It is much better to have an idea of where you stand on an incoming
talent before he is drafted, if only the public tends to cater to
popular opinion and "fit" after he is selected. Evaluating
the incoming rookie class before the draft gives us a more stable
ground on which to base our opinions and helps us avoid some of
those "popular" pitfalls.
The goal with this piece (and the other three position-by-position
summaries) is to provide a slightly quicker but still very thorough
overview of some of the top prospects that were not covered in
my draft profiles. The hope is that this exercise will give readers
all the information that could ask for as they begin preparing
for upcoming rookie drafts.
Elijah Arroyo Draft Profile
Vitals
College: Miami (Fla.)
Height/Weight: 6' 5"/250
Hands: 10"
Age: 22 (at the time of the 2025 season opener)
No Combine Numbers
High-end NFL Player Comp(s): Jared Cook
Low-end NFL Player Comp(s): Luke Musgrave
Best Team Fit(s): Chargers, Broncos, Bengals, Falcons, Colts
Bottom Line
Arroyo may be the most athletic tight end in this class. How
athletic, you ask? He led all tight ends who drew more than 45
targets with a 16.9 yards-per-catch average. Among the same group,
he ranked second in FBS in yards after the catch per reception
at 8.9. He would have likely jumped in the high 30s had he tested
at the Combine.
A jaw-dropping 34.3 percent of catches in 2024 went for 20 yards
or more - more than 10 percent higher than Brock Bowers in his
final season at Georgia. He was charged with just one drop on
47 targets in 2024. Along with his 82 1/4-inch wingspan, he brings
a monster catch radius to the table. Considering how relatively
little he has played, he has also proven to be a capable and willing
blocker - although that is not a strong suit right now. Arroyo
is also one of the few tight end prospects who creates separation
easily with just his speed and has enough flexibility in his ankles
and hips to change direction without needing to gear down much.
A bet on Arroyo is a bet on a player who lost parts of two seasons
due to an ACL tear and amassed only 46 catches over four seasons.
Does one season in which he averaged nearly 17 yards per reception
and a touchdown every five catches make up for that? Does that
make him a tight end who may just be scratching the surface of
his talent or an injury risk?
At this point of his career, he is more of an athlete than a
technician and needs to prove he can handle physical coverage,
which he did not see much of lining up in the slot on more than
half of the snaps. When he was not in the slot, Miami slid him
out into the opposite flat quite often as another way to make
sure he got into his route without issue.
While he comes with obvious risk, the combination of injury concerns
and the small chance he is a one-hit wonder may be the only reasons
why he is not being considered a first-round pick. With that said,
it should surprise no one if he has the best NFL career of the
bunch. He has the tools to make it happen.
Mason Taylor Draft Profile
Vitals
College: LSU
Height/Weight: 6' 5"/251
Hands: 10"
Age: 21 (at the time of the 2025 season opener)
No Combine Numbers
High-end NFL Player Comp(s): Hunter Henry
Low-end NFL Player Comp(s): Logan Thomas
Best Team Fit(s): Jaguars, Broncos, Chargers, Colts, Jets, Panthers
Bottom Line
The son of a longtime NFL sack master (Jason Taylor), Mason Taylor
is the only tight end in school history to record 100-plus catches
and 1,000-plus receiving yards over the course of his college
career. Not including his near-prototypical size for a tight end,
perhaps Taylor's best quality is his hands (one drop on 55 catches
and 79 targets in 2024). He may be a bit stiff as a runner considering
his bloodline, but that does not mean he lacks in fluidity or
athleticism.
Taylor makes himself a friendly target for his quarterback by
making himself available quickly, being able to catch balls easily
outside of his frame and showing little fear in traffic. He is
also the second-youngest tight end prospect in this draft, as
he will not turn 21 until early May. It is possible he still has
not fully maxed out yet in terms in terms of his height and weight.
For the most part, Taylor is more of a chain-mover with some
build-up speed right now than a player who will stretch the seam
consistently. He is surprisingly poor after the catch (4.6 yards
after the catch per reception in 2024 and 5.4 for his career).
Taylor also has the athleticism to create more separation than
he does, but he does not do a good enough job at this point of
using his size right now to wall off defenders. This means he
will probably score most of his early-career wins against linebackers
and not safeties. At least for right now, he is more of a downfield/perimeter
blocker than someone who should be asked to handle an edge defender
one-on-one.
