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2018 Draft Class: Tight Ends By Tim Miller Special to sfl-football.com Analysis of the 2018 Tight End class Being a numbers and data type of guy, I wanted to break down the different parts of the 2018 draft class by the actual numbers, so I started with the tight end class of 2018 since we all know that the Colts are going to take one with their first pick. I was searching for who could truly become elite and how close they would be when they started, as well as where they compared with the current players. I started with current players to find the different percentiles. Now one nuance, I decided to go with players current on a team and did not include free agents. In my mind, these players must be the best because they have either been drafted, retained, resigned, traded for, or signed in free agency. So basically, these players are wanted. I broke down the percentiles into the 50th, 75th, 90th, 95th, and 99th percentile of all attributes for tight ends, not just the applicable ones. The results are below (aren't you all interested in how good of a kick returner your tight end is?). The items in bold are what I used to evaluate the draft class: Height, Speed, Strength, Agility, Acceleration, Catch, and Run Blocking. These are the areas I consider important for a tight end. Other attributes will be important for other positions. I left out awareness for now because we know that can grow. Percentile pos age ht_inches wt SPD STR AWR AGI ACC CTH CAR JMP BTK TAK THP THA PBK RBK KPW KAC STA INJ IMP TGH KR 50thpercentile TE 27 77 251 82 69 62 81 84 81 68 80 63 30 24 20 54 57 23 18 85 85 49 87 6 75thpercentile TE 29 78 260 85 73 70 85 87 84 72 81 68 38 30 27 58 61 30 27 90 89 57 93 9 90thpercentile TE 30 78 265 88.2 77.4 86 87 91 89.2 76.2 84.2 72.2 42.4 35.2 29 63 64 38 30 93 99 67 99 40 95thpercentile TE 31 79 268.8 89.6 79 91 87 92.2 90.6 78 86.6 73.6 45.2 39 30.8 65 65 39 31 95 99 76.2 99 48.6 99thpercentile TE 33 80 275.48 91.96 81.32 92.32 90.28 93.32 97.64 81.64 90 76.96 61.16 57.92 52.04 67.92 76.92 39.32 36.6 98.32 99 82.96 99 71.12 Now, how did the rookies match up with existing tight ends in the league? You may notice that the attributes are a little higher than what you see for the draft class. I took this evaluation based on where they would be after rookie progression since that one is guaranteed. Then I did a comparison against the different percentiles to see how they match up: 99th percentile is Elite, 95th percentile is Very Good, 90th percentile is Good, 75th percentile is Upper Quadrant, 50th percentile is Upper Half, and below 50th percentile is Too Low. To come up with the score, I counted how many of each type of ranking they got and then put a weighted average on them, with the Too Low actually counting against an athlete. As expected, Mark Andrews stood out from the pack. More interesting however is how Ian Thomas and Jordan Akins (although I probably should have included age) scored as compared to Dallas Goedert. Goedert's strength and agility counted against him, even though he had elite speed and acceleration. Name POS AGE HT_INCHES* Height_Rating WT Weight_Rating SPD* Speed_Rating STR* Strength_Rating AWR AWR_Rating AGI* AGI_Rating ACC* ACC_Rating CTH* CTH_Rating JMP JMP_Rating BTK BTK_Rating RBK* RBK_Rating INJ INJ_Rating Score Elite Very Good Good Upper Quadrant Upper Half Too low Mark Andrews TE 21 77 Upper Half 254 Upper Half 93 Elite 79 Very Good 60 Too low 82 Upper Half 89 Upper Quadrant 87 Upper Quadrant 47 Low 70 Upper Quadrant 41 Too low 96 Upper Quadrant 10 1 1 0 2 2 1 Ian Thomas TE 22 76 Upper Half 259 Upper Half 80 Too low 71 Upper Half 45 Too low 90 Very Good 96 Elite 76 Too low 86 Good 69 Upper Quadrant 54 Too low 88 Upper Half 6 1 1 0 0 2 3 Jordan Akins TE 26 75 Too low 249 Too low 88 Upper Quadrant 75 Upper Quadrant 57 Too low 85 Upper Quadrant 84 Upper Half 76 Too low 64 Low 69 Upper Quadrant 57 Upper Half 89 Upper Quadrant 5.5 0 0 0 3 2 2 Dallas Goedert TE 22 77 Upper Half 256 Upper Half 91 Very Good 59 Too low 60 Too low 75 Too low 95 Elite 78 Too low 77 Low 67 Upper Half 46 Too low 89 Upper Quadrant 4.5 1 1 0 0 1 4 Troy Fumagalli TE 22 78 Good 248 Too low 85 Upper Quadrant 66 Too low 50 Too low 81 Upper Half 86 Upper Half 79 Too low 76 Low 61 Low 49 Too low 90 Upper Quadrant 4 0 0 1 1 2 3 Tyler Conklin TE 22 75 Too low 254 Upper Half 82 Upper Half 70 Upper Half 55 Too low 82 Upper Half 85 Upper Half 73 Too low 87 Very Good 64 Upper Half 58 Upper Half 86 Upper Half 4 0 0 0 0 5 2 Mike Gesicki TE 22 77 Upper Half 242 Too low 80 Too low 72 Upper Half 53 Too low 84 Upper Half 88 Upper Quadrant 78 Too low 80 Upper Half 66 Upper Half 47 Too low 90 Upper Quadrant 3 0 0 0 1 3 3 Jordan Thomas TE 23 78 Good 265 Good 83 Upper Half 64 Too low 47 Too low 77 Too low 86 Upper Half 73 Too low 2 Low 63 Upper Half 53 Too low 85 Upper Half 2 0 0 1 0 2 4 Durham Smythe TE 22 77 Upper Half 253 Upper Half 83 Upper Half 69 Upper Half 55 Too low 80 Too low 75 Too low 74 Too low 79 Low 65 Upper Half 53 Too low 90 Upper Quadrant 1 0 0 0 0 3 4 Dalton Schultz TE 21 78 Good 242 Too low 72 Too low 64 Too low 51 Too low 82 Upper Half 76 Too low 68 Too low 57 Low 70 Upper Quadrant 52 Too low 92 Upper Quadrant 0.5 0 0 1 0 1 5 Will Dissly TE 23 76 Upper Half 262 Upper Quadrant 83 Upper Half 67 Too low 59 Too low 77 Too low 82 Too low 76 Too low 86 Good 67 Upper Half 59 Upper Half 96 Upper Quadrant 1 0 0 0 0 3 4 Hayden Hurst TE 25 77 Upper Half 250 Too low 85 Upper Quadrant 60 Too low 59 Too low 68 Too low 76 Too low 75 Too low 73 Low 69 Upper Quadrant 54 Too low 81 Low 0 0 0 0 1 1 5 Chris Herndon TE 22 76 Upper Half 252 Upper Half 80 Too low 61 Too low 53 Too low 59 Too low 78 Too low 82 Upper Half 64 Low 68 Upper Quadrant 53 Too low 94 Upper Quadrant -0.5 0 0 0 0 2 5 Hopefully you enjoy this number crunch as I will be coming back with other evaluations in the near future. 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