Georgia football is getting tight ends, now they need to use them

Georgia football has long been known as running back U, but the nations top tight ends are also coming to Athens consistently.

If you’ve kept up Georgia football recruiting at all over the past several years, you’d know that the Bulldogs have signed some of the best tight ends to come out of high school. Staring with Jeb Blazevich in 2014, Georgia has signed a top four tight end in four of the last five classes.

Blazevich was the no. 3 tight end in 2014 according to 247 Sports. They ranked Jackson Harris no. 4 in 2015, Isaac Nauta no. 1 in 2016, and Luke Ford no. 3 in 2018. It’s clear that the best tight ends in America want to come to Georgia.

And why wouldn’t they? Georgia football has produced several NFL tight ends. Randy McMicheal and Ben Watson both enjoyed long, successful NFL careers. While Jermaine Wiggins, Martrez Milner and Leonard Pope all spent a few years in the NFL. Orson Charles and Arthur Lynch were also drafted into the league.

Georgia is successfully bringing the tight ends to Athens. Lately however, they haven’t exactly been using them to their potential. None of Georgia’s four tight ends rode the bench in 2017, but coaches only used them as sixth and seventh offensive linemen. The tight ends only caught 22 passes for 245 yards and two touchdowns.

As a senior, Blazevich only caught two passes for 19 yards. A far cry from his freshman season when he caught 18 passes for 269 yards and two touchdowns. Harris is going into his senior year. He only has seven career catches for 67 yards, and he’s yet to score a touchdown. Nauta caught 20 less passes in 2017 than he did in 2016. Charlie Woerner is the only tight end whose stats improved in 2017.

Georgia is making sure each tight end gets on the field. We every seldom use formations without a tight end. Some games, coaches use two tight end formations more than single tight ends. And with enough film of them excelling as blockers, NFL teams will still draft Georgia’s tight ends.

But a lot of teams are going to want receiving tight ends. And the top tight end prospects in the country want to catch the ball. They didn’t earn that ranking to be an extra offensive lineman.

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Georgia has a good thing going with tight ends. The no. 6 tight end in the 2019 class, Ryland Goede is already committed to Georgia. But if the Bulldogs don’t start utilizing the tight ends to their potential, we could see these kids commit to other schools. The last thing we need is for those players to go to Florida, Auburn, Tennessee or elsewhere in the SEC.