DRAFT Welcome To New England TE Eli Raridon

[SlowGettingUp]

He can catch too:

 

[Triumph]

I will say... if there is one position i pride myself on having an eye for it is TEs. It is my best position. I pounded the table for Fannin last year when no one cared. I called him a first round talent when all the buzz was about Warren and Colston. And this was EARLY in the process. Fannin looked just as good as either last year but was in a much worse situation. He should have gone in round 1. I stand by that.

Raridon was this years Fannin for me. The dude just clearly has it. It jumps off the screen. IDC about ACL injuries he had years ago. He was young and a young body heals very well. He plays with no brace or restriction or hesitation. I had him as a top 48 pick. I stand by that. We got a steal. He WILL be a good TE in this league. Frankly by year 2 I see him out performing an aging Henry. In year 1 it would not surprise me if he comes on very strong. He will demand snaps more than Hooper did. Frankly he will enter week 1 already better than Hooper. All due respect to the man.

He is not a 1K TE in this league, maybe once or twice. But once he hits his stride i see him having Hunter Henry level production for 10 years.

He is a 800 yards a year TE IMO... that is nothing to sneeze at.

My buddies brother is a diehard NCAA football and Irish fan.

He follows ND religiously. I will get the lowdown on Eli today.

Somewhat related, Knute Rockne perished in a plane crash about 2 hours from where I live and we have plans to drive down there and smoke a cigar. There is a makeshift memorial there.

 

[Wozzy]

He’s tall at 6’6” with a long wingspan, fast, explosive, quick with decent strength. He works hard as a blocker.

In a deep TE class he was a good pick. The two guys I wanted in Roush and Delp were long gone, TE was a massive need. I think they should double up in the back of the draft and take another one.

 

[imahobgoblin]

He’s tall at 6’6” with a long wingspan, fast, explosive, quick with decent strength. He works hard as a blocker.

In a deep TE class he was a good pick. The two guys I wanted in Roush and Delp were long gone, TE was a massive need. I think they should double up in the back of the draft and take another one.

For the millionth time in the last 12 hours, they cannot double dip at TE. Its a total wast of a pick. Henry, Raridon, Hill Gilliam. That is the roster. Any TE pick will be automatically cut or on the PS. We just don't have the room now that we have a FB.

 

[Wozzy]

For the millionth time in the last 12 hours, they cannot double dip at TE. Its a total wast of a pick. Henry, Raridon, Hill Gilliam. That is the roster. Any TE pick will be automatically cut or on the PS. We just don't have the room now that we have a FB.

Is there a rule that says you can’t double dip?

Otherwise stuff it….

 

[BobDigital]

not a draft guru at all, but was the TE class so deep this year that the 9th off the board can
be as good as some here think?

To me him being the 9th TE off the board has more to do with other teams failing to properly rank the tight ends than Raridon not being talented enough. This is a pretty good TE class, but frankly no where near last year which i think had 3 REALLY good prospects. To me this draft had 1 TE everyone agreed on then a large debate about who the #2 was. Raridon was not seen as #2 for a number of reasons by many

1 - Past injury situation - to me this concern is very overblown at this point
2 - Lack of production. Before last year he did pretty much nothing as a pass catcher, but he was healthy prior year. That was big for him. 2 years in a row of 100% health. Last year he had 482 yards and 0 TDs... the 0 TDs thing hurt him badly in evaluations. He had 3 others previously, just none last year. A statistical anomaly that was over blown.
3 - 1 Year of production. This comes back to his injury issues early.

These things made people hesitate on him. But his tape was clearly the 2nd best all around IMO.

There were faster guys (all smaller/lighter) and better blockers. But to me he is the best mix of both, and his lack of production is a strength when you look at his upside and realize he was kept in to block for Love, the best offensive weapon in football. And while love probably helped his YPC... his 15.1 YPC shows just how dangerous he can be. Anyone who did better than his 15.1 Did so with a much smaller sample size.

There were other very good and highly tested TEs in this class who have rare traits and there exist reasons a team could look at them and pick them over Raridon that are coherent. But Raridon has the following things going for him.

1 - He is one of those guys with borderline insane athletic traits.... and the only one who can actually block well. Oscar Delp is his closest comp in this class as being able to block and having insane traits, but the blocking isn't proven yet.
2 - He has not hit his ceiling. As I said, he had health issues in the past which now seem firmly behind him. He has only really been able to learn the position from college coaches for 2 years. His best days are ahead
3 - His agility - Unlike many TEs he took agility test, just to show he had some. It was not elite compared to smaller WRs but for a big guy they were really good and showed he wasn't just a straight line guy. Which is backed up by his tape.
4 - His height is length is rare for the speed traits he has. He doesn't need to win with just speed. He can out body and out reach defenders.

To me he is just the best mix of all good things about this class plus upside cause he has several things he can still improve on.

 

[The Gr8est]

Shows some attitude too.

Really liking this pick.

Chris Bell got picked just before the Pats picked, but Raridon might have been the better pick anyway.

Looks like both Bell and Raridon gave high upside.

 

[The Gr8est]

I was locked in on wanting Delp. Didn't consider Reardon at all.

I guess Delp wasn’t “more than a feeling.”

 

[Uptown]

Extra notables:

 

[The Gr8est]

Crazy thing about Gronk, was he looked faster than 4.68, and was a beast on those seam passes. Also, he played with such strength, rarely did you see him go down from an arm tackle, he would bust right through those.

If Raridon can add 10 pounds of muscle, it’ll help him in the physical part of being an all around TE.

