Scouting Combine Tight Ends: Small-School and SEC Standouts

Part 2 of our two-part series on the 20 tight ends includes Dayton’s Adam Trautman, Portland State’s Charlie Taumoepeau and five players who lined up in the SEC.

Part 2 of our two-part series on the 20 tight ends includes Dayton’s Adam Trautman, Portland State’s Charlie Taumoepeau and five players who lined up in the SEC. (Underclassmen are marked with an asterisk.)

Cheyenne O’Grady, Arkansas (6-4, 256): In his final two seasons, O’Grady caught 47 passes for 486 yards and seven touchdowns, including 29 receptions for 383 yards and six touchdowns in nine games as a senior. One of those touchdowns was a 62-yarder in which he broke five tackles.

He missed the final few games of the season following a third suspension during his career. He was suspended for two games in 2018, then came back and made an immediate impact. At that point, the coaches were hopeful he had turned a corner. “All those things lead up to doing the right thing on the field,” offensive coordinator Joe Craddock said. “You do the right things off the field, it’s a direct correlation on the field. “I’m not ready to put him on a pedestal just yet. I’m hoping he’ll do the right things, because obviously you’ve seen what kind of a weapon he can be with the ball in his hands. He’s a guy that we’ve got our arm around. We’ve got to kind of pull him through a knothole and make sure we get him to the game on Saturdays.” His father, the late Larry Marks, was a three-year letterman on Arkansas’ basketball team. O’Grady was 3 at the time. “Early on, even in elementary school, I was just not the best kid,” O’Grady said. “I think it had something to do with my childhood, and I have just been fighting it all these years. I think in my junior year I started getting all these offers when I moved from quarterback to tight end, and I started realizing I might be able to get something done here. But I had developed those bad habits of doing things my way and not listening that it was hard to immediately get rid of those bad habits. Still to this day, I still have a few issues that I have to deal with every now and then, but I would like to say that I have completely changed my attitude about things.”

Albert Okwuegbunam, Missouri* (6-5, 255): Okwuegbunam had a relatively ho-hum final season with 26 catches for 306 yards and six touchdowns, his year derailed by a knee sprain that kept him to nine games. He had five touchdowns in a four-game span early in the season. As a sophomore, he was a finalist for the Mackey Award, which goes to the nation’s top tight end, after recording 43 catches for 466 yards and six touchdowns despite being limited to nine games by a broken scapula. He scored 11 touchdowns as a redshirt freshman. In three seasons, he caught 98 passes for 1,187 yards and 23 touchdowns.

His full name is Albert Chukwueneka Okwuegbunam. The Nigerian translation of Okwuegbunam means “Evil cannot bring us down” while his middle name means “God has done wonderful for us.” His father, Albert Sr., immigrated to Springfield, Ill., from Nigeria when he was a teenager. He was a soccer goalie at Lincoln Land Community College who reluctantly agreed to let his son play the rough-and-tumble sport of football. “(I want Albert Jr. to) be a good person, be a good man,” Albert Sr. said. “Be able to succeed academic-wise and in football, what he loves to do. That’s all you can ask for your son.” Okwuegbunam’s tenacity stood out to his father as his young son learned how to walk. That tenacity came from his father, who worked three jobs to get through college. “Whenever I need to dig deep or I need some motivation, I always think about my dad,” the younger Okwuegbunam said. “Nothing in the world makes him happier than when I’m successful. I do it not only for myself, not only for my teammates, but also my dad. He worked really hard. Came from basically nothing.”

Colby Parkinson, Stanford* (6-7, 251): After a breakout sophomore season in which he caught seven touchdown passes, Parkinson grabbed 48 passes for 589 yards and one touchdown in 2019 to earn second-team all-Pac 12. In a game against Oregon State, he caught one touchdown pass and threw another.

In 2018, he tied a school record with four touchdown catches against Oregon State. He did it with a heavy heart, with the big game coming in the wake of a mass shooting and wildfires near his hometown of Simi Valley, Calif. “It’s hit me pretty hard with the shooting back home — down the street from my high school — and then the wildfires coming up the next day,” Parkinson said. “That’s been pretty heavy on my heart recently. I always pray before the game and at halftime. That was the only thing that was on my mind (Saturday night), not even football. It’s bigger than that.” He scored the game-winning touchdown vs. Oregon in 2018 with a tip-drill catch. His size is an obvious advantage. “What I’ve learned is to use my size. I’ve gone up against a number of great athletes at these camps and I realize that my size is an advantage. I had some pretty good success and my confidence has gone through the roof. I’ve really tried to be aggressive in my approach and in attacking defenders.”

