Because the Bucs look to doubtlessly add to a younger tight finish room by means of the NFL Draft later this month, they’re set to host one on a pre-draft go to. Tampa Bay is on the listing of visits for Michigan’s Luke Schoonmaker, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported Monday night time.
The 6-foot-5, 251-pound Schoonmaker is Pro Football Focus’ No. 7 tight end on this yr’s class, with an overall big board rating of No. 96. That locations him within the late third-round to early fourth-round dialog. The Draft Community’s Damian Parson gives him a third-round grade.
Schoonmaker posted 35 catches for 418 yards and three touchdowns for the Wolverines in 2022 after totaling 17 catches for 165 yards and three scores in 2021. He has useful quickness and stable fingers, and he’s a plus blocker. There’s room for him to develop in each phases of his sport, however he turned some heads on the NFL Scouting Mix by outperforming expectations athletically. His 4.63-second 40-yard sprint was fifth-best amongst tight ends, whereas his 10-foot-7-inch broad leap was second-best on the place. He additionally had the fourth-best 20-yard shuttle at 4.27 seconds.
Bucs Add One other To Rising Checklist Of Potential Tight Finish Targets
Michigan TE Luke Schoonmaker Picture By: USA Right now
The Bucs definitely have the tight finish place on their radar, and rightfully so given how deep the 2023 class is. A starting-caliber tight finish can doubtless be had as late because the second half of day three, although Schoonmaker is prone to be lengthy passed by then.
Tampa Bay has a giant want at tight finish, because it parted methods with veteran mainstay Cameron Brate in a cap-cutting transfer final month. Kyle Rudolph, one other veteran, received’t return after spending most of 2022 as a gameday inactive.
Because of this, the Bucs have a skinny (and younger) tight finish room in the mean time. The group contains 2022 fourth-round decide Cade Otton and 2022 sixth-rounder Ko Kieft, in addition to Dominique Dafney – who signed a futures contract with the workforce again in January – and David Wells – who was on the observe squad final yr. Dafney and Wells are clearly unknowns, whereas Kieft is extra of a blocker than he’s a pass-catching menace. That leaves solely Otton, who posted 42 catches for 391 yards and two massive touchdowns in his debut season, as a bonafide tight finish weapon for the Bucs’ new quarterback, whether or not that’s Baker Mayfield or Kyle Trask.
Tight finish could possibly be a Day 2 want for the Bucs. They didn’t speak with Schoonmaker at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, however they did have formal interviews with Notre Dame’s Michael Mayer, South Dakota State’s Tucker Kraft, Oregon State’s Luke Musgrave, Iowa’s Sam LaPorta, Utah’s Dalton Kincaid, Purdue’s Payne Durham and Cincinnati’s Josh Whyle.
Tampa Bay additionally held casual interviews with Cincinnati’s Leonard Taylor, Alabama’s Cameron Latu, North Dakota State’s Noah Gindorff, Previous Dominion’s Zack Kuntz, Nebraska’s Travis Vokolek, Air Drive’s Kyle Patterson and Oklahoma’s Brayden Willis.
Whereas the Bucs might have larger wants at offensive deal with, edge rusher and security, it wouldn’t be a shock in any respect to see them come away with at the least one in every of these tight ends throughout the last weekend of April.
