On April 27, 2018, the Houston Texans surprised draft pundits, fans and everything in-between by using a third-round pick to select a 26-year-old tight end out of Central Florida by the name of Jordan Akins.
A former Texas Ranger third-round selection, Akins was a true freshman at 22. He didn’t start playing tight end until he was a redshirt sophomore. Draft experts didn’t see a third-rounder in Akins, in fact, they saw a fringe late-round guy or an undrafted player.
The Texans saw the opposite, in large part due to the 2018 Senior Bowl. Coach Bill O’Brien and his staff were lucky enough to coach the South team at the event in Mobile, Alabama. In doing so, Akins caught O’Brien’s eye.
“I thought he was smart, I thought he had good movement skills for a guy that was 240-245 pounds, I thought he caught the ball well ad I thought he has some physical toughness,” said O’Brien on Wednesday. “I thought that he had the ability to do certain types of blocking and I thought he could help us on special teams. I thought that he had really good athletic ability.”
To most, Akins’ age of 26 as a rookie was a negative as a draft prospect. Not to O’Brien.
“I liked that fact that he was a little bit older, that he had played professional baseball and would bring a mature type of approach to pro football,” O’Brien continued. “There were a lot of things that we liked about him there.”
O’Brien’s eye did him well. After a developmental rookie season, Akins has 13 receptions for 196 yards and two touchdowns through six weeks of 2019 play.
