Sean McKeon "pro day" and draft possibilities
Sean McKeon is one of the more interesting Michigan draft possibilities to me. I'm very curious to see if/when he goes. (The other two most interesting guys to me are Shea Patterson and Donovan Peoples-Jones.)
McKeon held a virtual "pro day" which resulted in a 4.72 forty, a 4.15 shuttle (5-10-5), and a 35" vertical. He was 6th on the team in receptions (13) with 235 yards (18.1 yards/catch) and 2 touchdowns.
Isaiah Hole posted this (LINK):
For context, his 40 time of 4.72 seconds would make him tied for No. 6 among tight ends who ran at the NFL Scouting Combine, just behind Notre Dame’s Cole Kmet at 4.7 but ahead of former teammate Devin Asiasi at UCLA. His vertical jump would have him tied for fifth, and his 20-yard shuttle at 4.15 would be the fastest time posted at the combine among tight ends.
I had the opportunity to sit in on a Zoom clinic recently with Sherrone Moore (Michigan's tight ends coach), and just like in a lot of clinics, it started off with Moore giving his background. He said Michigan is the only school in the Big Ten with three consecutive seasons of having TWO tight ends with all-conference honors (including honorable mention). He also said that McKeon is "about to get drafted."
Maybe that statement is just a coaching showing confidence in his guy, but it's also possible that he knows something.
So what do you think? Will he get drafted or no?
April 19th, 2020 at 10:26 AM ^
He absolutely will go in the fifth or sixth round. Hell probably make the roster too. He's a good kid and a good athlete.
Best of luck, young man!
Ditto. I have more confidence in who Mckeon is as a football player than either DPJ or Patterson.
I just don't understand why anyone would waste a draft pick on Patterson as a QB. Kid was exceptional at nothing. Poor / late reads. Poor decisions running the RPO's (some of those could be attributed to injury. Such as handing it off when he should have kept it). Missed wide open receivers consistently down the field. I don't see anything he has done that would say he is an NFL talent.
Patterson won't give drafted which would be the very best thing for him. That way he'll have a handful of choices to look at instead of being locked into only one team.
He'll be able up to find the best place for his strengths but who also has a need at 3rd string or practice qb
April 19th, 2020 at 10:27 AM ^
McKeon was good overall and looked really good every so often. Is that enough to get drafted? Maybe.
April 19th, 2020 at 10:52 AM ^
So the Michigan receivers and TEs look great and test well but all under-perform in games. Wonderful.
April 19th, 2020 at 10:59 AM ^
When UM has a NFL draftable QB, the receivers will look better. Its a bummer that Ruddock was the best pure thrower so far in Harbaugh's tenure.
When there was a semblance of protection, I think Peters threw the best ball of any Harbaugh QB.
Rudock.
Didn't have the flashiest throws, but he could throw from different angles, on the run, under pressure, and go from change ups to fastballs when needed.
Rudock was by far the smartest of qbs Harbaugh has has, but his shitty deep ball when there was perfect protection against msu in that infamous game basically lost us the game.
Chesson was wide open and rudock overshot him by a mile
His deep balls weren't great, but that throw was on a roll out, thrown back to the middle of the field, under pressure on the run. He should have left it short for Chesson to make a play on it, but not the easiest.
Peters had about 50 passes at Michigan. 1 deep shot to DPJ against Wisconsin that was throw too far outside on a post and took him off his feet.
That was exactly my insinuation-clearly I did not make my point clear enough.
April 19th, 2020 at 10:56 AM ^
More importantly, how did Moore pronounce McKeon?
April 19th, 2020 at 11:27 AM ^
LOL. Actually, he said something like “another one about to get drafted.” And I think he called him Sean when critiquing a drill. I don’t think he even said McKeon during the clinic.
April 19th, 2020 at 11:32 AM ^
That figures. Sounds like a cool opportunity for you; congrats and thanks for sharing.
April 19th, 2020 at 11:04 AM ^
Shallow TE class this year. I think he goes on day three. Hope he ends up in a situation where he can make an impact. Seems like a good kid.
April 19th, 2020 at 11:25 AM ^
I would say 6th or 7th round is when he will get drafted.
April 19th, 2020 at 11:31 AM ^
4.15 shuttle is pretty damn amazing for a guy who is over 240 lbs. I think he will get drafted.
My issue with McKeon is his hands. He flips them pretty consistently. It's just dumb middle school bullshit that he hasn't worked to correct. He seemed inconsistent mentally as well.
He's got all the tools, so I can absolutely seem someone drafting him. He just needs to be a more focused technician, and play with a little more edge. If he can unlock the mental part of the game, he could have a nice little career in the league.
April 19th, 2020 at 11:31 AM ^
I don't normally like subjective judgments, but sometimes they're sufficient. I'm this case, McKeon is a player that I hoped would be supplanted by someone better if he'd stayed at Michigan. I think Eubanks has higher upside and would have hoped he'd be the definitive starter, and I'm enamored with Erick All's physicality - despite only seeing very small glimpses of his play - and Schoonmaker's giantness. I don't see how a player an average joe in the fan base hopes gets replaced is a draft pick.
Patterson is in the same category, but higher variability and more emotion. If he came back I'd hope be replaced.
DPJ would be welcomed back in the same role as last year. Here's who he is: a guy that helps you beat average B1G teams. You need players like that - 2018 MSU, 2019 Illinois, etc. He's a guy that puts you into position to make games against PSU, Wisconsin, and OSU matter because you've beaten everyone else. But he doesn't help you beat those teams. I'd draft him in that light, but someone will take the measurables. Collins is a guy that beats elite teams, I think Bell can be, I'm hoping Sainristal and Jackson can be as well.
