Draft features bumper crop of TEs
INDIANAPOLIS >> College football’s spread offenses continue to produce pro players who aren’t quite ready for the NFL: quarterbacks who lack the foundational footwork, tackles who need remedial training on blocking basics.
Tight ends are another story. They’re primed for an immediate impact. They’re the fruit of the spread. And this year features a bumper crop.
“This is the 1983 quarterback class of tight ends,” said Cecil Lammey, NFL draft analyst at 104.3 The Fan in Denver.
An abundance of big, talented tight ends attending the NFL’s annual scouting combine this week is led by Alabama’s O.J. Howard, a traditional combo tight end who’s benefited from the Crimson Tide’s ground game, and Miami’s David Njoku, the vanguard of the pass-catching tight ends with wide receiver roots.
They’re both expected to hear their names called in the first round, but 30 other teams won’t fret if they miss out on the top two.
“I think the beauty of the tight end class this year is it doesn’t have to be” a first-rounder who significantly upgrades a team’s tight end room, NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock said. “It can be in the second or third round or maybe in the fourth round.”
Options include Mississippi’s Evan Engram, South Alabama’s Everett Gerald, Clemson’s Jordan Leggett, and Bucky Hodges of Virginia Tech. There’s also Michigan’s Jake Butt, who insists he’s breaking records in his recovery from a torn ACL he suffered in the Orange Bowl, and 277-pound Adam Shaheen of Ashland (Ohio), a freakish athlete and the latest tight end who transitioned from the hardwood to the gridiron, among others.
“I am not testing here,” said Butt, who had surgery on Jan. 10 and resumes running next month. “But it has still been special. I am so far ahead in my rehab. I know where an average man would be at this time, and I am so far ahead of that. But still to be out here and recognized as one of the best players in the country is really special.”
Njoku said many people implored him to stay in school as more and more of these elite tight ends declared for the draft, which only served to motivate him.
Paper apologizes for column tying Peterson case to slavery
GREEN BAY, WIS. >> A Wisconsin newspaper is apologizing for a columnist who connected Minnesota Vikings star Adrian Peterson’s child abuse case to beatings suffered by slaves.
Green Bay-Press Gazette columnist Pete Dougherty’s remark came in a column calling for the Packers to consider signing Peterson.
Referencing the charge Peterson faced for disciplining his son with a wooden switch, Dougherty wrote that Peterson “likely is descended from slaves who suffered savage disciplinary beatings generation after generation after generation. It excuses nothing but also can’t be ignored.”
The Press-Gazette removed the paragraph Thursday night and apologized to readers. In a statement Friday, editor Robert Zizzo called it “a huge mistake in judgment by a reporter and failed oversight by editors.”
The column was also carried by USA Today and the affiliated PackersNews.com.