STRENGTHS
Cole is a smooth-running athlete. He shows on film good hand/eye coordination to catch passes and the athleticism to adjust to the ball in the air. Cole does a good job helping out when pass blocking and shows just enough lateral agility that in the future should help him running his routes and, with gaining run after the catch yardage. Cole has good feet and although he doesn’t explode off the line of scrimmage and into his routes, he has this smooth style of closing the cushion between him and his defender making it difficult to anticipate when Cole is going to make his cut and separate. Cole has enough size to be used as an in-line blocker and enough athleticism to be used to block in space also. Cole is a developmental player at this point in his career but that development should be well worth the effort by the team that selects him.
CONCERNS
Cole might be coming out too early. He lacks the bulk, strength, and balance to be much use blocking on the line or in space right now. He also still has to learn to run better routes and he is just discovering his ability to catch the ball that’s away from his body, he seems surprised when it happens right now. Cole has the size, hand/eye coordination and overall athleticism to improve, and has shown that improvement in every game he has played for his college team this year.
BOTTOM LINE 4.28
Cole is not even close to being ready for the NFL but he does have the talent and seems to have the ability to improve from game to game. In my opinion, he still has a lot of improvement to do at the college level much less being ready for the NFL level. His techniques in helping out with pass blocking are the best part of his game right now. Cole gets open when he runs routes because he gets lost in coverage and is not considered a threat enough to game plan for. He doesn’t understand how to run routes and separate or use his size to defeat players who are faster and better than he is right now. He is off-balanced when blocking and lacks functional strength, to block when lined up on the line and as far as blocking in space, seems to struggle to change directions and drive block and finish and stay with his blocks. He also seems to lack the true passion to block although that could be because he is frustrated with himself knowing he is not using the correct techniques. So, with the information I have in front of me along with film work, I believe Cole is a developmental Tight End who, with good coaching and hard work on his part is one of the few Tight Ends in this draft who could develop into a complete Tight End for the team that selects him. I believe he can become, a good inline blocker with pass-catching talent very much in the style of Jason Witten. The problem is I think it will take his first contract before we see this type of development and that means for me, I would let someone else do all the work and see where he is after that first contract is up.
