Tag: Michael Mayer

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F10Y CFB Player to Watch: Michael Mayer, Notre Dame

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It’s Friday and we have all made it through to another week and we are on the verge of another weekend of college football!

And what does that mean? It means it’s time for another Player to Watch and this week we are focusing on Notre Dame tight end, Michael Mayer.

Keith whetted your appetite for Mayer in his excellent scouting notes review of the Irish’s game against BYU last weekend. Mayer had an excellent game, the best of his season so far – 11 catches for 118 yards, with a couple of touchdowns.

However, I’ll leave the one game scouting notes to Keith and I’ll get on with a deep dive on this talented tight end prospect…

Let’s go back to the start and find out who Michael Mayer is…

6’4, 265lb, Michael Mayer has always been a high flyer when it comes to football, a 5-star prospect out of Covington, Kentucky he attended Covington Catholic High School and he was the MVP on a team that won a Kentucky state championship in 2019.

Mayer was the 2019 Gatorade Kentucky Football Player of the Year and named the Kentucky Coaches Association Mr. Football in the same year. The accolades kept coming in 2020 as he was selected to the US Army All-American Bowl.

The recruiting process yielded an avalanche of offers from big, Power-5 schools; Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, LSU and of course, his home state of Kentucky, amongst many more. However, he chose to enrol at the most prestigious catholic university in the world and head to South Bend, Indiana.

Mayer was the number one player in Kentucky and the number two tight end in the country, so there is no wonder that he was so sought after.

Once on campus, Mayer began to make an impact almost immediately – He played 12 games in his Freshman season, he was starting by game two and scored a touchdown in game three. He really was Playing like a Champion from day one.

Ever since, Mayer has been one of the brightest tight end prospects in college football… Let’s dive into the tape to see why.

In the modern NFL, tight ends are versatile weapons and can be used in diverse ways in the passing game as well as being blockers in the run game too.

The bread and butter is the passing game and being that safety net for quarterbacks, which is the area of the game that I really feel Mayer excels in. I feel this gives him an excellent floor when entering the league, and as always there’s room to grow.

This first clip shows Mayer lining up in a traditional tight end alignment and making a nice catch with soft hands for a big gain. This from the Toledo game is 2021:

25 yards as easy as that. Ok, it is against Toledo and the defenders aren’t of the quality of Notre Dame’s more high-end opponents, but a nice release up the sideline, tracked the ball really nicely and brought it in easily.

We can see that Mayer isn’t a super-quick, jumbo receiver but he’s excellent at traditional tight end things. Which I think still valuable in today’s NFL.

Speaking of traditional tight end things…

As much as being a Travis Kelce or Kyle Pitts-type X-receiver masquerading as a tight end is fun, it is important to be able to run-block and be traditional, especially in an offense such as what the 49ers run with tight ends like George Kittle.

Mayer is certainly willing when it comes to run blocking. He motions across from the opposite side of the formation in this split-zone run, he opens up the lane to spring a big run, which is all very NFL run game, a team like the Rams run this kind of play a great deal, although this wouldn’t be Matthew Stafford running down the sideline.

Again, there is the caveat of Toledo and Mayer could be more aggressive in the block. However, you can see that he knows what he’s doing; he activates his hips and gets his hands underneath the pads of the defender to leverage him out of the way.

Whilst Mayer can do a lot of the traditional tight end things, he can also split out, off the offensive line, a la Kelce or Pitts. He isn’t the athlete of either of these two, he’s not even close, to be honest, but it’s nice to see this in his locker, big slot receiver’s are in vogue right now.

What I like about this clip from last year’s game against Cincinnati, is that he can make a long reception, in traffic with defenders diving and ready to lay a big hit on him. He is also able to run down the seam and show his physicality to shrug away the defender and create some separation.

We can see this kind of physicality on show in last year’s Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma State.

The added layer from the previous clip to this one is that we can add in that Mayer is a red zone weapon. Big bodies can be great in the red zone; they can body up smaller defenders and box out players on well-placed throws that only he can bring in. Mix in the fact that he can be used in a variety of ways – Y-tight end, in-line tight end, H-back and Notre Dame do so here.

