2025 NFL Draft Preview: Tight Ends (Colston Loveland, Luke Lachey, Oscar Delp, Mitchell Evans)

Intro what's going on everybody good afternoon and I said a couple days ago I would hit the accelerator on my 2025 draft coverage because the season's not too far away now and I don't want to be talking about the draft a bunch after the games actually start so I'm going to try to get out as much as I can before the games actually kick off and we're going to move along to the next position here we're going to take a look at tight end we're going to take a look at tight end here position that we'll get through a little bit quicker than the other ones because there are fewer tight ends look at and tight end tends to be a little bit of a less high-profile position than the others Because by the nature of it you don't have as many guys that are going really high in the draft and you don't have as many period because teams don't have the need for the number of tight ends the way they need a number of receivers and it's certainly not valued the way the quarterback or left tackle or uh Edge rusher positions are now I will say this I think people are starting to prioritize tight end higher than they used to if you look at the four teams that were in the conference title game last year um they all had really good tight ends Sam leaport George KD Travis Kelce and Mark Andrews those are four of the best tight ends out there so there's a clear correlation even though I personally don't think Kelsey played his best football last year even though the numbers were still pretty decent um still you would consider him to be one of the better tight ends out there so let's take a look at this class let's Mock Draft try to get a feel for what's out there keeping in mind that the Seahawks I mean no offense on a two-year deal he could be gone next year he's going to have one year left on his deal not that ridiculous to get out from under it Pharaoh Brown's on a one-year deal and is a tight end two anyway because he's a blocker AJ Barner will be entering the second year of his rookie deal but you might not view him as somebody who can be a tight end one anyway and then you're dealing with like Brady Russell and Jack West over who might just they might just be preseason guys practice squad guys Fillin guys so there's certainly a universe where the Seahawks need to utilize a top pick on a tight end it's at the very least on the table here so let's take a look at what's available here on the consensus big board on the mock draft database uh you can see that it's pretty definitive right you've got one guy at the top a first round guy right now expected to be a clear first round pick and then you've got three guys guys that are expected to go according to the database uh aggregate Big Board anyway right around early third round so look for one of these guys at least to bump up to like maybe the uh the third round uh excuse me the second round by the time we actually get there maybe they could even push to the first and then there's a big drop off to day three guys right now so for the moment I think we just need to talk about these four guys a little bit and we'll just see who ends up throwing their hat into the ring as the season goes Colston Loveland on so the first guy is coulston Loveland and this is this is the guy this is a 100% the guy last year he was teammates with AJ Barner but even though AJ Barner was the one who was about to declare and go into the pros and Loveland was a guy who needed to stay back Loveland was still the more prolific player and the more important player to that offense he was okay in 2022 didn't do a ton play had like one catch a game but last year average three catches a game 650 yards and four touchdowns remember he's playing for Michigan they don't throw the ball that much we we had to filter these Michigan receivers through a very particular lens because they like to run the ball in Michigan so his 650 yard season is probably more like an 850 yard season in an even normal offense so this is actually very impressive it doesn't look it but it absolutely is so what I can say about Loveland he's got a high amount of Versatility in his ability to be aligned in different places pre- snap you can line him up in line you can line them up in the slot you can line them up out wide in the back field he can do it all got experience with it he goes in motion a lot so if you're looking to get a tight end who's familiar with motion he's going to be that guy because he's proven it at the college level he's a good route Runner he runs good routes his brakes are clean and smooth his movement generally is smooth um he is a guy who is going to be able to break free of man coverage and he also has a pretty good understanding of how to read Zone and find the holes in the zone he's got a big catch radius he's somebody who will go make a play on any ball that comes into his vicinity so if you you're off Target he's still going to make a play on it uh he's got a quality run blocking resume as well he's a good run blocker there are some areas where needs to improve a little bit there but he can run block good his Yak skills are really good once he gets the ball in his hands and has a little open field he can get up to top speed very quickly he's a really good all-around athlete just in general his agility his ability to jump his ability to make people Miss for a tight end is all really nice um I do think that there are some technique issues with his blocking he plays with a high pad level sometimes uh that's something that can easily get better some drops and some lack of aggression when going for the ball that can be fixed as well I think his drops are more along the lines of focus drops and I think he has to get a little more muscle mass he's already pretty big but I think he's going to have to add a little bit of muscle for the NFL so nothing there is a deal breaker at all all that stuff can be addressed and most of it will probably get fixed maybe even in the next year so coulston Loveland clearly the number one tight end in this class not much negative to say about him anything negative can can be fixed Oscar Delp easily then we have a big drop off to the next guy he's ranked at a 66 so early third round we have Oscar Delp of the Georgia Bulldogs another Georgia tight end and it's all about the talent here with Mr Delp because it's not really about production because he hasn't had much yet last year was his best year by far it's really the only year he did anything at 24 catches so less than two a game less than 300 yards and three touchdowns so when you look at Oscar Delp you're not looking at the production you're looking at the talent and he's a great athlete he's got great acceleration great agility great jumps great speed he is a really athletic tight end and because of that when you're getting him you're not just getting a tight end you're getting a guy who can line up in the slot line up wide line up in the back field he's going to be able to do it all and he's going to be able to do it all well and be dangerous wherever he lines up because he is just that athletic really good route Runner overall uh there are some little limitations there that might not be entirely fixable but overall I think he's a really good route Runner you get the ball in his hands he's hard to bring down very dangerous with Yak really good Yak player he should be a good blocker I'll say that much he has a physical mentality he wants to finish people he wants to put his opponent in the ground I like the way that he plays I like the way he approaches football so