Jared Pinkney, Vanderbilt (6-4, 260): Pinkney caught 20 passes for 233 yards and two touchdowns as a senior. He was much more productive with Drew Lock slinging the rock as a junior, when he hauled in 50 passes for 774 yards – the third-most receiving yards among tight ends – and seven scores to earn second-team all-SEC. At his size, he’s more in the old-school than new-school mode.

He pondered turning pro at that point, having been told by the NFL he could be a second-round pick, but elected to return for his senior year. “When I see the degree and then I see the opportunities I’m going to have in football, for me to have done that at the same time, I feel like that’s a huge accomplishment,” he said. Coach Derek Mason called Pinkney an “old soul.” Pinkney agreed: “I don’t party, I don’t drink, I don’t do drugs. I barely go out on the town. It’s always been about football.” That means watching a lot of Zach Ertz and Travis Kelce.

Stephen Sullivan, LSU (6-5, 242): As a junior, Sullivan caught 23 passes for 363 yards and two touchdowns. Beaten out by Thaddeus Moss as a senior, his production fell to 12 catches for 130 yards and zero touchdowns.

Sullivan rose from the depths of poverty to college graduate. When he was 10 or 11, his parents were arrested so he and his brother were kicked out of the hotel they were living in the day before the first day of school. The brothers huddled that night and for a few nights under a highway bridge in Irving, Texas. “I don’t really try to remind myself of what I went through,” Sullivan said. “I try to block it out. Me telling people and me talking about it, it still hurts a little bit.” One of the heroes of Sullivan’s story is youth football coach A.D. Jenkins. “He needed some nurturing,” Jenkins said. “He needed someone to put their arm around him and not necessarily try to be his mom or dad, just somebody he could rely on.” His arms are as long as the day is long. There’s “not a ton of guys like (Sullivan) walking around the planet,” said former NFL tight end James Casey, who was Sullivan’s position coach at the Senior Bowl. If you’re as tall as he is, can run like he does and combine it with “the mind’set and the intelligence and all the other stuff, shoot, you can turn yourself into a really good NFL player.”

Charlie Taumoepeau, Portland State (6-3, 245): Taumoepeau was a two-time FCS second-team All-American. As a senior, he caught 36 passes for 474 yards and two touchdowns. His four-year totals were 117 receptions for 1,876 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Taumoepeau was born in Tonga and was an oversized receiver at Federal Way (Wash.) High School who didn’t generate much recruiting interest. “I took it and ran with it,” he told LML Tribune. “Portland State was really my only school for (a) scholarship. Had a couple others playing around me, but no one really pulled the trigger. I still remember (coach Bruce) Barnum coming over and offering me. It was great; I’ll remember that day for the rest of my life.” He’s been nicknamed “Gronkopeau.” Playing “money games” against the likes of Oregon would get him on the NFL radar. “I’m kind of just a boring guy,” Taumoepeau told 406MTSports.com. “I love the game of football. Once the cleats hit the turf, I kind of just turn into a 12-year-old. I love football.”

Adam Trautman, Dayton (6-6, 253): Trautman earned FCS All-American and was a finalist for the Walter Payton Player of the Year Award as the top offensive player in FCS following a dominant senior season. He finished his Dayton career with the school record for receptions in a season (70), touchdowns catches in a season (14), career receptions (178) and career touchdown catches (31). He was the top-rated tight end in FCS in receiving touchdowns (14), receptions (6.4 per game), receiving yards (916) and scoring (7.8 points per game).

He answered questions about competition with a strong week at the Senior Bowl. “I’m here to prove I’m the best senior tight end in the entire country and that I belong here and that asterisk next to my name – that LLC for lower-level competition – doesn’t mean anything. I’ve been waiting for this ever since I got the invite. It’s something I’ve been looking forward to. I know how big a piece this is of my evaluation as an NFL prospect. I’m super excited for this opportunity and couldn’t be more thankful.” He arrived on campus as a quarterback following a record-setting career in Traverse City, Mich. “We thought Adam would make a good tight end when we looked at his high school films,” head coach Rick Chamberlin said. “He had a big body that is athletic and had soft hands, and a guy who could have mismatches with linebackers or safeties.” Chamberlain called Trautman his “unicorn” as a football star for a program that hasn’t sent anyone to the NFL in almost 45 years.

