. And the defender not know that the ball was heading just a little bit to his left or right, and Ryan makes a clean catch out of that. He's not a dynamic runner, but he's a tough straight line guy who can move his hips reasonably well to be able to, you know, alter the axis of pursuit in the open field. I think he might be like dystopian, tight-end world proof in the sense that whether, you know, I think he can be a viable tight-end in a spread system. I think he can be a viable tight-end in an inline system. And for the life of me, I have no idea why this guy didn't get invited to the combine. And so, you know, I might be dead wrong about this guy. I've been dead wrong about some players in the past like this, but from what I've seen, I think, you know, profile-ball focus. I don't subscribe to them. I don't really follow much of them. I know some guys there that I'm, you know, fans of some of their content work like John Owning, you know, who's also an editor there. But, and I know that tight-end scores or grades, that player grades are not something that the NFL is particularly fond of. I think that I can tell you that at least I've been told that they have, they've learned to just kind of buy the packages that PFF gives them that's going to do grunt work for them that they don't want their QA guys to have to spend time doing or get supplemented with that, but part of the package is having to buy the the grades. And then, you know, profile-ball focus has been able to say, "Hey, the NFL uses our grades." And then you see the NFL kind of clap back, that NFL personnel coaches say, you know, we don't really like, we don't think the player grades are all that great. but then they said, "Well, you buy them." So you've got to got this argument going on, but it's kind of like buying a package as a client that you don't want to sell, or you don't want to buy, but the other products are good enough that you'll grin and bear it because they're basically telling you that they're not taking it out of the package. And it gives them a good marketing ploy for most of the public. That's how I look at it. If that kind of ruffles their feathers a bit, I'm sure they'll come back and say, "Well, we, you know, all right." Then a fellow loves what we have. You know, that's what I'm saying. See, my dog's already getting ready to clap back a little bit. All right. Dequan Wright, Ole Miss. He has excellent hands and hand-eye coordination. He's more of a move-tight end. He's shifty for his size. He uses his strength well as a runner. He's someone that you can see in the open field to a great job of, you know, doing a great job of being able to make someone miss, spin off of contact, change direction and space, and break some tackles. The thing is, is that he has really good hit mobility in terms of flipping his hips, which is excellent for a runner. It's excellent for a route runner who's making speed turns. Okay. So, you know, think of outrouts where you make a speed turn and you have to actually point the toe 90 degrees and you flip the hips quickly. He's very good at that. But when you ask to run what are more man-to-man type of routes, routes where you actually have to drop your weight, you have to like, you know, bend at your knees and look like you're sitting in a chair. He's very straight-legged in that regard. And then that also impacts him as a blocker. He doesn't really get that stance where it's really balanced as well as it should be, and he's more straight-legged. And that hurts him as a blocker at this stage. So, you know, the hip mobility in terms of the hip flip is there. But bending at the knees is a different story. And if he can't do that, then you're looking at a specialist right now who can catch the ball. And I mean, the way he, I've seen him catch the front point of the ball with full extension of one arm and make the play in tight coverage. It's impressive work. But he's more receiver than blocker. And that's, and he's more zone receiver than man-to-man receiver at this time. So, if he winds up in a move-tight end oriented offense, he's going to have to improve his route running to become a factor one-on-one or else he's just a situational player. If he gets into an offense where he has to be an inline blocker, well, now you're looking at a guy who is going to have to work on his blocking skills and develop a better stance so that he can attack and not overextend and he can take punches and he can move people in a fluid fashion. Dalin Bentley, he's from Utah, physical player. But I think he's reached his peak size. So that means he can contribute as an H-back for a full-back, you know, or a full-back with a good system fit. He's a nifty mover, he's not dynamic. You're not going to see massive cuts from him, but he can bend and work against the grain. He's got good vision as a ball carrier. And I think he could become a situational contributor, but special teams will be his immediate niche, I think. But someone who can catch, who can run hard, even if he's not going