NFL Draft 2019: 5 teams most likely to take a tight end
By Kevin Scott
Green Bay Packers
The next team very likely to draft a tight end in the first round is the Green Bay Packers. They have both Jimmy Graham and Marcedes Lewis under contract for 2019, but after that Lewis is a free agent and Graham can be cut with only a $3 million cap hit. There is a very high likelihood that they make that cut, leaving the tight end room wide open starting in 2020.
With Rodgers turning 36 years old this year, the window for the Packers is starting to close, and grabbing a high end, game-changing tight end to work the middle of the field could turn this offense back into a juggernaut. Clearly they were hoping Graham could do this by being what he used to be, but that hasn’t worked out. Now Randall Cobb is gone as well, leaving a big hole for a player to work the routes across the middle.
This seems to be a perfect fit for Noah Fant. Fant might be among the top 5 most athletic tight ends in the NFL on the day he is drafted, and he is also smart and a savvy route runner with good hands. He may turn out to be the stat hog among the tight ends in this class, becoming next decade’s version of Jimmy Graham (the one that got 99 catches back in 2011).
They have two first round picks, the 12th overall and the 30th overall, and Fant may very well be there ready for them to take at 30.