John Mackey Award watch list 2017: 5 favorites to win
Taking a look at the five favorites to win the 2017 John Mackey Award, which recognizes the best tight end in college football.
Award watch season is well underway in college football, giving fans a sneak peek at who might be the best player across the nation at each different position.
Over the next two weeks, the NCAA will announce preseason watch lists for 23 awards, spanning everything from player of the year to best assistant coach. While there are going to several players who come out of nowhere to challenge for their respective awards, the preseason watch lists at least do a good job of narrowing down the field with less than two months to go before the regular season.
One of Tuesday’s main watch list announcements was the John Mackey Award, which has been given annually to the nation’s best tight end. The watch list features 55 tight ends, many of whom are upperclassmen, but with a handful of promising sophomores thrown in. One notable absence was North Carolina State’s versatile Jaylen Samuels, who is not considered a tight end by the Mackey Award despite earning All-ACC honors at the position earlier in his career.
With passing offense continuing to evolve in college football, tight ends have become much more than just blockers and red zone threats. Michigan’s Jake Butt took home the award last year thanks to his well-rounded game, with productive receivers like Ole Miss’ Evan Engram and Jordan Leggett of Clemson not far behind.
The short list of John Mackey Award contenders will likely feature a number of unexpected contenders once the season gets underway, but these five tight ends stand out as the preseason favorites.
5) Adam Breneman, UMass
While there’s no doubt Breneman has both the talent and the numbers to win the John Mackey Award, he must overcome the challenge of playing for an unknown and unsuccessful team.
Many fans will remember Breneman as a four-star prospect for Penn State who was supposed to form an unstoppable connection with Christian Hackenberg. Following an outstanding 2013 campaign, Breneman only appeared in a pair of games over the next two seasons due to knee injuries and seemed ready to retire from football after leaving the program.
However, Breneman decided to give college football one last shot by transferring to UMass ahead of the 2016 season. The move paid off tremendously, as Breneman led the nation in receiving yards for a tight end with 808 while hauling in eight touchdowns.
Breneman’s blocking is still a work in progress, although the big receiving numbers matter much more in this offense. For what it’s worth, the Minutemen return a solid quarterback in Andrew Ford, and Breneman will likely be the junior’s top target even with a good chunk of receiving talent elsewhere on the roster.
It would take a huge season for Breneman to get noticed on a team that would be thrilled to get four wins in 2017, but he’s too talented to completely dismiss.