Notre Dame tight end Michael Mayer could become the first player at his position to come off the draft board when the Green Bay Packers make their first-round pick at No. 15 overall on Thursday night.
Albert Breer of SI.com connected Mayer, whom he calls the “draft’s best two-way tight end,” with the Packers in the first round.
“In a really good tight end year, this could be where the first one comes off the board,” Breer wrote Monday. “And while Utah’s Dalton Kincaid has generated the most buzz, the name I’ve heard here the most is the draft’s best two-way tight end: Notre Dame’s Michael Mayer.”
Breer pointed to Mayer’s versatility, experience and intangibles as reasons why the Packers would use the No. 15 overall pick on the Notre Dame star.
The team’s need at tight end is clear and obvious. Gone is Robert Tonyan, the team’s receptions leader at the position last season, and veteran blocker Marcedes Lewis remains unsigned. The departure of both leaves behind a gigantic hole at a key position in both the passing game and run game.
Currently, the depth chart at tight end features only Josiah Deguara, Tyler Davis, Austin Allen and Nick Guggemos. Deguara is mostly an H-back, and Davis played under 200 snaps on offense last season. Allen and Guggemos have never been on a 53-man roster.
In Mayer, the Packers would be getting a player who produced at a high rate as a receiver for Notre Dame and is big enough and experienced enough as a blocker to play inline early in his NFL career. General manager Brian Gutekunst could see him as a plug-and-play, Day 1 starter at tight end and an important part of building weapons around first-year starting quarterback Jordan Love.
Mayer caught 180 passes for 2,099 yards and 18 touchdowns over 36 games and three seasons at Notre Dame. Still only 21 years old, Mayer led the team in receptions as a true freshman and eventually entered the draft after his junior season.
Breer did admit Mayer in the first half of the first round could be a bit of a reach. It’s possible the Packers could target Mayer in the first round while also trading back from No. 15, providing more capital in later rounds and still getting Mayer at a more appropriate spot in the second half of the first round.
The Packers hosted a pre-draft visit with Mayer earlier this month.
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