2020 NFL Draft: Top 20 tight end prospect rankings and analysis

Ranking and providing brief scouting reports for the top 20 prospects in a weak 2020 NFL Draft tight end class, led by a name that you may not know, and definitely don’t know how to spell or pronounce.

The first round of the 2020 NFL Draft is coming up very quickly on Thursday, April 23. On that first night of the draft, you can expect a lot of twists, turns and surprises. But what I do not expect in round one is to hear a tight end’s name called.

Tight ends aren’t typically fixtures in the first round of NFL drafts anyway. But this year, there really are not any prospects that I see even close to being first-round prospects.

Offensive tackles, quarterbacks, wide receivers, cornerbacks, a couple of linebackers, maybe a couple of safeties… but I would be incredibly surprised if a tight end was selected in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft.

There are some names that could be thrown around, but with the plethora of talent at other positions in the 2020 NFL Draft, I just can’t see a team taking a chance that early on a tight end. Especially given the track record of recent first-round tight ends.

Of course, it’s far too early to rule some of these guys out, but most have failed to live up to first-round hype to this point in their careers. T.J. Hockenson was taken eighth overall last year by the Detroit Lions and had really only one productive game. Noah Fant was another 2019 first-rounder, and although he played very well as a rookie, it seems as though there was a fair amount of superior talent elsewhere on the board.

Hayden Hurst was the lone first-round tight end in 2018 and has already been traded by the Baltimore Ravens. Even the more promising 2017 class of O.J. Howard, Evan Engram and David Njoku have struggled to stay on the field and make an impact for their teams, be it health or apparent coach’s decisions.

The point is, tight ends are no sure thing, especially in the first round. They lack the upside that some other offensive weapons do, but finding a good one can be a real game-changer. George Kittle was drafted in the fifth round. Travis Kelce was a third-round pick and Zach Ertz was selected in the second round. Value and fit are key points when drafting tight ends, and success is few and far between, but very important to team success.

Now, I’m not saying there aren’t any tight ends worth drafting the 2020 NFL Draft. Even in a weaker class compared to that of recent years, there are still plenty of viable options out there with the upside to help an NFL team. It just all comes down to value.

In this article, I provide my top 20 tight end rankings and provide some brief analysis of each player that I watched film on.