Supreme Tight End Draft Class greatly benefits the Saints

Now that Senior Bowl week has come and passed, it’s time to dive into the NFL Draft. After watching the Senior Bowl practices, it was clear to me that the tight end position may be the best position group in the draft. That’s great news for the New Orleans Saints, because one of their top needs for the offense is a playmaker at the tight end spot.

The first day of Senior Bowl practice saw tight end Dallas Goedert out of South Dakota State looking like the real deal. He was catching the ball well with his hands, being physical with the defense and running some pretty nice routes. Unfortunately, in the middle of practice he pulled his hamstring and couldn’t participate in the rest of the practices.

Goedert is believed to be one of the top tight ends in the draft, and definitely looks the part. Luckily, there was still plenty of talented tight ends at the Senior Bowl such as Mike Gesicki and Troy Fumagalli, they both stood out to me the most. Gesicki is a really athletic tight end that runs nice routes, can jump out of the gym, and has amazing hands. One knock on him is his blocking. I wouldn’t say he’s awful at it, but he needs to get better at it.

As for Troy Fumagalli, he is the total package. His blocking, route-running, and hands looked solid. He’s not as athletic as Gesicki, but seems to be more well-rounded as a tight end. Another player that played well and seemed to be pretty athletic was Durham Smythe out of Notre Dame. Smythe had some flashes in practice. I could definitely see the Saints taking a chance on him later in the draft. Other players like Ian Thomas out of Indiana and Tyler Conklin out of Western Michigan had solid performances as well.

Mark Andrews out of Oklahoma is another player to keep your eye on. He’s got the height, weight, and skills to be a great player in the NFL. Hayden Hurst out of South Carolina also has some intriguing traits that could make for a solid tight end at the next level. He hasn’t got as much attention as the other tight ends it seems, but he could go pretty high in the draft too. Both Andrews and Hurst were not at the Senior Bowl because they’re only juniors.

The New Orleans Saints really need to add a tight end to the team this offseason, whether that be through free agency or the draft. Giving Drew Brees another big target to throw to would be huge for the offense. Luckily with this draft, having a need for a tight end is good news. I fully expect the Saints to address this need with one of their first three picks in the upcoming draft, unless they would rather get a veteran through free agency, which didn’t exactly work out so well.