The Irish are in heavy personnel, with 3 tight ends in 13 personnel which forces the Cowboys into base defense and expecting a run. There are only two men out on routes but two crossing routes put the defensive backs in a bind and Mayer has leverage and uses his physicality to get separation and it’s an easy catch and score.

Mayer also scored a second touchdown against Oklahoma State too, another red zone score which again demonstrates what his value will likely be in the NFL.

Big bodies over the middle in the red zone will never not be an option for quarterbacks. Mayer shows his hands again here with an excellent diving catch. He also shows a little bit of wiggle with a drop of a shoulder, and mix that with a nice play design and a high quality tight end means it’s going to be a touchdown as long as the QB makes the throw.

As is tradition for this article, there’s always got to be a but, the area of improvement.

It’s tough to show in one clip but I feel like you could see it in every clip I’ve got here but it centres around his athleticism. As much as Mayer can clearly threaten down the seam and he can make plays in the deep portion of the field, I feel like his lack of juice could limit his ceiling and perhaps the separation that he could attain in the NFL.

Can this get better? Maybe marginally but he is what he is at this point and he has the ready-made body of an NFL tight end which isn’t going to drastically change.

However, at the end of the day, I still feel he has a bright future in the pros. 

So what can we expect this weekend against Stanford in one of college football’s most traditional rivalry games?

Well, Stanford isn’t having a great season so far, with a record of 1-4 in a fun Pac-12 conference, their only win coming against Colgate in their opening game. On the other side of the ball, Notre Dame has had a little bit of a resurgence after a somewhat sticky start to the season.

Stanford doesn’t really have any great safety or linebacker who will be tasked with guarding Mayer and attempting to take him out of the game. So perhaps the best comparison and battle could be offense vs. offense, and perhaps tight end vs. tight end.

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Stanford has their own exciting tight end in Benjamin Yurosek. Yurosek isn’t of the same calibre of Mayer, albeit he was a 4-star prospect out of high school. Last season Yurosek had 658 yards and 3 touchdowns to Mayer’s 840 and 7. Not a million miles away, especially when considering Notre Dame was 11-2 and was ranked #8 in the country, whereas Stanford, well, was not.

I expect Notre Dame to win but Stanford’s offense can put up some points with Tanner McKee under center, who, by the way, is the best QB in this game on Saturday.

After this season, what can we expect some draft weekend?

Carrying on from earlier in the article, I fully expect the trend of Mayer being a high-flyer to continue come the spring.

As shown above, he is a plus-pass catcher and he will be ready to contribute on an NFL offense immediately. He has an NFL body and he passes the tight end eye-test, both on the field and also in the mugshot too. Just check out his Notre Dame bio, just look at that square jaw and thick neck, those are NFL traits as much as the height, weight and on-field play. 

In terms of tight end, the college football landscape and in particular the media coverage is dominated by Georgia guys like Darnell Washington and most of all, Brock Bowers. However, Bowers isn’t draft eligible until next year and Mayer should be talked about just as much, I feel he just doesn’t bring the monster, highlight plays that you see from Bowers on social media.

This shouldn’t be thought of as a negative though, Mayer does a lot of things well and he’s one of the best out there. Mayer is likely to be the first tight end off the board in April and that should mean he’s a first round player.

So to conclude…

Mayer is a traditional tight end prospect who has the skill set to fit into a lot of offenses around the NFL. He can improve in run blocking and maybe get a little faster and stronger in a professional weight programme but I do think we will hear the phrase NFL ready when the calendar turns to 2023 and we are in the thick of the pre-draft cycle.

Mayer reminds me of a player like Hunter Henry; a big body who can be a safe pair of hands over the middle and down the seams, he can be a serviceable blocker and a red zone weapon. One for your fantasy teams and for a long career in the NFL, another great prospect out of Notre Dame and one I am looking forward to watching this weekend.

Follow Lee on Twitter @Wakefield90

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F10Y CFB – Week 6 Scouting Notes; Notre Dame vs. BYU

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There were plenty of good games to choose from this week, but I’d always had my eye on this game as there were some very good potential match ups I wanted to watch. The game itself was an interesting affair between the more aggressive down the field style of BYU, against the more run based and time controlling Irish, and in the end Notre Dame prevailed, deservedly, 28-20.

