3 tight ends I’d love to see the Miami Dolphins end up drafting

The Miami Dolphins have the chance to solidify the tight end position for years to come with a player that blocks and catches at a high level. Tucker Kraft fits that bill.

If you go look at the stats for the pride of South Dakota St, Tucker Kraft, you may feel a bit underwhelmed. He had only 348 yards on 27 catches. The year before he had 65 for 773 yards. The reason for the disparity is that he played double the games in 2021.

You may also not love the idea of drafting a guy on day 2 from the FCS. I sort of understand that. My thing with that is if there’s a guy in the FCS who is unanimously thought of as being this high of a draft pick, then I don’t care that his competition wasn’t Division 1. And make no mistake, Tucker Kraft was highly sought after to play Division 1. Here’s why he didn’t.

If that doesn’t make you want to root for this kid, I don’t know what I or he can do to make you like good things.

Kraft is a real duel threat for a tight end. Meaning, he can block and pass catch. Is he going to wow anyone with Ludacris athletic-looking feats? Not often. But he is going to do his job and do it at a high level with a desire to get better. And he does need to get better at some things. Things such as in-line blocking. He can do better in that department.

But I like how he blocks in space which is something that the Dolphins and McDaniel, I feel, like out of all their skill players. I think McDaniel would ultimately like a tight end that can play on the line of scrimmage that doesn’t give away the play as being a pass or run, but being able to block out on an island is a requirement here.

Here are Tucker Kraft’s combine numbers;

I love his dimensions and I’ll have you know that he shaved his 40 time a little bit to a 4.6 at his pro day. I don’t really think that 6 tenths of a second matter that much but I know some of you stopwatch folks really get into it.

Kraft is a quality tight end who seems to be pretty self-aware about his game. I wouldn’t think he would try and do stuff he knows he can’t.

The Miami Dolphins would be good to draft him on day 2. Pairing Kraft with Smythe and Saubert would be a trio of consistency. I think that’s appropriate for an offense that is based on getting the ball to speedy playmakers.

This set of highlights is all blocking. Not surprising, but Tucker Kraft isn’t a Jimmy Graham type of tight end who has no interest in blocking. He’s all about that life.

Here are all the pass-catching highlights. I love how he catches with his hands more often than not.