John
Fitzpatrick.
John
Fitzpatrick.
Georgia
"Seventeen catches in four college years and a national championship ring earned the same way: John FitzPatrick was drafted to block, and four NFL seasons later that is still the only reason he keeps getting signed."Pre-draft read
A blocking tight end in a league that keeps asking tight ends to run routes. At 6-7 and 262 pounds with 33 3/4-inch arms, FitzPatrick is a true in-line Y who can fit on the edge of the formation, wall off an end in the run game and hold up against a rushing linebacker without help. Georgia trusted him in that role on a national championship offense, which is the highest endorsement the job offers.
He is not a receiving threat and never pretended to be. He caught 17 passes in four seasons, and the route tree is limited to seams, flats and play-action leaks where his size does the work. He gets off the line slowly, struggles to separate against anyone quick, and his catch radius is bigger than his catch reliability on contested throws.
A two-back, play-action offense in the Shanahan or McVay lineage that builds its run game off a heavy in-line tight end and uses 12 and 21 personnel weekly.
Year 1: third tight end and core special teamer. Ceiling: a full-time blocking Y who plays 300 snaps a year in a run-first offense.
A spread offense that runs 11 personnel on 70 percent of snaps and asks its tight end to win one-on-one against nickel defenders.
His value is the run-game floor, so the play-caller's personnel chart decides whether he is employed.
John FitzPatrick highlights | 2022 NFL Draft
The Falcons' own draft reel on the Georgia blocker they took 213th.
John Fitzpatrick 2020 Film
His most productive college season, the ten-catch year with the Peach Bowl performance.
John FitzPatrick: 'All I care about is winning'
Green Bay's feature after he earned real snaps in the 2025 offense.
FitzPatrick was a four-star recruit from Marist School in Atlanta who stayed home and redshirted in 2018, playing in only the Austin Peay and Middle Tennessee games. He saw action in 11 of 14 games in 2019 and started the opener at Vanderbilt, catching one pass for 22 yards. That was the shape of the whole career: the blocking mattered, the receiving line stayed small.
His 2020 season was the closest thing to production. He started five of ten games and caught ten passes for 95 yards and a touchdown, including a career-best four catches for 41 yards in the Peach Bowl win over Cincinnati and a 12-yard touchdown against Arkansas. In 2021 he played all 15 games with seven starts for a national champion and finished with six catches for 83 yards, a career-long 28-yarder at Vanderbilt and a turn as a game captain.
The detail that mattered most did not show up in a box score: he played the majority of that title season with fractures in both feet. His pro day measured him at 6-7 1/8 and 262 pounds with 10 1/4-inch hands, and he declared after his redshirt junior year. Teams saw a low-volume, high-floor blocker with championship reps and priced him accordingly.
- 01
True in-line size
6-7 and 262 pounds with 33 3/4-inch arms, a genuine Y tight end body in a league short on them.
- 02
Run-game reliability
earned seven starts for a national championship offense almost entirely on his blocking value.
- 03
Toughness on the record
he played the majority of the 2021 national championship season with fractures in both of his feet.
- 04
Locker-room standing
named a team captain for the Vanderbilt game as a junior on a roster loaded with future pros.
- 05
Special teams frame
the length and willingness that translate directly to kick and punt units at the NFL level.
- 01
No receiving production whatsoever
just 17 catches for 200 yards and a single touchdown across four seasons in Athens.
- 02
Limited separation
a heavy release and long strides mean he cannot win quickly against linebackers or safeties.
- 03
Small route tree
Georgia used him on seams, flats and play-action leaks, and almost never asked for anything else.
- 04
Foot durability
the double foot fractures as a junior foreshadowed the injury issues that followed him into the NFL.
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Georgia | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Georgia | 11 | 1 | 22 | 0 |
| 2020 | Georgia | 10 | 10 | 95 | 1 |
| 2021 | Georgia | 15 | 6 | 83 | 0 |
| Career | — | 38 | 17 | 200 | 1 |
Season lines taken from Georgia's official athletics bio, which is the only source that records his 2018 redshirt appearances against Austin Peay and Middle Tennessee and his 2019 usage of 11 games in 14. Receiving totals cross-checked on cfbstats for 2020 (ten games, ten catches, 95 yards, one touchdown) and on the 2021 bio line of six catches for 83 yards; cfbstats lists five catches for 55 yards in 2021 because it excludes the national championship game, so the official figure is used. The four seasons sum exactly to a career of 38 games, 17 catches, 200 yards and one touchdown. Zeros in 2018 are verified zeros, not placeholders.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Career blocking specialist who bounced between rosters for a decade on run-game value and special teams.
Undervalued blocking tight end who carved out a long career as a reliable TE2 in play-action offenses.
In-line blocker with no receiving profile who never turned practice-squad time into steady snaps.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Atlanta drafted the hometown kid 213th and put him on injured reserve on September 1, 2022, before he played a snap. He made the 53 the next year as the fourth tight end behind Kyle Pitts, Jonnu Smith and MyCole Pruitt, appearing in nine games with one catch for 12 yards and three special teams tackles — the exact job the pick was made for. The Falcons waived him on August 27, 2024, and re-signed him to the practice squad. Green Bay gave him the real chance. The Packers signed him off Atlanta's practice squad to their active roster on October 11, 2024, when Luke Musgrave went on injured reserve, and he played nine games. They re-signed him on April 14, 2025, and he had the best year of his career: 13 games, three starts, nine catches for 54 yards and his first NFL touchdown, before a torn Achilles in Week 16 against Chicago sent him to injured reserve on December 22.
Through 31 regular-season games he has three starts, 11 catches for 68 yards and one touchdown, plus one playoff appearance. That is roughly what the 213th pick is supposed to return — four years of roster value from a blocking specialist — but the Achilles arrived at the worst possible moment, with his contract expiring and his best tape barely a month old.