Harrison
Bryant.
Harrison
Bryant.
Florida Atlantic· 6'5"· 243 lb· 4.73s 40
"The only non-Power Five player ever to win the Mackey Award, a 242-pound FAU matchup weapon with outstanding hands and no frame for in-line blocking."Pre-draft read
Bryant is a move tight end who wins with feel, hands and body control rather than speed. A converted high school offensive tackle, he plays with long strides and easy adjustments to the football, tracking it over either shoulder and plucking outside his frame without breaking rhythm.
FAU used him everywhere: inline, in the slot, flexed wide and in the backfield. He finds soft spots against zone and is a problem on seams and crossers because contested grabs look routine. He is tough after the catch, lowering a shoulder instead of looking for the sideline. As a blocker he is willing but light, a positional screener rather than a displacer. The signature is reliability: a pass-catching tight end who almost never lets a catchable ball hit the ground.
A two-tight-end passing offense that flexes its second tight end into the slot and attacks the middle of the field with seams and crossers.
Year 1 second tight end and red-zone target, with a ceiling as a 60-catch move tight end for an offense that hides his blocking.
A run-first scheme that asks its tight end to line up on the edge and displace defensive ends on early downs.
FAU TE Harrison Bryant Highlight Reel - 2019 Season
Full Mackey Award season cutup showing the hands and the route usage.
How Florida Atlantic TE Harrison Bryant Can Play in the NFL
Pre-draft projection breaking down the move tight end fit and the blocking concern.
Harrison Bryant Highlights: Florida Atlantic vs. UTSA (2019)
Single-game study from his senior year with all targets included.
Bryant is the most decorated player in FAU history. He came out of John Milledge Academy in Georgia as a converted offensive tackle, caught six passes for 63 yards as a true freshman and earned Conference USA All-Freshman honors, then took over as the starter in 2017 with 32 catches for 408 yards and five touchdowns on a team that won a conference title and the Boca Raton Bowl.
His junior year brought 45 catches, 662 yards and four touchdowns and first-team All-Conference USA honors. Then came a senior season that changed his draft status entirely: 65 receptions for 1,004 yards and seven touchdowns, all seven scores coming in his last six games, leading every tight end in the country in both catches and yards. He won the John Mackey Award as the nation's best tight end, the only non-Power Five player ever to do it, and was a unanimous All-American named first-team by the AFCA, AP, FWAA, Sporting News and Walter Camp. He finished with 148 catches, 2,137 yards and sixteen touchdowns.
The pre-draft debate was competition level and blocking. He answered the first at the Senior Bowl and with a six-catch, 79-yard game against Ohio State that Browns scouts cited. The second stuck: a 242-pound tight end is a matchup weapon, not a complete player. Cleveland took him at 115.
- 01
Mackey Award production
Led every tight end in the country with 65 catches and 1,004 yards as a senior, scoring seven times in six games.
- 02
Elite hands
Plucks outside his frame and tracks the ball over either shoulder, with almost no drops on catchable throws.
- 03
Alignment versatility
FAU used him inline, in the slot, flexed wide and in the backfield without changing his effectiveness.
- 04
Proved it against elite defenses
Caught six passes for 79 yards against Ohio State and impressed all week at the Senior Bowl.
- 05
Toughness after the catch
Lowers a shoulder into contact instead of running out of bounds, converting short throws into first downs.
- 01
Light for in-line work
At 242 pounds he screens defenders rather than displacing them, limiting him in the run game.
- 02
Lacks a separation gear
Wins with feel and body control, not speed, so he rarely runs away from NFL linebackers or safeties.
- 03
Group of Five competition
The bulk of his production came against Conference USA defenses, which discounted the raw numbers.
- 04
Route-tree refinement
Relies on finding zone voids and needs work beating man coverage with sharper breaks at the top of routes.
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
- 32.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 110inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.41sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.37sp50
- Bench
- 13repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Florida Atlantic | — | 6 | 63 | 0 |
| 2017 | Florida Atlantic | — | 32 | 408 | 5 |
| 2018 | Florida Atlantic | — | 45 | 662 | 4 |
| 2019 | Florida Atlantic | — | 65 | 1004 | 7 |
| Career | — | — | 148 | 2137 | 16 |
Receiving lines from FAU official releases and the school Hall of Fame citation; the four seasons sum exactly to the published career totals of 148 receptions, 2,137 yards and sixteen touchdowns. Per-season games and starts are not itemized in the sources consulted and are left empty rather than estimated.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A dependable second tight end who catches red-zone touchdowns and stays employed without carrying an offense.
The ceiling: a small-school tight end whose hands and toughness make him a primary receiving option.
A move tight end whose target share never grows and who becomes a rotating roster piece late in his career.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
He has been a useful second tight end for six years. Bryant made the Pro Football Writers All-Rookie Team in 2020 behind Austin Hooper and David Njoku, and spent four seasons in Cleveland as a reliable second and third tight end in a heavy-personnel offense that valued his hands in the red zone more than his volume.
Free agency then turned him into a journeyman with no settled home. He signed with Las Vegas for 2024, spent 2025 between Philadelphia's practice squad and Houston, and joined Seattle for 2026. Through six seasons he has 100 receptions, 884 receiving yards and ten touchdowns. In hindsight the fourth round was about right for what he became: the Mackey Award and the unanimous All-American trophy described a college matchup nightmare, and the NFL reduced him to exactly what the blocking concern predicted, a second tight end with dependable hands who never got the target volume to be more.