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Nick Wagoner
http://www.stlouisrams.com/news-and-eve ... c87b0c981d
MOBILE, Ala. - As Missouri tight end Michael Egnew surveys the landscape of the NFL, he can’t help but notice a trend that could certainly bode well for his future job prospects.
To be perfectly blunt, the evolution of the tight end has hit top gear this year with the emergence of players like New Orleans’ Jimmy Graham, San Francisco’s Vernon Davis and New England’s Rob Gronkowski.
The value of a tight end that can block and run and catch has never been higher. And never have there been more players capable of doing all of those things.
“I’d be insane if I didn’t say I want to be like Gronkowski right now,” Egnew said. “It’s a privilege to come out here and play any position, especially tight end. We get to work the trenches and catch the ball so if you love football, tight end is where it’s at especially now that the tight ends are catching more balls in the league.”
The man they call ‘Gronk’ has captured the attention of the football world, including aspiring tight ends like Egnew, who says he likes the way Gronkowski catches the ball and gets upfield with it.
In developing his game under coach Gary Pinkel at Mizzou, Egnew says he has tried to pattern many of the things he does on the field after guys like Gronkowski, which means the goal is to get open, catch the ball and get extra yards with little to no wasted motion.
That’s something Egnew did a lot of in his time with the Tigers, posting 140 catches for 1,285 yards and eight touchdowns in his final two seasons.
But Egnew’s production as a receiver dropped precipitously as a senior when he went from 90 catches the previous year to 50 in his final season.
Part of that drop off was a result of James Franklin taking over for Blaine Gabbert at quarterback. Egnew points to simply doing more blocking and taking on an expanded role as more of an all around player.
“I think I had pretty equal production,” Egnew said. “My production as far as catching may have gone down a little bit but my production in the blocking area went up so if it was about me, it would bother me. But it wasn’t about me. It was about my team, it was about winning, coach wanted me on the line a little bit to do some chip blocks and stuff so I did that and it helped our team win.”
In reality, the opportunity to do more inline blocking after spending most of his time as a junior lining up essentially as a slot receiver allowed Egnew to become a more complete tight end and probably has him more prepared for life in the NFL.
Egnew is training at Athlete’s Performance Institute in Arizona and has made it a point to put on weight. He says he played last season at 247 pounds but was 253 when he arrived in Mobile and weighed in officially at 251 pounds Monday.
The added weight is something Egnew hopes will allow him to become a better blocker and stouter at the point of attack.
“(It’s) not something I really need to work on but something I would like to sharpen my skills on,” Egnew said. “We have a lot of great coaches out here and I am going to take everything I can from them as well as the other tight end here, he’s a 3 point stance guy so I am trying to learn from him and try to be the best player I can be.”
Following in the footsteps of other highly-touted Mizzou tight ends like Martin Rucker and Chase Coffman, Egnew is hoping to breakthrough and have more of an impact than either of those record setting Tigers did in their time in Columbia.
Coffman was widely regarded as one of the best pass catching tight ends in NCAA history but his inability to block has kept him from playing much in Cincinnati. Rucker hasn’t been able to get on the field either in bouncing around the league a bit.
Blocking isn’t something Egnew thinks will be viewed as a weakness, though.
“People don’t understand this about me but I love the contact so when they put me down in the trenches, I’m like ‘Sweet,’ I like my helmet banging against somebody else’s,” Egnew said. “I like the contact.”
Egnew is a part of the North team roster this week and playing for the Minnesota Vikings coaching staff alongside Michigan State tight end Brian Linthicum. Linthicum and Egnew are the only two tight ends on the roster which means plenty of repetitions and opportunities to show something to the coaches and scouts in attendance.
Should Egnew have a good week, there’s no telling how much it could help his stock considering that tight end has become a money position even if Egnew doesn’t look at it like that.
“It’s never about the money for me but I definitely love the sport and the position,” Egnew said.
