Notre Dame snapped its draft drought when tight end Ben Koyack finally came off the board in the seventh round. Selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars, Koyack was the 229th overall player taken and the 16th tight end to be drafted.
A native of Oil City, Pennsylvania, Koyack was a regular for the Irish offense, their top participant from a snap-count perspective among skill players. While early projections (at least those in the media) had Koyack among the highest profile tight ends in the draft coming into the 2014 season, a modest season that had evaluators vexed even before an underwhelming Senior Bowl slid Koyack down most boards.
Still, the Irish veteran gets Notre Dame on the board and continues a great run of NFL tight ends. While he wasn’t a first or second-round pick, Koyack joins Kyle Rudolph, Tyler Eifert and Troy Niklas among the tight ends drafted under Brian Kelly.
While the Jags only won three games last season, they have a young quarterback in Blake Bortles and some emerging skill players. Now he’ll just need to make the roster, at a position group that features free agent acquisition Julius Thomas and a crowded depth chart that now has five tight ends.