Mitchell Wilcox, South Florida (6-5, 245): Wilcox was a four-year starter and three-time all-conference selection. As a senior, he led the Bulls with 28 receptions for 350 yards and five touchdowns to earn an honorable mention on the all-American Athletic Conference team. He was a first-team pick as a junior, when he set program records for tight ends with 43 catches for 540 yards.

He was honored by his hometown of Tarpon Springs, Fla. After a dismal 4-8 season, he played in the East-West Shrine Game in nearby St. Petersburg, Fla. His father had a long career in the Coast Guard. “Money Mitch” consumed between 5,000 and 10,000 calories per day to get through a sweltering training camp.

Charlie Woerner, Georgia (6-5, 245): Woerner, a full-time starter for the first time as a senior, caught 34 passes for 376 yards and one touchdown in his career. He caught nine passes for 78 yards and that one touchdown as a senior.

At Rabun County (Ga.) High School, he posted ridiculous numbers on both sides of the ball. He’s an avid hunter. “My brother Peter shot a deer, so I went out and found it for him,” Woerner told Dawg Nation. “We brought it back and skinned it and cleaned it. Then my buddy Eli and I broke open the chest cavity and tore out the heart and went and fried it in the pan and it tasted pretty good. Mom was pretty mad about it because it smoked up the whole house, but it was really good.” His lone touchdown came during the 12th game of his senior season. “It wasn’t really a monkey on my back,” he told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “I never really thought about it too much. I tried to never let it bother me. But when I finally caught that touchdown today, I celebrated with Tyler (Simmons) and just fell to my knees and just kind of praised God for that moment. It’s been a long time coming.” He is the nephew of former Georgia cornerback and 2018 College Football Hall of Fame inductee Scott Woerner. “I actually got sick of hearing that,” Woerner told Dawg Nation. “You know, at the end of every article, ‘Charlie Woerner, nephew of Scott Woerner.’ I couldn’t get away from it.”

Dom Wood-Anderson, Tennessee (6-4, 257): Wood-Anderson played two seasons for the Vols, with 17 catches for 140 yards and two touchdowns as a junior and 21 receptions for 268 yards (12.8 average) and one touchdown as a senior.

Wood-Anderson played quarterback at Steele Canyon High School in San Diego. He moved to tight end at Arizona Western and emerged as the top-ranked junior-college tight end. “Dom Wood-Anderson, I think is one of the more talented guys in this league that’s coming back,” coach Jeremy Pruitt said. “Last year was his first year in the league, he was a junior college guy. He played mostly wide receiver in college, which talking about a guy that’s 6-5, 270 pounds and runs a 4.6 (in the) 40.” He had to go to junior college because of poor grades stemming from an internal infection from an advanced case of appendicitis that required surgery. Recruiters totally disappeared as he worked toward his GED. Then, when playing basketball, some Arizona Western basketball coaches spotted him. “I want to offer your son a scholarship to AWC,” his mom recalled in a story on the Athletic. 

Introducing the 20 Tight Ends

Part 1: Kmet, Moss and the Bryants

Part 2: Small-school stars Trautman and Taumoepeau, and five SEC standouts

Introducing the 25 Offensive Tackles

Part 1: Becton, D-III stud Bartch and Charles

Part 2: Jones and plenty of NFL DNA

Part 3: The Big Three of Thomas, Wills and Wirfs

Introducing the 17 Guards

Part 1: Bredeson, Hunt, Jackson and Lewis

Part 2: Stenberg, Simpson and Throckmorton

Introducing the 10 Centers

Big Ten’s Biadasz, Ruiz Lead Way

Introducing the 55 Receivers

Part 1: Aiyuk, Bowden did it all

Part 2: Duvernay, Edwards and Gandy-Golden

Part 3: LSU's Jefferson among TD machines

Part 4: Lamb, Jeudy top receiver class

Part 5: Mims leads Texas trio

Part 6: Ruggs, Shenault produce big plays

Introducing the 30 Running Backs

Part 1: Cam Akers, Eno Benjamin and J.K. Dobbins

Part 2: Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Zack Moss

Part 3: D’Andre Swift and Jonathan Taylor

Introducing the 17 Quarterbacks

Part 1: Burrow, Eason, Fromm

Part 2: Gordon, Herbert, Hurts, Love

Part 3: Tagovailoa and two Wisconsin natives