to break up ton of tackles, he's someone that can become a favorite within a coaching system who executes assignments well and gives you, you know, what you're looking for in a situational role. Notre Dame's Eli Raridan, 6'6", 245, you know that he can probably add muscle to his body and that means that that may help him improve as a blocker and that it also can make him a little bit more of a factor after the catch if he can maintain his explosion. Because he definitely has the explosion to be a down-fueled receiver. That's what he does well. And he has made some nice plays down-fueled in that regard. He's got good hands, but he has minor lapses with his hands in terms of attacking the ball and getting position. Sometimes he has to extend away from the frame. He ends up clap attacking and he's, you know, he's having, or has his hands in a high low position. When you're receiving the ball, one of the more fundamental ways of attacking the ball is that you watch your hands together where your thumbs at the very least are together. If you're teaching it more with the web type of attack, your thumbs and your index fingers are together. And that allows you to be able to get your fingertips on the ball and catch with them rather than clapping where the bottoms of your fingers or your palms start clapping on the ball and create a higher level of recoil. But he can win down field, but this is the thing that when you're playing against, you know, defenders in tighter coverage, playing more physical coverage, dealing with adjustments, you're dealing with quarterbacks who can throw the ball at a higher velocity on a regular basis and really fit it in there. You really have to, you have a very low margin for error in the NFL compared to the NCAA. So these minor lapses now can become more significant lapses in the NFL. And his overextension as a blocker really sets the tone for NFL defenders to be able to win against him. Because when you overextend, you either dictate, you either tip off what you're doing and defenders can counter quickly and just avoid you altogether or you're creating a scenario where you're off balance and the defender can now dictate terms and shed you, you know, within a step or two, whereas if you're not overextending, you can dictate terms on the defender and they're reacting to you. So that's where Eli Raritan has some work ahead. Eli Stowers, he might be the safest of the high ceiling move tight ends in this class. He's explosive, he has reliable hands, and he has good enough routes to contribute early in his career and build on that to become one of the top two to three options in an NFL passing game. And one of the things that he does really well is win and tight coverage. He's fast enough, he's got four or five speed. He's fast enough to be a wide receiver in a possession-oriented situation or if he's playing inside as a big play possession type of guy who can win, you know, in zone coverage and work, you know, corner routes and draw mismatches with defenders who are a little slower. But also when he's playing outside and facing faster defenders, quicker guys, he can win on slants with his size. You know, he can win slants and over routes and crossing routes and some come backers and outs because he has the good reach and he has the reliable hands techniques to earn the ball away from him. While he's being blanketed. So, Stowers also a former quarterback. He was the number 12 quarterback by some recruiting services in high school. But in his last game of his junior year after getting offers from big time programs like Georgia and LSU and I think Ole Miss, he tours ACL. And then, you know, he ended up at New Mexico State. He played quarterback early, but then a labor of injury. He, you know, to his throwing arm was an issue. And he ended up wanting to keep wanting to play so he was willing to convert to tight end and it became his position. So, he's even somewhat new to the position compared to most recruits that play through college football. But he's excelled and risen up. The rankings pretty fast in terms of what, you know, I would call it. He's risen in terms of his abilities. He's really bought into the position and done a good job. Now, Jack Andrews is a Texas tight end who came from Cal, played with Fernando Mendoza for a year or two, I think. Versatile tight end. And he could be an aspiring version of Zach Hertz if he winds up in a spread offense. And that offense doesn't change within a year or two to more of a heavy base set thing. Now, he might be able to add another five to ten pounds to his frame and become a competent situational blocker at 250, maybe 255. But I think the receiving game was really where he has value. But, you know, creating, finding openings and zones, creating after the catch, being able to stretch the seam a little bit, someone who can work with a quarterback and win some man-to-man coverage opportunities in the middle of the field. Jaren Kinnack out of Oklahoma. He's a former linebacker. He's like 6'2" to 34". He's