From now until the 2020 NFL Draft takes place, we hope to showcase as many prospects as possible and examine both their strengths and weaknesses. Most of these profiles will feature individuals that the Pittsburgh Steelers are likely to have an interest in, while a few others will be top-ranked players. If there is a player you would like us to analyze, let us know in the comments below.
#89 Charlie Woerner/TE Georgia – 6044/245
Georgia Bio Page
NCAA Career Stats
The Good:
- Nice size tight end size and build
- Good athleticism on display in open field
- Soft hands and catches with them more than with body
- Shows nice ability to catch bad balls thrown high, low or behind him
- Very good perimeter blocker and finisher
- Adequate end-of-the-line and move blocker
- Smart player
- Used all over offense (end-of-line, h-back, wide, slot)
- Played in NFL-style offense
- SEC battle-tested
- Occasional captain
- Has some limited special teams value
- Stood out in NFLPA Bowl All-Star Game
The Bad:
- Goes down fairly easy on first contact after the catch
- Not used very much at all in passing game during college career
- Will occasionally lunge as run blocker and fall off
- Can get rag-dolled occasionally by stronger EDGEs
- Shorter arms: 31 3/8-inch at NFLPA Bowl
- Small sample size in evaluating route-running
- Not used every-down last two seasons
- Could use a little more sand in pants and core strength
Bio:
- 53 career games
- Georgia career: 34 receptions, 376 yards, 1 touchdown
- Accomplished wide receiver/running back safety in high school
- com four-star high school prospect, #23 TE nationally, #8 prospect in Georgia
- Comes from vert large and tight-knit family
- Accomplished high school track and field athlete and did shot put and discus
- Nephew of former Georgia All-America DB and 2016 College Football Hall of Fame inductee Scott Woerner
- Named to the All-Practice Team for the NFLPA Bowl All Stars and named team captain for game
Tape Breakdown:
One of the first things that stuck out to me watching Woerner’s college tape is that he’s already become quite a good and effective blocker out in space and most definitely on the perimeter. His college career tape is loaded with blocks such as these two below.
Woerner also has some nice highlights in his tape of him blocking on the move and inside the box. Below are three of those instances.
Woerner unfortunately wasn’t thrown to much during his college career. Even so, the former wide receiver showed soft hands throughout his college career at Georgia. Not only did Woerner catch almost every pass thrown his way in college that was on target, he also caught quite a few bad throws as well. Below are a few of his bad throw catches and his lone touchdown reception.
Woerner has a nice degree of athleticism to him as he demonstrated early in his college career on this catch and run.
Below is a video of all 34 receptions that Woerner had during his college career at Georgia and in the chronological order that they happened in.
Woerner not being targeted much during his college career makes him very hard to evaluate as pass catching tight end prospect. Georgia just hasn’t used their tight ends much in the passing game over the years. Instead, they prefer their tight ends to block and Woerner did quite a bit of that during his college career.
As far his blocking goes, Woerner might very well have been the best SEC tight end last season when it comes to that part of the game. He’s very accomplished as a perimeter blocker and improved quite a bit as a run blocker on the end-of-the-line of scrimmage throughout his college career. Keep in mind that Woerner played a lot of wide receiver in high school so blocking big EDGE defenders and linebackers was new to him in college. He needs to get a little stronger and will always battle the fact that his arms are about an inch and half shorter than ideal for his size and position he plays.
As a route running tight end, Woerner obviously will need some coaching and improvement in that area and once again that’s likely because he just wasn’t asked to do much in the Georgia passing game. He still moves fairly fluid, however, and thus it will be interesting to see how he does in the timed drills at this year’s scouting combine. I bet he tests well.
Character-wise, Woerner is as clean as they come and he should do extremely well in his team and media interviews while in Indianapolis for the scouting combine. He’s just a good old southern kid from a large family that has some college football bloodline in it.
Why aren’t we hearing more about Woerner at this point of the draft process? That’s hard to say and especially with him sticking out in a positive way at the NFLPA Bowl All-Star game. I suspect we’ll hear more about Woerner after the scouting combine.
While Woerner isn’t likely to be the next George Kittle, he deserves a lot more buzz than what he’s gotten up until this point. He’s probably one of the best kept tight end secrets in this year’s tight end draft class at the time of this post. The fact that he wasn’t used much in the passing game at Georgia probably has a lot to do with that. I look forward to watching him compete at the scouting combine. The Steelers are sure to be interested in him.
Projection: Late Day Three – Undrafted
Games Watched: Way too many. (2019) at Vanderbilt, vs Notre Dame, at Georgia Tech, vs LSU
