When talking about draft prospects, sometimes you will hear them compared to current NFL players. During a recent episode of the Ross Tucker Football Podcast, NFL Matchup executive producer and well-known draftnik, Greg Cosell, talked about the tight ends in this year’s draft class and said he thinks one of them compares to Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Heath Miller.
“I thought that this kid out of Georgia named Arthur Lynch, and again, I’m just giving an example so people can get a sense, I don’t think he’s as good as this player, but I think that there’re similarities to a Heath Miller, in that he’s a combination blocker, receiver,” said Cosell. I wouldn’t put him at Heath Miller’s level right now, Heath Miller was a first-round pick as I recall when he came out of Virginia. Arthur Lynch will not be a first-round pick out of Georgia, but I think his skill set is reminiscent of that.”
Lynch, who will turn 24 in June, started 26 games during his career at Georgia and caught 56 passes for 970 yards and eight touchdowns during that span. Five of those touchdowns came inside the red zone, in case your curious.
While he certainly resembles Miller as far as height, weight and build go, Lynch doesn’t appear to have as long of arms as the Steelers longtime tight end. In addition, he doesn’t get up the field as quick as Miller did in his younger days. His straight-line speed is OK, but not great.
When you look at Lynch on tape, you can also see that his blocking needs a lot of work. Often times he will get over-extended and he appears to slide off blocks at times way too easy. In addition, he will let defensive ends get their arms into his chest more often than what you would like to see. He is strong, however, and he showed that by doing 28 reps on the bench at the combine.
Depending on what you read, Lynch will likely be drafted either in the fourth or fifth round come May as most have him as the sixth or seventh best tight end in the class. The Steelers could certainly use another tight end this year to groom, so if they pass up Eric Ebron in round one, you would have to think Lynch would be a possibility in the middle of round four or five.
Below are some game cutups of Lynch from last season.