got excellent speed, runs in the four-fives, blocking and route running. They're going to need the work. He's more of an oversized wide receiver in size, but he has the mentality of an oversized fullback or maybe a normal sized fullback at 234. So that former fullback mentality might actually help him in one way, but hurt him in another. He could earn immediate value in the league as a special teamer, because former linebacker, this guy can cover and block, and cover and tackle. And so I think that can be an immediate spot that he earns for a team. And then as he continues to evolve as a player, well his size is going to limit him if he's in an inline system. If the system wants inline to end ends, he's going to be capped at his size unless they make a more of a fullback. And then that could be worthwhile. And he could end up being on a player that had a team like the Jaguars valued like they value Quentin Morris and signed him to an extended contract. But he's going to have to develop more as a route runner if he ends up being in more of a spread system. Joe Royer, former Ohio State recruit, Ellis, now with Cincinnati, he does his best work from the wings and flats. And he can stretch a seam. He's got size in terms of his height, maybe can add a little more 10 to 15 pounds to his frame and reach about 260. And there's enough explosion for him to become a starter in the NFL. But I don't know if he's ever going to become a featured weapon most weeks due to his route running and his blocking. I think there's just he's capped just enough technically that I'd be surprised if he becomes a top and guy in either area. Think of him as your Michael Finley. I think that's Royer's ceiling. And some of you might think that's really good. Because you're probably misremembering Finley and the haze of nostalgia and the potential people saw in him and not the statistics that he actually posted. So good player probably could have a nice NFL career. But from a fantasy perspective, if you're a fantasy player, maybe he might be a little bit overhyped in certain circles. We'll see. John Michael Gillinborg. Wyoming. He's athletic. He's sure handed. And you could probably add another 10 to 15 pounds to his frame. He's 6'6". That could help him as a blocker. But he's going to need more development in that area to be ready for the NFL field. If he's going to be an inline blocker to fit his size, he's going to have to develop better footwork, close the gap better, punch better, going to really have to understand how to set up defenders. So there's a lot of work to do in that area. Not meaning that he can't do it, but he's more of a developmental project. Is athletic ability? It may not translate to him becoming a receiver good enough to supplant that number three option in an offense. He can catch the ball. He adjusts well to the ball. I think he can be a decent route runner, but is he really that athletic that we're going to, that he's going to be the number two or number three option in a passing offense? I have questions about that still. Moving on, Joshua Quavis at Alabama. He's an H-back kind of an overgrown full back type. He can block. He can catch in the flats. I think he's physically at a ceiling in the 250s or 245 range. If you like Noah Gray, he might offer that kind of role that the Chiefs backup offers who can get on the field and do good work for you, but are you sure he's going to take over for Travis Kielsey one day? At worst, I think that Quavis is hanging on to a roster spot like Breven Jordan at best. He's kind of an indispensable glue for an offense that is working more in the background and in the supporting role. North Carolina states Justin Jolly, formerly of Yukon. Jolly has the best hands in his class. All apologies to Kenyans Cedique or RJ Merrillon. Jolly is someone that can make the tough catches. He can go open. When the high points, he can extend away from his frame. He can dig out low throws. He can take hard hits. He can adjust to the ball and circus-oriented ways and still win it against tight coverage or contact. He's got a low center of gravity, but he can go up for the ball for his size. Team, the NC State, went to him in clutch situations. When they needed something from him, a fourth down or late in the game, or both, he was the guy they targeted and the teams knew they were targeting him and he'd still win it. He's kind of an overgrown full back type who can block and catch in the flats. But he has some field stretching ability. Pretty good burst. He can sneak behind defenses and if you let him go up and win it, he will. He could be a key cog in a passing game also because he runs well after the catch. Maybe the low center of gravity helps him as a block or two, but it's not going to be as your classic inline guy. He can help on double teams in that area. Take on certain types of finesse blocks there. But if you really want to maximize him as a block or maybe you're using the more as an H-back, maybe as a fullback who can go out and catch the