Seth Wilcox (3:12)

Well, no lie.

Derek Brown (3:14)

Two seconds into beats, I was in the bathroom making sure all my teeth were still there. I like halfway bit through my lips. So, like, all the shots that night were burning a little bit extra. And there was definitely. I mean, bro, like, we got in there and I remember one of the scouts that was sitting there drinking at the bar and beats the first question. I said, hey. He stops me for a second, he goes, bro, did you can do a fight on the way here? What ha. What happened to you? And I was like, no, I. I fought with a sidewalk and I lost.

Seth Wilcox (3:40)

I've never gotten secondhand embarrassment from a told story like when Mike Mayer told me that, like I did from that night. So I'm glad we can relive it here. I'm glad I was not there. I'll just tell you that much right now. I am glad that we're here for today's program. We're going to break down the top 11 prospects in the 2026 NFL Draft class from a tight end perspective. We also have our favorite sleepers to boot. And if you enjoy this type of content, please don't forget to give this video a thumbs up and make sure you're subscribing both here in the Fancy Bros Dynasty YouTube channel. And if you're also just in NFL talk, but you don't play fantasy. Consider subscribing to the new channel and audio feed for the Tailgate. That's the new spot to talk general NFL happenings with Joey P. Ericson and dbro. And so much more fun happening over there. Also, if you want a chance to win a Tyrone Tracy sign New York Giants jersey Woohoo for free courtesy of our good friends over@pristine auction.com all you have to do is subscribe to the Fancy Bros Dynasty YouTube channel right now. Drop a comment below on any of our videos and that's it. We will be announcing a winner right here on the channel so make sure you ring the bell so you can be alert when we have new videos are up and claim your prize. Boys. Tyrone Tracy, that's going to go up in value here in a couple days when no Jeremiah Love goes to New York. What do you think DBRO value up?

Derek Brown (4:50)

Yeah, I mean new coaching staff if he definitely beats out Cam Scatterboot for the starting job. Yeah commodity.

Seth Wilcox (4:58)

I don't know about that. It's a bridge too far but but I'll take it nonetheless. Boys, let's jump right into the tight ends though starting with Oregon tight end Kenyon Siddiq. Really breakout season for the pride of Mackie, Idaho. This is a guy who had to transfer in high school to a bigger high school just because he has talented about 500 people. But he posts 51 receptions, 560 yards, eight touchdowns this past season after Terence Ferguson left for the NFL draft. This earned him first team all Big Ten honors helped him become the John Mackey Award finalist that he was and the four star prospect also flashed his track and basketball background in indie set an NFL combine record fastest 40 on record 4.39 seconds. Also the second best vert and broad jump in this class to only Eli Stowers. Finished with a 9.58 relative athletic score. Arz coming from our friends over at Math Bomb over only because he was 62241 that was really that size that brought him down. So Thor, where does Sadiq land in your Thor 500 and is he the clear top tight end prospect for you?

Thor Nystrom (5:56)

I like Sadiq. I don't love Sadiq. He is a tight end one in this class for sure. But you know for me I have him like in the mid-20s. You know even though he is sort of that consensus tight end one you love the athleticism from Sadiq that speaks for itself on the tape and obviously the pre draft process like the way that he moves in space but there's still a big raw element to his game. You know, you mentioned that prior to this past season at Oregon it was, he was stuck behind Terrence Ferguson and so they would do a lot of manufactured touch things for Sadiq. They bring him in, he'd get a block. He's a really good blocker at his size. Now how much of that translates to the next level? But we saw cool manufacturer touch stuff with him as a receiver this past season. With Ferguson off to the NFL, we thought that Sadiq, this is going to be his, his ascend, ascendancy to superstar kind of a moment. But he doesn't win downfield as much you would like for a guy with that kind of a profile. And I was a little troubled down the stretch there. And this doesn't get talked about as much during Sadiq's process. He was not tight end one on his team objectively down the stretch he, he was overtaken by Jamari Johnson. You, you look at the, and this was like the last four or five games. I mean it wasn't like the last couple. But if you want to just isolate it to the two games in the CFP for Oregon, Siddiq there again clearly functioning as tight end two on his own team. He had nine catches for 51 essentially useless yards. 0.68 yards per route run those last couple. And again he had sort of lost that tight on one thing like three games before that. So I think you have to bring that up as well. And the yak isn't quite as good career wise as it should be for the way that he was used with that athletic profile. So those are my sort of concerns. I do like the effort as a blocker. He was really good as a blocker in college. Again you go to the next level in line, is that always going to work there? There's probably going to be some guys that can nullify him as far as that goes. But yeah, a more rot sort of tight end prospect I think than has been forwarded.

Seth Wilcox (7:53)

Yeah, Derek, I think that's a really good concern that Thor has there. Talking about Johnson, someone who you know is potentially going to be one of these better tight ends in this class if he didn't return to college. So where do you come down on Kenny and Sadiq?

Derek Brown (8:06)

I mean, honestly, the conversation with Kenyan Sadiq is a really similar conversation that I could have over this tight end class as a whole. Like I, I know a lot of people really love this class. I'm a little bit lower than maybe consensus on this Class. I see a lot of good players, but I don't see a lot of stars. Like I, I like Sadiq, but again with Thor, I share a lot of concerns like target earning potential like what he did in college, like 12th and 14th and missed tackles forced. Like it's good. This is not Tyler Warren, Brock Bowers, even Sam laporta. Thor. I know we, we love Sammy ball game in previous years. Like this is not the same kind of guy. And it's like Sadiq has all the athleticism at the most correlated position in the NFL to high end outcomes equals high end athleticism at tight end. Could he be like one of those guys we flip over the cards in three years and he's like in on the short list, you can count on one hand of one of the best tight ends in the NFL. Sure, it could be possible.

Thor Nystrom (9:02)

Yeah.

Derek Brown (9:03)

But like with his game, it's like he has to improve his route running with his footwork, top of the stem salesmanship in his routes. I think he has good deep ball tracking and down the seam and stuff. Impressive body control. But it's definitely, he's more of not a finished product than I think a lot of people discuss. Whenever you talk about Kenyan Sadiq and especially where he could go as a cemented first round prospect in the NFL draft.

Seth Wilcox (9:30)

Any comps for you guys? For me it was like just looking at what he can become in the NFL. I get more like Eric Ebron vibes where I don't think he'll ever be a top five tight end, but I think he'd be a really good starter. For a long time I, I went

Derek Brown (9:41)

ceiling with Vernon Davis, but like that, that again, that's the fever dream ceiling for him.

Thor Nystrom (9:46)

Yeah, and that's where it's tough, right, because the, the athletic profile in that, that's the, the that physical package. Like there's so few guys that you, you can comp him to. And so I, I ended up doing Vernon Davis too because like if it's again the physical package, it almost demands that there's so few guys and, and that's why I have to put Sadiq in the first round. The end of it in my, my 500 player board. But like I, I can't go any higher than that because of some of those raw elements of the game. But it is a fabulous athlete for sure.

