2023 NFL draft: 10 biggest offensive standouts from 2023 East-West Shrine & Senior Bowl events

#7. Luke Musgrave, Oregon State (TW)

Oregon State v Colorado

Now, on nearly the complete opposite side of the country, we watched a much more highly-touted college tight-end more than live up to his status in Mobile. Luke Musgrave did crack the 300-yard mark in 2021, although he only he reached the end-zone once on 22 grabs.

His redshirt junior campaign was cut short one-and-a-half weeks in, but he was able to haul in 11 passes for 169 and a TD up to that point. The scouts liked what they saw enough to give him the confidence to declare for the draft.

When you say in an interview on day one that you felt you were like 60% on your first time on the field since September and you look the way you did, you’re going to make some headlines.

We saw Musgrave glide across the field more like a big wide receiver and he was used further down the field quite a bit. When he was allowed to run down the post and take linebackers vertical, he was leaving them behind in the dust. On several occasions, he would lean into defenders with outside leverage, then step into their space and head-fake towards their leverage (in order to create separation bending it to the post).

Day three on early competition one-on-ones, Musgrave did so going up against LSU’s Jay Ward on a seam/skinny post route. He hit an effective double-hand swipe to work around the press attempt and then got a couple of steps on the DB.

However, he’d also present himself underneath on some hook and stick routes, where he used his frame to protect the ball and wrapped it up tightly in traffic. Musgrave also ran some beautiful corner routes throughout the week, where he adjusted the angle of the break accordingly (depending on the coverage and once caught one of the safeties badly), trying to undercut the out-break.

The former Beaver made some impressive-looking catches through the first two days, really swallowing the ball with those large paws (extending, plucking and also quickly pulling the ball into his frame). While he may not have stood out in that fashion as a run-blocker, the balance and effort were a plus to note.

I think he made an impression on some people when he talked about how he started to find joy in that area of the game, as the OSU coaches got him to buy into it. Musgrave also cracked 20 mph on the GPS-tracker, making him the 16th-fastest player at the entire event despite being 255 pounds (the next-closest guy who was faster, weighed 24 pounds less).