Continuing a trend of largely confusing, yet future-oriented selections, the Green Bay Packers reached and selected tight end Josiah Deguara from Cincinnati. Looked at as a project player that could eventually become an H-back / tight end dual-purpose guy, Deguara fits into an interesting situation for head coach Matt LaFleur and his offensive scheme.
LaFleur came from the Kyle Shanahan/Sean McVay coaching tree, and it looks like he is trying to tailor the offense to his liking. Which looks to be leaning a bit more towards what the 49ers look like currently than how the Rams are currently built. SF utilizes an H-back in Kyle Juszczyk in a fair share of their plays, and the body type of Deguara places him right into that category.
GB has chosen to improve their offense in different forms so far this year, adding a backup QB (Jordan Love) and backup RB (AJ Dillon), and Deguara may have the largest role of these three in 2020.
30 catches
Outside of incumbent tight end Jace Sternberger, the Packers boast no true dominating tight end presence. Old vet Marcedes Lewis and young upstart Robert Tonyan fill out the other roster spots for tight ends, so that presents Deguara with a solid chance to make an impact in his rookie season.
If he is transitioned into the H-back role for this team, Deguara’s height and physicality could present him with a field-stretch role that could really help this offense break out. That would help address the lack of wide receiver additions that they were needing to do.
30 catches for a rookie H-back/TE would be a safe guess, especially if that is the route that this offense is being tailored to. For LaFleur, his fingerprints on this entire draft class, and Deguara looks to be another guy that can help with that.
300+ yards
Short passes may be how Deguara is integrated into this offense the best, instead of being looked at a guy who will take the safety out of the middle of the field by running vertical-oriented routes.
300-plus yards is still a solid amount for the former Bearcat, and he is another fun tool for Aaron Rodgers to throw to as he is in desperate need of more weapons.
Five touchdowns
A physical, tall offensive weapon is something that the Packers already have in wide receiver Allen Lazard. But Deguara could present another aspect of that if split out, or even if he is kept on the line or in the backfield. The team has no true starting-caliber fullback on the team, so it is expected that Deguara would take a bunch of snaps from that spot.
And if Deguara can even half of the impact that Juszczyk has had with SF, then putting up five scores, while very ambitious, is not totally out of the question.
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