Yogi Roth might be one of the last people to have seen Khalil Tate run a pass route.
Tate participated in the Elite 11 competition during the summer of 2015, before his senior year of high school. He played quarterback, receiver and defensive back. Roth, a Pac-12 Networks analyst, has served as an Elite 11 coach and TV host.
“I was like, ‘Wow, he’s talented. This guy can do anything,’ ” Roth said Monday.
Tate enrolled at Arizona the following winter, hellbent on playing quarterback. He started 29 games at the position for the Wildcats, authoring an unforgettable if ultimately unfulfilling career.
Now, as he launches his professional career, Tate is attempting to do something he made look routine at the UA:
Change directions.
Tate signed as an undrafted free agent with Philadelphia on Sunday. He is moving to receiver, according to the Eagles’ official website, a position switch he initially resisted during the pre-draft process.
Many before him have made the transition from college quarterback to professional wideout. Can Tate become the next success story?
“I would bet on him as a wide receiver in the NFL,” Roth said.
Roth, who played receiver at Pitt and coached quarterbacks at USC, also had the good fortune of seeing Tate at his very best in college. Roth was the game analyst for Tate’s record-setting 327-yard rushing effort at Colorado in 2017 and his career-best 404-yard passing performance in Boulder in ’19.
During the ’17 game, Roth remarked that Tate was – by far – the best athlete on the field.
“He just played really free,” Roth said. “He played really instinctively.
“When he’s at his best, he’s the instinctive athlete that he is. As a receiver, you can be that. As a quarterback, there’s a lot coming at you.”
Receivers still have to read coverages, play with technique and sync up with their quarterbacks. But they don’t have to read the entire field or make split-second decisions with blitzing defenders closing in on them.
The week after the ’19 Colorado game, Tate struggled against Washington’s 3-4, NFL-style scheme. The Huskies pressured him from all levels of the defense and prevented him from escaping to the perimeter.
Others employed a similar strategy, and Tate never discovered a consistent counter. His descent from one-time Heisman Trophy candidate to NFL afterthought culminated in last week’s draft, in which Tate wasn’t among the 255 players selected.
Khalil Tate would have a lot to learn about playing wide receiver, but he has the athleticism to play in the NFL.
The Eagles offered him an opportunity — with a twist. The specific content of the conversations between Tate and the team hasn’t become public, but it’s clear Tate was willing to amend his quarterback-or-bust stance from earlier in the offseason. That was a critical initial step.
“The first thing he has to do, and I think he will, is buy in,” Roth said. “The good thing for him now is there are a lot of examples.”
Many players over the past 20-plus years have left college as quarterbacks and thrived in the NFL as receivers or return specialists. Antwaan Randle El, Joshua Cribbs and Julian Edelman are some of the best known among them.
Which isn’t to say it’ll be an easy transition for Tate.
The Eagles have a player who took the same path, and his transaction log shows how challenging it can be.
Greg Ward accounted for more than 11,000 total yards and 91 touchdowns at the University of Houston from 2013-16. Despite those gaudy numbers, Ward wasn’t selected in the 2017 draft.
The Eagles signed him in the spring of ’17, beginning a two-year odyssey of being waived/released and re-signed to the practice squad. That happened an astounding five times between September ’17 and September ’19. During that span, Ward appeared in eight games for the San Antonio Commanders of the AAF, which no longer exists.
The Eagles twice promoted Ward from the practice squad to the active roster last season. He finally stuck at the end of the year, when the team’s receiving corps was ravaged by injuries.
Ward caught 28 passes for 254 yards and a touchdown during the regular season. He added three receptions for 24 yards in the playoffs.
The Eagles loaded up on receivers over the weekend, selecting three in the draft, including first-round pick Jalen Reagor of TCU. They also traded for veteran Marquise Goodwin.
All undrafted free agents are inherently long shots, as Ward can attest. Tate will have a hard time making the roster as he learns a new craft without the benefit of the usual offseason training opportunities, such as rookie mini-camp. NFL team activities are on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Skills the 6-2, 216-pound Tate must master include plucking the ball with his hands, as opposed to body-catching it; beating press coverage at the line of scrimmage; and navigating through bodies to find open areas in the secondary. It will require hard work, patience and determination.
“In college, you’ve got a scholarship for four years. In the league, you’ve gotta take somebody’s job,” Roth said. “All of it’s going to be up to him. He’s not going to decide if he gets cut. But you earn the right to play. If you’ve done good enough stuff, they’ll find you.”
