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While his numbers have declined in 2012 after leading the FBS in receptions and receiving yards among tight ends, Notre Dame's Tyler Eifert doesn't regret coming back to play his senior season and actually thinks he has improved his draft stock. On Friday, Eifert told J.J. Stankevitz of CSN Chicago that the statistics don't tell the whole story of his season and that he's significantly improved in another aspect of his game:
"My knock has always been I'm not a good blocker, so that's something I focused on and tried to get better at, and I think that's helped me," Eifert said.
Eifert is still the leading receiver for the Fighting Irish with 34 receptions for 470 yards with three touchdowns, although those are far from the 63 receptions for 803 yards and five touchdowns that he hauled in during the 2011 season. Much of that has to do with a change in offensive philosophy too.
In 2011, Notre Dame ran the ball 433 times, while they decided to pass 473 times. In 2012, they've already ran the ball 415 times and attempted only 289 passes.