Isaac

Nauta

It is Detroit’s second tight-end addition this weekend after they drafted T.J. Hockenson with the No. 8 overall pick. Nauta (6’3/241) turned pro as a true junior after making 27 starts for the Bulldogs, recording a career 68/905/8 (13.3 YPR) receiving line and securing 30-of-31 catchable targets in 2018. A solid college starter who will likely struggle in his NFL transition, Nauta was exposed as a fringe athlete at the Combine with a 4.91 forty, 28-inch vertical, and 7.45 three-cone time, amounting to fifth-percentile SPARQ results. An undersized H-back type, Nauta would do well to earn an extended big-league stay.

UCLA’s Caleb Wilson takes his spot at No. 5, and it’s easy to see why. Wilson was much faster at the NFL Scouting Combine, but he also had 545 more yards than Nauta (6'3/244). If Nauta was to have a successful NFL career as a receiving tight end, he would be a complete outlier, so we’d be surprised to see him as a Day 2 selection.

Yikes. Nauta (6'3/244) was considered a sleeper by many coming into Indianapolis. We’re not sure many will still feel that way after these scores. The 4.91 second 40-yard dash is awful, and his 28-inch vertical shows there not much explosiveness here, either. Nauta is a quality blocker, so that should get him drafted, but it’s almost assuredly going to be as a late-round selection at this point.

Nauta (6'3/244) was the most disappointing tight end relative to his expectations. His weight-adjusted speed score of 84.0 puts him close to NFL team’s athletic minimums for a Day 2 player, so he’s going to need to improve his time at his Pro Day, which just became much more important. Most draft analysts were upset that Nauta wasn’t targeted frequently at Georgia, but today’s athleticism may be the reason why he only saw 27 targets in 2018. NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah called Nauta a “cradle catcher” to make matters worse.

Nauta (6'4/240) wasn’t utilized as a receiver at Georgia with “too many mouths to feed” but that hasn’t prevented analysts from setting high expectations for a Day 2/3 tight end prospect. While we aren’t sure if Nauta has that high of a ceiling -- Daniel Jeremiah called Nauta a “cradle catcher” -- we are cautiously optimistic that Nauta can carve out a role in an NFL offense.

Nauta (6'4/240) is coming off a year where he caught 30 passes for 438 yards and three scores, and seems to be one of the more polarizing players at the position in scouting circles. Crabbs notes that he likes him “a lot,” but he does have questions about his athleticism, and as he also notes, this tight end class is loaded with quality players at the position. Because he’s seen as a quality blocker he appears to have an established Day 3 floor, but he’s going to need to show he can compete athletically if hes going to move up to Day 2.

Nauta (6'4/240) is one of the more polarizing tight end prospects in the class because of a discrepancy between his talent and on-field production. However, this is the case for a lot of tight ends entering the draft because college teams tend to not use tight ends heavily as receivers. During his junior year, Nauta posted a 30-430-3 receiving line on just 35 targets. His 12.3 yards per target are the most out of the 21 NFL Combine-invited tight ends, but his 2.1 receptions per game were just 18th. If Nauta tests well at the NFL Combine, then he’s looking at a Day 2 selection.

Nauta was a solid -- if not spectacular -- contributor for the Bulldogs in 2018; hauling in 30 receptions for 430 yards with three touchdowns. The 6-foot-4, 240-pound tight end showed huge promise as a freshman, but never quite lived up to that hype. Some of that could have to do with Georgia’s offensive scheme, and it’s certainly possible the tight end profiles better as a pro than as a collegiate player. Nauta didn’t rank in Mel Kiper’s top 10 tight ends to end the year, and at this point, he projects as a late-round selection.

Nauta (6'4/240) came through with a few big catches in UGA’s near-win on Saturday, including a 20-yard touchdown grab to open the game’s scoring in the first quarter. The junior tight end has now put together a 29-427-3 receiving line across 13 games played. He has the athletic talent to make things happen, but hasn’t been an extremely active factor in Georgia’s game plans for most of his career in Athens.

Fellow TE Jackson Harris also had a big day, hauling in seven passes for 53 yards. By the end of the event, tight ends had caught 15 of the 51 passes (29.4 percent) thrown by quarterbacks. “Judging by G-Day, Jim Chaney’s reputation of having a tight end friendly offense will continue at Georgia,” Jason Butt of the Telegraph wrote. Last season, the Bulldogs only distributed 14.1 percent of its passes to tight ends. The 6-foot-4, 237-pound Nauta is the highest-rated incoming TE in the entire nation.