Maybe I am giving him the benefit of the doubt considering how
athletic his dad was, but Taylor seems like a likely candidate
to add about 10 more pounds in the next year and become something
of a Kyle Rudolph/Jason Witten clone down the road. He could become
a high-volume weapon at some point early in his career, but I
fear he will always be more of a move-the-chains option with some
red zone upside than an all-purpose standout.
Harold Fannin Jr. Draft Profile
Vitals
College: Bowling Green
Height/Weight: 6' 3"/241
Hands: 9 1/4"
Age: 21 (at the time of the 2025 season opener)
High-end NFL Player Comp(s): A stiffer version of Jonnu Smith
Low-end NFL Player Comp(s): Isaiah Likely
Best Team Fit(s): Chargers, Jaguars, Dolphins, Bears, Seahawks
Bottom Line
The term "movable chess piece" typically gets used
at receiver nowadays, but if it was ever going to apply to a tight
end, Fannin might be the poster boy for that. He lined up either
out wide (26 percent) or in the slot (32 percent) on almost 60
percent of his snaps in 2024. He also lined up as a wing or a
fullback. He was even featured on jet sweeps.
If versatility is not Fannin's superpower, his ability to do
work after the catch might be. Despite setting FBS single-season
records for catches (117) and receiving yards (1,555) for a tight
end, Fannin's most stunning feat last year might have been accumulating
more yards after the catch (873) than all but two other tight
ends in college football had receiving yards. He did not do it
all against lower-level competition either, posting at least 80
yards after the catch against Penn State and against Texas A&M.
Fannin was only charged with one drop on 111 targets through
11 games until things got a little weird at the end. He added
some muscle for the Combine that probably hurt his stock because
he is probably more of a 4.6 runner at his listed playing weight
of 230. Also working in his favor is the fact that he is the youngest
tight end prospect in this draft and will not turn 21 until training
camp.
So why does he find himself so low in my rankings? He may not
have a position in the NFL. He is too small to be an in-line tight
end. He does not block well enough at this point to be a fullback.
He is not quick enough (or fast enough) to be a primary slot.
To what degree a play-caller is willing to work around having
a second tight end who likely needs to be schemed touches will
probably determine Fannin's NFL fate. If his play-caller is determined
to get Fannin matched up on a linebacker consistently, Fannin
could easily become a fantasy star. If not, he would join Colston
Loveland as tight end prospects in this draft who could be discarded
quickly by a new regime intent on playing more traditional football.
Terrance Ferguson Draft Profile
Vitals
College: Oregon
Height/Weight: 6' 5"/247
Hands: 9 1/4"
Age: 22 (at the time of the 2025 season opener)
Ferguson may be the best example of how much better Bo Nix is
as a quarterback at this stage of his career than Dillon Gabriel.
Watching Ferguson's 2023 film revealed a player who caught virtually
everything thrown in his direction and broke a ton of tackles.
Following the departures of Troy Franklin and Bucky Irving to
the NFL, Oregon asked Ferguson to work downfield more often. The
result was 25.6 percent of his catches going for 20 yards or more
last season. As his Combine numbers would suggest, he is more
than athletic enough to be a viable contested-catch option, although
that was a shortcoming of his game during his college career (36
percent contested-catch rate).
That was probably more of a function of the conservative nature
of his quarterbacks over the last two years than anything else,
however, although he could stand to attack the ball in the air
more than he does. I was generally pleased with his willingness
and capability to block relative to the rest of the tight ends
I observed, although there is room for improvement there as well
- especially as a blocker in space.
As a whole, he seemed to backtrack a little bit last year from
his breakout season as a junior. His 13 missed tackles forced
in 2023 was nearly half of his career total. His drop rate was
4.5 in 2023, almost half of what it was in 2024. One of the few
things that improved considerably last season was his ability
to produce after the catch (his 9.0 YAC was the best in the country
by a tight end with at least 30 targets). While he is not exactly
a bull in a china shop with the ball in his hands, he does not
shy away from contact either.
Whereas the rest of the aforementioned tight ends can make a
case to be considered a top-three option in this class because
they have at least one thing they do well, Ferguson belongs in
a separate lower tier. He will probably make his living as an
in-line tight end who works mostly in the short area of the field
in the NFL once he gets stronger.
Doug Orth has written for FFToday since 2006 and joined the
Fantasy Points website before the start of the 2024 season. He is
also a highly successful high-stakes player who often appears as
a guest analyst on Sirius XM. Doug is also a member of the Fantasy
Sports Writers Association. Please check out his new podcast with
JJ Wenner called "The All-Out Blitz."