he should be a good blocker uh I will say this as of right now he's got to get better at it he's got to refine it there are still some technique issues with his blocking like he does tend to disengage pretty quickly got to get a little bit better there um he doesn't have a lot of production like I said which is a fair criticism he needs to go out there and do it this year if he does it then that complaint obviously completely goes away because when you're tight end in college football you're probably only going to have one Good Year anyway that's just kind of how it works and um he's not as elusive as you would like in route running like there there is some good route running here don't get me wrong I think it's out running is good but he's a little bit High hipped and that makes you a long Strider which means you can't be quite as sudden in your movement and that's something you can't really do that much about potentially that might not be fixable so that's what separates a guy like Delp from a guy like Loveland but he's a really good player he's a really exciting prospect and I can't wait to see what he does this year he's going to be playing with Carson Beck he's going to be uh playing on a Georgia team that expects to be really good again it's just a matter of is he actually going to go do it but I like Oscar Delp I could absolutely see him elevating his draft stock to like the the second round or so not a problem okay so that is Oscar Delp now we're going to move on to a guy I watched a decent amount last year Luke Luke Lachey Ley or Luke Lackey or Luke Ley I don't know but what I do know is that I hey I said I watched him play I didn't listen to him play if I listen to him play I'd probably know but Luke latchie Luke Leakey Iowa Hawkeye another really good tight end pipeline here bigger guy slightly bigger than the last two guys we looked at um had an pretty good year in 2022 on an offense that wasn't EX prolific had almost 400 yards and four touchdowns 2023 was probably supposed to be his big breakout year and then he played three games and then he broke his ankle or injured his ankle I can't remember if he broke it or not he had 10 catches in those three games that he played so the breakout was coming and then it got derailed so what are you going to do what you're going to do is remember the strengths of Luke here he's big and strong as a blocker he's just generally he plays very physically and very strong and like his blocking he's a quality route Runner as well uh good suddenness good ability to change direction good ability to sell route and then give another route he's hard to bring down in the uh in the open field uh he makes plays on almost every ball that comes his way so if you give him the ball in his cat he's got a be catch radius is basically what they say his catch radius extends out in all directions a pretty good amount um he's got good hands as as well he's not going to drop very much he's a credible deep thread as well he's not just one of these big strong lumbering guys so you can actually send him up the seam and he's going to do damage Noah Fant style he's got good versatility as well he should be able to line up in various um alignments and get it done he should be able to run different kinds of routes and get it done also good at finding holes in zone defense we just we need to see him do it we need to see him actually go out there and produce in a big way for Iowa this year we need him to go out there and actually have that big year he's going to be by far the best player on the Iowa offense this year probably so you got to go out there and have like the 700 800 yard season uh the injuries are a concern he broke his ankle or I I think he broke his ankle last year it was a pretty big injury got to move pass that gota be healthy in 2024 and while he's not a bad athlete he's not a great athlete there is a little bit of tight end two stuff here right this might be a guy who's destined to be a BL in tight end who occasionally makes a play with the ball in his hands like will dley style I feel like it's a little bit better than that but he's certainly not one of these elite athletic tight ends he's not a Travis Kelce he's not a even a Noah Fant is probably more athletic than him by a good amount at least coming out of college all right so that's Luke good tight end and then we got one more guy we're going to look at in this video another guy who's currently Pro jeed to be about a third Mitchell Evans round value Mitchell Evans Mitchell Evans of Notre Dame uh he uh he had a nice year last year 29 catches in eight games if he plays the full season he's definitely beating 500 probably getting over 600 uh only the one touchdown but again he played a little more than half the season so if he can build on that and kind of translate his projected production last year into actual production this year he should could be one of the top tight ends in the country in production at least so he's got NFL caliber size already um this side actually lists him out as being a little smaller than he is I think he's over 250 uh he's got great hands he's got good ball skills really good at making sure he catches catches the ball away from his body really good at plucking the ball out of the air in um even in traffic even in contested catch situations really good understanding of how to read and react his own defense he sees where the Defenders are going and realiz says okay if they're here and they're here I'm going to be going here and I'm going to be open he gets that kind of stuff he's got good acceleration he builds up to his top speed quickly once he gets the ball in his hands or before he gets the ball in his hands when he's running around he's also got some promise as a run blocker should be able to be a pretty good run blocker already showing pretty good signs of his ability to be physical up at the line of scrimmage so good player he is however a little bit more of a tight end too right he is a little bit more of the slower plotting tight end that isn't going to terrify linebackers and man coverage and isn't going to be able to separate from safeties the way that some tight ends do uh his routes are not great either his routes need a little bit of work his suddenness when running a route needs a little bit of work his ability to move suddenly pass protection is not where it needs to be yet so he's a pretty good run blocker but pass protection is lagging behind and just overall he's not really tight end one material as what we're seeing right now right there's a certain level of athletic ability and flexibility you need to have to be tight end one Mitchell Evans strikes me as a little bit more of a will disley kind a tight end two so promising valuable for sure worthy as of right now being a day two pick looks like it to me but I don't know if he's going to be able to take that next step physically he just might not have it and that's all I have for tight ends so far those are the top guys those are the main guys to keep an eye on it's obviously not we don't have a brock Bowers this year although Loveland is not that radically far behind it's certainly better than some of the tight end classes we've had recently so there are going to be other guys that get involved as the season goes on like a bring in stool was a guy I kept a little bit of an eye on last year press corn I remember from last year as well but those are the four guys we're going to start with I'll see you guys later gohawks let me know what you think down below let me know if there's anybody out there that you like more draft videos coming soon