ball. We'll see what kind of game plan, creativity teams start to use when they start considering fullbacks again or guys who can be a bit more H-back, fullback like. I think Jolly though has volatile draft value in this draft and in fantasy leagues. That means his career value may be volatile too because how he could fit could really lead to him being a trusted player. But there's places where he might not fit at all. That means that the man for him is kind of narrow. If he fits, finds a fit for that narrow demand, it could be a big thing for him and he could be a 7-800 yard receiver with 6-8 touchdowns. If he doesn't, he might wind up being a 3-400 yard player with 3-4 touchdowns at best and then he give him season. Kenyon Sadeek, Oregon, he's an elite speedster. Acrobatic goes up and wins the ball. Lots of over the shoulder leaping catches away from his frame. He can work over the middle and extend for the ball. He's one of those guys that doesn't always look like his speed is showing up on tape. But when it does, you see him blowing away cornerbacks on deep routes by 3 or 4 steps. So it's on there on tape but not always showing up there the way you'd like to see it. The route skills are the issue. He got to be better to maximize his talents. He's going to have to become more nuanced with how he sets up routes, setting up defenders even in zone. When they're playing over the top of him or he's got them trailing him, he's got to influence that a little bit better. Kenyon, Coleol's dinkins out of Penn State. He's a competent athlete for a move tight end. He's got a lot of fundamentals to work on. He's a route runner, as a receiver and a blocker. I think that would be a victory for him right now. We can revisit what he's learned down the line if he makes a team and continues to impress them with his work ethic and the results that he gets. USC's Lake McCree. Excellent hands. Tough as hell at the catch point. This guy gets bent in all sorts of directions and takes contact. He's got good body control even for targets where he's not having to get bent in different directions. He has good acceleration. He's a very good accelerator, but his long speed doesn't match his acceleration. He's better in the short and intermediate ranges of the field. A lot of that may have to do is the fact that he has two torn ACLs in his injury history. In his size, it's 246. He's pretty close to his maximum size. He's probably not looking at him as an inline blocker. One of those guys I worry might be a good player caught in the changing times of NFL offenses where they're looking for inline guys more than they're looking for what he has to offer. But he could be a nice contributor or reserve off the bench who they know is going to catch the ball if they target him. There's use for guys like that. Michigan's Marlin Klein. He's a German import from Cologne who ended up at a school in Raven County, Georgia, which is not too, too far from me. I've passed the school and wondered what it was for years. It's apparently it's a boarding school. That's where I learned researching Marlin Klein. So good to know that. I knew a young artist and what I wanted, not in Jesus' mind, but I knew an artist from Raven County once. Amy, I don't know how you'd be listening to this, but if you were, hello. From Cologne, he has good hands. He has budding skills as a blocker. He has upside to mind as he adds weight to his frame. He's one of those guys that in two or three years, we might be seeing him get on the field. And if he really becomes an excellent blocker, the receiving skills are good enough that he could sneak into being coming to starter. He could be that sneaky kind of developmental guy. Three to five years from now, we're suddenly looking at him getting a second contract as a starter, who nobody really thought of to be worthwhile as a passing game contributor, but will be. SMU's Matthew Hibner. Good hands. Winds the ball vertically. He wins in contested situations. Not really dynamic as a runner. He's more of a straight line guy. Maybe makes one good cut. But you know, you get him in space and he's kind of an oversized fullback who's a good blocker for a size and could get better. Maybe he's not going to add more size, but he can help you in an in line situations. Probably as double teams, probably on the weak side of an offense. I think he can be a long-term contributor in the NFL. Maybe even a guy who gives you a year or two as a starter that is good while they look for somebody who can be more dynamic. I think that there's enough skill there that he's going to have an NFL job for as long as he stays healthy. Max Clare, Ohio State, formerly a Purdue, I think Clare was showcased better at Purdue than he was at Ohio State. You really saw more of the route running and skill after the catch. Yes, solid hands, he's got growth potential as a route runner, one cut runner who can be reasonably dynamic a little more than a guy like him or that's for sure. So I think there's an opportunity for him if a team