Not all picks work out, but the potential and talent Raridon has makes him such a fantastic pick. The Pats have needed a future pass catching TE since Gronk retired in 2019. And the Pats basically ignored A TON of good TE classes since then.

If Raridon can be Gronk-lite we may get the best TE possible out of this draft.

If he was another Gronk the TJ Wards of the NFL would be targeting his knees.

 

[sb1]

I guess Delp wasn’t “more than a feeling.”

I heard Delp was in a band and his band was so great the state of Mass named a city after it.

True story.

 

[n1997y]

By week 8 he'll be our # 1TE.

Hill might have something to say about that.

 

[imahobgoblin]

Is there a rule that says you can’t double dip?

Otherwise stuff it….

In Wozzy's drunk world, there is no such rule. To be fair, you can't even keep straight who you are replying to let alone understand how a roster works. But reality knows that having 3 TE + a FB + Dippre and Lang on the roster already shows there is no room. Henry, Raridon, Hill, and Gilliam are roster locks. There is no freaking room for another TE pick when we need depth at S, RB, G, RB, WR, CB, and P. We have 5 picks left. Using one on another TE is a waste. We can't fit that man on a roster without cutting one. Grab as many undrafted TE as you want.

 

[rabidfireweasel]

I am eager to watch him play and am rooting for him. However, we should slow down the Gronk comparisons.

People here forget though, what a unicorn Gronk was coming out of college. He was a 3rd team American, first team All PAC 10 as a 19 year old sophomore. He was a consensus projected All American and first round lock, but missed his entire jr year. That is extraordinarily rare- to take a TE that early who has missed the previous season with a back injury.

He was still not quite 21 when he was drafted and still not near 100% or in true football shape. He was much smaller than he would become mass wise, as he was keeping his weight down post back injury. His metrics don’t fully reveal his athleticism.

 

[BobDigital]

I was locked in on wanting Delp. Didn't consider Reardon at all.

I would not have been upset with Delp. He was my 4th TE.

1 - Sadiq
2 - Raridons
3 - Stowers
4 - Delp

From a pure numbers perspective and physical traits. It needs to be said Delp is the best TE in this class from that metric. The reason I had Raridon over Delp is production based. Delp has been healthy since coming into college. Yet has hovered around 260 yards 3 years straight. To me this is a red flag. Where is the jump? Where is the trend? The numbers say he should be absolutely making fools of these college athletes. Why isn't he? Where is the progression?

It is fair to mention Georgia has thrown for less yards every year since his 2nd year... so less air yards to go around. But last year gave me serious pause. There was every reason for that to be his year and step up. It was the Branch show and no #2 to be found. He was a senior. He knew the system. Why didn't it happen?

How does a 245lb TE run a 4.49 and not have more YPC? He averaged 12.2YPC in his college career including his 3 years of bigger production. I know it ticked up a bit last year... but if you are that size and run a 4.49 you should be getting 14+ falling out of bed, particularly with limited reps. Why? This isn't some dump program that didn't know what they had. This is Georgia.

Many will point to some underthrown balls on his highlight reels, and that is fair. I ask, why weren't more passes throw his way, and way was the route tree so limited? This isn't me hating on Delp. This is me explaining why i had the physical phenom lower than Raridon and Stowers.

 

[n1997y]

Add 15 pounds and the entire RAS would be pretty much identical with Gronk's. Not saying this is Gronk 2, but pretty damn good measurables here. And apparently he's a decent blocker.

Needs some more bench press reps. Gronk strong!

 

[n1997y]

If you want to know who the Patriots are drafting day three go get everyone's RAS score. Lomu 19th of over 1600 tackles since 87, Jacas 93rd out of 2200+ edge rushers and Raridon 27th out of 1300+ TEs. Last year's class had a similar theme. Campbell and Lomu are almost identical.

RASMethodology

Creation of the Datasets and source of truth Any comparative metric is only as good as the datset it is pulling from. RAS is no different, but in developing this metric I had to ensure that there w…

ras.football

I went back and watched Raridon and he's way more athletic than I thought and he can definitely block.

Yes I had noticed the consistent ultra high RAS ranking vs positional comps. Agree that seems to be a theme.

 

[n1997y]

Looking forward to this I-formation look the next few years:

- QB: Maye
- WR: AJ Brown
- RB: Henderson
- FB: Gilliam
- TE1: Raridon
- LT: Campbell
- LG: Vera-Tucker
- C: Wilson
- RG: Onwenu/other
- RT: Moses/Lomu
- TE2: Hill

Don’t be surprised if you find you’ve got TE1 and TE2 swapped.

But either way I like it!

 

[Wozzy]

In Wozzy's drunk world, there is no such rule. To be fair, you can't even keep straight who you are replying to let alone understand how a roster works. But reality knows that having 3 TE + a FB + Dippre and Lang on the roster already shows there is no room. Henry, Raridon, Hill, and Gilliam are roster locks. There is no freaking room for another TE pick when we need depth at S, RB, G, RB, WR, CB, and P. We have 5 picks left. Using one on another TE is a waste. We can't fit that man on a roster without cutting one. Grab as many undrafted TE as you want.

They cut a 5th round pick Bradyn Swinson last year after preseason and he reverted to the practice squad. What you think they can’t do, and what they actually can’t do are two completely different things.

Make sure you take your SSRI’s for breakfast in the morning.

 

[n1997y]

Love Football players with Basketball background: Maye can play Fetch go get it.

Agree, love a big guy who can box out.

And don’t forget that Hill, our other new TE, also has a basketball background.