The Green Bay Packers are in good shape at the tight end position, but Kansas State’s Ben Sinnott could fill the do-it-all H-back role in the Matt LaFleur offense.
You name it, and Sinnott did it for the Kansas State offense. Last season alone, Sinnott saw snaps out of the backfield, in-line as a traditional tight end, in the slot, and even on the boundary as a receiver.
Sinnott has played 1,754 career snaps, most of which came in the last two seasons. As a pass-catcher during that span, Sinnott caught 66 percent of his 119 targets at an impressive 14.2 yards per catch with 10 touchdowns.
This past season specifically, Sinnott ranked ninth among all tight ends in yards per route run, an efficiency metric from PFF, and 32nd in average yards after the catch. He was also one of PFF’s higher-graded run and pass-blockers at the tight end position.
“Kansas State moved him around a ton,” said Brennen Rupp of Packers Wire. He’s a versatile weapon. He’s a very good blocker and equally effective as a pass catcher. He can look like a battering ram as a run blocker. He has natural hands, and Kansas State used him on tight end screens. I really think if the Packers use another pick on a tight end, it will be Sinnott. He’s a complete tight end who could help improve their rushing attack while also giving Love another weapon.”
Sinnott is an excellent athlete. He measures in at 6-3 and 250 pounds and posted a near-perfect Relative Athletic Score (RAS) at the NFL Scouting Combine of 9.72. For some context, Luke Musgrave posted a RAS of 9.78 and Tucker Kraft 9.58 last draft cycle.
Jim Nagy, the Executive Director of the Reese’s Senior Bowl, would point out that Sinnott had the highest vertical, longest broad jump, and fastest three-cone of any tight end at the Combine.
With Sinnott’s versatility, he could really fill just about any role that LaFleur would need, but immediately, he slots into that H-back role with Josiah Deguara having signed with Jacksonville but brings a more dynamic presence to the position.
The H-back is often asked to block, but this player has to be able to impact the passing game as well, and needs to be versatile, and able to be moved around the formation.
This element contributes to what LaFleur calls the ‘illusion of complexity,’ which, in short, means keeping defenses off-balance and guessing. Because this player can fill a variety of roles, it makes it more difficult pre-snap for opponents to get a beat on what the offense is doing, helping to create confusion and mismatches to exploit–especially when there is playmaking potential at the position.
Henry Pearson, a 2023 undrafted rookie, who spent most of last season on the practice squad, is a player already on the Packers’ roster who could fill this H-back role as well. I’ve also brought up the idea of Tyler Davis seeing some snaps in this capacity as well during training camp.
Sinnott is currently PFF’s fifth-ranked tight end, in admittedly what is not a very strong class, and is listed as the 141st prospect overall. Depending on where you look, Pro Football Network says that Sinnott could be a mid to late Day 2 pick, while NFL.com has him as a Day 3 selection.