Brandon Pettigrew Report

While the evolution of the spread offense would seem to be getting rid of the great tight ends because of the less of a focus on blocking, pass catchers and all around athletes are still found at the college level. Brandon Pettigrew is a perfect fit for any team looking for a Jeremy Shockey, a guy who has great hands, a willing blocker, and can play in regular sets, goal line sets, and maybe even in the slot at times. No more, as we see with Tony Gonzalez and Antonio Gates among others, do we see blocking tight ends only.
Brandon Pettigrew

In a passing offense like Oklahoma State boasted, Pettigrew emerged as a legit receiving threat since his red-shirt freshman season. Although he had zero touchdowns in his senior season, he still finished with 3 straight 400+ yard seasons in his career in college, quite a feat for a spread offense tight end. His somewhat lackluster stats are contributed to his team using his blocking skills as well to help out the strong side tackle on many occasions.

Strengths:
As said before, Pettigrew is very comparable to Jeremy Shockey. Pettigrew is first and foremost a great pass catcher for a tight end with his body makeup (6-5, 253). He is great in open field after making the catch, and can break tackles after grabbing those intermediate to short routes. Pettigrew also is a sound blocker. Grant it that his body type makes it hard to not succeed in blocking, but he is very willing and gives good effort consistently.

Weaknesses:
Playing-wise, Pettigrew has only minor weaknesses. First off, he doesn’t have great speed, and isn’t the type of deep threat that a big play TE (Shockey, Clark, Gates). He also has some minor concerns in his route running and ball security, but those can be fixed early on in his career. However, outside of the field, Pettigrew may have some questions to answer. He was arrested and pleaded guilty to assault chargers, which will be a big question mark in the interview process after the workouts.

Pettigrew is one of the most complete tight ends to come out in the past 5 years or so. Kellen Winslow and Vernon Davis were both very athletic, but had issues in the blocking area. Greg Olsen wasn’t a great pass catching threat, and was more of a solid catcher who dabbled in blocking. And Heath Miller was a great blocker, but still hasn’t shown he can be a top notch catcher. Pettigrew has all the tools to be one of the best tight ends in the league, and if the team has the luxury of getting a playmaker like Pettigrew, they won’t be disappointed.

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