Jelani Woods has a chance to find himself in some exclusive company among Virginia football players, depending on how this week’s NFL Draft unfolds.
Only one UVa tight end has been selected in the first three rounds of the draft: Heath Miller, who was the No. 30 overall pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round in 2005. As this year’s draft approaches, Woods is trending toward joining Miller on that short list.
Woods was named first-team All-ACC at tight end in his lone season at UVa, finishing the year with 44 catches for 598 yards and eight touchdowns in 11 games. Only Miller (nine in 2002) caught more TDs in a season among tight ends in program history; his 598 receiving yards ranks third in a season among UVa tight ends.
The 6-foot-7 grad transfer from Oklahoma State declared for the NFL Draft in December. After building some momentum at the East West Shrine Bowl, Woods truly emerged at the NFL Combine. Woods led all tight ends in Indianapolis with 24 reps on the bench press, then ran a 4.61 40-yard dash, the fastest time for a 6-foot-7 or taller tight end since 2003.
At UVa’s pro day Woods built on that combine performance with a 37.5-inch vertical jump, 10-foot, 9-inch broad jump, a 4.22-second short shuttle and a 6.91 three-cone drill, prompting ESPN’s Matt Miller to write, “Those numbers might not mean much to the average fan, but they are golden to scouts. Woods’ numbers make him one of the most physically gifted tight end prospects in the past 30 years.”
Which brings us to this week’s three-day NFL Draft, which begins Thursday night with Round 1, continues with Rounds 2-3 on Friday and finishes with Rounds 4-7 on Saturday.
UVa hasn’t had a tight end picked in any round since the NFL moved to its current three-day draft format in 2010. John Phillips was the last UVa tight end selected, in Round 6 of the 2009 draft. The program has produced just five Day 2 picks in the three-day draft era: cornerbacks Chris Cook (2-34, 2010) and Ras-I Dowling (2-33, 2011), offensive tackle Morgan Moses (3-66, 2014), defensive end Eli Harold (3-79, 2015) and safety Juan Thornhill (2-63, 2019).
By the end of Round 3 on Friday night, a total of 105 players will have been selected in this year’s NFL Draft. The near-consensus among more than a half-dozen draft analysts is that Woods ranks among the top 100 prospects on this year’s board:
As Dane Brugler of The Athletic summarized in his seven-round mock draft, “Over the last calendar year, Jelani Woods has gone from borderline draft pick to surefire draft pick to an expected Day 2 draft pick.” The Buffalo Bills, New York Giants, Indianapolis Colts, Atlanta Falcons and Dallas Cowboys are among the teams who have reportedly worked out Woods leading up to the draft. On Wednesday, ESPN’s Dan Graziano reported that the Packers “have done a lot of work” studying Woods as a potential pick.
In his mock draft, Brugler predicted Woods to be picked by the Dallas Cowboys at No. 88 overall in the middle of Round 3. The highest the tight end is projected to go in the most recent mock drafts is No. 63 overall to the Cincinnati Bengals, with the next-to-last pick in the second round, by ESPN’s Jordan Reid.
“Woods has skyrocketed up draft boards because of his stellar measurable and testing numbers,” Reid wrote in his analysis. “He is raw but has a high ceiling.”
In one mock draft earlier this month, Chad Reuter of NFL.com also had Woods going to the Bengals at No. 63 overall; in his most recent, Reuter projected he’d be picked in the third round by the Minnesota Vikings at No. 77. Other mock drafts consulted also had Woods coming off the board in Round 3, including Miller’s, who predicted the Houston Texans would grab the tight end at No. 80 overall. Miller is highest on Woods among the analysts surveyed, ranking him the No. 2 tight end and the No. 64 overall prospect in the class.
“There is not a more physically imposing tight end in this class,” Miller wrote in his mock draft. “His potential is sky high.”
Much of that perceived potential stems from the fact that Woods is still relatively new to the tight end position. He was a dual-threat quarterback coming out of Ellenwood (Ga.) Cedar Grove High School and didn’t switch positions until late in his freshman season at Oklahoma State. He only caught 31 total passes and four touchdowns in his three seasons with the Cowboys before eclipsing those numbers in his lone year at Virginia.
At UVa’s pro day last month, Woods said he’s been studying YouTube clips and film of longtime NFL tight ends like Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez, Rob Gronkowski and Marcedes Lewis to learn some nuances of the position. At 253 pounds, he’s down almost 20 pounds from what he weighed when he arrived in Charlottesville last spring, and close to 10 pounds from his playing weight last fall. In preparation for a pro career, Woods has been focusing on fundamentals like running crisper routes and improving his blocking techniques.
“This is what you dream about,” he said of the possibility of playing in the NFL. “So just seeing this play out into fruition, just waking up every day knowing that you have a chance to play at the next level is the ultimate dream of a college athlete.”
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