A good reminder that the NFL Draft is inching closer and closer is that the stream of leaks about different draft prospects visiting the Seattle Seahawks start to come through. The newest 30 visit to be announced this week was tight end Mason Taylor out of LSU. This is the first known Seahawks visit for a tight end, with wide receiver Savion Williams being the only other known pass-catcher to visit Seattle.
Taylor has the NFL in his blood already; he’s the son of Pro Football Hall-of-Famer, Jason Taylor, and the nephew of Pro Football Hall-of-Famer, Zach Thomas. Masonplayed right away as a true freshman and impressed enough to earn 2022 Freshman All-SEC honors. Over his three years at LSU, Taylor became the most productive tight end in LSU history with 129 receptions for 1,308 yards and 6 touchdowns. This production has led to Taylor being one of the top tight ends available in this years’ NFL Draft. Daniel Jeremiah ranks Taylor has his 32nd overall player, and third best tight end prospect (after Tyler Warren and Colston Loveland). Mel Kiper meanwhile ranks Taylor has his fourth tight end (behind Warren, Loveland, and Elijah Arroyo). With these rankings, amongst others, Taylor appears to be a lock for Day 2 in this year’s draft.
Seattle’s tight end room currently consists of Noah Fant, AJ Barner, Brady Russell, and Eric Saubert. Both Russell and Saubert are replacement level players and are on one-year contracts. Meanwhile Fant, if cut or traded would save the Seahawks $8.9 million against the cap, with only a $4.5 million dead cap hit. Adding Taylor to the room would immediately raise the floor of the tight end room this year, with the chance of replacing Fant next year and allowing Barner and Taylor to be your one-two punch for the next few years.
Lucky for you, Field Gulls is tracking all of these 30 visits. These visits are better known as “30-visits.” A 30-visit is a formal in-person meeting the NFL teams get to have with draft prospects. Each NFL team gets 30 of these visits (which is where the name comes from) and consists of NFL teams bringing in these prospects to their facilities for interviews and physicals. These 30-visits allow a team like the Seahawks to conduct further interviews and conduct physicals with the players. Local prospects do not count against a team’s limit of visits.