Seth Wilcox (10:17)

Okay, next up here we have tight end out of Vanderbilt, it's Eli Stowers. This is a 2025 John Mackey Award winner. Finished six in SEC in receptions this past year with 62 of them that resulted in over 750 yards, four touchdowns. And this is a guy that really comes out. He can line up wherever, right out wide in the backfield, he in line and like Tyler Warren, super high IQ football guy. Actually recruited as a four star quarterback recruit out of the state of Texas. But unlike Warren and unlike Sadiq, this is a guy that has multiple years of elite production at some top level programs here and also had a great combine. Posted an elite Composite Speed Score 4.51-second 40 Time Best in the class in the vert and the broad finished with a 9.46 raz again only kind of getting dinged by his height a little bit. So Derek, I've come around that yes I do think Sadiq is the best tight end in this class. However I'm still on board that I think for fantasy football purposes Stowers might actually be the better pass catcher and score you more points. Can you get behind that analysis at all?

Derek Brown (11:20)

I can get behind in the range of outcomes. Does he have a higher end outcome? Is it possible? Sure. But the thing about what Stowers is there's also like there's areas of his game he has to continue like on paper spreadsheet bros are going to love him. And I don't disagree with him like third and ninth in yards per route run ninth and fifth and missed tackles 4C, second and seventh and Yak. But the fact that like over the last two years he's been 66.4 to 72.2% from the slot or out wide. I mean what does he do in the NFL? Man? Like my problem with Stowers is and everybody the assumption of rational coaching is a very very difficult and dangerous road to walk in the NFL. It's like could he be an every down guy and and a team builds a passing attack around him? Sure. Could he also be new or and this is my comp for Morande Gadsden possible where he's a 60 to 70% route per dropout guy. Could he also be new Dalton Kincaid? And the conversation around Kincaid is also colored with the fact of injuries and stuff like that limiting him. Yeah, but that still doesn't change the fact that Dalton Kincaid is also like still a 50 to 60% route sheer guy. So Stowers, this iteration of the NFL, he has a wide range of outcomes, man. And the thing about it is like you can't score fantasy points, you can't produce for an NFL team when you're getting taken off the field because you can't freaking block. And he can't block at this stage. Like he is not even close to being a passable league average blocker for an NFL team. So I look at Stowers like team's gonna like for me to be like, I mean all the way in. Team's got to take him in the first round. They take him in the second round. Guys that were I, I even like more as a prospect in previous years like Ben and Ben Senate just shouting somebody out where it was failure to launch Washington looks like they moved on from him. Yeah, Stowers concerns me because if he doesn't ever get the blocking down and he can't even become like look, we're not asking you to be elite, we're just asking you to just not suck. Like if he can never get to that, he's going to be a limited player. And going back to my comp, I like around Ronda Gadsden and the fact that he popped in his first year in the NFL but again was around a Gadston. Ever talked about as a second round or first round NFL pick in an NFL draft? Hell no. Like also we have to understand the context of this skill set. So Stowers gets a lot of puff and praise. Like I like him but even at this juncture he's got to improve the route. Running the high end route, running chops, you'll see plays where he, he understands leverage, the footwork is good. But there's also plays where rounded routes he's not getting separation especially when you talk like and tie it to the high end athleticism that he has. So if he's going to cash all of his paychecks as more of a wide receiver than even a tight end, there's still other areas of his game where he has to improve even to do that at a, a level that demands an NFL team to build a passing attack around him.

Seth Wilcox (14:21)

Thor, where do you come in on

Thor Nystrom (14:22)

stowers tight end 2 For me, my comp on him is Evan Ingram, 6 foot 3 and 3 quarters, 242 pounds. It's just a fabulous athlete. With Stowers breaking the record in the vertical tight end position, 45 and a half and then the broad jump, 1103. This guy, I don't really think of him as a tight end. He's a big slot right like and, and some people with the measurements, you know, it's in the measurables it's like oh could he be a we turn him into a boundary receiver guy. He played even Less on the boundary than Sadiq and Claire last year. So I think like like 8, his 8.4%. Like it's closer to like a Tanner Cozil or an Enduries, you know as far. Okay, so. So I just think of him as the big slack guy that you can shift into the backfield if you, you could do some stuff like that. Try to do mismatches. You were saying Seth and setting this up that you can line them up anywhere which is something that I agree get to inline. I would not put him there in the NFL unless, unless it's a passing play and you're going to just get him off the line. Although he's going to get, you know he's going to get rocked off the line by you know, power edges are going to get their, their hands on him. Power is not his game. Athleticism and the running with the ball. And then the other thing I think that the reason that I, I'm kind of bullish on him at like as a round two, sort of a big slotty kind of a guy is because he's so good against zone coverage. And I think you can explain why this guy was a four star quarterback recruit dual threat coming out of high school. He goes to Texas A and M. He washed out of Texas A and M. Then he goes to New Mexico State and he was going to win the quarterback job there. And then they had this pip squeak from JUCO that he couldn't beat out whose name was Diego Pavia. But then Eli Sours turns into Diego Pavia's best friend and you know it's just manufacturing all these different yards when you would see both at New Mexico State then at Vanderbilt, opposing defense dropping into zone. Look, look where Pavia's eyes go every time. It's where, where is Eli? Eli's going to find he's going to run himself through the COVID and now I'm open or he's going to sit in this spot and then he's got that acceleration NAS button out. I, I think that has, you know that the utility that you get out of that at the NFL level. Obviously this guy's got to go to a 12 personnel offense. Unless they just want to call him a wide receiver. Then you can keep the one tight. But he, he's not the inline guy. You have to have another inline guy on the field. But I do think you can do various stuff with Eli Stowers in your offense.

Seth Wilcox (16:42)

Okay, interesting. And let's go ahead and go back to the Big Ten for tight end three. Ohio State's Max Claire this is a guy who's a three star prospect. Posted a 51, 685 and 4 stat line at Purdue as a sophomore before transferring to Columbus where he finished third on the team in receptions and yards behind only Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate. This earned him all Big Ten honors before declaring for the draft despite a final year of eligibility remaining. He didn't test out the combine but did come in at 64248. He also didn't do any testing during his pro day. It's an alleged ankle injury is what we're reading right now. So Thor, what do you make of the gamesmanship by Claire's team right now? Where do you land on him overall as a prospect?

Thor Nystrom (17:21)

I actually, and maybe I'm in the minority here, I know you look at the profile and it's like this guy, it's a guy that's going to have to win, you know, led by the foot of his receiving at the next level. And so we don't have a testing profile on him. That's a little bit concerning with guys like that though. I, I, I now go to the especially the on field athleticism with the the GPSs. Max Claire last year on the field for Ohio State in game athleticism 99.6 percentile athlete max claire 99.4 percentile in max speed 99.3 in max acceleration 99.4 in change of direction. Not a lot of players irregardless of position last year where they're 99th percentile or above. You know in, in those four different categories there like him down the field, the stuff he can do, stretching the seam, the different stuff you can him as a receiver you can go a little bit further with some nuance down the field sometimes in Stowers Stowers can get jostled a little bit. I like the manufacturing the touches for Stowers a little bit. Claire again sort of the downfield utility tracking the ball, catching the ball outside of his frame. My comp for him and I he, he but this has sort of become his sort of consensus comp. I, I think it makes a lot of sense is Dalton Kincaid very similar games, very similar sort of frames and like you mentioned we didn't get the testing profile on Claire but I think both the tape and then the objective metrics with the on field the gps I think it justifies that sort of thought of his athleticism in a really good receiver at the next level. So that's what you're going to get From Claire and you can play him in line just a bit. You know, he's more, you can move him between the, the slot and the, you know, and in line. Whereas with Stowers don't ever put him in line. But that's what I see with Claire.