sticks with 11 personnel for a while, he might be able to have opportunity to become a starter. But I'm also fear he's one of those guys like Jack Andrews who could get lost in the NFL's trends and wind up a reliable contributor but only with situational value. BYU's Michael Trigg. He's probably the most volatile top-end move prospect in this class because of the way trends are changing but also because his hands and catch technique are elite with one rep and then they're subpar the next. He's one of those guys that you watch him make jump up and through and high point turning back shoulder targets with perfect hand position and good positioning technique. You see him make dynamic grabs that are great displays of hand-eye coordination and gifts that only the elite receivers in the league can make. Then you see him clap attack balls, you see him misjudge what hand position he should use, you see him use hand positions that he should never use. So you can see that the habits are inconsistent. He's a fun exercise in how you scout players because you could make the argument in three different ways. He's either a player that you award the high upside to because you've seen that he's made good technical displays of as a catcher and that he's got a foundation for good technique. He's just got to lock it in. You can take the middle ground with him and say that he's going to be inconsistent and not really change that much and it'll be great but you're going to have to live with the drops. Or you can say until he proves that he can be consistent with his technique, I'm not award in the high end production as a grade for him. I'm sure that in NFL circles there are probably those three points of view among scouts and personnel execs and probably people who are not related to the scouting but have a say in it like coaches and VPs and owners and GMs. Well, GMs have their role. Trigg, to me, you'll see in the RSP where I put him and where I see him. But if he can develop consistent habits regardless of the scouting report he should become a productive weapon to the NFL passing game. He's excellent after the catch. He runs more like a big running back after the catch and that's exciting. Nate Bore, if I pronounced it right out of Texas A&M, he was a walk on at one time. He does a lot of tasks well. He should earn time in the NFL field but I don't think he has an outstanding asset to his game and while there's room to add muscle to his frame, I don't think he has enough athletically or technically where it's going to go over the top for him to become a top three asset in a passing game. Oscar Delp out of Georgia now he's an interesting option because he's a smooth route runner. He is a smooth receiver in terms of, you know, good hands. The route running has eye discipline. He really attacks seems well. He attacks defenders well all the way to the top of the stem and he uses his eyes well to bait defenders in the wrong direction. So he's very good on timing routes and compressed areas of the field like the red zone that he can win in traffic because of that and in tight windows for air. So like really savvy, confident quarterbacks who throw in a tight windows would probably find use with Delp and really like him. If they're more mobile quarterbacks who don't process information as fast or robo quarterbacks who process slowly and need wide open guys at every turn, Delp can be helpful but you're not going to access the top end ability that Delp has to offer as a route runner. He's going to have to prove that he can catch against heavy contact because when I've seen him, you know, he doesn't have a sh*t ton of reps as a receiver against physical contact but when he has he hasn't caught the ball. And I think the sample size is low enough that I think he could prove differently. So if he does, this guy might be very underrated in this class. He's a good blocker for his size at 245. He's about 65. So at another 10 to 15 pounds of muscle if he can maintain the explosion that he has, he could sneak into becoming a decent starter and a guy that even fantasy GMs will need to pay attention to. But I don't know if he's going to become even as good of a blocker as he is for his size. I don't know if 10 to 15 pounds of muscle are going to make him an elite blocker or a very good or a good starting blocker. He might reach that ceiling. I think he's an under the radar player, mainly because scouts like to have a lot more game tape than he's really been able to show in terms of reps. He was behind Brock Bowers for a bit. There has been Yurasek was also involved. I think people go well if he was that good, he'd be much better than Yurasek. But Yurasek was a little underrated too and Yurasek made a team. We'll see about that. He's probably one of the more intriguing guys to me in this class. Riley Nookowski of Indiana. He's a rugged H-back. He's an oversized fullback for sure. Maybe just a fullback. He can deliver compelling stats for a team though if he finds that perfect fit. I just don't know how many