Joseph Fauria NFL draft scouting report

With Chip Kelly's offense likely to feature TEs prominently, the Eagles will undoubtedly look for high upside players at the position in the coming years. With Brent Celek & James Casey already in the mix, they're probably not going to looking to fill the spot at the top of the draft, but they could certainly add another body to the mix later.

2013 NFL draft scouting reports

Check out our profiles of all the top prospects and likely Eagles targets in the upcoming draft.

One potential candidate is UCLA TE Joseph Fauria. His last name may be familiar as his uncle was a 2nd round pick and played 12 seasons at TE in the NFL primarily with the Seahawks and Patriots.

The first thing you notice about Fauria is the size. He's 6-7, 259 with big 33 3/4 inch arms and nearly 11 inch hands. This size was on obvious display last season as he really emerged as red zone threat for the Bruins notching 12 TDs. If you look at 1:47 of his 2 TD game against Nebraska last season, you'll how he uses his size well to more or less post up guys in the end zone.

While Fauria does not have great straight line speed (4.7-4.8 40 time) he does have good short area quickness and gets out of his stance faster than you'd expect a guy his size to.

However, there are clear concerns. As you'll see in the video he was often lined up as a slot WR and wasn't really asked to block much. So that skill is underdeveloped and given his lean frame, it's not likely he'll ever become a plus run blocker in the NFL. Overall, he's really just not the kind of athlete that elite TEs in this league are. He's got the basketball player build like the Jimmy Graham's of the world, but he's just not at that level athletically.

Still, if Fauria can become a consistent red zone target in the NFL as he did in college, he could have a lot of value. He's a true matchup problem for any NFL defender in that area of the field. For a team like the Eagles, where he wouldn't have to play a lot right away, he could have time to develop the blocking and other parts of his game that aren't there yet.

Fauria is ranked as the #12 TE by our own Mocking the Draft and is expected to be a late round pick.