NFL Draft 2023: The Seahawks Need Nobody Is Talking About: Tight End (Michael Mayer)
The Seahawks use multiple tight ends more than most of the NFL. The Seahawks have a growing need at the position. The Seahawks should be proactive and draft a TE from the talented 2023 class!
Tight end wouldn’t be first on your list of Seahawks offseason objectives. But this article isn’t just an excuse to write about Michael Mayer—that’s a definite bonus by the way. No, personal desires aside, Seattle does have a sneaky need at the position. Here’s the pitch:
The Pitch
The 2023 tight end draft class is highly rated. And unlike the Seahawks’ current inside linebacker crisis, the result of a 2022 decision to sign a low-cost free agent inside linebacker rather than delving into a well-stocked draft, Seattle should instead get ahead of the creeping necessity at tight end and be proactive.
Will Dissly is returning from an injury described by Pete Carroll as “unique”. This is not Dissly’s first injury in the NFL. He turns 27 in July. He is a solid starter when healthy, the do-it-all guy with some athletic limitations.
Noah Fant, a much superior tester to Dissly, was somewhat disappointing in his maiden Seattle season. Acquired in the blockbuster Russell Wilson trade and coveted by the Seahawks since leaving Iowa, Fant will play 2023 on the fifth-year option Seattle took up. Perhaps Geno Smith’s narrow misses to Fant will be converted in a consecutive year working together. At present, though, it’s tricky to financially justify retaining Fant. He was only a cog, nothing close to a tight end #1.
Colby Parkinson, meanwhile, is entering the last year of his rookie deal. While the young, 6-foot-7 tower has improved his in-line run blocking since entering the league, Parkinson is still a fringe role player with the strong whiff of you-replace-this-guy-in-the-draft.
The Seahawks could do with some tight end replenishment, because the Seahawks love tight ends! Per Sports Info Solutions, they used 12 personnel—1 running back, 2 tight end sets—on 27% of their offensive snaps, the fifth-highest total in the league. On top of this, Seattle employed three tight ends in 13 personnel—1 running back, 3 tight ends—on 4% of their snaps, the 11th-highest total league-wide.
Interestingly, on 1st downs, generally the “most-neutral” of situations, the Seahawks were even more extreme to the tight ends: NFELO had Seattle using 12 personnel on 40% of their 1st downs, the highest rate in the league. The Seahawks’ 1st down 13 personnel usage was at 13%, the second-highest percentage.
This trio of TEs combined to serve as a valuable receiving alternative to the vast amount of targets DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett receive. Most important, it was Seattle—and Shane Waldron’s—way of achieving their core offensive goal: tight ends added “balance” to the attack, obfuscating run or pass personnel.
Further, Smith is a quarterback who targets the areas of the field that tight ends traditionally work. Inside the numbers and just outside the NFL hashmarks is what Smith likes. Take a look at Geno’s 2023 heatmap:
Then consider Geno’s highlight throws:
League-wide, the importance of tight ends has been witnessed in the early waves of free agency. Teams have been eager to add talent at the position, because the position is a valuable method for exploiting the current way in which most NFL defenses are constructed.
Michael Mayer, Notre Dame
So now to the aforementioned Michael Mayer. He’s a self-described “meathead.” He is not a glitzy athlete, unlike some of his peers in this class. And he tested only ‘fine’ in Indianapolis, running a 4.7 seconds 40-yard dash time, with a 1.66s 10-yard-split, jumping a below-average 32 ½-inch vertical and a better 118-inch broad.
Mayer, though, is one of the best football players in the draft.
The 22-year-old’s a deadly route runner at all three levels of the defense: short, intermediate, and deep. He’s smart in how he releases, utilizing his lower body and upper body, widening and tightening, making each route look like a vertical until it isn’t. This maximizes the available space, preventing the defender from undercutting, before the break arrives at the exact right moment, also following the timing of each play design.
Mayer’s variety of tools to separate at the top of his routes are tailored for each defender, the tight end reacting and adjusting live to each technique. There’s stutters. There’s dead legs. There’s crafty-enough shoves. There’s chopping wipers. He clearly understands coverages and how to navigate his way past. He’s able to this with suddenness, altering his speeds and wiggle.
Beyond the skill, there is an inherent ‘feel’ and ‘instinct’ to Mayer’s play. The tight end told the “Bussin’ With The Boys” podcast that he grew up wanting to be a college basketball player, not a Notre Dame football star. The basketball-to-tight end comparisons have grown tiresome, but so much of Mayer’s game is that of a creative hooper than a robotic football player. And this crossover, pardon that pun, exists for a reason beyond just height or vertical explosion. It is Mayer’s subtlety which reliably gets him open.
Mayer’s ability and experience blocking, often from an in-line position, means that he could enter the Seahawks’ offense from day 1 and do everything that they ask of their tight ends to a high level. His relatively short arms (31 5/8th-inch long) mean he often has to get right in the grill of guys, but his strong hands and grabbing of pads proves effective.
The mock draft simulators, that favorite 5am activity, have Mayer as a late first round player. We’ve seen how the NFL tends to draft tight ends, particularly the average testing ones, later in the process. Maybe Mayer does last longer than you’d expect? He certainly has first round talent, though. Wherever he’s taken, envisioning what Mayer’s skillset would allow Smith to target is exciting.
Dalton Kincaid, Utah
Dalton Kincaid is some people’s tight end #1. The reason for this is the receiving production the 23-year-old, 24 in October, put up in college, leaving as the active leader in tight end receiving yards. Then there’s how Kincaid wins: his incredible athletic ability is obvious on tape. While he didn’t prove this athleticism at the combine, Kincaid’s March 23rd pro day is sure to create more excited chatter about his NFL ceiling.
He is a special height-weight-speed proposition, with some nuts catches, acrobatics and routes that—although kinda fake in the Utes’ style of offense—showed off serious agility. When he gets the right match up in space, Kincaid will naturally get open. He is also an accomplished ball tracker with high levels of concentration in all manner of traffic and tight windows.
However, Kincaid lacks precision, deftness and detail in his route running.