With five top-100 picks in this month’s NFL Draft, the Seattle Seahawks have an opportunity to address a number of positions in the first three rounds.
One such position could very well be tight end.
Mock Draft Roundup: Who will Seattle Seahawks pick at No. 18?
The Seahawks return their top two tight ends in veteran Noah Fant and 2024 fourth-round pick AJ Barner. But after that, their depth at the position gets thin. Next in line would likely be recent free-agent addition Eric Saubert, who has never reached the 400-snap mark on offense over his eight-year NFL career.
And with Fant entering the final season of his two-year deal, that only adds more incentive for Seattle to restock its tight end room with more young talent.
Fortunately for the Seahawks, this year’s tight end class is considered to be one of the deepest in years.
The two big names at the top are Penn State’s Tyler Warren and Michigan’s Colston Loveland. Warren, widely regarded as a surefire top-10 or top-15 pick, will almost surely be off the board before Seattle’s first pick at No. 18 overall. Loveland might still be available, but there’s a good chance he could also be taken before then.
“I think they could both be off the board already by the time Seattle drafts,” CBS Sports NFL Draft analyst Mike Renner said last week during an appearance on Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy. “I think a lot of teams around the NFL will be willing to spend a premium pick (at tight end) after what we saw (Las Vegas Raiders star) Brock Bowers do as a rookie.”
Yet while Warren and Loveland are the prized tight end prospects, Renner said he also really likes the position’s second wave of talent. And with the Seahawks currently holding the No. 50, 52, 82 and 92 overall picks, they should have plenty of chances to tap into the position’s Day 2 pool.
One name Renner mentioned is Bowling Green’s Harold Fannin Jr. The 6-foot-3, 241-pounder is coming off a historic season, having broken the FBS single-season receptions and receiving yardage records for tight ends. He racked up an FBS-leading 117 receptions, an FBS-best 1,555 receiving yards and 10 touchdown catches, while also ranking 12th out of all tight ends in Pro Football Focus run-block grading.
CBS Sports ranks Fannin as the third-best tight end in this year’s class, while PFF has him at sixth and ESPN at seventh.
“I think (he’s) one of the best undersized tight end prospects I’ve seen in a while,” Renner said. “Still really young too. Only a junior coming out. He had like half of Bowling Green’s receiving yards last year, which is just a freakish stat for a tight end.”
One-handed TD snag by Harold Fannin Jr🔥
(🎥: @FF_DirtyMike)
pic.twitter.com/WYJXOBULLH
— PFF College (@PFF_College) January 30, 2025
Renner also mentioned Oregon’s Terrance Ferguson and Miami’s Elijah Arroyo as Day 2 tight end prospects that he likes.
Ferguson had 43 catches for 591 yards and three TDs this past season for the Ducks. The 6-foot-5, 247-pounder showed good speed at the NFL scouting combine, running the 40-yard dash in 4.63 seconds – which was the fastest among the 14 tight ends who participated. ESPN and PFF rank him as the fifth-best tight end in the class, while CBS has him at sixth.
Arroyo missed most of the 2022 and 2023 seasons with a knee injury, but posted 35 catches for 590 yards and seven TDs in 2024. The 6-foot-5, 250-pounder is ranked as the third-best tight end in the class by ESPN and PFF and the fifth-best by CBS.
“Ferguson and Arroyo are more unpolished, but (are) high-end athletes,” Renner said. “When you’re looking at lower-round drafted tight ends, the ones that end up being better than expected (are) the guys that run like 4.5, low 4.6s (in the 40-yard dash) – the ones who have explosiveness to them – that then develop at the next level. … I think (they) could, in the right situation with some time, really be impact guys.”
Sheesh! Terrance Ferguson brought out the wheels and just keeps going 🔥 @oregonfootball pic.twitter.com/DSCeiTSD9D
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 5, 2024
Listen to the full conversation at this link or in the audio player near the middle of this story. Tune in to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.
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