Bucs Finally Get A Tight End Late In Round 5
April 29th, 2023
New Bucs TE Payne Durham.
So the Bucs waited until their second pick of the fifth round to dip their toes into a deep tight end pool. Was it too late?
The Bucs got Payne Durham out of that offensive juggernaut of the Midwest known as Purdue. Durham was a four-year starter for the Boilermakers.
Self-hat-tip to Joe for suggesting early this morning that the Bucs were on Durham’s scent.
Here is the summary of Durham from Dane Brugler of The Athletic:
A four-year starter at Purdue, Durham was the Y tight end in former head coach Jeff Brohm’s spread offense, splitting his snaps between the slot (57.2 percent) and inline (39.4 percent). A four-year lacrosse player in high school, he returned to football his senior year at Peachtree Ridge High School, and his production improved each of his five seasons with the Boilermakers. Although his routes tend to be rigid and upright, Durham is a long-striding athlete with good foot quickness and impressive body control to win with size and adjust to throws behind/above him. As a blocker, he needs to rely more on leverage and hand techniques to sustain, but he is physical and strong with the upside to become a dependable NFL blocker. Overall, Durham has average-at-best speed and separation skills, but he creates a large throwing target for his quarterback and enjoys the dirty work at the position. He has the skill set of a solid No. 2 tight end option in the NFL, similar in ways to Jesse James.
Unlike the Bucs, Joe isn’t overwhelmed with the blocking of Cade Otton, but hey, the guy was a rookie. It seems, from Brugler, Durham has the skills to be coached up to block.
Joe loves the fact the dude is 6-6! Some compare him to longtime Colts tight end Jack Doyle?
Jaren Hall 🎯 to Payne Durham pic.twitter.com/97dfoTxHcS
— Cam Mellor (@CamMellor) February 2, 2023
April 29th, 2023 at 3:28 pm
Is it me or this draft sure smells like a bunch of depth players? What ever happened to urgency amongst the Bucs nation!
April 29th, 2023 at 3:29 pm
Good Job Jason….
April 29th, 2023 at 3:33 pm
Red zone, soft hands, not going to win any foot races in the secondary, about what you can expect in this part of the draft.
Now for a speedy WR and RB
April 29th, 2023 at 3:34 pm
Durham is a solid TE and played for pass happy coach Jeff Brohm at Purdue. Watched them a lot and all the guy did was get open and catch the ball. Brohm is allergic to running the ball so no idea if he can block.
April 29th, 2023 at 3:34 pm
Kid had a lot of TD catches
April 29th, 2023 at 3:34 pm
Dre maybe you just like skill position picks? Hard to believe our first round pick won’t start on one side of vea or the other. I’d think our 2nd and 3rd round picks both have very real chances to start. After that yes you are looking at depth players. That’s how it generally is
April 29th, 2023 at 3:35 pm
Seems like this draft has been pretty successful at this point…only time will tell….Go Bucs!
April 29th, 2023 at 3:36 pm
This a brate type?
April 29th, 2023 at 3:36 pm
Dre obviously never heard of our picks so they must be backups
April 29th, 2023 at 3:38 pm
A stable of stiffs…compared to the gold standard Gronk and overachieving Brate.
April 29th, 2023 at 3:38 pm
Red zone TE that reportedly showed he could block in Mobile.
April 29th, 2023 at 3:38 pm
Watching highlights of him and he just looks like a big lumbering TE – then suddenly, as the tape goes along, he looks like a guy who has decent speed and can make moves. A huge disconnect.
Then I look up the Purdue schedule, and sure enough, the big lumbering (and slow) footage is from 2022, while the more agile fast tape is older. He must have had a growth spurt or something.
I’m not a fan of that current highlight tape (I’m watching on YT, not the one in the article) as he just looks like a generic lumbering TE that maybe is a #4 TE on your team. But older footage shows a guy with some moves and with good hands. So who knows. Maybe he was playing with an injury or something in those 2022 highlights, but again, he physically looks much bigger so I think he just got big and slow.
In any case he’s basically a 6th rounder, which is pure lottery ticket terrority, so who knows.
April 29th, 2023 at 3:39 pm
Acceptable pick. Dude got open (Wide-open) a lot. Not sure he will be that open in NFL, but against smaller CB’s, he’s a beast and will drag guys.
He seems to know the open/soft spots in zones, so maybe he will be a legit red-zone target.
Slow, lumbering, huge, hard to bring down…reminds me of a certain HOF TE the Bucs once had.
As always, we’ll see what the kid can do.
April 29th, 2023 at 3:39 pm
Dre bucs fan Says “Is it me or this draft sure smells like a bunch of depth players? What ever happened to urgency amongst the Bucs nation!”
Not rarely going to find a first year starter after the 3rd round. Can’t expect to Gronk in the 5th round.
April 29th, 2023 at 3:40 pm
@Dre, you are not alone, not sure if we have drafted any full time starters, time will tell…
April 29th, 2023 at 3:44 pm
Depth is what consistency is made of and I have been possibly Jason Lichts’ most vocal detractor , but I like this draft.
April 29th, 2023 at 3:44 pm
Rod,
Agree with your synopsis. Watched his YouTube vids like you, several of them, to be precise.
I think, IF he makes the team, he will be a decent pairing as a pass-option alongside Cotton. I know it’s Cade Otton, but I call him Cotton. Purdham, Cotton and Kiefer. We good at TE. It will at least be a respectable TE room.
April 29th, 2023 at 3:52 pm
I like this guy. .
I liked this draft, after our rediculous 1st round puck.
Our LB and TE will both have spots to fill this fall.
April 29th, 2023 at 4:25 pm
D-Rok – I have no idea why in the world people want to run Otton out of the building, he had a very nice rookie season for a TE.
People are really spoiled by having Gronk, and they think every starting TE needs to be able to do everything. But Gronk is probably the best TE of all-time. You’re not going get a copy of him.
In my opinion, Otton can be Ron Hall, who was a very good TE for a very long time.
April 29th, 2023 at 4:28 pm
Not that it is all that matters but the TE’s at the Senior Bowl this year were:
Cameron Latu, Alabama
Luke Musgrave, Oregon State
Payne Durham, Purdue
Will Mallory, Miami (FL)
Josh Whyle, Cincinnati
Brayden Willis, Oklahoma and
Davis Allen, Clemson
According to what I am reading, by almost all accounts of the week, he was considered one of the biggest “winners” of the Senior Bowl week as he looked the best among that group.
April 29th, 2023 at 4:40 pm
Otton and Durham are going to form a nice 1-2 duo.
April 29th, 2023 at 5:37 pm
Heck George Kittle wasn’t rated as the top TE in his draft class and fell into the 49’ers lap in round 5. Maybe the Bucs can get lucky with Durham outperforming his draft status too?
April 29th, 2023 at 6:10 pm
It seems like he could be a good pick at the slot he was drafted but if anyone, including everyone on this site’s boy (it seems) licht, thinks our TE room is solid is sadly mistaken. Is Kieft even a tight end? We’ll see but they need to find a veteran presence somehow.
April 29th, 2023 at 11:32 pm
Maybe he is Dave Moore give it break Munch .
.