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Bowling Green St. TE Harold Fannin Jr. Scouting Report | 2025 NFL Draft Analysis
AtoZ Sports
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3/24/2025
Joe DeLeone and Ryan Roberts scout and discuss the draft profile of Bowling Green State tight end Harold Fannin Jr.
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00:00
Harold Fannin has been the most overhyped tight end prospect in the 2025 NFL Draft.
00:06
Here's where he realistically should go.
00:10
Ryan, why is Harold Fannin being overhyped right now in this 2025 class?
00:18
I mean, it's production ultimately, right?
00:20
Like he was the leading receiver in all of college football last season, over 1500 yards.
00:25
He did it against pretty good competition last year as well.
00:28
Like he had a big game against Penn State, he had a big game against Texas A&M.
00:32
So we're looking, it's a box score scouting thing for me, Joe.
00:35
Like you're looking at the production, but in reality, we need to isolate everything,
00:40
right?
00:41
We need to isolate the size, the athleticism, the blocking ability, the all around play
00:45
style.
00:46
And we need to project that to the NFL level, stop scouting the box score.
00:51
And let's talk about what Harold Fannin does well, and how well it will translate to the
00:55
NFL level.
00:56
His athletic testing was really surprising because I think we were all expecting, hey,
01:00
this is a great long speed guy.
01:01
That was how he won.
01:02
He separated from defenders really easily by picking up speed, and he only ran a four
01:07
seven one at the NFL Combine, which was super odd and not a great number for a guy who's
01:12
on the lighter side for a tight end.
01:13
He was listed at six foot three, 241 pounds.
01:17
His testing overall was fine, but I think we were hoping for as dominant as he was in
01:22
one-on-one situations that he would have been a little bit freakish.
01:26
But you do need to have freakish traits to go on to be a productive tight end and a receiving
01:30
option in an offense in the NFL.
01:33
So we need to be a little careful here.
01:35
He's a day three pick.
01:36
He is best projected as a fourth, fifth round pick with not a ton of great late tight end
01:41
options that could go on to becoming a quality option in an offense, a good second tight
01:47
end.
01:48
I don't really see this projection that some people believe that he is going to be a dominant
01:55
a thousand yard tight end like he was in college.
01:58
Yeah, I do think that we need to kind of take ourselves back a step for a second because
02:03
early on in this process before the senior bowl and before the combine, there were some
02:07
people hyping him as tight end one.
02:09
There were others just hyping him up to be a top 50 pick.
02:11
I just, I don't think he's that.
02:13
I do think that he can be a good role player potentially on the NFL level, and I do think
02:18
he can be productive in a specific type of setting in a specific type of role.
02:22
But overall, Joe, the fact that we saw the testing the way it was, I do think that a
02:26
lot of part of that is because he got up to 241 pounds, but he didn't play at 241 pounds,
02:31
right?
02:32
Like he was a, he's a smaller tight ends.
02:34
And when you're talking about a smaller tight end who is also a average athlete and an NFL
02:39
size at 241 pounds after bulking up, I think that that's where you get a little bit of
02:44
trouble here, right?
02:45
Like I do think that he has a role as a potential big slot on the NFL level, but is he going
02:49
to be a guy that's going to play with his hand in the dirt and be an asset in the run
02:52
game in line?
02:54
Is he going to be a guy that's going to be incredibly dominant as a pass receiver?
02:58
I just have my question marks about that and how well it would translate to the NFL level,
03:02
despite a crazy last year of production, right?
03:06
There's a world that I think he could go on to becoming like a five, 600 yard receiver.
03:10
He could be a team's tight end one on the roster that is all doable for him.
03:14
But like you just said, where there was this, this projection by some and a lot of, a lot
03:19
of fan projection, which is fine.
03:21
You know, fans get excited, not, not knocking them, seeing the stats and, and hoping that
03:25
it could translate him being in the same conversation as Tyler Warren felt really off to me.
03:32
What are, if we were just wanting to be more positive, like what are the main strengths
03:36
that he has that are going to set him up to succeed?
03:39
I mean, he's great in space.
03:41
He's really good.
03:42
I think he has a really good sense of spacing as far as creating things after the catch.
03:46
I think he finds cracks in the defense.
03:48
I think he's really good against zone coverage.
03:50
He just, I think he's a really smart football player overall.
03:53
I think he really understands how to get open and the fine creases in the defense.