PRAYING FOR PATERNO: It was with a heavy heart that Jack Crawford, D’Anton Lynn and Johnnie Troutman made the trip to Mobile on Sunday night. That’s because the three Penn State players learned of the passing of their coach, the legendary Joe Paterno not long after heading to the Senior Bowl.
In fact, their highest touted teammate, defensive tackle Devon Still, opted out of the Senior Bowl because of an injury. Nobody would have blamed Crawford, Lynn or Troutman had they chosen to do the same because of a broken heart.
Crawford, a 6’5, 270-pound defensive lineman who was born in London, said Paterno was one of the biggest reasons he chose to go to Happy Valley.
“He was very honest, very down to Earth, very humble,” Crawford said. “He wasn’t just trying to get me to go to his college like some other coaches. He wanted me to get my degree and he worked on just making me a better man. That’s what I took from him and that’s the reason I went to Penn State.”
Crawford and his teammates considered not making the trip to Mobile because of Paterno’s passing but figured it would be something Paterno would encourage them to do. After all, there’s nothing Paterno loved more than football and he wanted his players to succeed at it.
“You keep him in mind, keep him in your heart and you just keep moving forward and try to make the most of it,” Crawford said. “You have to try to make the most of it while I’m here and hopefully sometime I’ll get a chance to go up to Penn State and be around the Penn State family and remember the times we had with him.”
LATE SCRATCHES: Because of a glut of talented juniors that have declared for the draft this year, the Senior Bowl doesn’t boast many players expected to go in the top 10-15 picks.
But two players who were thought to be surefire first rounders did commit to play before dropping out just before the game.
Still, who is widely regarded as the best defensive tackle in this year’s draft and could have been a top pick, has an injury and bowed out.
Likewise, a pair of receivers – Baylor’s Kendall Wright and Notre Dame’s Michael Floyd also dropped out. Wright has an ankle injury. Floyd passed for undisclosed reasons after originally committing.
Texas A&M quarterback Ryan Tannehill, whom many think is the third best signal caller in the draft, also decided not to come at the last minute because of a foot injury.
http://www.stlouisrams.com/news-and-eve ... c87b0c981d
MOBILE, Ala. - As Missouri tight end Michael Egnew surveys the landscape of the NFL, he can’t help but notice a trend that could certainly bode well for his future job prospects.
To be perfectly blunt, the evolution of the tight end has hit top gear this year with the emergence of players like New Orleans’ Jimmy Graham, San Francisco’s Vernon Davis and New England’s Rob Gronkowski.
The value of a tight end that can block and run and catch has never been higher. And never have there been more players capable of doing all of those things.
“I’d be insane if I didn’t say I want to be like Gronkowski right now,” Egnew said. “It’s a privilege to come out here and play any position, especially tight end. We get to work the trenches and catch the ball so if you love football, tight end is where it’s at especially now that the tight ends are catching more balls in the league.”
The man they call ‘Gronk’ has captured the attention of the football world, including aspiring tight ends like Egnew, who says he likes the way Gronkowski catches the ball and gets upfield with it.
In developing his game under coach Gary Pinkel at Mizzou, Egnew says he has tried to pattern many of the things he does on the field after guys like Gronkowski, which means the goal is to get open, catch the ball and get extra yards with little to no wasted motion.
That’s something Egnew did a lot of in his time with the Tigers, posting 140 catches for 1,285 yards and eight touchdowns in his final two seasons.
But Egnew’s production as a receiver dropped precipitously as a senior when he went from 90 catches the previous year to 50 in his final season.
Part of that drop off was a result of James Franklin taking over for Blaine Gabbert at quarterback. Egnew points to simply doing more blocking and taking on an expanded role as more of an all around player.
“I think I had pretty equal production,” Egnew said. “My production as far as catching may have gone down a little bit but my production in the blocking area went up so if it was about me, it would bother me. But it wasn’t about me. It was about my team, it was about winning, coach wanted me on the line a little bit to do some chip blocks and stuff so I did that and it helped our team win.”
