Mason
Taylor.
Mason
Taylor.
LSU· 6'5"· 251 lb· 4.65s 40
"A remarkably polished and productive "Y" tight end who excels at moving the chains with natural hands and route feel, Taylor offers immediate reliability despite lacking explosive upside."Pre-draft read
Taylor is a true in-line tight end who spent three years as LSU's every-down Y, aligned attached to the tackle, in the wing, and detached in the slot. The separator is how natural he is as a receiver for his size: fluid off the line, smooth into the stem, and he plucks the ball away from his frame instead of trapping it.
He is a chain-mover rather than a field-stretcher, best working option routes over the middle and finding the soft spot against zone. As a blocker he is willing and technically sound in-line, sustaining more than he displaces. The athletic profile is good rather than explosive, so the value shows up in reliability and versatility, not in a vertical seam threat.
A West Coast or play-action based offense that uses 12 personnel and asks the tight end to work the intermediate middle — option routes, crossers and leak concepts off run action.
Year 1 he is an immediate three-down starter and possession target in the 50-60 catch range. The ceiling is a 70-catch, 700-yard chain-mover who anchors 12 personnel without needing to come off the field on run downs.
A vertical, four-wide spread attack that wants its tight end to run seams against single-high and win one-on-one against safeties. Taylor does not have the long speed to be that player, and his value evaporates when he is asked to be a detached field-stretcher.
He is at his best next to a quarterback who plays on rhythm; his value is tied to timing throws and structure, not to scramble-drill improvisation.
Mason Taylor College Football Highlights | LSU Tight End | NFL Draft Film
Full pre-draft reel: the hands, the option routes over the middle and the in-line alignment versatility.
LSU TE Mason Taylor EVERY 2024 Target & Touch
Every junior-season target — the best way to see the underneath volume and the limits after the catch.
2025 NFL DRAFT HIGHLIGHTS: Mason Taylor | TE | LSU
Draft-day cut-up of his SEC production and the traits that made him the safest three-down tight end in the class.
Taylor is the rare college tight end who never had to be developed into the position. He arrived at LSU as a true freshman and played immediately, and by the end of three seasons he left as the most productive tight end in program history. The football identity is easy to see on tape: a big, coordinated, football-smart Y who can be attached on first down, flexed into the slot on third, and trusted to be exactly where the quarterback expects.
The production climbed every year: 38 catches for 414 yards as a freshman, 36 for 348 as a sophomore, then 55 for 546 with two scores as a junior. That is the flag too — the yardage never exploded because the role was underneath and the touchdown numbers stayed small, six in 38 games. He is not the kind of tight end who wins over the top or breaks a hidden tackle for 40. What he is, every single week, is available and dependable.
The board loved the floor. He tested fine rather than special and helped himself at the Senior Bowl, and the bloodline — son of a Hall of Fame pass rusher — only confirmed what coaches said about the professionalism. The Jets, starting a rebuild with a young quarterback room, took the safest three-down tight end in the class at 42 and bet on volume.
- 01
Natural hands
Plucks the ball away from his frame and adjusts to throws off-platform; the catch radius and concentration were never a question in three SEC seasons.
- 02
Route feel
Understands leverage and zone spacing, settling in the soft spot and coming back to the quarterback rather than drifting through the coverage.
- 03
Three-down versatility
Lines up in-line, in the wing and in the slot without a drop-off, which lets an offense keep personnel on the field and stay unpredictable.
- 04
Willing in-line blocker
Technically sound with his hands and feet in the run game; he sustains blocks and finishes his assignment instead of hunting for contact.
- 05
Immediate production and maturity
Started as a true freshman in the SEC and left LSU as the school's all-time leader in receptions and yards at the position.
- 01
Not a seam threat
Lacks the long speed to threaten a safety vertically, which caps the explosive plays and lets defenses squat on the underneath route.
- 02
Modest yards after catch
Goes down on first contact more than a 6-5, 251-pound tight end should; the tackle-breaking element is not part of his game.
- 03
Displacement in the run game
Blocks with technique rather than power and gets stalemated by NFL edge setters who anchor against his hands.
- 04
Low touchdown production
Six scores in 38 college games; the red-zone impact never matched the target volume or the size he plays with.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.65sp50
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | LSU | 14 | 38 | 414 | 3 |
| 2023 | LSU | 12 | 36 | 348 | 1 |
| 2024 | LSU | 12 | 55 | 546 | 2 |
| Career | — | 38 | 129 | 1308 | 6 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
- Garrett NussmeierQB32%
- Kyren LacyWR12%
- Aaron AndersonWR10%
#4 of 15 tracked contributors · Production leaned on volume · Offense explosiveness 1.29 (p60) · CFBD — usage x PPA per tracked player
A dependable three-down starter who lives in the 50-60 catch range without ever becoming a vertical mismatch.
The comparison scouts reached for — an in-line Y with elite hands and route sense who becomes a quarterback's security blanket for a decade.
A solid starter whose production stays tied to volume and offensive quality rather than to individual separation.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
He was asked to be a starter from Week 1 and never left the field. Working mostly with Justin Fields in an offense that finished 3-14, Taylor became the safety valve almost immediately — nine catches against Dallas in October signaled how quickly the trust arrived — and he closed the season with 44 receptions for 369 yards and a touchdown on 65 targets in 13 games. PFF graded him 59.6, but the raw volume was real for a rookie tight end on one of the league's worst offenses. By the spring, there was public discussion of him as the team's breakout candidate for year two.
The honest look: the profile came through exactly as scouted, for better and worse. He is dependable, he understands the offense, and quarterbacks look for him — that was always the floor. But 8.4 yards per catch and one touchdown are also the evaluation's warnings showing up in the box score. Whether the pick becomes a hit depends on the offense around him. Give him a functional quarterback and he is a 70-catch tight end; leave him in a broken passing game and he stays a volume checkdown.