We’ll start the notes with the defeated Cougars and a few players who are certainly creating some draft buzz…

BYU

Quarterback Jaren Hall has been getting plenty of plaudits for his performances so far this season, so I was intrigued to see how he did against a top quality defense. The answer was not great really. It started with his very first pass of the game, which was either horribly underthrown or a miscommunication with the receiver, which was easily intercepted.

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After that Notre Dame controlled the time of possession so well, that he only ended up attempting 17 passes all game. Now when they were backed into a hole and had to take chances, Hall seemed to come alive and hit a few nice chunk plays to get his team going. He is clearly the leader of that team and they responded to him well, but there’s still a sense of rawness and limitations to his game.

He certainly isn’t the second coming of Zach Wilson, which is what the hype around him had become, but there’s certainly things to work with and he could still end up a late day two type of guy. 

The biggest reason I wanted to watch this game was for the matchup between left tackle Blake Freeland, and Notre Dame Edge Isaiah Foskey. Unfortunately for me, Foskey only played just over half the available snaps, and when he was in there he was mostly lined up over the right tackle.

Freeland was absolutely dominant against the other pass rushers the Irish threw at him, looking in total control throughout. He is one of these elegant, dancing bear types, that always seem unfazed by the chaos around them.

He has long arms that ride defenders away from the pocket and he has enough strength in him to overwhelm static rushers too. His run blocking isn’t on the same level as his pass protection, but he still gets movement in the run game and has a good understanding of combo blocks and angles, and is rarely beaten to his spot.

Usually with BYU prospects we worry about their age, as they tend to go on two year mormon missions whilst at the university, but Freeman is still listed as 21 years old, and will be 22 come draft day, so nothing to worry about there.

I was really high on Brady Christensen a couple of drafts ago, but I think Freeland has better all round tools than him and he could end up being a first round guy, especially as this year the tackle class is a bit cloudy with no true standouts yet.

A name for the future is redshirt freshman receiver Kody Epps. The Cougars had been without their two best catchers in Gunnar Romney and Puka Nacua for a few games and in their absence Epps had shown up.

They were back for this game, but clearly not 100%, so it was still good to see Epps being used as a weapon and he made a couple of nice big plays, including a great catch and run touchdown. Not the biggest guy, but he is an exciting player when he gets his hands on the ball, and the type that gets you out of your chair.

Defensively BYU had a bend but don’t break attitude, and they made some nice plays when they needed to, which kept them in the game. None of the draft eligible guys did much to stand out but sophomore EDGE Tyler Batty had a nice game.

He is a long, athletic looking defensive end who had some nice results working against the right tackle in the run game and as a pass rusher. He is a good edge setter who understands his role, and when let loose he shows enough to scare some linemen. He won’t be a stat filler in this defense, but his pass rush win rate is really high, so there are traits and skills to work with, and he’ll be a fun watch for the next couple of years.

Notre Dame

This Irish offense has really taken off since quarterback Drew Pyne took over in week 3. They rely on the run game to move the chains, but Pyne can certainly sling it when he needs to, with poise and accuracy, and create splash plays. Now he’s built like Alabama’s Bryce Young, but obviously nowhere near the level of talent he is, but he is proving to be a good fit for this system and is at least making people sit up and take notice of him. 

Pyne’s favourite target in this game was star Tight End Michael Mayer. Mayer was sensational, snagging 11 passes for 118 yards and two touchdowns. He has natural hands, plucking everything that comes his way, and is always making to look as much after the catch as possible.

He runs great routes, can create natural separation but is still strong enough to win contested catches too if needed. He isn’t the greatest blocker on the Earth, but he is willing and will always do a decent job, just don’t mistake him for George Kittle in that area. He isn’t the greatest athlete at the position either, but trust the tape, as this guy is the real deal and should be TE1 and a first round pick.

BYU’s left tackle Blake Freeland was fantastic for them, but Notre Dame’s Joe Alt was almost as good for the Irish in the same position.

The Irish offensive line has had a couple of down years, but Alt, a true sophomore, looks to have solidified the most important position at left tackle.

