Lake McRee already has a lot to prove as an NFL rookie. He was an undrafted free agent. That alone should light a fire in a first-year pro. However, what should also give the USC Trojan some motivational fuel is the prominence of tight ends in modern football and the recent NFL draft. Tom Fornelli of CBS Sports offers context:
“This spring’s NFL Draft saw 22 tight ends selected over the seven rounds, the most in any draft since 2002. Nine of them were taken in the first three rounds. We’ve seen NFL teams with head coaches like Sean McVay (Los Angeles Rams) and Ben Johnson (Chicago Bears), both of whom are considered “offensive gurus,” loading up on the position despite already having options because their offenses feature so much 12 and 13 personnel (two tight end and three tight end formations).
“It’s a logical step in offensive design. The sport is always evolving (or revolving), and over the last couple of decades, we saw the proliferation of spread offenses at the high school and college levels. Those offenses made their way to the NFL. To counter, defenses began focusing on smaller players who were better suited to defend such attacks. The logical counter to this adjustment was to get bigger, thus we are seeing more tight ends. Will we see the same kind of tight end revolution at the college level? What if we already are?
“During the 2016 season, college offenses ran 12 personnel 17.6% of the time. In 2025, that number was 23.0%, and while it hasn’t increased in a linear fashion, it’s been trending up the entire time (things peaked in 2024 at 24.0%). We’ve seen the same trends with college offenses using 12 and 13 personnel, too, rising from 19.2% in 2016 to 25.2% last year.”
Lake McRee not being one of the 22 tight ends picked in the NFL draft should be bulletin-board material. Knowing tight ends are more prominent in modern football should motivate McRee to plant his flag with the Pittsburgh Steelers and show that he belongs on an NFL field.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Lake McRee has a lot to prove with Pittsburgh Steelers
Reporting by Matt Zemek, Trojans Wire / Trojans Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
