What does TE John Bates bring to the Washington Football Team?

What is Washington getting in its fourth-round pick?

In the fourth-round of the NFL draft, the Washington Football Team selected Boise State tight end John Bates. Bates offers good size at 6-foot-5, 250 pounds but was one of Washington’s lowest scoring picks when it comes to athletic testing. That shows up pretty quickly when watching Bates too. He’s not an explosive athlete that gets in and out of breaks quickly and he’s not so strong that he’ll bulldoze a linebacker in the run game. He does offer some vertical speed, but is a build up straight line runner, meaning he takes a while to get into stride but can get up to a decent speed once in stride. 

Pass Catching

It’s easy to look at Bates’ production and assume he’s a blocking right end. He had just 47 catches for 579 yards and two touchdowns during his four-year college career, an average of just 11 receptions a year. However, Boise State didn’t make the best use of him during his first three seasons. He appeared to be on the rise in 2020, catching 13 passes in three games before Covid ended the season prematurely. 

When watching Bates, the lack of athleticism is there to see, but there’s also untapped potential. He is a natural catcher of the ball that is able to adjust his body in the air to enable himself to access different types of throws. He has a large catch radius that gives the quarterback room for error and the ability to put the ball up for him to give him an opportunity for a big play.

Here, Bates aligns in the slot to the right, detached from the formation. He releases inside off the snap but then works vertically up the seam. The safety to his side steps up into an underneath zone coverage, allowing Bates to run by him. The quarterback spots Bates open up the seam and pulls the trigger. However, with the other safety working across the field, the quarterback can’t afford to lead him too far across the middle. Instead, he throws up and away from the safety, trusting Bates to make the adjustment. Bates repays that trust, twisting his body in the air to snag the ball and complete the pass for a nice gain.

Bates had somewhat of a habit of making these types of catches on vertical routes.

This time, Bates runs a little out-and-up route from an in-line tight end spot. He slowly works to the flat, allowing the receivers to his side to clear down the field before he turns the corner and works down the sideline. He lacks the burst to really run away from the defense, but the design of the play surprises the defender in coverage and Bates gets a step on him. The quarterback again pulls the trigger, but with a safety over the top he puts the ball on Bates rather than out in front. Bates makes a similar adjustment to the one he made on the last play and gets up to pull in the catch for another big gain.

Ball skills are a plus for Bates. He’s a natural hands catcher that doesn’t rely on the ball hitting his body. He can also run after the catch a little bit with some momentum behind him.

On this play, Boise runs a tight end screen to Bates, who aligns as a H-Back in the backfield. Off the snap, Bates sifts across the line and tries to leak out into the flat to receive the screen pass. However, the defensive tackle does a good job reading the play and tries to get in his path. Bates does a nice job working around the defender and still being able to be available to the quarterback, who is pressured quickly to get the ball out. Bates locates the pass early despite the traffic and extends his arms out to secure the pass away from his body. He gets a good block to spring him free, where he builds up a good head of steam to allow him to pick up a first down.

However, while there are some positive traits to develop with Bates as a receiver, he has a lot of work to do to be able to get open consistently at the next level. He lacks the speed and burst to really trouble defenders at the next level.

Here, Bates aligns in the slot to the left, working against a safety. He actually does a nice job releasing against press coverage, swiping both hands across his body to clear the hands of the defender as he works inside. But while it’s a good release, he doesn’t have the burst to make the most of it. The release gets him inside of the safety and gains him a step, but the safety quickly gets back in-phase, meaning he’s attached to the route securely. That takes Bates out of the play for the quarterback, who is forced to throw elsewhere.

He simply lacks the burst and speed to be a real receiving threat to NFL defenses at this point in time. When he’s schemed open up the seam, he can make some fantastic catches and has terrific natural ball skills. That is certainly worth developing for Washington going forward. But there are also times when routes look slow and laborious for Bates, and defenders in coverage have little trouble staying with him. To make the most of his ball skills, Bates will need to learn how to find little pockets of space in zone coverages and make himself available to the quarterback in those holes. If he can learn that, continue to develop his ball skills and be schemed open in certain situations, Bates has good potential as a second tight end for Washington.

