Tight Ends
Starter: Max Wright (SR)
Backup: Jake Johnson (FR)
Reserve: Blake Smith (RS SO)
This was a tougher decision than you may have thought for me. Max Wright wins the starting spot for me mostly because of his seniority and experience in the system. Now, that is nothing to take away from Wright. He obviously hasn’t seen much of the field due to Jalen Wydermyer being on the team the past two seasons. We just haven’t been able to see what he’s capable of.
https://twitter.com/kloveaggs/status/1556482774097330176
The backup will surely be true freshman Jake Johnson. Johnson was a top-100 player in last years’ cycle and the No. 1 overall tight end in the class. He is a big-bodied receiving threat and can get back some of the receiving threat lost by the departure of Wydermyer. Side note, but he is also the younger brother of quarterback Max Johnson.
As for the reserve, Blake Smith lands here. There will be a competition between Smith and Johnson, but I see Johnson having too much of a vertical threat advantage over Smith to compete for snaps. Overall, I feel pretty good about this group.