What is a top 30 visit?
NFL teams are allowed to bring in up to 30 players for “top-30 visits”. It’s essentially a way for teams to get
to know a player better. To toss some game film at them and see how they process it, and to give the team doctors a chance to take a look at any lingering questions regarding past or present injuries.
Players from schools within a 50-mile radius of the team facilities do not count against top-30 visits. It’s important to note that on-field work is strictly prohibited during these visits. Players can tour facilities and locker rooms, but that’s it.
Background
Joly wasn’t originally a tight end. He originally came out of Iona Prep in New Rochelle, New York, as a 6-foot-3-inch, 190-pound wide receiving prospect. As a two-star recruit and the 358th-ranked wide receiver in his recruiting class, Joly only received one offer, but luckily, it was from a decent-sized program in the University of Connecticut.
It turned out to be a good decision by Connecticut head coach Jim Mora’s staff to switch him to tight end. Joly caught 18 passes for 250 yards and two touchdowns as a true freshman.
He followed this up by doubling his production as a sophomore, catching 56 passes for 578 yards and two touchdowns. Joly decided to enter the transfer portal ahead of the 2024 season. As a transfer, 247 Sports ranked Joly as a four-star player and the third overall tight end in the portal. This time around, there was more than one team vying for his talents, with both Houston and Tennessee both making offers to Joly, but he ultimately chose the Wolf Pack.
Joly made an immediate impact in Raleigh, catching 43 passes for 661 yards in his first season with North Carolina State. His senior season was briefly interrupted this past fall when he suffered a quad injury against Pittsburgh, in a game that was shaping up to be the best statistical performance of his career. By the time Joly went down in the second quarter, he already had six receptions for 101 yards and two touchdowns.
One possible red flag for Joly is that he declined to run the 40-yard dash at both the combine and his pro day. He also posted unimpressive marks in his athletic testing, with a 30 1/2-inch vertical and a broad jump of 9 feet 6 inches.
My analysis
Joly’s lack of athleticism shows up on tape. Even by tight end standards, he is not fast for the position. He moves well enough to get in and out of breaks and push the ball down the seam, but he is far from the physical freak that others like Kenyon Sadiq and Eli Stowers are at very similar sizes.
Now that we’ve got the negatives out of the way, we can talk about what I like about Joly. He has a nice release package for his size and shows a good understanding of body leverage and positioning on his routes. He uses his size well to box out and body smaller defensive backs, which is evident by the fact that he has a 68% contested catch rate for his career. He’s also extremely sure-handed, with only a 2% drop rate last season.
But one og Joly’s best attributes has to be his toughness. Despite being small for his position, he is not a guy who is going to shy away from engaging with players bigger than him. And in the Pittsburgh game I mentioned earlier, where he suffered a quad strain, he scored a touchdown on that play and ran the last 25 yards on one leg to get into the endzone before going down to the turf.
Nobody is ever going to describe Joly as a roadgrader in the run game, but in college, he held up well as an inline blocker against most defenders. However, it’s no coincidence that his worst run blocking performance came against the Miami Hurricanes, where, according to Pro Football Focus, he put up a less-than-stellar 38.2 blocking grade while attempting to deal with projected first-round draft picks Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor.
Joly is going to see this sort of athleticism and talent every week in the NFL, which is why I don’t think he projects to be much more than a glorified big slot at the next level.
With soft tissue injuries lingering with Joly, you have to be confident that he has his medicals worked out and knows how to train and take care of his body if you’re going to select him in the top 150 of this draft. Because the last thing you want is a developing tight end sidelined with a lingering hamstring injury.
Fit with the Chiefs
Fit: Low
Round grade: Fifth round
Honestly, while there is a lot to like about Joly, I don’t see him as much of a fit with the Chiefs. If Rashee Rice can’t beat Joly out for slot snaps, then the Chiefs have a bigger problem, and Noah Gray is a better blocker.
When it’s all said and done, I expect Joly to have a Jody Fortson-level career, which is not a knock on Joly by any means. When he was healthy, Forston was a fun red-zone target for Mahomes. But with all the holes the Chiefs currently have on this roster, I’m not sure Kansas City should spend a draft pick on a guy who projects to be a career backup.