Run Blocking

Bates has been labelled as a blocking tight end with both General Manager Martin Mayhew and Head Coach Ron Rivera pointing to his blocking as his biggest strength. For me, I didn’t necessarily see a fantastic run blocker. With his frame, he has the potential to be a good blocker, especially if he adds a little more weight and fills out that frame. But I felt while he had some good blocks against lower competition, when he played the best teams on Boise State’s schedule, he was inconsistent at best in the run game.

First off, I’ll start with a positive play. Bates aligns to the left of the formation on an inside zone play to the right. Inside zone plays from the shotgun often can be made or broken by the tight end’s block on the back side. These runs typically end up being cut all the way back behind the tackle, so the tight end can be key in springing the back free or letting them get tackled. On this occasion, Bates does a nice job working inside initially to ensure the left tackle has his block secured before then climbing to reach the linebacker at the second level. He gets to the linebacker just as the back cuts back into the hole. The linebacker attempts to work across Bates into the gap and make the play, but Bates does just enough to cut him off and give the back the lane to cut back into. 

That type of block translates to Washington nicely too. Washington worked primarily out of the shotgun last year and had most of its success running zone scheme plays, so Bates should see scenarios very similar to that this season. He also displayed some ability to create movement on downblocks when working with gap scheme runs.

This time, Bates aligns to the right side of the line and is tasked with blocking down on the defensive end as part of a power scheme to the right. Bates comes off the snap with good leverage and is able to explode up into the defensive end, getting his pad level under that of the defender while also getting his hands inside on the chest of the defender. That gives Bates all the leverage. He follows up the initial contact with good drive from his legs to wash the defender down the line of scrimmage and out of the play completely.

However, while there were some nice flashes of potential as a blocker, they were interspersed with plenty of bad snaps too, particularly against better opposition. Boise State played the Washington Huskies in a bowl game at the end of the 2019 season, by far the highest level of competition I saw Bates play against when watching him. In that game, he struggled as a blocker.

On this play, Bates aligns to the left of the formation in a run-heavy look from the offense. He’s tasked with blocking the edge defender, who stands up rather than puts his hand in the dirt. Bates tries to explode up at the defender off the snap, but ends up lunging at him because the defender is standing up rather than down on the line of scrimmage. The defender catches Bates lunging at him and swiftly shoves him inside before ripping his hands away to work towards the running back and make the tackle. 

Unfortunately for Bates, it wasn’t a one-time issue in that game either.

Like before, Bates aligns to the left of the formation, this time with the offense backed up near the goal line. He faces a different defender on the edge, who plays with his hand in the dirt this time. Bates comes off the snap a bit more tentatively here as he steps inside slightly to try and secure that inside gap. However, the tentativeness allows the defender to engage first, getting his hands inside and underneath Bates. From there, the defender simply tosses Bates aside as he skips past him into the backfield, but fortunately the back found another lane to run into.

Overall I think Bates has some talent and upside worth developing. I think his blocking is still raw and his technique can improve. Adding a few more pounds to that frame could certainly help him too. I believe his biggest upside is his ball skills and he has untapped potential as a receiver. His athletic ability will hold him back somewhat, as he’ll struggle to separate athletically, but if he can learn to play with a little more urgency in his routes, sharpen up his breaks and most importantly, understand how to find holes in zone coverages, I think he can become an effective receiving option for Washington. 

Picking him in the fourth round is slightly rich for me personally, but if there’s any position that this staff has earned the benefit of the doubt on, it’s tight end. This time last year nobody expected much of anything from Logan Thomas and he had a fantastic season. He also appears to be one of Rivera’s, and Washington’s, targeted players, given that Rivera had a one-on-one zoom meeting with him before the draft, as he did with many of Washington’s eventual draftees to assess their character and culture fit. Perhaps they feel the blocking will improve and he can develop into a true in-line Y tight end that can be trusted in the run game and still offer a receiving threat in the vertical passing game up the seams, where his ball skills and build-up speed can shine.