Before the catch, "nobody really knew who Nate Boerkircher was," said his Texas A&M teammate Will Lee III. "That ball was in the air and he wanted to go get it. And he blew up simply off that. It takes one play to get your name out there."
It was a fade ball in the end zone on a fourth-down scramble play to lift A&M over Notre Dame in the dying seconds of a nationally-televised game last September. It changed the trajectory of the season, for both teams, and the arc of Boerkircher's career. Without it, the Aggies and the Irish might've swapped spots in the playoff, and Boerkircher might still be seen as just a blocking tight end.
"He’s a top-tier player," said Lee, a cornerback who could be a Day 2 pick in this year's draft. (His NFL team) is gonna be getting a physical tight end that can really do everything. You can put him in a lot of different positions and he’s going to succeed."
Boerkircher's journey has been a popular topic during his conversations with teams at the combine this week, including an informal meeting with the Lions. He had one Division II offer coming out of high school. He walked on at Nebraska, where he blocked his tail off while rarely seeing the ball for four years. Then he transferred to Texas A&M and showed some route-running to go with his road-grading, and soft hands to go with his rough side.
"It’s a mentality I’ve kept with me throughout my career, being the underdog, I love it. It fuels me," Boerkircher said. "I play with a chip on my shoulder. If I’m undervalued, that’s OK. I’m going to use it to my advantage."
Another tight end from Texas A&M has to be nodding his head. His picture is on the wall next to the tight ends room in the team facility, "so I walked past him every day for a year," Boerkircher said. In his one season with the Aggies, Boerkircher caught 19 passes and three touchdowns, matching Dan Campbell over his final two seasons with the Aggies. The feedback he's getting from NFL teams this week probably sounds similar to what Campbell heard in 1999.
"I think they like my toughness and my high motor," Boerkircher said. "I don’t have crazy stats, so that limited stats thing is brought up a little bit and we talk about that, but like I said, film shows what it needs to show. The film doesn’t lie."
"The tape is always going to speak louder than anything else," Campbell said this week, "and if the tape doesn’t speak, then it really doesn’t matter."
Similar to safety, the Lions are facing a real need at tight end. It's not as urgent as, say, center or edge rusher, but it's simmering beneath the surface of the roster: Sam LaPorta is coming off a season-ending back injury that required surgery, Brock Wright is coming off a season-ending trachea injury, and both are entering the final year of their contracts. The Lions could be looking for a capable No. 2 tight end in this year's draft, which is light on true game-changers at the position but long on players who project as sturdy Day 3 picks.
Boerkircher has a stable floor thanks to his versatile blocking ability, and a ceiling worth pursuing as a pass-catcher. He won't ever produce like LaPorta, but in time, he could become a better version of Wright.
"I like putting my face into the fan," Boerkircher said, "getting in there and blocking ... The best way to determine (physicality) is moving a man against his will. It's not an easy thing to do when you look at some of these defensive linemen, they’re monsters, but I think it’s cool when you can beat somebody with leverage and hand placement even if you might not be as strong or as fast."
We'll see what the Lions' offense looks like under new coordinator Drew Petzing, who used tons of heavy personnel during his time in Arizona. That was triggered by a storm of injuries on offense more than anything else, but the Lions figure to utilize multiple tight ends as long as Campbell's around.
They could find their next one in this year's draft.
"I think I can fit into any offense and play any role that’s needed of me, whether that’s blocking, pulling, running routes, catching the ball," said Boerkircher. "I think I was put in a good spot at A&M to succeed, and then I did so."
Tanner Koziol, Houston
On the other end of the spectrum is Tanner Koziol, who led all tight ends in the country last season in catches (74) and finished second in yards (727). He has a long 6'6 frame and soft hands, and prides himself on "running the entire route tree," he said. "I think it’s what I excel it and what I can continue to do in the NFL."
Which is why Koziol went to Indy this week wanting to prove to teams that he's also "physical and nasty in the run game, sustaining blocks and being able to put people in the dirt with my frame." He knows there are questions about his run-blocking.
Koziol, who transferred to Houston last season to prove himself against higher competition after thriving for three years at Ball State, had a formal meeting with the Lions at the combine and gave a glowing review of the organization on Thursday.
"They’re awesome people," he said. "The culture that they’ve built is bleeding throughout college football. You see teams, how Coach Campbell talks about grit and what it really means and how that helps you win games and how it helps you build a culture, the meetings went phenomenal with them. And I’ve watched a lot of LaPorta this year with my tight end coach at Houston, and it’s been really cool to watch. Everything they do on offense is elite."
Koziol was one of several tight ends at the combine who cited LaPorta as a model for the way he plays.
"He’s one of those guys that you don’t have to take off the field in any aspect. In the run game he’s gonna dominate, in the pass game he’s gonna dominate, when the ball’s in the air he’s gonna dominate," said Koziol. "I want to be on the field as much as possible, that’s really what I love about him. You see some guys who come off the field for certain things, I just want to continue to grow to be able to play all downs."
Oscar Delp, Georgia
Oscar Delp wants to set the record straight: "I feel like I’m looked at as a blocking tight end," he said Thursday. "I’m a receiving tight end that learned how to block. And I enjoy it. I fell in love with blocking. Who doesn’t like over-powering another man against his will?"
Delp had modest receiving numbers over his four seasons at Georgia, in part because he spent his first two seasons behind future first-round pick Brock Bowers. He was behind both Bowers and Darnell Washington when he arrived in Athens and "I still found a way to get some plays on the field my freshman year."
"I can be put anywhere," he said.
The bulk of tight ends in this year's class are projected as Day 3 picks, Delp included. Asked what makes him stand out, Delp said: "The way I handle my business in the run game and on the perimeter. I feel like football nowadays, a lot of things are run on the perimeter. In order to have a successful football team, you need to have a tight end that can own the C gap and own the perimeter, and those are two things I take pride in."
For a team like the Lions that's founded on grit, how about this? Delp was reportedly ruled out of doing combine drills this week after an X-ray during his physical discovered a hairline fracture in his foot that he played through last season without even knowing it.
Delp, 6'5, is a smooth athlete who was planning to play Ivy League lacrosse -- "I was getting ready to take all these super hard classes in college," he said with a laugh -- before realizing in his senior year of high school that he had a more promising path in football. It was always his dream.
In his interviews with teams in Indy -- Delp said he did not have one with Detroit -- he's been taking the opportunity to ask them, "What’s the first thing you look for in a tight end?" Almost all of them say, "A willing blocker."
"And that’s who I am," said Delp.
But he doesn't let them forget: "I can get open, I can find zones, I can beat people in man. Just being that versatile player."