| Fifth in a series of articles previewing the top NFL prospects, by
position, for the 2000 draft. NFL teams want tight ends who can block almost as well
as offensive tackles and run and catch almost as well as wide receivers. But complete
tight ends are almost impossible to find, so teams will generally settle for athletes that
can do two of those three things. Scouting tight ends has become so risky that some teams
refuse to draft them in the first round. Those teams say that a majority of tight ends
drafted in the first round (including Willie Scott, David Lewis, Tony Hunter, Ken MacAfee,
Johnny Mitchell and Derek Brown) have been major disappointments and that many other
first-rounders, such as Kyle Brady, Irv Smith and Rickey Dudley, do not return the type of
value expected from players taken that high. If you look at a Pro Bowl roster, you will
often see a lot of tight ends who were taken in the middle or late rounds, such as Shannon
Sharpe, Ben Coates, Frank Wycheck and Mark Chmura. However, there are still some unique
gems out there from time to time, and if a team finds a Kellen Winslow, a Russ Francis or
a Keith Jackson, it can bring an entirely new dimension to its offense.
This year the tight end most likely to receive first-round consideration is Daniel
"Bubba" Franks. Franks, a fourth-year junior from Miami (Fla.), had another
year of eligibility left but opted to come out early. He is the closest thing to a
prototype NFL tight end in the college ranks. At about 6-foot-5½, 260 pounds, Franks has
the size. He also has big, soft hands; can adjust to the poorly thrown pass and catch the
ball outside the frame of his body; and has excellent balance and body control. He is a
strong runner after the catch, runs well for a man his size and can be an effective
blocker. Up until this season, Franks was not thrown to very often, but this year he has
become a bigger part of the Hurricanes’ passing game and has responded to the
challenge. The only real knocks on Franks seem to be that he does not have great
suddenness or a quick twitch and that he relies more on power than explosive quickness.
While he seems to run well, Franks is not a sprinter in the Mitchell mold who is going to
run by safeties.
The top senior tight end in the country is probably West Virginia’s Anthony
Becht, a 6-5, 260-pound fifth-year man who was a part-time starter in 1996 and
’97 before earning second-team All-Big East honors behind Franks the past two
seasons. For a big man, Becht can get off the line and run well and is rarely held up much
at the line of scrimmage. He has good hands but will drop a few passes and is an
above-average runner after the catch. While Becht is not a real deep threat, he can get
deep at times if opponents don’t take him seriously. As a blocker, Becht is willing
and able but not really explosive or dominating. He needs to improve his technique and do
a better job of staying on his blocks. He is an honor student who has both classroom and
football intelligence.
Perhaps the most underrated tight end in the country is Northwestern’s Jay Tant,
who was a championship swimmer and would be an honors-type player if he played at Michigan
or Ohio State or for a passing team that featured the tight end. Tant is a very athletic
250-pounder who catches the ball nicely and can adjust to the poorly thrown pass. Although
he rarely gets to run a deep route, he is one of the quicker and faster tight ends around,
and he can extend and reach for the ball. He shows very good awareness against zones,
reads them well and knows where to sit down. As a blocker, he is not big and physical
enough to knock people off the ball or be overpowering, but he is tenacious, gets position
and works his feet well enough that he is in position to wall his man off and keep him out
of the play.
The biggest question mark at tight end is Virginia’s Casey Crawford.
Crawford has had so many injury setbacks that nobody is quite sure what he can and cannot
do, whether he can come all the way back or whether he will be durable enough to last a
full NFL season. Crawford started the first four games in ’97 but missed the rest of
the season after breaking his leg. In ’98 he caught four passes in the opener but was
injured in the game, and although he only missed two full games, he did not catch another
pass until the eighth game of the season. This year Crawford had surgery in the groin area
and then had some complications. When he was able to play a little, he was basically used
as a third tight end. At 6-5½ , 255 pounds, Crawford has the size, and at least at one
point in his career he could run and catch the ball well. The athletic Crawford is a
former baseball player who was good enough to be the Atlanta Braves’ 16th-round pick
out of high school, even though the Braves’ organization knew he was probably headed
for college. As a blocker, he really has not been able to do too much this year because of
his injury problems.
Another player who is hard to evaluate because of injuries is Mississippi State’s Terrence
McCaskey. He was a third-string player in ’96 and ’97 and shared time with
Reggie Kelly (now with the Falcons) in ’98. McCaskey was slated to start this season
until he hurt his wrist during the preseason. He came back to start late in the year but
has been rusty, and he plays in an offense that does not aim many passes toward the tight
end. But McCaskey is quite a target at 6-5, 280, and he has potential as a blocker. As a
receiver, he has the size and seems to be able to catch, but he is a little slow getting
off the line and into his routes, and he does not run very fast until he really gets
going.
Florida’s Erron Kinney is big, smooth and athletic and a fine student, but
he has been somewhat of an underachiever. However, he looked very athletic snatching the
ball against Georgia in a heavy rain, and he has shown flashes of ability in all areas
from time to time. In the past, Kinney has been knocked for not being that tough or
tenacious and for not bending his knees well when blocking.
Joe Dean Davenport is a two-sport athlete who has played basketball and football
for Arkansas, and anyone who gets any minutes for Nolan Richardson’s basketball squad
can’t be a stiff. On the gridiron, the 6-6, 265-pound Davenport has shown good hands
and steady improvement. He can adjust to the ball and is starting to develop a little bit
as a blocker. He does not run that well, but when he uses his size, it is hard for a
defender to get around him to bat down the pass. With his reach, Davenport can outreach
defenders for high passes.
Miami (Fla.)’s Mondriel Fulcher was not good enough to beat out Franks at
tight end, so to get Fulcher into the lineup more, the Hurricanes started lining him up as
a fullback and H-back. As a fullback, he turned out to be too upright and a very average
blocker. Fulcher’s best pro position will probably be H-back, but he has to show more
than he showed this season if he is to be drafted as anything.
Iowa has two tight ends who should be all-Combine because they can run fast and jump
high, but neither Austin Wheatley nor Zeron Flemister looks to be a natural
receiver or power blocker, and neither has been featured much in the passing game.
Flemister had a drinking problem at one point but has owned up to it, gotten help,
followed a rehab program and been sober for more than a year now.
Ohio State’s second-string tight end, Kevin Houser, could be a late-round
pick. Although he does not stand out as a blocker or receiver, he is an excellent
special-teams player and a long-snapper.
Kentucky’s James Whalen will never be much of a blocker because of size
limitations, but he was far and away the most productive pass-catching tight end in the
country this past season, setting a new record for receptions and receiving yardage by a
tight end. However, after catching four passes for 79 yards in the first quarter of the
Music City Bowl, Whalen dislocated his right elbow about seven minutes into the game. He
really was what preseason All-American Ibn Green was supposed to be at Louisville
— a mobile, athletic receiver with a great feel for the passing game and excellent
hands who could turn quickly after the catch and run with the ball. Whalen worked to get
bigger and stronger, and he tries to block, but at 230 pounds, the former wide receiver is
not going to be very effective in-line. Green never worked much on his blocking or
strength, and as a result, he could be in for a rude surprise on Draft Day.
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