Packers 2023 UDFA Profile: Appalachian State TE/FB Henry Pearson

Continuing on in my review of the Green Bay Packers 2023 undrafted rookie class, up next is Appalachian State tight end Henry Pearson.

In this series, I have been diving into the current state of each UDFA’s respective position group, along with examining the college stats you need to know. I’ll also be taking a look at their height, weight, and athletic testing measurements. For Pearson, specifically, there was no pre-draft report that I could find.

If you’ve missed any of the other articles in this series, you can find them below.

Brenton Cox

Benny Sapp

Jimmy Phillips

Kadeem Telfort

Jason Lewan

Chuck Filiaga

Duece Watts 

Current state of the tight end position

On the roster: Josiah Deguara, Luke Musgrave, Tucker Kraft, Tyler Davis, Austin Allen, Camren McDonald

There is a lot of inexperience and question marks surrounding tight end for the Packers, but this is a position that is pretty well set when it comes to who is making the final roster. Most likely, Green Bay is going to keep four tight ends on the 53-man roster, and we already know who those four are going to be, with Josiah Deguara, Luke Musgrave, Tucker Kraft, and Tyler Davis making up this position group.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the Packers now have Pearson listed as a fullback on the team site. Although a tight end during his time in college, Pearson was utilized more as a blocker than a pass-catching threat. What will be interesting is that we haven’t seen a true fullback within the Matt LaFleur offense since Danny Vitale was on the team in 2019, where he played 170 snaps. Vitale was one of the players that LaFleur inherited in his first season as head coach, but since then, the Packers haven’t had a fullback on the team during training camp nor the preseason, let alone on the 53-man roster.

Deguara, an H-back, has taken on some of those typical fullback responsibilities, including lining up in the backfield–although with such a young tight end room, he could be relied on more this season to fill the traditional tight end role as Musgrave and Kraft acclimate to the NFL. Pearson’s experience at tight end brings added versatility to the fullback position, but his ceiling as a rookie is most likely making the practice squad, where he could be an emergency option for the Packers, filling a role similar to Deguara’s.

Stats to know

Pearson spent five seasons at Appalachian State, where, as already mentioned, he was used primarily as a blocker. Pearson spent 20% of his career snaps lined up in the slot, so he was moved around the formation while the rest either came inline or out of the backfield. He finished his career with 1,404 run-blocking snaps and ranked 24th out of all tight ends this past season in PFF’s run-blocking grade. He was an efficient pass catcher, hauling in 76% of his 88 career targets – 32 of which came in 2022 – at 11.8 yards per catch with eight touchdowns. Pearson also has 389 career special teams snaps as well.

Measurements

6’2″ | 249 | RAS: 4.51

Typically the Packers have drafted players who scored 8.0 or higher on the RAS scale. However, tight end is one of the positions where they haven’t been as strict in sticking to that threshold. Where Pearson impressed was on the bench press with 30 reps and on the broad jump. His 40-time of 4.8 seconds was okay, but his measurements in the agility drills and vertical jump are considered below average by the Relative Athletic Score. For what it’s worth, if we run Pearson’s testing numbers as a fullback, his RAS jumps to 6.98.