How high an NFL.com analyst rates USC’s Hayden Hurst

When South Carolina football tight end Hayden Hurst decided to leave the Gamecocks after three seasons, it likely wasn’t to get picked late.

The 6-foot-5, 250-pounder is plenty talented, and NFL.com draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah put him high on his list.

Jeremiah ranked him as the No. 34 prospect in the 2018 draft in his latest Top-50 list. That makes him the top tight end on the list, far ahead of South Dakota State’s Dallas Goedert at No. 47.

“Hurst is a former pro baseball player who walked on as a tight end for the Gamecocks,” Jeremiah wrote. “He has excellent size, speed and ball skills. He was primarily used as a move tight end. As a route runner, he is very smooth and quickly builds speed. At South Carolina, he wasn't asked to run a lot of traditional option routes and work back to the quarterback. However, he excels on vertical routes and crossers. He tracks the ball smoothly and has a big catch radius. He received the ball quite a bit on tight end reverses and proved plenty capable of making defenders miss or out-running them to the corner. He's more than willing as a run blocker and, while he lacks power, he does a nice job of shielding defenders. Hurst should be a Day 1 starter and has tremendous upside.”

Hurst had 559 yards and 44 catches in 2017. With 616 and 48 last season, he broke most of South Carolina’s tight end receiving records.

At Jeremiah’s mock draft has him in the first round.

This story was originally published January 23, 2018 at 4:31 PM with the headline "How high an NFL.com analyst rates USC’s Hayden Hurst."