of them there will be because how many of these teams are really looking for more of a fullback than an inline pig-tight end. If there's some teams that say, "Hey, we can run 20 personnel with him and fit him to our scheme or fit our scheme around him." Well, then you get a guy who can make contested catches. He finds open spots. He's a good runner after the catch. Very good lead blocker, wingback type of blocker. He's a good football player. You just don't know whether he's a football player without a position in today's NFL or if the NFL is evolving that they have a position for a guy like him. RJ Maryland of SMU. I think only Justin Jolly has better hands than RJ Maryland. Carson Ryan's pretty darn good too. But Maryland catches the ball like a wide receiver. Very smooth on targets above his frame. The extending for the ball. He can take contact. He can do the acrobatic adjustments at the boundary and looks exactly like a wide receiver. He's the son of Russell Maryland, but you'd think that maybe the UM guy that he was the son of was more Michael Irvin in terms of what he can do as a pass catcher. He might even be better off at wide receiver with his speed. He's got that four or five speed and he's got that, you know, he's six four. He could be a good guy at the boundary. The problem is that from what I've seen enough of is that the way he bends at the waist to run like man-to-man routes to beat people, he bends kind of like a geriatric man before he got a hip replacement. I mean, I hate to say it that way and I hope that maybe it's just a technique issue with him that he can get better at and then he's not limited with that hip bend. But if it is limited, then he can't be a wide receiver who's going to be working outside. He's going to have to be a zone receiver who works the seams and that could still make him a nice situational guy. But as a Titan, his blocking is too limited for Titan right now. He's got a lot of work to do to become a good blocker. So for when you see the YouTube channels that probably say, "RJ Maryland, the best Titan in this class." They're talking about highlight worthy tape as a past catcher. Not right now as a blocker. Maybe he'll surprise, but I think Chase Claypool is even a guy that you could put in his comparison spectrum, you know, in terms of what he can and can't do. Sam Roche, he's the best blocker in his class. He's out of Stanford. If you're including sizes, his factory is the best blocker in his class. Best pound guys still like Carson Ryan. But he's someone that can set position. He can handle some defensive ends on blocks that I don't think the smaller guys can. He's a good receiver underneath. He can use his size to wind down field. He has enough athletic ability to stretch a seam. And while he's not going to be really dynamic after the catch, he is a good blocker who can get into space and be more of a full back type if you need him to be or a rumbler of a big Titan. He's a quick learner too. Think of that Tucker craft role for Roche. I think that's what he can be. Tanner Coseal, the Houston Titan. Very good at contested catches. But I think he creates more of them than he needs to because his route running doesn't get him enough separation yet. If he can get bigger, if he can learn to position himself better with routes early in the catchpoint, he might be able to unlock more in his game than just being a situational guy. Now situational guys can earn fantasy value, but how long it lasts is a big question. The last guys will cast Merrick. I think it's pronounced that way or "Cack Merrick". I think it's "Cas Merrick", but will out of Ohio State, formerly of Ohio University, if you watch him at Ohio University, there's a lot of plays where he was featured outside as a ball winner on contested catches and he could get down field against, you know, maybe smaller school defensive ends, smaller school cornerbacks, defensive backs, and win the ball. You didn't see that in Ohio State, but he wasn't featured that way. Him and Max Clare were kind of a one-two punch and they put "Cas Merrick" kind of more in that you know, Luke Farrell, Jeremy Ruckert Roll, where you're like blocking in line and then you're filtering down and getting the short passes. But I think he can impose as well as a down field receiver if you scheme him up pretty well. And he has the size to have promises in line blocker. He's a good receiver who can add weight. I think that he's a, he might be one of those guys who's a better fit from the in line big, big offense that we're seeing the trend towards than, you know, being a move tied in. And he may be a beneficiary of that. So again, you'll be the beneficiary of your fan, you know, of getting the RSP. You know, you get it at matwaldman.com, 2195, pre-draft post-draft, and you know, you can thank me later. Thank you for listening and I'll be doing a wide receiver, A through Z podcast, probably with another week and a half, maybe two weeks. Thanks again. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]