Tip
Reiman.
Tip
Reiman.
Illinois· 6'5"· 271 lb· 4.64s 40
"The rare tight end whose value is measured in the defensive ends he displaces, not the passes he catches — Arizona paid a third-round price for the best in-line blocker in the class."Pre-draft read
Reiman is a true in-line Y: hand in the dirt, attached to the tackle, asked to move a defensive end before he is ever asked to run a route. The power starts low — pads under the defender's, a wide inside hand, hips rolling through contact instead of catching and leaning. Illinois trusted him to fold, wham and climb in the same series.
The second gear is the surprise. At 271 pounds he ran 4.64 with a 1.55 ten-yard split, so he can flex to the wing, lead through the alley and still be the last man on a screen. As a receiver he is a short-area outlet — seams, flats, play-action pops — with strong hands and no drama at the catch point. The signature: a run-game enforcer this heavy who moves like a fullback that never tires.
Gap-and-zone run offense built on twelve personnel — outside zone, duo and wham concepts that need a genuine sixth blocker attached to the formation, with play-action pops as his passing-game role.
Year 1: the run-down TE2 in twelve personnel and a four-phase special-teams body behind a receiving starter. Ceiling: a full-time in-line starter whose block-first identity lets the offense run its whole menu without tipping personnel.
An empty-set spread that lives in eleven personnel and asks its lone tight end to win as a slot separator on third down — his blocking value never gets on the field and his route limitations become the entire evaluation.
Value is maximized next to a receiving tight end, not instead of one; pairing him with a McBride-type is the design, not the compromise.
Tip Reiman | Tight End | Illinois | 2023 Highlights | 2024 NFL Draft
Junior-season cut-up: in-line blocking reps against Big Ten fronts plus his seam and play-action targets.
Film Breakdown: Tip Reiman is the BEST Blocking Tight End in the 2024 NFL Draft
Coaching-tape breakdown of his hand placement, hip roll and finish at the point of attack.
NFL Draft Film Ep 889: Tip Reiman / TE / Illinois / 2023 / Full Highlights
Full 2023 highlight reel showing wham, fold and climb assignments alongside his short-area receiving work.
Reiman is the rarest kind of tight end prospect: one whose blocking tape, not his catch total, is the reason to draft him. He arrived at Illinois as a zero-star linebacker from South Dakota, walked on, earned a scholarship from Bret Bielema, and left as a two-time captain and a preseason Mackey Award watch-list name.
The production line is thin by design. Three receiving seasons produced 41 catches for 419 yards and five scores, with a career-best 19-203-3 as a junior in 2023, because Bielema used him as a sixth lineman first and a target second. What the box score hides is the consistency: he is the block that springs the outside zone, the wham that resets the front, the man trusted to seal an edge on third-and-one. The flag is equally clear — no full route tree, few wins past ten yards, and everything to prove against NFL safeties.
Boards had him as a fourth- or fifth-round blocking specialist, with the aggregate projection landing in Round 5. Arizona took him at 82 and heard about it immediately. The defense of the pick was philosophical: with Trey McBride already the receiving engine, the Cardinals were buying the run-game enforcer that makes twelve personnel viable, and paying a round early to guarantee they got him.
- 01
Point-of-attack power
Fires low, lands a wide inside hand and rolls his hips through the defender, generating real displacement against Big Ten edge setters.
- 02
Elite testing for the mass
4.64 forty and a 1.55 ten-yard split at 271 pounds put him in the 91st percentile for burst, so he climbs to linebackers on time.
- 03
Finish and temperament
Blocks to the whistle and looks for the second defender; the mean streak is authentic, not manufactured for the highlight reel.
- 04
Versatile alignment value
Illinois used him in-line, at the wing, as an H-back lead blocker and on four special-teams units without losing anything.
- 05
Football character
Zero-star walk-on turned two-time captain and Academic All-Big Ten; every coach and teammate quote points at the same work ethic.
- 01
Limited route tree
Illinois asked for seams, flats and play-action pops; he has no reps on option or intermediate breaking routes against real leverage.
- 02
Separation against speed
He builds to top speed rather than snapping out of breaks, and NFL safeties will sit on the short stuff he does win.
- 03
Thin production record
41 career catches means the receiving projection rests on traits and practice tape, not on anything he has proven in a game.
- 04
Balance in space
He can overrun moving targets on the climb and lose his base when a linebacker crosses his face at the second level.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.64sp50
- Vertical
- 33.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 121inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.02sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.26sp50
- Bench
- 28repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Illinois | 11 | 3 | 43 | 1 |
| 2022 | Illinois | 13 | 19 | 173 | 1 |
| 2023 | Illinois | 12 | 19 | 203 | 3 |
| Career | — | 36 | 41 | 419 | 5 |
Receiving lines are verified season by season against CFBD: 2021 (3-43-1), 2022 (19-173-1) and 2023 (19-203-3) sum exactly to the 41-419-5 career total across 36 games. Reiman also played in 2020 as a defensive/special-teams reserve (one tackle, no receptions), so that year is intentionally excluded from the receiving table rather than entered as a row of zeros. He returned three kickoffs across 2022-23 for 17 yards.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
The realistic landing spot: a trusted in-line blocker and special-teams contributor who catches a handful of situational passes a year.
The optimistic path: a heavy, physical Y whose blocking gets him on the field early and whose seam production arrives once the route tree opens up.
The floor: a durable blocking specialist who bounces between rosters on cheap deals because the receiving role never develops.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Two seasons, 21 games, nine catches for 55 yards and no touchdowns — a specialist blocker and core special-teamer behind Trey McBride whose 2025 was cut short by an ankle injury.
Arizona used him exactly as advertised. He played all 17 games as a rookie in 2024 behind Trey McBride, logging six catches for 37 yards while serving as the run-game tight end in twelve personnel and a core special-teams body. In 2025 the role deepened rather than widened — three catches for 18 yards through four games, including a ten-yard grab in the Week 1 win over New Orleans — before a right ankle injury against Tennessee ended his year on injured reserve in early October. The club's own release called him a key blocking piece, which is both accurate and the whole story: nine receptions in two seasons, and a job nobody on the roster does better.
The honest retrospective is that the evaluation was right and the price was wrong. Reiman is what everyone said he was — a genuinely excellent in-line blocker with rare mass-to-burst and no proven receiving ceiling — and boards that pegged him in Round 5 were reading the market correctly. Arizona paid a third for a role player because the fit was perfect, and two low-target seasons, one of them cut short, have not produced the receiving development that would justify the reach. He is still young, still cheap and still the best blocker on his own depth chart; the verdict on the pick, not the player, is what remains unfavorable.
Data note: Receiving lines are verified season by season against CFBD: 2021 (3-43-1), 2022 (19-173-1) and 2023 (19-203-3) sum exactly to the 41-419-5 career total across 36 games. Reiman also played in 2020 as a defensive/special-teams reserve (one tackle, no receptions), so that year is intentionally excluded from the receiving table rather than entered as a row of zeros. He returned three kickoffs across 2022-23 for 17 yards.