Could LeBron James Play Tight End in the NFL – Part 2

In Part 1 I looked at whether or not basketball power forward LeBron James had the requisite size to be a more than serviceable tight end in the NFL. I concluded yes. In fact, simply looking at raw height and weight stats, he might be the most perfectly designed human (n)ever to play tight end in the NFL.

But sport is about more than inches and pounds. Otherwise there wouldn’t be NFL “busts” like Ryan Leaf and Brian Bosworth: physical freaks of nature who never made a serious impact in the League.

There are several more factors that LeBron would have to demonstrate before he could be taken seriously as an NFL player. Today I’ll look at physical resilience.

NFL players take unbelievable punishment during a 16 (or more) game season. It’s concussions that are getting all the attention at the moment, but the aggregated bumps, bruises, tweaks, tears and scrapes add up over the four months.

How does this compare to the rigours of an NBA season? Basketball is actually much more physical than people realise: twisted ankles, jammed fingers, pokes in the eye are all common. But nothing compares to the pounding that a ball-carrier or lineman takes.

Tight ends typically run routes over the middle of the field, making them more vulnerable to contact than speedy wideouts who can step out of bounds at the first sign of safety help.

So would LeBron be able to survive a hit from a middle line backer or strong safety when taking a catch coming over the middle?

It certainly would be unlike anything he’s experienced on a basketball court. A big hit from a Ray Lewis or Sean Taylor would be orders of magnitude different from taking a charge from Kevin Garnett. But, having said that, it’s hard to see how you can prepare for it. It doesn’t matter how many NFL snaps you’ve taken, if you’re going to get concussed, you’re going to get concussed.

So I think LeBron would struggle physically: his body has been built for the rigours of basketball, not football. But I think it’s something of a red herring. Short of ensuring that you are well conditioned (not a problem for LeBron) properly warmed up (ditto) and generally healthy, there’s not much you can do to lessen the impact of a big hit.

I suspect that the only thing that could prepare him would be taking some “reps”. He would need (at least) one off-season running routes and taking hits to get used to the feeling of the extraordinary collisions that NFL players face. Whether or not his new coach and GM would feel happy with their new monster tight end taking big hits in training camp is another matter.

One final thought: who’s going to be doing the hitting? It’s one thing being hit by Patrick Willis or Ray Lewis (both 240 lb). But a 190 lb cornerback? I think I’d be more worried for the cornerback.

In Part 3, I’ll look at whether LeBron would possess the physical skills to make it in the NFL.