In reality, the opportunity to do more inline blocking after spending most of his time as a junior lining up essentially as a slot receiver allowed Egnew to become a more complete tight end and probably has him more prepared for life in the NFL.
Egnew is training at Athlete’s Performance Institute in Arizona and has made it a point to put on weight. He says he played last season at 247 pounds but was 253 when he arrived in Mobile and weighed in officially at 251 pounds Monday.
The added weight is something Egnew hopes will allow him to become a better blocker and stouter at the point of attack.
“(It’s) not something I really need to work on but something I would like to sharpen my skills on,” Egnew said. “We have a lot of great coaches out here and I am going to take everything I can from them as well as the other tight end here, he’s a 3 point stance guy so I am trying to learn from him and try to be the best player I can be.”
Following in the footsteps of other highly-touted Mizzou tight ends like Martin Rucker and Chase Coffman, Egnew is hoping to breakthrough and have more of an impact than either of those record setting Tigers did in their time in Columbia.
Coffman was widely regarded as one of the best pass catching tight ends in NCAA history but his inability to block has kept him from playing much in Cincinnati. Rucker hasn’t been able to get on the field either in bouncing around the league a bit.
Blocking isn’t something Egnew thinks will be viewed as a weakness, though.
“People don’t understand this about me but I love the contact so when they put me down in the trenches, I’m like ‘Sweet,’ I like my helmet banging against somebody else’s,” Egnew said. “I like the contact.”
Egnew is a part of the North team roster this week and playing for the Minnesota Vikings coaching staff alongside Michigan State tight end Brian Linthicum. Linthicum and Egnew are the only two tight ends on the roster which means plenty of repetitions and opportunities to show something to the coaches and scouts in attendance.
Should Egnew have a good week, there’s no telling how much it could help his stock considering that tight end has become a money position even if Egnew doesn’t look at it like that.
“It’s never about the money for me but I definitely love the sport and the position,” Egnew said.
PRAYING FOR PATERNO: It was with a heavy heart that Jack Crawford, D’Anton Lynn and Johnnie Troutman made the trip to Mobile on Sunday night. That’s because the three Penn State players learned of the passing of their coach, the legendary Joe Paterno not long after heading to the Senior Bowl.
In fact, their highest touted teammate, defensive tackle Devon Still, opted out of the Senior Bowl because of an injury. Nobody would have blamed Crawford, Lynn or Troutman had they chosen to do the same because of a broken heart.
Crawford, a 6’5, 270-pound defensive lineman who was born in London, said Paterno was one of the biggest reasons he chose to go to Happy Valley.
“He was very honest, very down to Earth, very humble,” Crawford said. “He wasn’t just trying to get me to go to his college like some other coaches. He wanted me to get my degree and he worked on just making me a better man. That’s what I took from him and that’s the reason I went to Penn State.”
Crawford and his teammates considered not making the trip to Mobile because of Paterno’s passing but figured it would be something Paterno would encourage them to do. After all, there’s nothing Paterno loved more than football and he wanted his players to succeed at it.
“You keep him in mind, keep him in your heart and you just keep moving forward and try to make the most of it,” Crawford said. “You have to try to make the most of it while I’m here and hopefully sometime I’ll get a chance to go up to Penn State and be around the Penn State family and remember the times we had with him.”
LATE SCRATCHES: Because of a glut of talented juniors that have declared for the draft this year, the Senior Bowl doesn’t boast many players expected to go in the top 10-15 picks.
But two players who were thought to be surefire first rounders did commit to play before dropping out just before the game.
Still, who is widely regarded as the best defensive tackle in this year’s draft and could have been a top pick, has an injury and bowed out.
Likewise, a pair of receivers – Baylor’s Kendall Wright and Notre Dame’s Michael Floyd also dropped out. Wright has an ankle injury. Floyd passed for undisclosed reasons after originally committing.
Texas A&M quarterback Ryan Tannehill, whom many think is the third best signal caller in the draft, also decided not to come at the last minute because of a foot injury.