Mizzou football: Albert O lands on John Mackey Award semifinal list

Mizzou football tight end Albert Okwuegbunam is one of eight semifinalists for the John Mackey Award.

Mizzou football has one of the best tight ends in the country in Albert Okwuegbunam. The junior was on a ton of preseason watch lists over the summer.

On Monday, the list for the nation’s top tight end was cut down to eight players. Albert O is one of those eight.

Okwuegbunam landed on the John Mackey Award list of semifinalists along with seven other top tight ends in the nation. Okwuegbunam has 26 receptions for 306 yards and six touchdowns on the season.

At times, Okwuegbunam does seem like the nation’s most outstanding tight end, especially in the end zone. But also at times, the offense is stagnant, and it’s tough to point out the positives with the Tigers offense. But Okwuegbunam deserves to be one of the eight final players on this list.

The other seven players include Harrison Bryant (Sr., Florida Atlantic), Hunter Bryant (Jr., Washington), Brycen Hopkins (Sr., Purdue), Brevin Jordan (So., Miami), Charlie Kolar (So., Iowa St), Colby Parkinson (Jr., Stanford) and Giovanni Ricci (Sr., Western Michigan).

Okwuegbunam looked at entering the NFL Draft last season, where he probably would have been a second or third-round pick. He’s trying to get into the first round.

NFL Mocks recently put out a list of the top 10 most athletic prospects by position, and Albert O came in as the top tight end.

Albert O and the Tigers have two weeks left to get some offensive production going before the regular season ends. The Tigers need one more win to become bowl eligible (pending appeal approval, maybe?), and Mizzou will be favorites in both of its final two games against Tennessee and Arkansas.

It will be nice to see quarterback Kelly Bryant hook up with Okwuegbunam a few more times this season, especially in the end zone.