Seth Wilcox (19:04)

What do you see, Derek?

Derek Brown (19:06)

I like, I don't love Claire. I'm back and forth between tight end five or tight end six of this class. There's just two or three other guys that I like a little bit more than Claire and I'm not pushing back with Thor about the athleticism. I think he operates well as a dump and run option for the passing attack. He can stretch the seam. Wasn't asked to do it a ton. At Ohio State. You're looking at 20, 25. 57.8% of his routes were their hitches, flats or crossers. So a lot of underneath stuff. 69.1% of his targets came within nine yards of the line of scrimmage or behind it. So he was used a lot as his own coverage beating option. I think like you're looking at his projectability and I, and I'm coming in a little bit lower than Thor with him where I like kind of the dollar store version of Dalton Kincaid. Greg Dulcich is who is who I compared against again some of the same. Like he, he's competent as a blocker. Like Ohio State used him as a polar on some, on some run concepts and stuff like that. They found out that a lot of different plays. That's probably not a good option don't do that. Can he be a guy where you're just asking him to set the edge or chip or combo block a dn? Sure he can do that. But if you put him on an island, he's gonna get blown out of his socks a few different times too. So Claire is a player that I like him, I don't love him. I just, I, I struggle to see like the, the high end outcome for him where if you were telling me and he kind of falls into a large bucket of other guys. We're going to discuss here where it's like third fourth option in a passing attack in the NFL beating zone coverage being that underneath trusted dependable option. Can he do all of that? Yeah, I think he could do that. My, my question on the ceiling is can he be the man coverage beating option? Can he do some of the like low key Sam LaPorta things? Can you move him to the outside? That's where it's like I don't See a lot of that utility, at least at this point in his game to where I think he can be a solid addition to an NFL passing attack, but I don't see like the top end ceiling for him.

Thor Nystrom (21:01)

Well, it's, it's interesting DBR like that you're talking like the zone against the man coverage thing. I actually like him against me in coverage because of the quick feet. Like, I, I think he does like a pretty good job of like creating the, the throwing windows, getting the separation, like, you know, the efficiency of his footwork and how quick they are like through that route break, whatever the, the zone thing and some of it, the usage at Ohio State, it's, it's tough to parse like Claire against the other two guys that they had because you have these two supernovas on the boundary and in Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate, obviously. And I feel like a lot of times Claire's usage, it's just like the leftovers, right? Or the thing of like to Julian saying like, you get this coverage look, then you know, if they canopy us on both sides, that's we know we're going to have all kinds of space here, you know, underneath. And so I feel like a lot of that stuff with, with Claire was, was like that Purdue, you see him a little bit more featured. But the, the thing with zone, I sometimes wonder about him and zone. Like I, I like his ability to create the separation against man, sometimes his zone instincts. But again, like the usage of it, I, you just don't know with an offense like that where again, so much is funneled into those two boundary receivers.

Derek Brown (22:10)

Yeah, I, I don't disagree with you a lot there, Thor. Like, I, I, I think where he kind of files and, and the other thing like I want to throw in here too. He does pop in some metrics, man. Like 2025 at Ohio State wasn't great as far as the spreadsheets go, but 20, 24, 11 yards per route run, 23rd of missed tackles, Force and 11th and Yak. So like, there is some things to like here about Claire. I think it's just kind of how you, how do you project him And Thor and I kind of see him a little bit differently, projecting him to the NFL.

Seth Wilcox (22:37)

He was pretty much everything for that Purdue team in 24. Man, these have been some of the worst Purdue teams I can remember. Thor, is there a worse Purdue team you can remember than what we've seen over the last couple seasons?

Thor Nystrom (22:49)

You have to go back. Who is it? Daryl Hazel, I think would probably be the last time we saw incompetency at this level at Purdue. Okay, now Purdue, certainly incompetent here. The last couple of years they randomly though, ran into, you know, this random assortment, a small handful of like good players. You know, you have Claire, you have Dylan. They had Dylan Dinaman for a couple of years. They had Nick Scorton for a couple years. But like, it was like they couldn't, they couldn't sort of clump, you know, together like seven or eight players. So they could have been competitive. Yeah, yeah.

Seth Wilcox (23:17)

Yep. They would just go in for a year and then right out the next. We do have some more tight end prospect talk coming your way based on our consensus dynasty rankings. But a real quick reminder that if you want true real world discussions on the NFL, it's time to subscribe to the Tailgate on YouTube or follow the Tailgate podcast wherever you listen to audio features. The Tailgate is not a fantasy channel. No, we'll go beyond the box score to cover the NFL draft. The roster moves that actually move the needle on both offense and defense. Plus the big picture NFL stories that will define the league year. So come park it here on the tailgate for all the news takes and real world football talk. Just search tailgate NFL on YouTube and hit subscribe or or find the Tailgate on your favorite podcasting app. The next year, gentlemen, we're going to run through as a group. It is number four through seven. It starts with Oscar Delp out of Georgia. This was the consensus top tight end recruit in that 2022 class. He was supposed to really be the heir apparent to Brock Bowers. Never really was though. Failed to eclipse 300 yards. Was outproduced at times by Lawson. Lucky and Delp. Did have a strong combine though. Finished the 9.83 raz. We also have Sam Roush, tight end out of Stanford here. Four star prospect. Really one of the only consistent forces the past two seasons for the Cardinal. As they shuffled consistent quarterback play. They shifted to the acc. It's kind of been a mess there for Andrew Luck and company. He did average 44 and a half receptions, 440 yards, three touchdowns during that span though. Also had a huge 9.94 raz at the combine, checking at 65267 Big Sam Roush there. We also have Justin Jolly out of NC State. Two star prospect. This guy played wide receiver, linebacker, edge, a little bit of everything running back in high school, then converts to tight end as a true freshman at UConn. Posted some huge numbers there as an independent. Then Took his talents to NC State here where he linked up with CJ Bailey. Earned 2025 All ACC honors. Finished second in the conference in receiving touchdowns with seven. And then Michael Trigg out of Baylor, older prospect for this class. Was a top five tight end recruit in that 2021 class. Bounced around from USC to Ole Miss, then finally Baylor where he caught fire the past two seasons with Sawyer Robertson at quarterback. Totaled 50 receptions, nearly 700 yards and six touchdowns as a senior this past year. So Thor, are there any tight ends in this tier that stick out either negatively or positively that fancy managers should maybe be privy to?