He caught my eye a couple of weeks ago when they played North Carolina, and he continued in the same vein here. He is a lot like Freeland in his style of play, a really dominant pass protector using his arms and height to control pass rushers easily. He looks like a real athlete too, moving around effortlessly in the arc and out in space in the run game. He hasn’t allowed a sack and has only 3 pressures allowed in 358 snaps so far this season, which is a phenomenal number.

He has the bloodlines too as his Dad was a first round pick in 1984, and showing my age now, I remember him playing for the Chiefs all those years ago. I’m planting my flag early for this guy, I think he could be special. 

All eyes when the defense is out there are on star EDGE Isaiah Foskey. As I mentioned earlier, Foskey was on the field for just over half the snaps, which was odd as he is their best defensive player by a mile. This has been a bit of a frustrating season so far for Foskey, as I’ve seen him three times now and he just isn’t dominating like he did last year.

He still has a great get off, as you can see above, can win the edge in a flash, and he destroyed a running back on one play going straight through him and sending them both into the quarterback, but these are flashes rather than consistent play. I don’t know if the snap reduction is down to injury or trying to keep him fresh, but he needs to be out there alot more so we can see him take on the best guys, and get himself back up the rankings. 

The other big name prospect for the defense is Safety Brandon Joseph. The Northwestern transfer has taken Kyle Hamilton’s old spot in the secondary, but so far hasn’t produced anywhere near the level that he did.

Joseph is still living off of his fantastic freshman season back in 2020, but whilst not making mistakes or giving up big plays, he isn’t making any either, and that’s what he was brought in to do. Hard to say where his draft stock is right now, but he may be better off staying for another season in South Bend to try and re-establish himself, otherwise he could get lost in the mix in this current draft class.

By Keith Lucken – Follow Keith on Twitter @LordLucken

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Week 1 Scouting Notes – Ohio State vs. Notre Dame

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This was the biggest match up of the week 1 slate, and from a scouting perspective this game was loaded with high end prospects. Both teams struggled with early season rustiness but Ohio State put together a strong second half to see off the Irish 21-10. I’ve got a few notes for all of you on how all the top players did and throw in a couple of guys who surprised me too. We’ll start with the victorious Buckeyes…

Ohio State

All eyes were on potential number 1 overall pick Quarterback C.J Stroud and star Wide Receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba (both of whom made our Preseason All-Conference team), but unfortunately we lost Smith-Njigba early in the first quarter to a hamstring problem. He did come back later in the half but clearly wasn’t right and was left on the sidelines after that.

The initial report is he’ll miss a couple of weeks, which isn’t a disaster for him, especially as those games will be against Arkansas State and Toledo.

Stroud had a difficult first half, with Notre Dame containing him well and then losing his top target, you could see him becoming frustrated. He was totally different in the second half and looked much more like his usual self, taking control of the offense and improvising when needed. This was a big early test for him and he showed he could cope with in-game adjustments and dealing with adversity well. 

With Smith-Njigba out Ohio State needed some pass catchers to step up and two did in Wide Recievers Marvin Harrison Jr. and  Emeka Egbuka. Harrison looks tall and lengthy and made a couple of nice key catches when needed. Obviously the pedigree is there with his Dad (former Colts legend, Marvin Harrison Sr.) being a Hall of Famer so there will be a lot of expectation on his shoulders going forward, but this was a nice start for him.

Egbuka was Stroud’s top target in the game and he looked very comfortable in that role. He wasn’t used to stretch the field, as they had him running shallow routes and picking up boundary work, but he looked smooth in space and displayed some nice safe hands. These two will become the focal point of the passing attack whilst JSN is out, and it appears to be in pretty good hands, pun intended…

The Offensive Line wasn’t very good last year, although they received plenty of hype. This year’s version seemed to have some question marks, but on the first showing of the season, against a top ten quality team, they came through with flying colours. I’m really high on Offensive Tackle Paris Johnson Jr. who has moved over from guard to take the coveted left tackle position and he had a nice debut there. He did get beat on the outside a couple of times in pass protection, but considering the level of opponent and the new position switch, he handled himself very well and this will be the benchmark he’s set for the rest of the year. Right tackle Dawand Jones graded as the best Lineman for me on the day. Jones is absolutely massive (6’8, 350lbs) but plays with much better agility than you’d expect for someone that size. This was a big test and he was dominant, particularly in pass protection, which again for a man that huge is a big arrow upwards. He has the ability to be an Orlando Brown type and that’s pretty high praise.