03:57
So I think that that translates both before the catch and after the catch and it's fine
04:01
and fine as far as finding that open space.
04:04
But I, that I think that that is probably his biggest sell.
04:07
The other thing I liked Joe is that he catches the ball cleanly and outside of his frame.
04:11
Like I think this is a hands catcher.
04:12
I think it's a consistent, a consistent impact against smaller defenders as well.
04:18
If we're covering him with a safety or maybe even a nickel corner at times, I think he
04:21
can out leverage and catch the football at the highest point.
04:24
So I think those natural ball skills and that feel for space are very translatable and for
04:29
a specific role on the NFL level as far as being a space oriented tight ends.
04:35
Now he does have a really unique, interesting background of being a guy who has defeated
04:39
any odds of expectation of what he was going to do.
04:43
Zero star recruit.
04:44
He was a walk on at Bowling Green.
04:46
Uh, it comes from McKinley high school in Canton, Ohio, and he was originally listed
04:51
as a linebacker on two, four, seven sports's website.
04:54
So there's a bit of a process here where he jumped from being no name to being the most
04:59
productive receiving option in college football this year.
05:02
I mean, it was pretty crazy project projection as well or trajectory because like you said,
05:06
he's a zero star recruit.
05:07
He's a walk on we're number 44 originally playing tight ends, but, and then he changed
05:12
to zero obviously this past year.
05:14
But he's a really interesting player because we saw the breakout start to happen in 2023.
05:19
But Joe, like he went from, let's, let's, let's paint the full picture here.
05:22
He went from zero star walk on to the most productive pass catcher in college football
05:29
this past year.
05:30
And again, he wasn't doing this just against Mac teams.
05:32
He was doing this against Penn state, against Texas A&M.
05:34
So he was playing his best football against some of the highest level of competition that
05:38
he was playing at Bowling Green this past year.
05:40
So it's a great story ultimately, right?
05:43
Like just kind of taking the story away from the projection and the evaluation for a second,
05:48
incredible arc and journey that he has been on.
05:52
And I'm sure there's going to be some that are going to say, Hey, you start in Canton,
05:54
you got to end up in Canton, right?
05:55
Like that's probably a little bit of a over the top analysis, right?
05:59
But man, he's a tremendous story and I ultimately do think he's going to be a good role player
06:05
on the NFL level.
06:06
Again, I just think that we need to cite our expectations in the right spot with a Harold
06:11
Fannin jr.
06:12
And with that in mind, the easy comparison for him, we really liked Gerald Everett, who
06:16
was once a Los Angeles Rams selection in the second round, which Fannin could still end
06:20
up going in the end of the second round for a team that values his skillset.
06:24
Another guy who was a small school player, a good linear athlete, was able to win in
06:29
contest situations, despite being on the smaller side for a tight end and his overall production
06:34
in the NFL is exactly what we're projecting here for Fannin.
06:37
He has mostly had 400 yard receiving seasons.
06:40
His career high was 555 yards and four touchdowns.
06:45
If Harold Fannin becomes that, that's a great NFL career.
06:47
And I think that that is what is, again, to say realistic for the 10th time, the realistic
06:54
goal and path for him rather than saying he is going to be a thousand yard receiver.
07:00
I mean, when you think about Harold Fannin on the next level, you're thinking about an
07:03
H back, right?
07:04
A guy that's going to be used more in space as the tight end.
07:06
And Gerald Everett is obviously a guy that has made a living off of that and been a pretty
07:10
solid contributor on the NFL level.
07:12
I think Johnny Smith is another one that kind of comes to mind as far as like those space
07:15
oriented tight ends.
07:17
I really like Gerald Everett though, because Gerald Everett was one of those guys that
07:20
was really sneaky after the catch, could break some tackles, and he also had some really
07:25
good feel for space.
07:26
So as that modern West Coast H back, right?
07:31
A guy that is going to get a lot of slides, a guy that's going to work off of play action,
07:34
the guy that is going to get into space and have him be a yards after catch receiver.
07:38
I think that that is what ultimately Harold Fannin's skillset lends best to.
07:43
An after catch oriented tight end that does a really good job of evaluating and manipulating
07:49
space.
07:50
Folks, hit that like button and subscribe and let us know below, what team do you want
07:54
to see Harold Fannin play for?
07:56
We'll talk to you later.
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