Arizona Cardinals 2019 NFL Draft: 10 small school heroes you need to know

Keenen Brown – TE, Texas State

Although Keenen Brown is wearing an Oklahoma State jersey in his photo, his best work came at Texas State, where he grad-transferred to after seeing minimal action for the Cowboys.

In his one year at Texas State, Brown showed that Oklahoma State should’ve used him a bit more. At 6-foot-2 and 250-pounds, Brown may be a bit undersized. But, his well-rounded athleticism including a 4.75 second 40-yard-dash, 33-inch vertical, 117-broad jump, and 7.27-second three-cone-drill should turn heads.

As a former receiver, Brown is versatile and a real threat with the ball in his hands. In 11 games, Brown tallied 54 receptions (76.1% catch rate, per Pro Football Focus) for 580 yards and five touchdowns. Even more impressive, he had a total of 427 yards after the catch, per PFF, had 2.15 yards per route run (sixth in the class), 21 slot receptions (third in the class), and caught all of his deep passes.

Brown dominated against lesser competition as a tight-end or slot-receiver, which leads me to believe he’d be an ideal fit in Kliff Kingsbury’s offense. He’s a mismatch against linebackers due to smart route-running, speed, and solid hands, and will challenge safeties with his frame that’s just getting bigger.

However, Brown has a ways to go, as his newness to the position is obvious. He needs to take better blocking angles and needs to get more powerful in the region. A part of his failure as a receiver came due to a lack of separation skills against cornerbacks. Fortunately, as a tight end, he’ll see far less press. I project him as a chess piece on offenses as a receiving tight end, but he’s far from a complete prospect at the position.

Round projection: 5th-7th round, an offensive-minded team may fall in love with him and his potential to be a modern-day tight end.