I also have offensive guard Matthew Jones graded highly on last year’s games watched and he enjoyed a good start to the season here too. An under the radar guy now, but if this offensive line gels like I think they can, he will move up boards.

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Defensively, Ohio State had Notre Dame’s number, all bar one big pass play in the first quarter. There were plenty of stand out performances on all three levels of the defense but we’ll start with Safety Ronnie Hickman. Hickman spends most of his time in the box and is a very aggressive run filler, flying downhill to hit runners. For all his aggressiveness he is a sound tackler too, which isn’t a thing you always see. He has good size, quick feet and this is his second year as a starter. He graded pretty well for me last year, so he is definitely on my radar now.

Linebacker Tommy Eichenberg really impressed me with his violent style of play. He was consistently around the ball and like Hickman is a fantastic tackler. He only started four games last year and didn’t grade great for me, but this is an impressive start and I’ll certainly be keeping my eye on him going forward.

His partner in crime in the middle of the defense is former running back turned Linebacker Steele Chambers. He looks super athletic, which is not surprising given his previous position, and you’d expect him to get better and better with the more reps he gets in his new role. He will be an intriguing player if he does declare for the 2023 NFL Draft.

Defensive Tackle Michael Hall, who is not draft eligible, had some real standout flashes here. He was quick off the snap, had strong hands and showed some nice ability to work in space. They lined him up all along the defensive line and he had success wherever he went. One for the future for sure, but certainly a name worth noting.

Notre Dame

I’m sure the offensive game plan for the Irish was to grind the clock and keep that explosive Ohio State offense off the field, which to a certain extent they did, but it didn’t make for exciting viewing. The star attraction for Notre Dame offensively is Tight End Michael Mayer, who most consider TE1 and a first round lock. This game certainly won’t go down as one to show scouts as he was largely ineffective, only showcasing his great hands on one catch that he plucked out of the air. Even on that play he ended up fumbling and was lucky the ball bounced straight back to him. Ohio State stuck cornerback Cameron Brown on him all game, and this really limited his effectiveness as a receiver, and will surely be copied by other teams they face going forward. How he deals with this kind of attention will be interesting to see as the season goes on.

Notre Dame defensively in the first half were excellent, never allowing Stroud time to settle and limiting his off script plays. The second half was a different story though and the Irish were exposed, particularly at cornerback, where one guy really struggled.

I was quite high on Cornerback Cam Hart going into this season but he had a bit of a shocker here. He is a big corner at 6’3, 200lbs and whilst the size is impressive he looked very clunky in transitions and really struggled locating the ball when he did get in position. He gave up a touchdown and had a pass interference call against him, and he was targeted often by the Buckeyes who had obviously singled him out as a weak link. This game will hurt him, but he has size and length you can’t teach, which means he’ll still be highly regarded in the NFL world.

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The biggest name for the Irish defensively is EDGE Isaiah Foskey. Notre Dame used him all over the place last year, which was frustrating for the evaluation process as we didn’t get to see him all the time in what will be his NFL position. Off of what we saw in this game, it looks like the Irish have ditched that plan and are exclusively using him as a pure EDGE. Now while that’s good for us, it wasn’t so good for Foskey, who struggled to have any type of influence on the game and was limited to just one pressure. The two offensive tackles from Ohio State that he went up against could both be top 50 players come draft time, so this isn’t doom and gloom yet, but we need a good bounce back game or two, as this will be a talented EDGE group come draft time, and he needs to keep his name in that first or second tier of guys.

Safety Brandon Joseph came over from Northwestern as a high level transfer, albeit coming off a disappointing Sophomore campaign with the Wildcats. He had a good solid debut here looking strong in the tackle, which was a weakness on last year’s tape, and limiting the effectiveness of the big plays over the middle, which is a staple of the Buckeyes offense. The one play he wasn’t roaming the backend they blitzed him, and Stroud threw right behind him, exploiting the single coverage he left behind for a Touchdown. Not his fault at all, just a good demonstration of C.J Stroud’s understanding of the game. 

By Keith Lucken, follow Kieth on Twittter @LordLucken