Who is Mychal Rivera?

Jaron Foster

rivera

With the free agent frenzy only a couple of short days away, not to mention the draft next month, depth charts on many NFL teams are about to be shaken up. As rosters currently stand, a player with a combination of relatively low ADP and projected opportunity (as well as multiple requests to be featured in this column) is Oakland tight end Mychal Rivera.

Perhaps best known for being the brother of Glee actress Naya Rivera, Mychal’s football career since entering the collegiate ranks has quietly but steadily been on the rise. Though he originally committed to Oregon as a tight end prospect, after redshirting as a freshman coach Chip Kelly wanted Rivera to move to the offensive line given the crowded depth chart of Ed Dickson, Dion Jordan (now a defensive end) and David Paulson. Instead of making the move, Rivera requested and was granted a release from his scholarship.

After playing in 2009 at the College of the Canyons, a Junior College where he caught 32 passes for 316 yards and three touchdowns, Rivera transferred to Tennessee primarily because of its tight end-friendly offense. As a sophomore in 2010, Rivera backed up Luke Stocker as he recorded eleven receptions for 112 yards in all of the Volunteers’ thirteen games. Following Stocker’s departure to the NFL, Rivera started and caught 29 passes for 344 yards and a touchdown in 2011.

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He continued his statistical improvement as a senior in 2012 with 36 receptions for 562 yards and five touchdowns to cap his collegiate football career with his best season. His yardage total surpassed Jason Witten for the team record for a tight end, and finished his career second in school history for receiving yards at the position. He was subsequently named to first-team All-SEC and earned an invitation to the 2013 NFL Combine.

Rivera proved to be a model of solid but unspectacular consistency at the Combine, finishing tenth among tight ends in the 40-yard dash (4.78 seconds), bench press (17 reps) and broad jump (9’4”) while placing eleventh in the vertical jump (31 inches) and three-cone drill (7.17 seconds). His best finish was in the 20 yard shuttle, where he finished sixth with a time of 4.43 seconds.

Weeks later at the NFL Draft, Oakland selected Rivera as the 184th overall player in the sixth round. Nick Kasa, a defensive end-converted-tight end from Colorado, had been drafted by the Raiders twelve picks earlier.

Rather than trade down or select a player at another position, Oakland chose the strong pass-catching tight end to be a receiving option. He is reliable on third-downs, able to stay on the field for his solid blocking while he has good hands and athleticism to be a target as well. He demonstrates a good catch radius along with enough speed to create mismatches against linebackers and the strength to outmuscle defenders in the secondary. On the downside, at 6’3” and 245 pounds Rivera is on the smaller side for a tight end, so although he does not back down he can get pushed around by better defensive linemen.

On the field, Rivera’s steady progression has continued since joining the NFL. As a rookie in 2013, he caught 38 passes for 407 yards and four touchdowns despite starting only three games. He took another step forward in 2014 as he caught 58 passes for 534 yards and four touchdowns, good for sixteenth among tight ends in fantasy points.

Unfortunately the production was inconsistent, week-to-week as well as throughout the season, with four games of seven or more receptions and four games with one or zero catches. He may have been a good value in bestball leagues, but in standard dynasty leagues he was not reliable enough to insert into a starting lineup.

Of course, a myriad of changes within the Raiders’ organization and across the offense changes the outlook for Rivera in 2015. Defensive-minded new head coach Jack Del Rio brings Bill Musgrave in as Offensive Coordinator (OC) after he served in the same capacity in Jacksonville during the 2003 and 2004 seasons. He also served as the Eagles’ OC in 1998 and the Vikings’ OC from 2011 through 2013, and made stops as Quarterbacks Coach with the Panthers, Redskins, Falcons and Eagles over the past two decades.

With Musgrave in charge of an offense, the results have been mediocre in terms of tight end targets. In his three years with Philadelphia and Jacksonville, Kyle Brady’s 29 receptions for 281 yards and one touchdown was the best statistical season for a tight end. Granted, the game has evolved over the last decade and the tight end has become more of a target in the passing game, but Musgrave’s stint with Minnesota was not significantly more impressive.

Though partially attributed to Kyle Rudolph’s inability to stay healthy, the best season from a tight end under Musgrave has been Rudolph’s 53 receptions for 493 yards and nine touchdowns in 2012, good for eleventh at the position in fantasy scoring. Oakland does not have a running back like Adrian Peterson, and Rivera has not had issues staying on the field like Rudolph has, but this gives some general insight into the use of the tight end in Musgrave’s system.

In terms of competition, as previously mentioned the door appears to be wide open for Rivera to be the top dog in the tight end depth chart. David Ausberry and Brian Leonhardt are free agents, while Kasa is recovering from a torn ACL and Scott Simonson is not a factor in the passing game. Free agency could bring in the likes of Julius Thomas or Jordan Cameron, which would clearly diminish Rivera’s value should the newcomer stay healthy. Should, however, the Raiders choose to sign a veteran whose forte is blocking to complement Rivera’s receiving skills (perhaps Anthony Fasano or Lee Smith), his job may be safe given the weak draft class beyond Maxx Williams.

Should he be given the opportunity to top the depth chart, even in a run-heavy offense Rivera appears to have the combination of talent and opportunity to be a low-TE1. This is in the same conversation as Witten, Heath Miller and Larry Donnell in 2014, which translates to around 65 receptions for 700 yards and five touchdowns. Given that this would only represent a slight bump from his 2014 statistics, such a projection is reasonable for Rivera as well.

With an ADP of 194 in February mocks (the seventeenth round) as the twenty-third tight end off the board, acquiring him for similarly-priced Doug Baldwin (190th) or Anquan Boldin (199th) could pay off with low-TE1 production. Just don’t expect it to be consistent week-to-week.

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jaron foster
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