Thor Nystrom (25:39)

Well, just like in, in general, like zooming out. I agree. So you're reading the consensus rankings correct? Is that okay? Yeah, like I see you know, up through now in the class like fairly similarly to that. Like the top three guys, I think you, you feel pretty comfortable about what they'll look like in the NFL. And then I feel like 4 and 5. I have the same 4 and 5 delp in Roush and I've been, I've toggled them like seven times now. You know, one, one day one of them will be. And then you know, I, I'm just right next to each other. They're sort of the upside plays in line upside plays of this class. And then I Jolie I, I feel for me he' sort of with a you know that he's, he's sort of by himself and I, I have trig a little bit lower and I think tight end 11 on, on my board and I'll talk about him in a second. But yeah, like the top two guys there, Oscar Delp and Roush. It's both the projectable thing with both of them and the ability to play inline. And then fabulous athletes. Oscar Delp was a 9,8 Raz at 65245 lb and Roush 66267 with the 99th percentile size adjusted athleticism there. But Oscar Delp, that we wanted to see him sort of go supernova as a receiver last year and that didn't happen. He seemed to regress. But then we found out that he unwittingly played his, his last season at Georgia with a hairline fracture in his foot which they discovered at the NFL combine. Well, Oscar Delp who apparently was playing through this without realizing it. He was nice enough to athletically test for us anyways 44940 this was at the pro day but I mean like he was still recovering. 38, 38 inch vertical. So this guy's Just an utterly ludicrous athlete. We have seen him block as the inline guy and deployed out of there in the box taking care of some power players. And then the flashes we've seen with him as a receiver, we haven't seen a ton because prior to, you know, back when he was healthy earlier in his career that they had Brock Bowers, a guy named Brock Bowers on that team. So you didn't get to see used as much as a receiver obviously playing next to Bowers. But like Del game, I think circumstances explain why, you know, he's not a bigger name in the sort of public consciousness. And then with Roush it's, I mean you want to dream on someone. This is the guy to do it with in this class with the 6-62-67-99RAZ. And this guy we know is just your prototypical traditional sort of inline guy. He can block people, you can move them around, he can pull, he can block people on the move. And then we've also seen some flashes with him as a receiver. Now he was stranded in a bad situation at Stanford last year. A lot of the offense, they would try to manufacture him touches, but it was just sort of quick stuff after the snap. Like the stuff of him leveraging that size, speed, athleticism, pack the field. We didn't get to see that as much because Stanford's offensive line stunk and their quarterback was worse. And it was a, it was an offensive philosophy that was devoid of any creativity. Although maybe they, the coaching staff sort of felt boxed into that. But I see a lot of Pat Friarmuth in, in Sam Roush, that Justin Jolie, he's one of the, you know, you get back to the sure things but just with a lower ceiling, you know, like at the top. Like this guy is going to be either. It's like a John, Ooh, Smith or Isaiah likely. Like we have guys like this that entered the NFL almost every year. We know what, what, what Jolie is going to be. But yeah, he's my, my tight end six. And then just lastly with Michael Trigg. I have him at tight end 11. And I with, with Trigg, it's, it's interesting because there's certain parts of his profile that you love. You look at yards after the catch in their career, him. And he's right with Fannin, you know, you look at like the last, you know, seven, eight tight end classes. He's way up there. And then the ball skills. Now this is where it goes one way or the other. Like because he has these super duper long arms, ridiculous length. I mean, he's got 84 and a half inch wingspan, 34 and a half inch arm length. And he, with those levers, he can fish balls out, you know, over his head. We've seen him go up and get it, get off the ground, seen him spear balls outside the frame. And then you also see the most obnoxious concentration drops where it's just like there's no one behind him, but he wants to look back before he secures the ball and it bounces off his chest plate. So that's. And then you get nothing from him as a blocker. So, Ken, the entire, the entire profile needs to be carried by the receiving utility. But the consistency of that, it. It so wildly vacillates. And this guy's got to be a big slot because he cannot block. Trig might be the worst blocker that we have in this class if he, if he's good enough as the receiver and the running after the catch goes without saying, that's where he could be, you know, like, you know, because sometimes I think of him and it's like, I don't have him high enough. I should have him ranked around where I had fan in. But then there's other times where it's like he drops the ball and is too inconsistent with the route running and stuff because he gets haphazard with that too. He sometimes will lean on that athleticism, the physical package, his ability to sort of figure out the answer in the moment because of his physical dimensions. Sometimes he leans on that over the nuance of the game. And if that falls apart for him at the next level, his stay in the NFL is going to be very, very short. So basically, instead of making the referendum myself on Michael Trigg, I do what I sometimes do when I, you know, you're sort of in the middle of two thoughts of a projection split the middle, right? Like, a part of me thinks again, he should be tight end seven. He should be, you know, right where he is, you know, tight end six, tight end seven. Right with the consensus. Other times I think he should be like tight end 15, you know what I mean? And like barely sort of draft a bull at all. So I go back and forth, but entered at tight end 11 on him.

Seth Wilcox (31:04)

Derek, where do you come down on Delp, Roush, Jolie and Trig?

Derek Brown (31:07)

Two guys I'm going to wax poetic about for good and bad in this tier is Delp and Trigger. I love Oscar Delp. I. I look at him as being like, with that type of high end athleticism. Like he's kind of a ball of clay dude. Like Georgia didn't use him a ton. Thor talked about the injury. He's my tight end three of this class. Like that type of athleticism and I, I still look at him as a player that like he's rounding into form. All of that athleticism doesn't consistently show itself on the field. But bro, you see it, you see it in flashes. Like he could take a screen to the freaking house of that four, four speed. Like it is no problem. But the ability to be a savage after the catch, that's the part of his game where I'm like, he's still growing into it and how to apply that type of athleticism like Delp. I look at him and my comp for him is a guy that was honestly came into the NFL and played in the entirely wrong era. If he played in this era of the NFL, people will put a lot more respect on his game. Where I, I look at him as Jared Cook. Very similar athletics, that type of upside in the NFL where you saw Cook pop towards the end of his career, you, you airdrop Jared Cook into this version of the NFL. Jared Cook is going to be a totally different beast. And Delp has already shown the ability like he can be a serviceable blocker. I think he's actually better in the run game than he is in the past game. But Delp, it's, it's the physical intangibles, it's the fact that he could beat zone coverage. He needs to continue to hone like the route, nuance, the release package, a lot of it is just run to space, run, beat zone coverage, operate in the dump and run game. And Delp can do that because of again the high end athleticism. But I also can envision a world where Oscar Delp looks like we fast forward two or three years from now and you could sit here and just take the helmet scouting away, take the uniforms away and there might not be that much of a difference between Oscar Delp and somebody like Colston Loveland. And I know that's insane to say. I'm not saying that Delp is there right now, but what could he become in the NFL? I absolutely see it in my mind's eye. But the other guy, like I, I don't disagree with Thor on Sam Roush. I think a very solid, especially in the blocking game, like solid. Yeah, probably different. Gonna develop into a dependable middle of the road, kind of like starter in the NFL. Justin Jolie. I Think like his hip fluidity, his physical traits kind of limit him as a player. But somebody that like, that dude's built like a freaking tank. Like thick, muscular build. What he can do as far as like running the full route tree, I kind of question more of like put it in his hands, let him go break tackles. I mean my, my, my comp kind of falls in line with a lot of what Thor laid out. I mean I think he's caged over. So could he be a low end starter, high end, tight end, two for an NFL franchise? Probably Michael Trigg. I, I, I'm just gonna say it. I'm all the way out, dude. I won. No part of him as a prospect one, no part of him at all with his game. I think he's a tweener. I think like him going out and also testing and having a freaking 27 inch vert I think is very telling as well. But dude, his, his profile is just littered. Like spreadsheet wise looks great. You turn on the film and you're expecting to see like a dude where you're just like, holy crap, be a man amongst boys. And you're like, oh wait, you don't look like you even belong on a collegiate field half the freaking time. Like the route running is suspect. The, the tick tocky footwork, some of the fraudulent production. Like dude, there's multiple times like on his film where it was almost like the hidden ball trick in college football. Like he'd leak out into the flat, act like he's gonna block somebody and then just take off down, down the field and have a 20 yard gain. You're like, that crap is not producible in the NFL. Like what are we doing here? Like, but he's gonna get the extra bump in the yards per route run. He's gonna look good on the spreadsheets. You can't trust him to block his route running is suspect at best. Hell no. I'm, I'm out on trick like a tweener that I think the NFL is going to tell us in draft capital. Maybe I'm wrong, but even going like lump him in with guys from yestery. I would take Jahim Bell Eve easily over Michael Trigg. He is my tight end. Thirteen of this class. Just no, no.

