On Saturday, the Pittsburgh Steelers selected Penn State tight end Jesse James in the fifth-round of the 2015 NFL Draft and after the pick was made, tight end coach James Daniel was asked to talk about the strengths of his newest player.
“He’s a guy with great length. He’s 6-7, 267-pounds, said Daniel. “He has natural strength to be able to handle the line of scrimmage. He wasn’t used a lot as a receiver, so we can see some intermediate short catching and maybe a couple of deep balls. But he has good play-strength to block the line of scrimmage, so we feel good about all phases of his game.”
Even though James wasn’t used a lot as a receiver at Penn State, Daniel said he believes his new tight end might be able to become a complete player with the Steelers.
“The evaluation that I did on him, you see him catching balls,” said Daniel. “He made a coupe of tough catches, so it’s a lot like you do with a lot of guys, you see them and when a guy hasn’t been in a situation a lot, it’s hard to say that he’s definitely going to be this, or definitely going to be that. But you don’t see anything that says he’s not going to be a receiver. So we’re going to bring him in and work him and see and hope he’s good in all phases of the game, because he has enough talent to be good in all phases of the game, I think.”
Daniel was later asked if James could potentially be a red zone threat for the Steelers.
“I would think he’d be a real good red zone threat. The guy is 6-7 and should be a red zone threat,” he said.
