Of the non-offensive lineman positions on offense, tight end is probably the Packers’ lowest priority in this spring’s draft.
As an enthusiast of the position, it pains me to say, but it’s true. The Packers simply need tight ends less than they do pretty much anything else. Backup quarterback is unsettled, and running back and wide receiver both need long-term help. Even if the Packers don’t re-sign Luke Musgrave next spring, they’re surely going to extend Tucker Kraft, and if they’re assuming they can
get by with Kraft and an assortment of spare parts, they’re almost certainly right.
But if the Packers are going to add a tight end in this year’s draft, Georgia’s Oscar Delp looks like he’d be a really excellent fit.
Delp’s potential usefulness starts with where he spends his time on the field. Modern tight ends can and do line up all over the formation, but I’m of the opinion that the best tight ends will always work from a traditional Y alignment: hand on the ground in a three-point stance next to a tackle. Being able to play that way maximizes your value as a blocker and a receiver; you give the offense a formation the defense must respond to with heavier personnel, but you retain the threat of simply outrunning a linebacker. It’s the purest expression of the offense’s ultimate hybrid position.
Delp lived in that world for his entire career at Georgia. In four years as a Bulldog, he never played fewer than 58.4% of his snaps in-line, and that career low was in 2022, when he only played 149 snaps. This past season, playing a career 708 snaps, more than 82% of his snaps came as a traditional Y.
And while certainly not an elite run blocker, Delp got the job done. Take blocking grades with a grain of salt, but among 200 players with at least 200 blocking snaps last year, Delp was Pro Football Focus’s 73rd graded tight end in the ground game. Again: not elite, but if the bar for “not elite” is still roughly in the top third, I think you can live with that.
Teams should be exceptionally willing to live with that because Delp offers some tantalizing physical gifts. Standing 6-foot-5 and weighing 245 pounds (admittedly a bit light, but certainly not disqualifying; more on that in a second), Delp ripped off a 4.48-second 40-yard dash at Georgia’s pro day after missing the NFL Combine with a hairline fracture in his foot. It’s not just track speed, either; he routinely outruns defensive backs on tape, due in part to his excellent 1.61-second 10-yard split in the 40. He’s fast and reaches his top speed in a hurry, and he couples that speed with other elite physical attributes, including a 38-inch vertical and a 10-foot, 5-inch broad jump.
Now, it’s true that Delp is built a bit light. 245 pounds is on the smaller end for a tight end, and he’d be the second-lightest end on the Packers’ roster if they brought him to Green Bay. Only (actual real person, I promise) McCallan Castles is lighter at 244 pounds. There’s legit concern that a Y tight end like Delp could get ragdolled by big defensive ends or even ambitious linebackers at the NFL level. But we’ve seen players succeed at that size before. Former Packers tight end Robert Tonyan was just 240 pounds and played at a Pro Bowl level prior to blowing up his knee, and even on the current roster, we’ve seen Josh Whyle have some success at just 247 pounds, and he’s two inches taller than Delp. And just because he’s 245 pounds now doesn’t mean he can’t bulk up. He could probably play comfortably in the 255 to 260 range without sacrificing much athleticism, and he’s got athleticism to burn.
There are also some productivity concerns in Delp’s college career. He never really turned his prodigious athleticism into significant production at Georgia, and I think that’s fair to point out. Comparable athletes in this class like Kenyon Sadiq at Oregon and Eli Stowers at Vanderbilt both had much better statistical profiles, so what gives?
Delp has a built-in excuse for his first two years: Brock Bowers. Who would you throw to: an unproven freshman or sophomore or one of the most exciting tight ends in recent college football history? Right, I’d throw to Bowers, too. But Bowers was gone after 2023, and it’s difficult to explain what happened for Delp after that. He just wasn’t a big contributor in the passing game. He was seventh on the team in receptions in 2024 and fourth in 2025; hardly dominant performances. When he did get the ball, he did good things, sporting a career average of 12.2 yards per catch, but it’s hard to get around the fact that he didn’t get it all that much. How you explain why (or why not) will probably shape your opinion toward Delp a lot.
Delp has been climbing draft boards steadily as we trudge toward the draft. As of this writing, he’s number 84 on the NFL Mock Draft Database consensus big board. Would the Packers really burn a third round pick on a tight end? In truth, they probably shouldn’t this year. But if they did — say, if he somehow slides into Day 3 — I think Delp is the guy.
