Tanner
Mclachlan.
Tanner
Mclachlan.
Arizona· 6'5"· 244 lb· 4.61s 40
"A walk-on who broke Gronkowski's Arizona reception record on feel and hands alone, then found out that round six only keeps the tight ends who can block or cover kicks."Pre-draft read
Move tight end who lived in the flex and slot alignments at Arizona and made his money as a chain-mover on the second level. A long strider rather than a burst athlete, he stems defenders with pace changes, sinks late on option and dig routes, and gives the quarterback a wide, quiet catch radius over the middle.
The secondary trait is run-after-catch balance — he plays through the first arm tackle and finishes forward. As a blocker he is willing and technically sound on the move, but he plays with more length than pop and gets stalemated by heavy edge setters. The signature is timing: he found the soft spot against zone and turned third-and-medium into a first down.
West Coast / play-action offense that flexes its second tight end into the slot
Year 1: TE3 and core special teams body while he adds functional in-line strength. Ceiling: a dependable TE2 who plays 300-400 snaps as the zone-beating third-down target.
A 12-personnel, gap-scheme run offense that asks its second tight end to block a 6-technique on early downs — he cannot anchor there.
Value rises in a passing game with heavy option routes and play-action crossers; drops sharply in any scheme where TE2 is a blocking job first.
Tanner McLachlan | TE | Arizona | 2023 Highlights
Senior-season reel: option routes, digs and run-after-catch over the middle.
Tanner McLachlan | 84 | Arizona Wildcats TE
Full-cut Arizona tape showing alignment variety and catch-point work.
Tanner McLachlan Highlights - Welcome to Cincinnati
Draft-day reel produced after the Bengals took him at 194.
A late-blooming pass-catching tight end whose football identity is reliability rather than explosion. Two years as a walk-on-turned-starter at Arizona produced a body of work built on route feel, hands and understanding of coverage, not on athletic overwhelm.
The production curve is unusual: four quiet FCS years at Southern Utah interrupted by a torn ACL, then 34 catches for 456 yards in his first Arizona season and 45 catches for 528 yards with four scores as a senior — enough to break Rob Gronkowski's school record for career receptions by a tight end. He tested adequately at the Combine (4.61 in the forty at 6-5, 244) and looked exactly like the tape: smooth, not sudden. The flags were age, a thin frame for in-line duty and the absence of a true separator trait against man coverage.
Boards had him in the fifth-to-seventh-round band as a TE2 developmental piece. Cincinnati taking him at 194 was a fair, low-risk swing on a quarterback-friendly target who needed a redshirt year in an NFL weight room before anyone could ask him to block a defensive end.
- 01
Hands and catch radius
plucks away from his frame at 6-5 and finishes contested grabs over the middle without letting the ball into his chest.
- 02
Zone feel
reads leverage and settles in the soft spot on option and dig routes, giving the quarterback an on-time answer against match coverage.
- 03
Run after catch
plays through the first arm tackle with balance and pad control, converting short crossers into chain-moving gains.
- 04
Route pacing
uses tempo changes and late stems instead of raw burst to create the half-yard he needs at the top of the stem.
- 05
Football character
walk-on at Arizona who earned a scholarship and set the school's tight end reception record in two seasons of real snaps.
- 01
In-line blocking power
willing and technically sound on the move, but he gets stalemated by heavy edge setters and loses the leverage battle late.
- 02
Separation vs man
no burst out of the break, so physical defenders can ride him through the route and shrink the window.
- 03
Play strength at the stem
press-heavy defenders reroute him and disrupt the timing that his whole game depends on.
- 04
Age and runway
he entered the league at 25 with only two Power Five seasons, leaving little margin for a slow developmental curve.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.61sp50
- Vertical
- 35inp50
- Broad jump
- 117inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Southern Utah | — | 3 | 48 | 0 |
| 2021 | Southern Utah | 4 | 12 | 120 | 2 |
| 2022 | Arizona | 12 | 34 | 456 | 2 |
| 2023 | Arizona | 13 | 45 | 528 | 4 |
| Career | — | 29 | 94 | 1152 | 8 |
Arizona seasons verified vs cfbstats (2022: 12 G, 34-456-2; 2023: 13 G, 45-528-4). Southern Utah FCS seasons from school bio; 2019 game count unverified (null). 2020 FCS season not played (COVID); 2021 fall lost to a torn ACL.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Big-bodied late-round pass catcher who lived on the roster fringe and never got a stable offensive role.
Same slot-flex, zone-feel archetype who carved out a real receiving role without blocking value.
Practice-squad tight end whose hands were real but who never won a special teams or blocking job.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Cincinnati kept him on the roster as a rookie but barely used him: two appearances in 2024, five offensive snaps and seventeen on special teams, with no targets. The 2025 camp ended with a waived/injured designation at final cuts, and the rest of the year was spent bouncing on and off the Chargers practice squad — signed and released three separate times, never elevated to a game day roster. Los Angeles let him go in May 2026. San Francisco gave him a one-year deal ahead of camp in July 2026 and waived him with an injury designation six days later, which is the whole story of his professional life so far: a body that has not stayed available long enough for the traits to be evaluated.
In hindsight the pick was reasonable and the outcome is a reminder of what round six actually buys. The tape said quarterback-friendly TE2 with real hands and no special athletic trait, and that profile only survives in the NFL if the player becomes a plus special teamer or an adequate in-line blocker in year one. Injuries never gave him that window. Nothing about the evaluation was wrong; the margin was simply too thin.
Data note: Arizona seasons verified vs cfbstats (2022: 12 G, 34-456-2; 2023: 13 G, 45-528-4). Southern Utah FCS seasons from school bio; 2019 game count unverified (null). 2020 FCS season not played (COVID); 2021 fall lost to a torn ACL.