Devin
Asiasi.
Devin
Asiasi.
UCLA· 6'3"· 257 lb· 4.73s 40
"A four-star tight end who took four years and two schools to produce one season, then went in the third round because 4.73 speed at 257 pounds is a bet teams keep making."Pre-draft read
Asiasi is a 6-3, 257-pound in-line tight end whose appeal was the combination of a true blocker's body and unusual speed for the frame. He ran 4.73 at the combine and plays faster on seam routes, eating cushion against linebackers and finishing through contact. He tracks the ball well over his outside shoulder and turns vertical throws into chunk gains.
The second trait is willingness in the run game. He will align tight, work combinations and stay attached to a defensive end once he lands his hands. The route tree is short and the release package basic, so separation comes from speed, not craft. The signature is the deep seam: 13 catches of 20 or more yards in his only full season as a starter.
A play-action offense with two tight-end personnel that uses him attached to the formation and releases him vertically off run action, not a spread scheme that asks him to detach and run a full route tree.
Year 1 TE2 who blocks in base personnel and stretches the seam on play action, with a ceiling as a starting Y who catches 50 balls.
A detached flex role in an offense that requires option routes and separation at the stem, where his technical gaps are exposed on every snap.
Devin Asiasi
Highlight reel of the 2019 season that produced almost all of his college receptions.
Devin Asiasi Film Breakdown
Analytical breakdown of the seam speed and the blocking technique that split evaluators.
Hog Sty Film Session: UCLA Tight End Devin Asiasi
Extended pre-draft film session covering route tree limits and projection concerns.
Asiasi was a four-star recruit from De La Salle, the number 46 prospect in the country, who signed with Michigan and played all thirteen games as a true freshman in 2016, catching two passes for 18 yards with his first career catch going for a touchdown against Penn State. He transferred home to UCLA in January 2017 and sat out the season.
The production came late. He played nine games with one start in 2018, catching six passes for 130 yards and a 21.7-yard average, then finally started all twelve games in 2019 and posted 44 catches for 641 yards and four touchdowns, including a five-catch, 141-yard game at USC with a 53-yard score. He earned third-team all-conference recognition from Pro Football Focus and honorable mention from the league coaches, and had multiple catches in eleven of twelve games. Across 34 college games at two schools his totals were 52 receptions for 789 yards and six touchdowns.
The evaluation was projection. One productive season, a body that looked like a starting NFL tight end, and rare movement skills for 257 pounds. The concerns were the thin resume and a route tree that never asked him to win with technique. New England, with Rob Gronkowski retired and the tight end position bare, took him at 91 and took Dalton Keene 10 picks later.
- 01
Speed at size
A 4.73 forty at 257 pounds with the play speed to stretch the seam and run away from linebackers on vertical routes.
- 02
Big-play production
Thirteen catches of 20-plus yards in his only season as a starter, including a 141-yard game against USC.
- 03
Catch radius
Long arms and strong hands that let him win above and outside the frame on contested throws downfield.
- 04
Willing in-line blocker
Comfortable aligning tight, working combinations and sustaining against defensive ends rather than being a move-only tight end.
- 05
Frame and bloodlines of a starter
A genuine three-down build at 6-3 and 257 pounds after arriving as a top-50 national recruit.
- 01
Single productive season
44 of his 52 career catches came in 2019, leaving a resume that offered almost nothing to confirm the projection.
- 02
Raw route runner
Basic release package and a short tree, with separation coming from speed rather than any technical craft.
- 03
Blocking technique lags effort
He will take the assignment but plays with inconsistent pad level and hand placement against NFL-caliber ends.
- 04
Two schools and a lost year
A transfer season without game action interrupted his development and left him older with fewer real snaps.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.73sp50
- Vertical
- 30.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 115inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 16repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Michigan | 13 | 2 | 18 | 1 |
| 2018 | UCLA | 9 | 6 | 130 | 1 |
| 2019 | UCLA | 12 | 44 | 641 | 4 |
| Career | — | 34 | 52 | 789 | 6 |
He transferred from Michigan to UCLA in January 2017 and did not see game action that year, so no 2017 line exists rather than a zero line. Season figures from The Football Database sum exactly to the 34-game, 52-catch, 789-yard, six-touchdown career totals also listed by Tankathon, and UCLA's own releases confirm the 2018 and 2019 lines. Rushing attempts were never recorded and are omitted rather than zero-filled.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Long-term TE2 whose blocking keeps him employed while the receiving production never arrives.
The ceiling: a physically gifted tight end who takes time but becomes a consistent starting receiver at the position.
Third-round tight end who never carves out a role and is off the roster before the rookie deal ends.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
New England needed him immediately and he was not close to ready. He appeared in nine games with three starts as a rookie in 2020, catching two passes for 39 yards and a touchdown against the Jets in Week 17. In 2021 he was inactive almost all season and played a single game without a target. The Patriots waived him in August 2022, and he landed in Cincinnati, where he appeared in twelve games as a blocker and special-teamer with two catches for five yards. He spent 2023 on the Bengals roster without appearing in a regular-season game.
The NFL ledger is 22 games, three starts, four catches and 44 yards, and he has since drifted through camps and practice squads without adding to it. In hindsight this was a projection that never got a second chance. Both the Patriots picks that spring failed, and the position group they were trying to rebuild stayed broken for years. Asiasi was drafted on one season of seam-stretching tape and a body type, and he never developed the route detail or the blocking consistency to hold a roster spot once the rookie contract leverage ran out.
Data note: from Seattle via Houston and Las Vegas