Seth Wilcox (35:23)

I think the one thing from a fancy lens to keep in mind with all these prospects, if you're drafting them in your dynasty rookie draft, make sure you have a taxi squad spot that you can run them out in for a year or two because there's been too many times where I've had the Brenton Stranges and the AJ Barners and I just haven't had the three years to hold on to them and then I missed the breakout. So just something I want to keep in mind there and Jared Cook actually Derek, funny enough I made a bet with my college roommate I think back in 18 or 19. Who would have more it was after that big Jared Cook like Monday night game to start the season. Who would have more fantasy points that year, Dave Najoku or Jared Cook? And I was all in on the Joku lost a ton of money I think.

Derek Brown (36:01)

I I didn't know how to cook Coffin nailed you.

Seth Wilcox (36:03)

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Seth Wilcox (39:57)

All right, we got we got tight ends eight through 11 here around out the show and we're going to start with Eli Radon from tight from Notre Dame. This is the number two tight end recruit out of that 2022 class. Finally got a shot to start this past season. Finished third on the team in receiving with 32 receptions. 482 yards. Had a pretty dang good combine as well. Finished with a 9.46. Raz Jake Hendry's tight end at Texas. This is a guy underrated. Three starter recruit broke out at Cal for two years with Fernando Mendoza earning freshman all American honors. Then transfers to Texas. This past season with Arch Manning, he only finished with 33 receptions, 346 yards, four tight touchdowns there. And then we also have Daquan Wright out of Ole Miss. A three star prospect, fine role player across VA Tech and Ole Miss the past four seasons. However, he was a huge contributor in the CFP with the Revs making some big plays for Trinidad. Sham Bliss averaged 49 per game yards per game in the playoffs. And then Tanner Cozil out of Houston. I'm just gonna say it boys is my favorite tan prospect Outside of the big two in this class, two star recruit must see maxion in 2024, right? You turned the games on Wednesday, Tuesday, Thursday night this guy was lighting up the conference. Finished second in the Mac only behind Harold Fanon Jr. In receptions with 94. Six in the entire country as well. And they transferred to Houston where him and Connor Wegman linked up for 74 receptions, most in the conference. 727 yards, six touchdowns and he was a first team all Big Ten tight end so also checked in 6, 6, 247. Finished with a 9.58. Raz so Derek, what are your cliff notes on this third tier of tight ends?

Derek Brown (41:32)

Reardon is the guy that I like most out of this tier. He's actually my tight end four but there's some other guys here that I like a lot too. Raritan, the big question is, is the medicals And I think his draft capital is going to kind of tell us that. I mean you could say proof of concept. Okay, 2025, he was healthy, he came back, he was productive again. The Titan, we're talking about 11th in yards per route run last year. So the production is there. Did tear his ACL twice in 2021 and 2022. So he does have that. And what are we going to talk about with the medicals and how long does that shorten his career? What does that look like? So yeah, I think his draft capital is going to kind of tell us some things that we don't know specifically that go deeper there. But I mean the field stuff, I really like him, man. He, he was used downfield a good bit. Notre Dame in 2025, seam shots like 13 go rate, even ran the occasional post display, good ball tracking. So he's got the athletic measurables. I mean he kind of Talked about Seth like 4.62, 40, 81st percentile, vert, 88th percentile broadcast. But Raritan I and again like the Play string shawl show shows up with the blocking. Like I think he's a three down tight end. My comp for him is Tyler Higby. I think he could go in and be like a serviceable like maybe as things kind of round into form like a top 12 tight end in the NFL. So I really like his game a lot. Looking at the rest of this tier, Jack injuries again, I think he just kind of falls in that zone. Beating like serviceable third, fourth option and probably an info passing attack is how I kind of project his game. Some of the deeper stuff with him, like it's kind of tough and Thor, you could probably speak on this better than I can but trying to siphon through college injury reporting is always a fun time every year. So injuries, how healthy was he? Like some undisclosed injuries at least from what I can gather through the Internet. Did depart Shrine bowl with an undisclosed minor minor injury. So who knows what that is. But serviceable or should I say good athleticism but in the short area stuff not great. 57 percentile or lower marks in the shuttle in the three cones. Say what you will about those testing metrics but I think it does show up in his game. Like the raw strength is okay. It's not amazing the raw speed. You could say the same thing. He's not going to provide you a ton of rack or yak. Like more of a station to station kind of guy and asking to beat zone coverage and be a, a tertiary option. Yeah, an info passing attack, I think that's totally fine. Daquan Wright is another guy that I actually really like out of this tier. He's my tight end five of the class. I mean dude, just get him moving linearly and get the freaking ball, dude. It just we talk about this version of the NFL and how do you beat too high coverage, dump and run tight ends. Like it's fine. Like people look at that as being a, a knock against a guy but it's like in this version of the NFL that's a perfectly great skill set to have. And can you produce with the ball in your hands? We have no questions or should have no questions about the Quan Wright's ability now like is he the most twitchy and just missed tackles force maven with the ball in his hands? No, but this dude has a second gear and runs like a damn tank in the open field. Once you get the ball in his hands he can, he does have good build up speed and I know he didn't test but I don't need him to freaking Test to know what I saw on film and also what it backs up with the analytics. Like, like since 2025 or the last few years. 16th, 36th, 21st, 11th in yards per route run, yak per reception, second, 33rd, 16th, ninth. So in three of the last four years he is top 20 in yak per reception. This version of the NFL, I'm, I'm in for that. Like, I, I like Daquan a lot and I think that maybe we could be surprised by his draft capital. Like, I don't think he's going to go in the second round of the NFL draft, but you're telling me a team likes his skill set and how he fits into their offense both as a seam option for them and what he can do in rack and yak. Like I think you can go third round of the NFL draft and that's totally fine for other guys. Tanner Cozio definitely pops from the analytics. 8th and 15th in yards per route run. I think again he falls into that injuries kind of bucket where he is my tight end 8 of this class, I mean just kind of lump him. Max, Claire and Jack injuries all kind of in the same kind of phylum and I think they're all going to be solid, maybe not spectacular tight ends in the NFL.

Seth Wilcox (45:57)

Thor, where do you come down on this group of players? Radon's a guy I've tried running out in CCFF leagues in 2025. It did not work for my Baron tight end position. And Koziel's the guy I felt like in all the CFF leagues I'm just like drooling over because I had him, no exposure to him whatsoever and he just is crazy in production.

Thor Nystrom (46:17)

Yeah, I have Cozio is my tight end seven in the class. Raridan is number eight. Andreas is number nine. I'm a little bit lower on. I guess I'll be the low guy in the group on Daquan.

Derek Brown (46:29)

Right.

