I think relative to the rest of the roster the tight end room is certainly one of the standouts. Where it stands compared to Stanford historical standards is debatable and where it fits in a Troy Taylor offense remains to be seen. Here's how I view it:
Yurosek - the most proven receiving tight end in the Pac-12 but an incomplete player who has been a somewhat troubled blocker who never seems to transform his body in the off-season....my guess is under Taylor we will just lean into him being a major receiving weapon as Yurosek is the marquee player on the offense
Roush - mixed bag as a freshman insofar as it was eye-opening for a true freshman TE to play right away under Shaw/Turner and to leap frog older guys but the performance was horrendous.....strikes me as a big wild card to see what kind of jump he can make now being much more acclimated to college ball and having new coaches
Hawkins - super intriguing guy with elite size/athleticism combo and high school track record of blocking dominance....I've always viewed him as a poor man's Toilolo and think he could be a big factor after Yurosek is gone and maybe significant this year
Archer - he's put in a lot of time at Stanford and is the veteran in the mix but I view him as over-recruited and not a significant factor
Taylor - the new guy in the room now that we've abolished fullbacks. Between his lack of run so far at Stanford, more proven and exciting guys ahead of him, and the position switch I doubt he's a factor in 2023
Ungar - can't believe he's still on the roster. Have to feel for a guy who keeps at it despite being unable to be a football player essentially ever in his life. Looks like Tarzan plays like Jane isn't quite right as the injuries have precluded any real evaluation of his playing ability in both high school and college, but at this point the prudent thing is to write him off. That being said, Ethan Bonner had a constantly-injured track record a year ago too and then went out on the best year of his football life so one can't rule Ungar out entirely. But Ungar will have much, much less opportunity given the room around him and the usage of tight ends in a Taylor offense, so I'm basically writing Ungar off.
Usage of TEs in a Taylor offense is the other key part of this. He has proven that he uses TEs dramatically less than Stanford is used to. Taylor has never given TEs more than 23 percent of skill position snaps, even at Utah where the head coach is more in the pro-TE Shaw camp and subsequently fired Taylor to lean WAY more heavily into TE usage. By way of comparison, Shaw offenses ranged between 21-37 percent of the skill position snaps going to TEs and were at exactly 23 percent this past season. Because all of our TEs are back with a year of extra development, the best guess is that Taylor's TE usage looks a bit higher in terms of playing time to how it's ever looked in a Taylor offense or to how it looked at the tail end of the WR-heavy Shawvita offense. (By the way, "in terms of playing time" is an important caveat because I expect the usage of Stanford WRs and TEs to look much different in general than Shawvita when it comes to spacing, routes, etc.) Maybe ballpark guess that about a quarter of the skill position snaps go to TEs but it would be shocking to be much more than that given Taylor's history.
What does this mean in practice for the TE room? Well we can take to the bank that Yurosek will be on the field the vast majority of the time (he alone took up about 16 percent of skill position snaps last year). My rough calculation would be that would leave approximately nine percent of the skill position snaps to go to the rest of the TE room. Another back of the envelope calculation would suggest perhaps 30 or so snaps a game for non-Yurosek TEs, most of which I would wager would come with somebody in-line while Yurosek does his thing as a big receiver. Ultimately, I view Roush and Hawkins as competing for playing time. Based on past usage Roush certainly the favorite for TE2 but it's a new regime so we'll see how it plays out.
Yurosek - the most proven receiving tight end in the Pac-12 but an incomplete player who has been a somewhat troubled blocker who never seems to transform his body in the off-season....my guess is under Taylor we will just lean into him being a major receiving weapon as Yurosek is the marquee player on the offense
Roush - mixed bag as a freshman insofar as it was eye-opening for a true freshman TE to play right away under Shaw/Turner and to leap frog older guys but the performance was horrendous.....strikes me as a big wild card to see what kind of jump he can make now being much more acclimated to college ball and having new coaches
Hawkins - super intriguing guy with elite size/athleticism combo and high school track record of blocking dominance....I've always viewed him as a poor man's Toilolo and think he could be a big factor after Yurosek is gone and maybe significant this year
Archer - he's put in a lot of time at Stanford and is the veteran in the mix but I view him as over-recruited and not a significant factor
Taylor - the new guy in the room now that we've abolished fullbacks. Between his lack of run so far at Stanford, more proven and exciting guys ahead of him, and the position switch I doubt he's a factor in 2023
Ungar - can't believe he's still on the roster. Have to feel for a guy who keeps at it despite being unable to be a football player essentially ever in his life. Looks like Tarzan plays like Jane isn't quite right as the injuries have precluded any real evaluation of his playing ability in both high school and college, but at this point the prudent thing is to write him off. That being said, Ethan Bonner had a constantly-injured track record a year ago too and then went out on the best year of his football life so one can't rule Ungar out entirely. But Ungar will have much, much less opportunity given the room around him and the usage of tight ends in a Taylor offense, so I'm basically writing Ungar off.
Usage of TEs in a Taylor offense is the other key part of this. He has proven that he uses TEs dramatically less than Stanford is used to. Taylor has never given TEs more than 23 percent of skill position snaps, even at Utah where the head coach is more in the pro-TE Shaw camp and subsequently fired Taylor to lean WAY more heavily into TE usage. By way of comparison, Shaw offenses ranged between 21-37 percent of the skill position snaps going to TEs and were at exactly 23 percent this past season. Because all of our TEs are back with a year of extra development, the best guess is that Taylor's TE usage looks a bit higher in terms of playing time to how it's ever looked in a Taylor offense or to how it looked at the tail end of the WR-heavy Shawvita offense. (By the way, "in terms of playing time" is an important caveat because I expect the usage of Stanford WRs and TEs to look much different in general than Shawvita when it comes to spacing, routes, etc.) Maybe ballpark guess that about a quarter of the skill position snaps go to TEs but it would be shocking to be much more than that given Taylor's history.
What does this mean in practice for the TE room? Well we can take to the bank that Yurosek will be on the field the vast majority of the time (he alone took up about 16 percent of skill position snaps last year). My rough calculation would be that would leave approximately nine percent of the skill position snaps to go to the rest of the TE room. Another back of the envelope calculation would suggest perhaps 30 or so snaps a game for non-Yurosek TEs, most of which I would wager would come with somebody in-line while Yurosek does his thing as a big receiver. Ultimately, I view Roush and Hawkins as competing for playing time. Based on past usage Roush certainly the favorite for TE2 but it's a new regime so we'll see how it plays out.