Tight ends historically face a tough transition to the NFL and find it difficult to leave their mark as a rookie.
In 2022, Chigoziem Okonkwo was the leading rookie tight end in terms of receiving yards. He had just 450.
While Kyle Pitts had over 1,000 yards in his first NFL season, he was viewed as a generational talent at the position. In 2020, Cole Kmet led rookie tight ends with 243 yards.
But there are reasons to believe Green Bay’s Luke Musgrave could have a quick impact on the Packers offense.
This may sound counter intuitive, since Musgrave didn’t even put up big numbers in college. His season-high receiving yards total was 304 at Oregon State. He never caught more than 22 passes in a season and had just two touchdowns across his entire college career.
But this may have been quite different had Musgrave been healthy in his final year. His 169 yards and one touchdown on 11 catches came in just two games before injury ruled him out for the year.
Had he played a full season, Musgrave may well have exploded and been coveted well above the second round, where the Packers selected him. The college production isn’t indicative of Musgrave’s talent.
There can be hope Musgrave will quickly pick up Green Bay’s offense, too. At least quickly for a rookie, anyway.
When asked at rookie minicamp what it’s been like getting adjusted to his new NFL playbook, Musgrave said: “It’s been good, I really like it. It’s fairly similar to my college playbook with the pro-style offense.
“Obviously it’s a little different, getting to know the terminology and understand the route concepts.”
Much has been made about Musgrave’s lack of ability as a blocker, a key part of playing the tight end position, but this has been somewhat overblown.
Musgrave isn’t built like Marcedes Lewis. He’s a tall glass of water and is more built for speed than power.
His blocking lacks some oomph and will never be the most natural part of his game, but he blocks with effort and was asked to do it a lot in college. You weren’t getting on the field at Oregon State if you didn’t block.
In his truncated final college season, Musgrave’s run blocking grade from PFF was 54.3. Not spectacular by any means, but not disastrous.
The hope, or even expectation will be that with an off-season of NFL coaching under his belt, his blocking will be good enough to get him on the field.
Even if he does struggle in that area initially, there is still a place for Musgrave in obvious pass situations as a pure receiving threat. He has rare speed and presents a matchup problem for defenses.
On day one of OTAs, Musgrave was the first tight end to get reps with the first team, which may point to where the Packers think he is, even this early in the off-season.
If the Packers want to keep Josiah Deguara in a primarily H-back role, they need Musgrave and fellow rookie Tucker Kraft to hit the ground running to avoid Tyler Davis being the opening day starter.
A lot will happen between now and then, but there are some early indicators that Musgrave is on the right track.
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