DPJ is the offensive version of Rashan Gary. Crazy combine numbers, but those numbers never really matched his production on the field. How much was that attributed to coaching turnover, bad QB play, lack of player development...I guess we will find out with how well he does in the league.
I think that's a good comparison. In my subjective view above, Gary was also a guy who helped you beat decent/good teams, but not elites. He was a better player at that than DPJ though.
DPJ in 3 years helped the team succeed more than Gary. DPJ was very good as a sophomore and when healthy as a junior also did very well at times. He got open and made plays.
Gary was good for 3 years but never the player we thought we were getting. He wasn’t ever the best DE on the team. Also, Hutch and Paye this year were not that considerable of a downgrade. There will be a drop down next year at the outside WR position
The thing about DPJ that is underrated in my opinion is that he literally did not have a WR coach during his freshman year. That, to me, is actually one of the biggest failures of Harbaugh's tenure -- especially after signing such a big-time WR class. The next year DPJ accrued 600+ yards and 8 TD's, he had a dedicated WR coach in Sharkleween. Then the entire offense changed in the offseason and that coach left because he was over-qualified.
Compare that to Gary, who was coached by Mattison for his whole career at Michigan, and I don't think it's the equivalent. It's a shame, but I think we'll see a better version of DPJ in the NFL if he gets some decent coaching.
I think the difference here is that Rashan consistently had help on the back end of the defensive line, from the linebackers, and even the secondary, whereas DPJ spent a lot of his career with middling QB play and an at-best decent OLine. That said, it can’t go understated how little each of these 2 explosive athletes contributed to the program, in comparison to their expectations upon recruitment.
April 19th, 2020 at 11:39 AM ^
Gattis wasted so much talent. Tru Wilson’s carries and YPC went down under Gattis. McKeon had only 13 catches?!? DPJ might be one of the top 3-5 talented WRs in the draft and his output was 1/3 of the top guys. Shea’s stats also declined under Gattis.
April 19th, 2020 at 12:28 PM ^
Gattis schemed some good games. At some point, the players needed to make plays. There’s plenty of blame to go around.
https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/michigan/2019.html
https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/michigan/2018.html
Just about the entire offense returned from 2018, yet the yards per play dropped from 6.1 to 5.8.
Seems to me they made just about as many plays as the year before. Shouldn't they have improved? Are you telling me that Higdon and JBB were that important that their loss was too much for the Great Gattis to overcome? I mean, come on, he only had to do better than Pep, the worst OC in the history of OCs according to this blog.
Offense struggled early on, some of that is the proverbial “transition cost”. Let’s see what he can do with worse talent this year (PLEASE let us see what he can do this year).
We finished with the best Michigan SP+ offense since 2011 despite having a very steep learning curve and an injured QB for the first chunk of the season. On the second half of the year, we had a top ten offense for the first time since RichRod was here. That's pretty great.
Gattis' first year evaluation is a solid A in my book. Play design, gameplan, playcalling, and position coaching were all very good.
Post-Penn St, Gattis called the games pretty well. His offensive playcalling vs Notre Dame was fantastic given the conditions, and he called another good game vs MSU. Also, his playcalling I wouldn’t say had anything to do with the losses to OSU and Alabama.
I was ready to light the offense on fire and shoot Gattis out of a cannon back to Tuscaloosa after the first 3 games, and really didn’t warm up until the second half vs PSU (the horrible Iowa gameplan comes to mind). We shall see what we look like next year. HH and ZC are good, Evans adds another dimension but our OL took a major hit. Going to be tough to expect the same with run graders like Ruiz, Bredeson, and Onwenu gone.
I think Army stands out as his worst game last year, and it's still unclear how much of the struggles were on him versus execution versus injury limitations (which you could say that the OC has to know how to adapt to).
Everything Illinois and later was great honestly. I thought Middle Tennessee and Rutgers were good, but it's hard to judge against that quality of opponent. Wisconsin was a hamblasting that we checked out of early, so I took nothing Gattis-related from that.
I wasn't going to be specific but Shea was notably much worse last year, especially early. Gattis also seemed somewhat "meh" early, which isn't surprising since he basically went from WR coach to full fledged OC. That put everyone behind the curve but the offense eventually looked much more dynamic than anything Pep put out.
April 19th, 2020 at 12:42 PM ^
Sean gonna play with Shea on the Patriots.
His NFL scouting profile (done by Lance Zierlein) gave him a score of 5.61 which correlates to 'Chance to make end of roster or practice squad'.
Here is the write up:
Experienced handling wham blocks, combo blocks and kick-outs, McKeon improved as a blocker as the 2019 season wore on, but he lacks the core power to match up with rugged NFL edge-setters right now. His routes don't feature much burst to separate against dedicated coverage. However, he plays with good catch focus when working the soft spots of zones. McKeon might find a roster spot or a practice squad as a late-round, developmental "Y" tight end.
Hope he does get drafted, best of luck to him!
Cheyenne O'Grady from Arkansas is an interesting TE prospect, too.
McKeon will get drafted, and my guess is he at least get onto ST. He's a plus athlete at the TE position and showed a willingness and ability to block that coaches tend to like.
The DraftTek website guesses at the picks in the 2020 NFL Draft and projects the following for Michigan players: Cesar Ruiz (Dolphins Round 1-26); Ben Bredeson (Chiefs Round 2 - 63); Josh Uche (Raiders Round 3 - 80); Donovan Peoples-Jones (Texans Round 3 - 90); Khaleke Hudson (Bills Round 4 - 126); Jon Runyan, Jr. (Buccaneers Round 4 - 139); Lavert Hill (Bengals Round 5 - 147); Michael Onwenu (Broncos Round 5 - 178)
Michigan’s other draft-eligible players, Michael Danna, Jordan Glasgow, Sean McKeon, Josh Metellus and Shea Patterson, are not listed.