Thor Nystrom (46:29)

I have him tight end, 15 in the class. But to the first couple guys, cozy. I don't understand why people don't like Cozio. Like I don't really get it. He's huge. He's athletic at least north to south and he gets a nitpick for the athleticism and I don't really understand why for the kind of player he is, it's certainly beyond functional. To me it is on the tape and the, the in game athleticism. He's an 87th percentile on field athlete. So I again like it's a guy who has really good hands. He has that big frame, he has the long arms and he knows how to win right after the snap with those sort of timing kind of routes. And you're not getting through his back. He's, he's, he's going to paper cut you. And so that, I mean, that's what you get from Cozio. And in this league, that's moving to the multiple tight ends kind of a thing. Like, I think that there's a certain value there. It's a high floor maybe, sure, the ceiling's a little bit lower because it's not like, you know, all time freak of an athlete. And then, you know, with blocking, he'll wall you off in space, but it's like, certainly isn't going to, you know, he's not a people mover in line kind of a guy like that. But like him as a receiver, Raritan is like the super interesting eval that could go either way. You know, you guys were talking about it with the ACL tears, but ACL tear in basketball as a high school senior, then, you know, your whole freshman year at Notre Dame, basically it's wiped out. Then the October of the next year in practice, you tear the same acl. So this guy, I mean, really even being here is very impressive when you suffer the two straight torn ACLs of the same ACL. And what we saw this year, he finally is fully healthy. He finally becomes a starter. It's just the one year as a starter for Raritan. But you saw the flashes, right? There's so few guys in this class that are legitimate inline tight end options. Reardon would certainly qualify. Is he perfect as a blogger? No, right now? Right, right. Like, he needs to keep working on the technique, needs to keep adding bulk and stuff like that. But he's showing the flashes. He's got the want to. He's got some technique there. And then as a receiver as well, you see sort of the former basketball background, you know, that, you know, and we want to keep him off the hard court. That's what started the ACL tears with him. You see that utility with him down the seam, right? Like it's, it's the big body guy who knows how to rebound. That's what it is with him. And then you also saw the way that they use him, some of those manufacturers. I mean, Dbrow is talking about some of the shots down the field that they would like. CJ Carr, love throwing that guy the ball down the field. But they also did some manufactured touch things. And the athletic profile for Raritan, it's North, south, it's not the east to west, it's north, south. So if you can manufacture him a touch where you, you hit him in, you know, on the hands where it's his momentum is running into space, that's where he can just turn up field and all of a sudden he's chewing up grass really, really quick. Can you figure out the rest of it? Can we figure out a receiving profile for him in the intermediate area and stuff like that? Like, you know, can we flesh out that, that route tree anymore? I think is that sort of the next step? But 11 inch hands on that kid and former basketball player. So, you know, like those two guys, Andre's, you know, guy that you're going to put out in the slot there, you know, and he can do some inline stuff as well, but the blocking obviously is where it falls down for him. But really a guy that I think moves around pretty good on the field. You saw the athletic metrics there. And he's been doing this for multiple years, you know, going Back to Cal, 124 career receptions in the FBS and he has some of the best hands that we have in this class. It's just a guy with that sort of the cap ceiling, you know, because it's not the elite, elite athlete as the receiver and certainly has the, the limitations as a blocker there, but really like the ball skills, it's another guy where it's like outside the frame and fishing out some, you know, inaccurate ball stuff like that. Really skilled with that. And then as far as Daquan, right, I don't mind Daequan, right, But like I, I see it more as like, like a, a Michael Pruitt, you know, like a guy like that where it's like, you know, like the H back e. Like for me he falls beneath even like I think you guys are going to disagree with me on this but like with Trigly, I, I like the high end flashes that I've seen from Trigmore, even though I'm more trepidatious about the whole body of work because like bro was saying half the snaps, it's like why is this guy on the field? And with trig and then 15% of the snaps, it's like why isn't this guy talked about as a first round pick, right? And it's like, but there's this enormous canyon in between that the NFL is going to have to reconcile or figure out the usage of right. Whereas you know, it's sort of a different thing when we talk, when we're talking about the subject this way with right. Of like there's more consistency but for me, not as much of the high end type stuff. So that's why I ended up just putting them behind a couple guys that I like just a little bit more.

Seth Wilcox (51:05)

Gentlemen, this tight end class is certainly interesting. Maybe not as high profile as a year ago, maybe not as much depth in it, but still, there's going to be a lot of variance, right? And landing spot draft capital that is certainly going to shake up these rankings. I'm excited to see when Derek has to eventually move up Tanner Cozil in his rankings when he goes on day two. I'm ready, bae. I'll take a bowl for this guy.

Derek Brown (51:28)

I don't need him. I have a tight end 8. What are you talking about? Like, unbelievable.

Thor Nystrom (51:33)

Hey, D Bros.

Seth Wilcox (51:34)

I would die for this, man.

Thor Nystrom (51:35)

It's crazy.

Seth Wilcox (51:35)

Yeah. I push you out on a train just to protect in front of a train. Just protect my boy Tanner Cozil.

Thor Nystrom (51:42)

Did you know that Tanner Cozil played a year of football with our boy JJ McCarthy at Nazareth Academy?

Derek Brown (51:48)

Okay, now he's gonna have to go up the. He's gonna have to go up the range.

Seth Wilcox (51:51)

I mean.

Derek Brown (51:52)

Never mind. Okay.

Thor Nystrom (51:53)

In all the mock dress of the Vikings, I think. I think Cozio would be the per. You know, if you get into the fourth round. The Vikings don't have a fourth round pick, but like, we anticipate that they're going to do some trading. I think they have nine picks total.

Derek Brown (52:04)

So is he going to go to the team that JJ gets traded to? Oh, is that where he's going?

Thor Nystrom (52:09)

Easy, easy. With. With Hawkinson back for one more year. His last year, the team modified his contract in order to get him to accept the pay cut he's going to walk after this year. So you're entering the last year with Hawkinson a guy that you could put behind him in that offense where it looks like they're going to go to more 12 personnel going forward. So obviously that dude's going to be on the field all the time. But you know, you need more depth there as well. Vikings don't have really a tight end 3 right now, so I think Cozio could both function as that. But then in one year's time, he could then, you know, take over for Hawkinson.

Derek Brown (52:40)

I. Thor, do you know Thor, do you know who. Who injuries remind me of? Like, I could not get this guy my comp for him. Tanner McLaughlin out of Arizona.

Seth Wilcox (52:53)

Yeah, dude, that's.

Thor Nystrom (52:54)

Yeah.

Derek Brown (52:54)

The entirety of when I was watching injuries. I could not get Tanner out of my damn head.

Thor Nystrom (52:59)

Yeah, yeah. The, the, the going this why I love comps, cuz, you know, like, you know, and then you, you put 10 years of this and you're, you know, behind you. Then it's like all these random ones like you know, he sort of reminds me of that random dude like you know, comping out like Quarterback 26 or whatever.

Derek Brown (53:14)

Speaking of random comps, my Daquan Wright one Ed Dixon.

Thor Nystrom (53:18)

Okay, I can see Ed Dixon.

Seth Wilcox (53:20)

Okay, baby, they're gonna go Dennis P. Same.

Thor Nystrom (53:25)

I think I con someone to Dennis Pitta in this class.

Derek Brown (53:28)

My Dennis Pitta won last year or previously was Colston Loveland. Dennis Pitta doesn't. Dude, if you go watch Dennis or look at Dennis. Dennis Pitta was a dog in college

Seth Wilcox (53:39)

in the wrong time.

Thor Nystrom (53:40)

Yeah. Jack Henry's identity for you.

Seth Wilcox (53:43)

Okay, okay, okay. The way Derek says injuries, I kept thinking you're saying injuries at first too. So like that must be like your Cajun accent you got rolling down there.

