Here’s the third story of our position-by-position NFL draft series. Today, we’ll look at the top tight ends.
There is no Kyle Pitts at the tight end position in the coming NFL draft.
However, two local players, Chigoziem Okonkwo, who played at Hillgrove High School, and Jelani Woods, who played at Cedar Grove, are intriguing prospects in the draft, which is set for April 28-30 in Las Vegas.
Pitts became the highest-drafted tight end of the modern era when the Falcons selected him with the fourth overall pick last year. He went on to have a fine rookie season and was named to the Pro Bowl.
Okonkwo, who played in college at Maryland, is an NFL prospect after missing the 2020 season with myocarditis induced from COVID-19. After suffering intense chest pains, he was rushed to the hospital in April 2020.
“It was scary,” Okonkwo said. “I was sitting there in my room, and I was like am I OK or am I not OK?”
It was a long road to recovery.
“Like with an ankle injury, you can rehab it and see the progress,” Okonkwo said. “With a heart, you can’t really see that progress. I’m just sitting there, just resting every day. Am I ready to go now? Am I not ready to go? I just listened to the doctors and followed their protocols, and it worked out really well.”
Okonkwo thought his career could be over.
“It was a hard time,” Okonkwo said. “I just kept my faith that I was going to come back and be back to full strength. I was diagnosed around April. They told me I had to sit out six months and rest. I sat out until October.
“Got my stress test and all of my medical checkups, and they said I was good to go.”
After the layoff, Okonkwo was more than a little rusty.
“When I came back, my first workout, I had to throw up,” Okonkwo said. “It was the first time that I ever had to throw up after a workout. I was really out of shape because I hadn’t done anything for six months.”
By the time the Terrapins hit spring practice, Okonkwo regained his physical acumen and went on to turn in a big season.
Okonkwo caught 52 passes for 447 yards and five touchdowns in 2021. His 52 catches were the second-most receptions by a tight end in program history behind Frank Wycheck’s 58 in 1990.
He had the most receiving yards by a Maryland tight end since Vernon Davis had 871 in 2005.
At the NFL scouting combine, Okonkwo ran the fastest 40-yard dash of the tight ends, clocking 4.52 seconds. He was coached at Maryland by former NFL tight end and position coach Jimmie Johnson, an Augusta native who played at Josey High and Howard.
Daniel Varnado
Daniel Varnado
“Whoever drafts him is going to be real happy,” Johnson said. “I’m not just saying that because I coached him, because he was a good dude. He’s definitely an above-average blocker. He’s going to be one of the better blockers coming out.”
Okonkwo has impressed several NFL scouts with his playmaking ability.
“He catches the ball well,” Johnson said. “They won’t have a problem with him catching the ball. I’ve had a bunch of scouts call me about him. He’s going to be all right.”
Okonkwo credited his high school coach, Phillip Ironside, with getting him ready for college.
“Coach Ironside played a major role in my life personally,” Okonkwo said. “That’s my guy for life. Growing up, he was really hard on me. He really got me prepared with the mental aspect of the game. He just supported me.”
Woods was moved to tight end at the end of his redshirt freshman season at Oklahoma State and was used primarily as a blocking tight end. A former high school quarterback who led Cedar Grove to its first state championship with a 13-2 record as a senior in 2016, Woods transferred to Virginia for his final two seasons.
Woods was 6-foot-6 and between 225 and 230 pounds as a dual-threat quarterback in high school. He’s now massive at 6-7 and 275 pounds.
“It was kind of an easy switch,” Woods said. “I felt I had the tools to be a successful tight end. I talked to my coach. It was probably a 30-minute talk. I talked to my parents, and I was fine with it. I ran with it.”
Woods graduated from Oklahoma State and is two classes from earning his master’s degree in higher education from Virginia. He wanted to play in Virginia’s offense and show that he could catch passes and was more than just an in-line blocker.
At the scouting combine, he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.61, the second-fastest time of the tight ends. He bench-pressed 225 pounds, 24 times, which was best of the tight ends.
Teams will look for tight ends in the middle rounds of the draft.
“We’ve got to get the big rocks in the jar first, which are your quarterbacks, your pass rushers, your offensive tackles, your corners, and then knowing you can go shopping for guards, safeties, running backs, tight ends, all that stuff in those middle rounds,” said NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah, a former NFL scout. “I think teams have really started to figure that out.”
Teams are looking for tight ends who can block and get out and catch passes on linebackers and safeties.
“If you go and look at the top tight ends in the NFL and for the most part look at their production with guys like George Kittle, it’s a traits-over-production position right now,” Jeremiah said. “You’re trying to find guys that have the ability to do those things. You don’t necessarily need to have seen them do it, but they need to have that ability.”
Credit: D. Orlando Ledbetter
The Bow Tie Chronicles
AJC’S 2022 POSITION-BY-POSITION SERIES
WIDE RECEIVERS – Falcons need to upgrade weapons | Top 10 WRs
RUNNING BACKS – Position has become devalued in draft | Top 10 RBs
TIGHT ENDS – Chigoziem Okonkwo survived heart condition to become prospect | Top 10 TEs
OFFENSIVE LINE – Saturday
QUARTERBACKS – Sunday
DEFENSIVE LINE – Monday
LINEBACKERS – Tuesday
CORNERBACKS – Wednesday, April 20
SAFETIES – Thursday, April 21
SPECIAL TEAMS – Friday, April 22
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