STRENGTHS
Luke has the blocking and receiving talent to be a complete Tight End for the team that selects him. He has those soft hands to catch the ball down the field, and the long strides, height, and long arms make it hard for anyone to cover him when he runs deep routes. Luke does a surprisingly good job, (for a tall Tight End), run blocking. He gives the needed effort without committing penalties when pass blocking also. Luke’s long strides when running deep routes gives him the advantage to be an impact receiver on third and long plays that many other Tight Ends do not have the ability to do and this opens up the play calling for an offensive coordinator and a smart quarterback. I think most teams will be enamored with Luke’s overall blocking talents especially when run blocking and that will be the key for Luke to be selected early in this draft.
CONCERNS
Luke struggles to run the easy routes and short routes because of his long legs. He also has a hitch off the line of scrimmage when he is lined up in the slot or outside that slows him up from getting into his routes quickly. His long legs make it easy to tackle him in the open field, not allowing him much run after the catch yardage. Luke’s tall body type also makes injuries to the legs and feet prevalent and Luke is already working off a knee injury right now through the draft process.
BOTTOM LINE: 2.26
Luke’s long legs make him an impact player in the passing offense on third and long downs. The fact that he is a good run blocker and a decent pass blocker, and gives effort all the time, should make Luke very appealing to almost every team in the NFL. Tall Tight Ends usually struggle to run the easy routes and are not very good blockers because they lose leverage. Those issues make those Tight Ends useless because defenses can anticipate them running deep routes, and can shut them down. Because Luke is a good blocker he can either block or pretend to block, and then sneak out into the flat late to make the yardage needed to move the chains minimizing his lack of short-route abilities. Add to that his big play ability down the field, in the passing game because he is tall, a long strider, with long arms and a good catch radius, and now you have a productive and potential impact Tight End and it’s all because he blocks and not because he can run fast and catch the ball. Think about it.
