{"id":764453,"date":"2026-02-20T12:04:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T12:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/764453\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T12:04:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T12:04:18","slug":"2026-nfl-scouting-combine-preview-tight-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/764453\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NFL Scouting Combine preview: Tight end"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>4. Joe Royer, Cincinnati, 6-5, 250<\/p>\n<p>His size and athleticism could make him a matchup problem for defenses and he knows how to use his frame and shield defenders. Royer needs to continue to improve his run blocking to reach his true potential but he caught 79 passes for 937 yards and seven touchdowns the last two seasons.<\/p>\n<p>5. Dallen Bentley, Utah, 6-3, 262<\/p>\n<p>Bentley is a versatile tight end with a solid overall game as a pass catcher and run blocker, which teams will like about him. He was seventh among all tight ends nationally in receiving yards and 10th in receptions with 48 catches for 640 yards and six touchdowns for the Utes this past season.<\/p>\n<p>Combine sleeper to watch: Marlin Klein, Michigan, 6-6, 250<\/p>\n<p>Klein didn&#8217;t have a ton of production at Michigan, but he&#8217;s got a massive frame and is likely to test off the charts at the Combine. He was on Bruce Feldman&#8217;s <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6522767\/2025\/08\/04\/college-football-freaks-list-ohio-state-jeremiah-smith\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Freaks List<\/a> before the season and teams could look at the athletic numbers and his frame and see a player with a lot of upside they could mold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"4. Joe Royer, Cincinnati, 6-5, 250 His size and athleticism could make him a matchup problem for defenses&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[146,113,2506,7,416,147,5515,415,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-764453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-detroit","9":"tag-detroit-lions","10":"tag-detroitlions","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-homepage-centerpiece-package","13":"tag-lions","14":"tag-news-road-to-the-draft-yoy","15":"tag-news-twentyman","16":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116102868098252645","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}