Name: Gerald Everett
School: South Alabama
Position: Tight end
Stat to know: Led all tight ends with 24 forced missed tackles in 2016, nine more than any other tight end. Also led in 2015 with 22.
What he does well:
Moves well for a guy his size, agile. Looks like a wide receiver with the ball in his hands.
Averaged 9.1 YAC/reception in each of the last two years.
No fear of contact over the middle.
Can drag a defender for extra yards.
Effectively changes speeds with the ball in his hands, nice short-area burst.
Going to be a legitimate mismatch against linebackers and safeties one-on-one.
Can line up all over the field, saw snaps inline, in the slot and out of the backfield.
Good balance.
Basketball instincts, uses body well to box out defenders at catch point.
14 deep targets last season ranked second among draft-eligible tight ends.
Good cut blocker.
Had an excellent week as a receiver during Senior Bowl practices.
Biggest concern:
Can get flat-footed in pass protection; susceptible to hesitation moves.
Can take poor angles as a blocker offline.
Struggles to locate assignment on pull blocks.
Rounds his routes.
Inconsistent hands, makes some spectacular catches in tight spaces but 9.26 drop rate last season needs to come down.
Weighed in at only 228 pounds at the Senior Bowl. Playing at the 240-pound range should help with his limitations in the run game.
Player comparison: Antonio Gates, Los Angeles Chargers
Everett may never reach Gates’ Hall of Fame status, but both players entered the NFL draft with limited football experience after growing up on the basketball court rather than the football field. Everett, like Gates, is just exploding with athletic ability at 6-foot-4 and 240 pounds as he enters the draft, but his technique – both as a blocker and as a route-runner – needs to be polished up, likely due mostly to a lack of experience.
Bottom line: Everett is big, athletic and elusive with the ball in his hands. He provides an impressive presence in the middle of the field and all his physical traits, along with his basketball instincts, make him capable of shielding defenders away at the catch point even when he doesn’t create a ton of separation. He needs to clean up his technique a bit, but he shows an obvious willingness to block and it’d be tough to find an instance on film where he shies away from contact. He’s one of the more raw tight ends in the class – maybe the most — but his physical tools are so great that with some good NFL coaching he has the chance to be one of the better tight ends in all of football.
