Bob McGinn and Tyler Dunne have been churning out info-packed draft prospect rundowns in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel over the past several days. McGinn is tight with a large number of league evaluators, and gets them to talk about players leading up to the draft. Some conversations are on the record, others off. Some reviews from the scouts are negative, and others are positive.
When reading the Journal-Sentinel‘s tight end rundown, one scout’s observations regarding Stanford tight end Coby Fleener caught our eye.
“He wasn’t even the best tight end on their team,” the scout said. “No. 11 [sophomore Levine Toilolo], that’s the real deal. [Fleener] might be the most overrated guy in the draft. He’s awful as a blocker.”
Blocking isn’t a strength of Fleener’s, and that’s pretty well known. But the scout also expressed skepticism about Fleener’s athleticism, which generated buzz at Stanford’s March 22 Pro Day.
“Despite his workout numbers he’s not really a quick-twitch, dymamic-moving guy. He’s a straight-line, build-up player,” the scout explained. “All these reports about him being an athlete and this and that, they’re assuming that because he ran fast. He’s really just a red-zone, jump-ball player.”