On February 4th, Mobile’s game will be held at Hancock-Whitney Stadium and over a hundred of the nation’s draft hopeful seniors will descend on the Gulf Coast for a week of practice in front of scouts from every NFL team before the Senior Bowl. Leading up to the game, we’ll take a look at a different prospect every day and talk about their background, their college career, where they could be drafted, and how the Senior Bowl could help them. Today, we’ll talk about Oregon State’s mammoth tight end, Luke Musgrave:
Background:
Musgrave is an Oregon kid, raised in Bend, Oregon and attending Bend Senior High School. A true Iron Man, he was voted team MVP his senior year, playing on both sides of the ball and finishing with over 500 receiving yards, 4 touchdowns, 2 INTs for scores, 13 sacks, and 42 tackles. He was mostly recruited on the west coast, but 247 rated him as a 4-star recruit and the 12th overall tight end in the nation, while 247 Composite had him as the 37th overall tight end. Regardless, his decision to commit to play for the Beavers over Oregon was a relative surprise as both his father and uncle played QB for the Ducks. While he also had offers from Cal-Berkeley and Utah State, it really came down to the two schools in his home state. Rather than following family tradition, Musgrave elected to blaze his own path in Corvallis.
College Career:
Unlike some of the tight ends in the draft, Musgrave never really had a massive season in college where he was the focal point of the offense and put up huge numbers. In fact, he only caught two touchdowns in his career and never had a season with more than 304 receiving yards. Now, he was certainly on the way to what would have been a career year in 2022 before a knee injury derailed his final college season, however. He opened the season with two of the best games of his career, with six receptions for 89 yards and a score vs. Boise State and five receptions for 80 yards against Fresno State before getting injured. It was the final college game he would ever play, but his NFL traits and potential production earned him a spot in the Senior Bowl. Check out some of the plays that Musgrave put on tape that make him one of the best tight end prospects in the draft:
Current Draft Projection:
Tight end is the position in the NFL Draft where perhaps more than anywhere else on the field, traits and potential are valued just as much, if not more than production. Musgrave has ideal size for the position as well as elite speed, fantastic ball skills, and solid potential as a blocker. When talking about Utah TE prospect Dalton Kincaid, we acknowledged the fact that Michael Mayer of Notre Dame will be the first tight end selected and is almost guaranteed to be a first rounder. After Mayer, Musgrave is right with Kincaid in the battle to be second off the board. Both are pretty much guaranteed to be Day 2 picks at the worst, with the chance that a team could select either of them on the first night if they fall in love.
How the Senior Bowl Could Help Him:
The Senior Bowl will feature a phenomenal group of tight ends that also includes Purdue’s Payne Durham and Alabama’s Cameron Latu. Something that could work to Musgrave’s benefit in terms of draft position is the fact that as Jim Nagy informed us the other day, Dalton Kincaid will not be participating in the game or practices due to injury. Given that it is so close between Musgrave and Kincaid to be the second tight end off the board, any opportunity for Musgrave to show out without Kincaid also performing is huge. If Musgrave can stand out from the rest of the tight ends in Mobile and have a great week, not only could he secure himself over Kincaid, but he could become a first round pick as well.
