Where will Jelani Woods land in the 2022 NFL Draft? Sky Sports’ Cameron Hogwood explores Virginia’s tight end and why it requires so much attention
Everyone is looking at Jelani Woods, albeit unintentionally. He is the sky-high beacon that catches the eye on the football field and one of the toughest but harrowing assessments teams face ahead of the 2022 NFL Draft.
The Virginia tight end is a raw, unfinished product that is not only still considered new to the tight end, but the new type of tight end it wants to be. Add to that a sporting record that collectively claims to be the best in the modern era and it amounts to a unique coaching project. One that is difficult to convey, one that saw him project as high as he did in the second round.
On the surface, he represents the phenomenon that makes football interesting, and a harsh assessment that should perhaps be anything but harsh given the traits you would put into your creation of a Madden player.
The NFL has hardly been blessed with their 6’7″ 260-pound tight ends capable of rushing 40 yards at 4.61 in unison with a 20-yard shuttle at 4.33 and a three-cone pull at 6.95 and a vertical jump of 37.5 inches, the last three of which are all better than the Atlanta Falcons admired by Kyle Pitts. So comparisons are lacking, which perhaps helps him to partially allay concerns about a difficult-to-predict transition.
Martellus Bennett and Demetrius Harris are very similar, while Mike Gesicki’s measurements, Jimmy Graham’s redzone threat, and Mo Ali-Cox’s verticality and blocking experience are more recent but still minor examples to exchange notes with when it comes to Woods.
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Their interest is twofold. First, the Super Soldier serum-like physique and athleticism, and second, the fact that Woods was one of the top 25 quarterbacks in the country in high school before moving to the tight end when he arrived in Oklahoma State.
Even then, he only threw 31 catches for 361 yards and four touchdowns in 22 games over the next three seasons as Mike Gandy used his size primarily as a blocker. Eventually, Woods moved to Virginia ahead of last season to establish himself as a tight end in trail running, eclipsing his career in one year with 44 receptions for 598 yards and eight touchdowns with 13.6 yards per catch in 11 games. The NFL was on the lookout.
Modern tight end appreciation aims to distinguish between a “big receiver” form that can wrap around a junction or play Y-patterns or dominate with quick outs and crossers, and line of scrimmage drifters who can rumble rushers from a quarterback. in Wham concepts, linear block and furrows in space. If you can do both, great. But nowadays it’s not uncommon to find an oversized receiver listed in the tight end and with relaxed blocking duties.
Woods has a film that confirms much of this, although the limited sample size of the resulting output raises the question of to what extent. The challenge for the teams is how they interpret just one season of running routes, how they understand what it is exactly, and how they envision what it can become, what it should become.
