Bengals' unfortunate need at tight end can be filled in 2025 NFL Draft with recent college all-star game standout
The Cincinnati Bengals came very close to solving the tight end position. Erick All Jr. looked like the guy to build the room around during the first nine games of his rookie season. All and Drew Sample provided a good base of inline blockers with Mike Gesicki and Tanner Hudson filling in as primarily big-slot […]
The Cincinnati Bengals came very close to solving the tight end position. Erick All Jr. looked like the guy to build the room around during the first nine games of his rookie season. All and Drew Sample provided a good base of inline blockers with Mike Gesicki and Tanner Hudson filling in as primarily big-slot receivers, but All emerged as the main centerpiece to the operation. Now he's sidelined until 2026 at the earliest and no one knows for sure if he'll ever be the same player he so briefly was.
Gesicki and Hudson are impending free agents. Sample is still here along with Cam Grandy, who filled in admirably for All but is still fairly limited as a weapon in the passing game and Tanner McLachlan, who played five snaps and it turning 26 in a month. Tight end is undoubtedly a need for the Bengals with All out for the foreseeable future.
How will Cincinnati go about replacing him? The club never prioritizes the position in free agency, so the NFL Draft is the best guess, and both All and McLachlan were Day 3 picks. That's the likely route with defense and guard being the main priorities this offseason.
As we continue to scour the 2025 draft class for sleeper prospects, checking several boxes is tough to do at tight end the further you go down the list. Someone managed to do that anyways.
Texas Tech TE Jalin Conyers can help stabilize the Bengals' tight end room again
The Texas panhandle is where the pre-NFL story of Conyers starts, and it ends not too far from there. He excelled in football, basketball, track and field, and even golf for Gruver High School, eventually becoming a four-star recruit and one of the very best tight end recruits in the class of 2020. He landed on Oklahoma but never played a snap for the Sooners, transferring to Arizona State in the spring of 2021.
Conyers played immediately for the Sun Devils and caught one touchdown pass that season from future NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Jayden Daniels. 2022 was his best year in Tempe, hauling in the most receiving yards by a tight end for the program in nine years (411) and forced a nation's-best 21 missed tackles for the position. He spent one more year at ASU before transferring one last time back closer to home for Texas Tech. He found the end zone five times while being used in the slot (55.9% per Pro Football Focus) the most in his four-year collegiate run.
Even in Conyer's best season, he wasn't a full-time starter. Going through three different programs and never being a main focal point of the offense may have NFL teams using that against him when setting their boards. As of this posting, his consensus board ranking (much love to @nangleberger on X/Twitter) puts him at No. 277 in this class with some outlets ranking him near the range of a late Day 3 selection. A phenomenal week at the NFL Scouting Combine would do wonders for his draft stock, because he's behind several tight ends as of now.
Numbers to know for Jalin Conyers
Shrine Bowl Measurements:
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 263
Arm: 33.625"
Hand: 9.5"
Conyers, an East-West Shrine Bowl standout, measured in slightly shorter than his listed height of 6'4", but his career production matters more than one inch off the top of his head. 1.72 yards per route run after four years is one of the top marks for this tight end class. Per the fellas who operate Gridiron Grading, a career average above 1.6 is indicative of starting potential in the NFL.
80.1 run blocking grade on 165 snaps in 2024: Conyers' 165 run blocking snaps for the Red Raiders was more than he had in any season he played for the Sun Devils, and he ended 2024 as PFF's highest-graded tight end for run blocking in the Big 12. His best grade before last year was 56.7 when he was a redshirt freshman in 2021, so this jump right before leaping to the NFL is great to see. It should also be noted his most productive receiving season in 2022 when he averaged 2.13 yards per route run featured him taking more passing snaps as an inline player (99) as opposed to the slot (89). He's used to all kinds of alignments, even in the backfield as a ballcarrier.
Jalin Conyers film spark notes
Yes, that first clip is Conyers keeping a read option for 39 yards at Arizona State. He's athletic enough to warrant giving him the ball in creative ways while also having the natural leverage and lower leg drive to execute drive blocks in the run game. He also made a habit of snagging back-shoulder catches and in general has quality concentration when catching over the middle. He should test fine in Indianapolis and look good doing so.
The Bengals probably weren't expecting to draft another tight end after picking two last year, but that's the situation they're in. This class has plenty of intriguing options from two first-round locks, several Senior Bowl standouts, and guys like Conyers to round out the group. He should be looked at as a likely route when projecting how Cincinnati will address this problem.
Before the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine, we'll go over one sleeper player at each position of need for the Bengals. Read up on Kansas OT Logan Brown, Oregon NT Jamaree Caldwell, and check back to A to Z Sports Cincinnati this week for the latest installments.
Bengals should hope a true underdog defensive tackle in the 2025 NFL Draft stays well under the radar
From community college to the top-ranked FBS program, he’s seen it all.
