Making three predictions for Auburn tight ends

The summer offseason is in full swing, and Auburn Live is trying to survive it with our Position Week breakdowns. By the time all eight units (QB, RB, OL, WR, DT, Edge, LB, DBs) at Auburn have been covered, media days will have passed, training camp will have arrived, and the return of football inside Jordan-Hare Stadium will be just around the corner. We’re rolling out our positional weeks with the second group up: the Auburn tight ends.

AUBURN — The tight end room for Auburn football is once again one of the deepest and most talented position groups on the team. Gone is record-breaker John Samuel Shenker, who caught 68 career catches (school record) and finished second in career yards by a tight end with 779. He also played 62 career games, another school record. But the Tigers are possibly better at the position entering the summer, even without Shenker, with five more than capable scholarship players.

Tyler Fromm, Luke Deal and Brandon Frazier all return with tons of experience. Micah Riley-Ducker enters his second season hoping to break through. Then, there’s Florida International transfer Rivaldo Fairweather, who is the most talented player in the room and has legitimate NFL potential.

New Tigers’ offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery said of the position group this spring, “I’ve been impressed with our tight ends here. All of those guys have aded different layers. To be able to maneuver into different sets — it’s a huge advantage for us. We have the skill set in the room to take advantage of that opportunity. We’re using that in what we’re doing. They are going a good job of understand the offense and understanding what it is.”

Looking back, this appears to be the deepest and most talented tight ends room for Auburn football over the last 20 years. Cooper Wallace and Cole Bennett were solid in 2004 and 2005. Gabe McKenzie and Tommy Trott provided the Tigers two quality tight ends in 2006 and 2007. Then the Gus Malzahn era started and the tight ends were basically non-existent for years outside of Philip Lutzenkirchen and CJ Uzomah.

Mapping out the Auburn TEs careers, so far

Projecting the TE depth chart

Auburn Live is continuing its second position week of the summer by making three predictions for the Tigers’ tight ends.

Prediction No. 1: Rivaldo Fairweather will threaten the single-season TE touchdown record

The current single-season receiving records for tight ends are 33 catches and 413 yards, both set by Shenker during the 2021 season. Shenker was able to produce those numbers because of an overall lack of receiving talent on that Auburn team. Fairweather threatening those numbers might be tough with seemingly more weapons to choose, the single-season touchdown record is an interesting one. Lutzenkirchen caught seven touchdowns during the 2011 season on 24 grabs. Even if Fairweather is still a tad raw, and even if he’s still finding his way in this offense, designed and intentional redzone opportunities for Fairweather will be on the mind of Hugh Freeze and Philip Montgomery. Seven touchdowns for a player with the size and abilities of Fairweather seems doable, but some of that will depend on the development of the other receivers and obviously, the amount of redzone opportunities the Auburn offense can create.

Prediction No. 2: All five tight ends will play 50+ snaps

Last season, the snap breakdowns in 12 games were as follows: Shenker played 666 snaps, Deal played 371, Fromm played 124, Frazier played 42 and Riley-Ducker played 15. So, we’re talking about eight more snaps for Frazier and 35 more snaps for Riley-Ducker. Riley-Ducker is more experienced and should garner more playing time, especially in a more pass-friendly offense. Deal, Fromm and Frazier should all still fill similar roles as the past two seasons, then insert Fairweather. It doesn’t seem likely that any one tight end will play 666 snaps at the tight end position, so there should be more balance in terms of snaps. Fairweather, Deal and Fromm will garner most of the snaps, but the opportunity for Frazier and Riley-Ducker to play at least five snaps per game seems doable.

Prediction No. 3: Fairweather positions himself as NFL Draft choice after solid season

Fairweather will enter his fourth season of college football this fall after playing three seasons at Florida International. Browsing some early 2023 NFL Draft position rankings, Fairweather isn’t listed among the top 15 tight ends or so nationally, but with just one breakout season at FIU before transferring to Auburn, that makes sense. It will take a breakout season from Fairweather to land on the radar of NFL teams, but it’s entirely possible given his size, athletic ability, and ceiling after only playing organized for football for about five years now. There were 19 tight ends drafted in the 2022 NFL Draft. The prediction is that Fairweather will be considered one of the top 19 tight ends available to be drafted by season’s end. Auburn’s only had seven tight ends drafted all time, but only one in the last 30 years. That was Uzomah in 2015.

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