Two-star recruits are not supposed to lead Iowa's tight end room as freshmen, and yet: 29 catches, 434 yards and a 15.0-yard average in nine games, FWAA Freshman All-America honors, and a Phil Steele all-conference nod at the position Iowa has turned into an NFL pipeline. The per-catch number is the tell — that was not checkdown volume, it was legitimate downfield seam work, and it outran his No. 2,983 national ranking by a couple of area codes. However, the resume is nine games long, and a two-star-to-draft-pick arc needs the sample to keep validating itself; until he produces across a full season as the featured target, the projection borrows from Iowa's tight-end priors as much as from the player. Day 3 track on a distant 2029 timeline, which is fine — another 400-plus-yard season puts him in the lineage conversation Iowa tight ends grow up hearing about, and the ceiling grade here says believe it.
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