LEXINGTON — Cade Stover has lived the Ohio schoolboy dream of athletics.
The 2019 Lexington graduate led the Minutemen to the Division II basketball Final Four as a junior.
He won Ohio’s Mr. Football honor as a senior in the fall of 2018, and was the Gatorade Player of the year in the state, too. Stover then signed a scholarship to attend Ohio State and became a two-time Buckeye captain.
Now the rural Richland County native is awaiting the next chapter of his athletic career to unfold.
The 6-foot-4, 247-pound tight end is projected to go in the third or fourth round of this week’s NFL Draft.
The first round begins on Thursday at 8 p.m. The second and third rounds begin Friday at 7 p.m. The fourth through seventh rounds begin on Saturday at noon.
Throughout his career at Ohio State, and in preparation for the draft, much has been made of Stover growing up on a farm. Indeed, his major at Ohio State was agricultural systems management.
“That’s my life, that’s who I am, through and through,” Stover said at the NFL’s pre-draft combine. “That’s where I came from.
“No matter where you take me or where you shake me, you’re not going to take that away.”
Mel Kiper on Stover
Boasting legendary toughness, prototype size, and a 4.65 40 time, many analysts rate Stover among the top five players available at the position, behind top-rated Brock Bowers of Georgia.
Yet NFL Draft guru Mel Kiper listed Stover as his favorite tight end in the draft, and the third best player available at the position this year.
“Stover is going under the radar a little bit, but he’s a heckuva player,” Kiper wrote for ESPN. “He started his Buckeyes career on defense, and he made a couple of spot starts at linebacker at the end of the 2021 campaign.
“He has been a full-time tight end since 2022, though, and he had 77 catches for 982 yards and 10 touchdowns over the past two seasons.
“Stover understands how to get open against zone coverage, finding soft spots and showing his hands to his quarterback. He’s aggressive and tough.
“He is still inconsistent as a blocker, but he has the strength and movement skills to be really solid in the run game. He also didn’t drop any of his 52 targets last season.
“Projection:The 6-foot-4, 247-pound Stover is my third-ranked tight end, and I see him going in Round 3 and making an impact as a rookie.”
Productive
Stover has been an instrumental part of Ohio State’s attack throughout his versatile career. He has taken snaps as a tight end, defensive end and made tackles as a linebacker in the Rose Bowl and at Michigan.
Stover said playing defense in high school and at the beginning of his college career should be viewed as a plus by the NFL.
“It helps tremendously,” Stover said during a one-on-one sit down interview with Forbes.com in Las Vegas. “I can see the game from a different side of the ball, I can see it from a different lens.
“When I see a linebacker, the farther he splits out — too far that way — I’m still looking for that stuff. Especially when the game slows down on offense. It’s helped me a lot.”
His last two years on campus Stover focused exclusively on the tight end position, functioning both as a blocker and the Buckeyes’ second-leading receiver to Marvin Harrison Jr.
During the 2023 campaign, Stover recorded 576 receiving yards and five touchdowns.
“He catches everything to begin with,” Ohio State tight ends coach Keenan Bailey told the Medina Gazette. “He uses his size and his speed to get open.
“I think it’s kind of cheap for some people to say he’s not a great route runner. He was our second-leading receiver at Ohio State with the best receiver room in the country. So I kind of get defensive when I hear that.
“He was our leading receiver in several games and Marvin Harrison’s on the other side of him. So I love his ball skills, but I love that he uses route-running tools.”
Stover was the Big Ten’s Tight End of the Year, yet oddly earned only second-team all-conference honors.
Where is Stover headed?
A number of mock drafts have predicted Stover for the third round.
He could be a nice fit for the Cincinnati Bengals, who have the 80th pick overall, in the middle of the third round. One outlet has pegged Stover for this spot, and he did make a pre-draft visit with the Bengals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The New Orleans Saints have also been mentioned in connection with Stover.
In addition, the New York Giants are reportedly eyeing him.
Stover has expressed an interest in reuniting with former teammate C.J. Stroud, now the quarterback of the Houston Texans.
“It would mean so much to go back with C.J.,”Stovertold Texans Daily. “We were captains together two years ago. I could not tell you how much respect and how close I really was with that guy, just for his pure knack for wanting to win and my pure knack for wanting to win. I would love nothing more than to reunite with him.”
It is also an idea Stroud’s mother,Kimberly Stroud, agreed with on social media.
Dynasty Nerds theorized the Cleveland Browns or the Giants would be his best landing spot.
NFL scouting report
At NFL.com, Stover’s analysis is fairly detailed, noting even that his father Trevor played tight end at Bowling Green in the 1990s.
“Catch first, block second tight end whose jump in play as a receiving threat is going to be hard to ignore,” the website noted.
“Stover is a tight end conversion from the defensive side of the ball. He’s a little clunky getting off the line but really picks up the pace as the route unfolds.
“He starred as a high school hooper and that same athleticism can be found in his route running, high-point timing and run after catch.
“Stover possesses the tools to move in a positive direction as a run blocker but needs to upgrade his grit at the point of attack and effort as a move blocker.
“He’s an upside prospect with the potential to play in-line or flexed out and should become a productive starter within a couple of years.”
Many of those traits are items longtime Stover fans have seen since his high school days at Lexington.
Next he’ll get to showcase them for an NFL franchise. The only question remaining is which one?
