Iowa's C.J. Fiedorowicz should be one of the top five or six tight ends selected in the 2014 draft, and he should be the first senior off the board at the position.
Fiedorowicz generally has performed well this week at the Reese's Senior Bowl practices. He measured 6-foot-5 and 262 pounds at Monday's weigh-in and is considered a top-notch blocker because of his physical nature. While he was underutilized as a receiver at Iowa (30 catches this season, 91 in his career), he is athletic and has good speed for a guy his size.
As Yahoo! Sports pointed out, Fiedorowicz (pronounced feh-DOOR-uh-wits) should be prepared for the NFL. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz is a former NFL assistant. The Hawkeyes' offensive line coach the past two seasons was Brian Ferentz, who also is a former NFL assistant and was hired last week to join Bill O'Brien's new staff with the Houston Texans. There's another tie to the NFL, too: One of Iowa's graduate assistants, and a guy who works with the tight ends, is D.J. Hernandez, the brother of former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez.
D.J. Hernandez spoke to the players about his brother's arrest a few days after it happened.
"He gave us all a speech, he just let it all out and he started crying a little bit," Fiedorowicz told Yahoo! Sports. "He told us the whole story of what happened with [Aaron].
"But he never really showed much emotion after that. He just let it all out that one day. You could tell he was down some days, he was pissed off. But he always tried to be strong, to hold it together."
Fiedorowicz was complimentary of Hernandez's coaching.
"He pushed us hard. He's a good athlete, and he knows football [D.J. played quarterback and wide receiver at Connecticut]," he told Yahoo. "And, obviously, he's seen his brother play, so he knows what it takes to be a great player."
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.