UNC Football 2023 Positional Preview: Tight Ends

Week 2 of our 2023 UNC football positional previews continue on the offensive side of the ball with experienced returners at the tight end position.

Outside of Drake Maye returning at quarterback, this is the most experienced position on the offensive side of the ball for the UNC football program. Not to mention very talented. Let’s get started…

What We Know

Two of the three players at tight end for the UNC football program made the preseason John Mackey Award Watchlist, Bryson Nesbit and John Copenhaver both earned preseason honors. Nesbit played in all 14 games, catching 35 passes for 507 yards last season. He is the leading returning receiver for the 2023 Tar Heels, and the offense will be expecting the same amount of production this season.

The Key Players

We’ve already covered Nesbit… he’s definitely the most essential player among the three tight ends based on recent production. However, let’s cover the others. Copenhaver is the other player on the John Mackey Award Watchlist. In 2022, he caught 15 passes for 222 yards.

The third player in the tight end room, and in my opinion, the x-factor/wildcard, is Kamari Morales. Morales seems to be getting overlooked with preseason honors by Nesbit and Copenhaver. Morales caught 29 passes last season for 358 yards, more receptions and yards than Copenhaver.

Morales also tied Nesbit for most touchdown passes among the unit with four last season. So now that we’ve covered the key players, what does it all mean for the UNC football program?

Outlook

The ultimate outlook is that this unit is very talented and experienced. Nesbit and Copenhaver are juniors and Morales is a graduated senior. The wide receiving core could need a boost in the passing game (especially with the uncertainty revolving around Tez Walker), and the tight ends can certainly provide that.

The other thing that the Tar Heels will look for from the tight ends will be production in run blocking to help the run game this year (as we discussed in our running back position preview – that area has to be much improved for the Tar Heels to be successful this year).

The reserves in this unit are all freshmen (or redshirt freshmen), we may see them some this year, but expect the upperclassmen to see a majority of the snaps barring any unforeseen circumstances.

Depth Chart

Starter: Bryson Nesbit

Backup: John Copenhaver, Kamari Morales

Reserves: Deems May, Cal Tierney, Cort Halsey, Julien Randolph

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