Derek Brown (53:53)

Yeah.

Seth Wilcox (53:56)

Speaking of players though, that we would die for that we push each other in a train in front of a train for. Let's go ahead and get out of here with our top three NFL draft sleepers. Thor, go ahead and get us started. Who's one player that isn't being discussed largely in NFL draft circles that you think should be ahead of the Raiders being on the clock in Pittsburgh just over a week from today?

Thor Nystrom (54:17)

So this guy, I'm going to keep it on offense. No, no, this is a fantasy show. Although this guy, even though he's going to go way higher than he. I mean in the consensus that I saw yesterday, this guy was 267th. There's on that there's 257 picks in the NFL draft. This guy is going to be a mid round pick in the NFL draft. He's a wide receiver. And I would venture to say that a lot of people watching the show may not know who this guy is. So I might be introducing him to some of you, but you're going to know his name next year in the NFL because this guy is going to go down. I think is one of the great return men that the NFL has ever seen and that is Katie Legion from the University of Iowa. Kaden Weijin basically broke all the NCAA records for returns. This guy is an unfair kind of cheat code kind of a guy. I think it was four punt return touchdowns last year. He had a couple kick return touchdowns as well. He holds the NCAA record for Punt return average. Prior to Cade and Wegen, there had never been a player that had won the two return awards in a single season that the NCAA have. The Jet award is one of them and then the other one's two last names. A guy I forget. But anyway we did it in 2024, becoming the first guy to ever do it and then he did it in 2025. So the only two years he was returning he, you know, again just did this unprecedented stuff on my board. I have him at 156, so I have him 111 spots higher than on there. Last thing I'll say about him, he's going to return some kicks for touchdowns. So if you know anyone out there, you play in some kind of, you know, boutique kind of format where you get like extra points for return touchdowns, you're going to want to circle We Jin's name. But for also for deep like league players kind of thing. We gen even though again he's. You're not going to see him high on any wide receiver list because at Iowa, you know, because he's had to start out at a community college, you know and then he kind of worked his way up for Iowa at the last couple years of his college career he was a slot receiver. Well Iowa, their passing offense stinks. They don't really use the slot receivers a lot here in modern and that and the quarterback they had not good at the timing stuff or accuracy in this Gronowski guy. So they'd use him as a runner and then they. Well, you know I like. And then they would use it to push it down the field. But like the stuff with like the timing sort of anticipatory stuff is where you. You could have used region. The Iowa's offense is not constructed to do it even if they had the quarterback play to get it done.

Seth Wilcox (56:36)

Yeah.

Thor Nystrom (56:36)

But the whole the reason I bring this up we goes to the Shrine Game, right. And we all know he's just amazing, you know, return man. But it's like the receiving thing, it's total, you know, it's sort of black box because he had like you know, 30 receptions at Iowa or whatever. He looked really good at the Shrine Game as a slot guy. You know, it sort of reminds who's the Patriots the year before Chisholm, you know, when Chisholm, you know, was down there for the Eastern Washington game. When he was down at the Shrine game, that's where it was like, oh God, look at this guy.

Seth Wilcox (57:03)

Right.

Thor Nystrom (57:04)

Like. So anyway, we Gen might be able to provide an NFL offense something at slot as well. But he's certainly going to provide an NFL special teams one of the great return men you've ever seen team.

Seth Wilcox (57:13)

Well I'm glad to hear that. I will say for for all the the shade on Granowski, he's one of the better Iowa quarterbacks I've seen in my lifetime. Like, like it's a, it's not a

Thor Nystrom (57:22)

big list but damning by faint praise there my friend. And you know I went to Iowa so I you know we can say this but. And he was. I mean Gran. He Gronowski is the best guy with quarterback I believe since Nate Stanley is probably the you know the one that you put before that. But okay. Yeah it's been slow.

Derek Brown (57:39)

Thor, straight up if you're advising an NFL GM and both these guys are on the board, I think the way that they're going to be talked about and discussed are very similar. Who you take in we gen or

Thor Nystrom (57:50)

Barry and Brown wench.

Derek Brown (57:54)

That's exactly where I thought you were going to go to. Love it. Love it.

Seth Wilcox (57:57)

Derek, who's your favorite sleeper that we haven't really discussed so far this year on the program?

Derek Brown (58:01)

This is easy. Eric Rivers. For me I look at Eric Rivers is exactly who people want Brendan Thompson to be. Eric Rivers is my wide receiver 17 of this class and is the size of concern, sure. But I think if you look at this guy's profile he has played perimeter wide receiver in college, 72.7% out wide in 2025 and he's got the route chops and the understanding as a route runner to do it in the NFL like 510 and the 170s, 180s depending on where you look at stuff. But efficient footwork off the line. There's still the burner speed of Thompson but better placed drink understanding of how to just dance in a cornerback's blind spot. How to how to set up leverage, how to get open man. And he wasn't just a field stretching threat like in 2025 only 22.7% of his target volume came from deep targets. I like Eric Rivers a freaking ton. And if you look at him on on whether it's expected draft position where he's getting mocked and stuff. I mean this dude is buried right now like yeah right now on NFL mock draft database 273rd overall is absolutely blast blasphemous. He is a damn good player. And you know we could talk about the constitution of the Georgia Tech offense and how it was a lot of like just play it Safe game manager stuff over the last year. But 2.07 yards per route run still checks a box. And if you go back to 20, 24 at FIU, bro, 3.57 yards per route run. So yeah, Eric Rivers is good at

Thor Nystrom (59:27)

football, man, with bad quarterback play there too. If they had this lefty Keon Jenkins little scrambler here reminded me of Levi Lewis from Louisiana. Raging Cajuns back in the day. A little scrambling lefty, but yeah, they would just get the ball to Rivers real quick and then he'd just break people's ankles there at the Sunbelt.

Seth Wilcox (59:43)

He's good. It was, it was super interesting because I remember when Eric Rivers came onto the scene this past year for Georgia Tech as well. That first game against Colorado in Boulder Friday night, we were kept like, hey, where's Rivers? Where's Rivers? And then Malik Rutherford ends up getting hurt and, and slowly you start seeing over the next couple weeks Rivers really emerge into one of the number one options for Haynes King out there. So I, I appreciate that. For the good of the show, I'm not going to talk about Haynes King because I was thinking about, hey, do I just keep it Georgia Tech on Georgia Tech here, but I'm gonna go back to Houston here because the Cougars, man, they were a huge turnaround story this past season. Finished 10 and three, by far the best season since joining the Big 12. And you know, I think Cozyola a big part of that. But also running back Dean Connors a huge part of that as well. For nearly a thousand fifth in the Big 12, six touchdowns, 200 attempts, added nearly 250 yards, three more scores on 24 receptions as well. And prior to coming to H town, Connor spent three years at Rice where he totaled 1600 plus rushing yards, 22 total touchdowns, over 900 receiving yards. And this includes that 2024 season where he finished six in the entire conference in receptions with 62. So I think you come in to this, this draft cycle here, has a really big Shrine bowl performance. Checked in as pro day 511, 208 pounds, downs, ran a 4, 4 5, 40 yard dash, 9.7 raz right now all together, I just think he's a player that maybe coaches really want him on their team because what he can do on that three down skill set, what he can do in special teams, to me like, I think if everything clicks in the right way, maybe it's like a TJ Yelden type of run to his early career if he lands in the right situation or he's like A Cody Trader and just never makes it. But to me I'm really fascinated by Dean Connors. He's another guy in CFF leagues. I was targeting the crap out of this past offseason.

Thor Nystrom (61:30)

Thor, see you. You mentioned there the coaching. Do you happen to know the coach who brought Mean Dean to Rice? I don't who the A guy named Mike Bloom. Graham was the head coach at Rice. He was the offensive coordinator at Stanford earlier in his career for a guy named Christian McCaffrey.

Seth Wilcox (61:47)

Oh yeah.

Thor Nystrom (61:49)

And the, the amount of usage and the way that they use Connors early on there is like okay, you know, this could be something. And Bloomgren, you know he ends up getting, getting fired. But you see Mean Dean then go up. He proved the concept going up to the power four Willie Fritz's much improved offense last year at Houston. But you know, talked about Wiegman, talked about Cozil earlier in the show and Mean Dean was, you know, primary parts of that of trying to turn that offense around and make Houston better this year.

Derek Brown (62:18)

I absolutely love the Dean Connor shout out. He's my RV 10 in this class.

Seth Wilcox (62:21)

I think a lot of people will

Derek Brown (62:22)

turn on the tape and not be blown away by him. There's some metrics, I mean like 60 first and breakaway rate yards at the contact per attempt. He's solid as a pass catcher out of the backfield.

Seth Wilcox (62:33)

Yeah.

Thor Nystrom (62:33)

He's sneaky in a bad running back class.

Derek Brown (62:35)

Dude.

Thor Nystrom (62:35)

Very sneaky.

Derek Brown (62:36)

I love the totality of his game because he has a true three down skill set.

Seth Wilcox (62:42)

Yes.

Derek Brown (62:42)

Where it's not like he will not blow you away when you watch him but you keep watching games of him and you're like oh damn. Oh oh oh oh my God. Like as you just keep stacking games of watching and you're like, you come to appreciate the totality of his game where it's not a lot a ton of like high end flashes but you're like okay, he can make some people miss. He might not be like elite at any one, any one thing but it's the totality of all of it put together.

Thor Nystrom (63:10)

This, this. I mean you look at Connor sue and, and you know, nip comes into the, you know, process. No one talking about him. I think there was an assumption that he was a bum athlete. Well you look at the, I mean man, we, we can expand this to the. I'm looking in my database right now. Top 40 running backs in this class. Where do you boys suppose Mean Dean ranks on that list for Raz scores? If we're just Looking at Raz scores for the top 40 running backs in

Seth Wilcox (63:35)

this top eight, top eight, maybe top seven.

Derek Brown (63:38)

I mean, honestly, I wasn't aware of his Raz until recording this. I would have told you he was probably middle of the, like, 20th or something. Where's he at?

Seth Wilcox (63:45)

Thor?

Thor Nystrom (63:45)

Second.

Derek Brown (63:48)

Yeah.

Thor Nystrom (63:49)

Yeah.

Seth Wilcox (63:50)

Okay.

Thor Nystrom (63:51)

All right, number two, let's go.

Seth Wilcox (63:54)

I mean, and it a. In a class like this that is a little bit thinner at the position when you can get a guy that has three down skill set, that's the name you need to be targeting for fantasy draft, so.

Thor Nystrom (64:03)

And I'm pretty sure he did every test, by the way.

Seth Wilcox (64:06)

Literally every single one. Yeah.

Thor Nystrom (64:07)

It wasn't one of that much. The. The empty. I hate now I get so annoyed with the Raz where it's like the guys that do. They'll do the speed and the. The jumps, but not the agility or, you know, you'll get it the other way. They won't run the 40, but they want to show you the agility. It's. Oh, gosh, God. Just either don't test it all and make us just assume or else do all of them. Like the way that these guys. Some of these guys screw up the rad scores, but we tip our hats to the guys that do every test.

Derek Brown (64:33)

I'll give my old man yelling at Cloud's take before we get out of here. If you get invited to the NFL draft combine, I think there should be a rule instituted. Either you do all or nothing.

Seth Wilcox (64:42)

I don't.

Derek Brown (64:43)

I don't think there should be cherry picked. And fine, if you want to just test it your pro day, you could pick whatever you want to because you're not on NFL combine grounds, but if you're coming there, you're doing every freaking thing assuming that you're healthy to do it.

Thor Nystrom (64:56)

Yeah.

Derek Brown (64:56)

Just saying, that is your.

Seth Wilcox (64:59)

That's why we love you, D, bro. And Thor, we also got a lot of love for you, man. Thank you so much for joining us today. Can you please let us know how we can best support and find your work not only for the NFL draft upcoming, but the rest of the off season, my friend.

Thor Nystrom (65:12)

Yeah, so I do 5 Viking, Minnesota Viking shows a week for a network called Score north here in town. And coming to you from the. The Twin Cities called Thor Talks, Purple is the Viking. And then we have a show called Football Takes. It's also on that Score north channel where all my NFL draft stuff this spring is. So we've been going through the top 10 position groups. You know, we sort of talked about 10 tight ends here but you know, doing the same sort of thing. My scouting reports on those guys, mock drafts, different stuff like that. We'll have live draft grades Saturday right after the draft gets done. We're going to be doing handing out the letter grades to everybody and have a live draft show on, you know, a week from Thursday night. I can't believe that we're so close. And then last thing for me, I have a sub substack that I just started out here trying to figure that kind of thing out. But you know, now that I work for Score north and Ton, they I used to publish my boards, you know, like on, on the Internet, whatever. But now I'm putting it on a substack because you know, now my job, it's more for like you know, talking on these shows, whatnot. But I'm dropping my Thor 500. So this is the. I, I did the math. This is the ninth year that I'm doing my 500 player big board with the 500 comps. I, I thought it was the tenth so then I had to. You guys ever have to count on your fingers? Like to you, I came in at 9. So next year will be the 10th Thor 500. But the ninth version this year, 2026 drops tomorrow on Tuesday, April 14th on my sub stack. So that's what we're sort of preparing for. Funnest part of the draft process for me is stacking that 500 board.

Derek Brown (66:43)

Get signed up to a substack. I mean honestly it's the best money you could spend in the NFL draft community right now. Like athletic subs, all that kind of crap. Don't get signed up for a substack. You will learn something by listening to Thor and reading his work. Whether it's rankings, the Thor 500 the the man that goes deeper on UDFAs than I've ever seen any human do possible. So love you buddy.

Thor Nystrom (67:03)

Appreciate it. Appreciate it brother. Appreciate you.

Seth Wilcox (67:05)

Save yourself the six seven dollar coffee that I know you want and go get on Thor's substack content. Absolutely. That is going to do it for us though on this episode of the Fantasy Pros NFL Draft Show. D bro and I will be back next week. We got a two round NFL mock draft coming your way. For now though, please smash that like button if you enjoyed this episode. Also don't forget to subscribe both of the Fantasy Bros Dynasty and the NFL Tailgate YouTube channels. Let us know your favorite NFL draft sleepers and top tight end prospects down in the comments below. And be sure to check out all the great written content and our tool suite over at fantasypros.com NFL Mock Drafts ECR Rookie Rankings, Dynasty Rookie Mock Draft Simulator all there for you to take advantage of. Thank you so much for watching. For Thor Nystrom and Derek Brown, I'm Seth Wilcox. Take care y'.

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