Denver (CO) Mullen tight end Mason Bonner committed to Michigan on Thursday. He picked the Wolverines over offers from Colorado, Florida, Miami, Penn State, and several others.
Bonner is listed at 6'6" and 200 lbs.
RANKINGS
ESPN: 3-star, 79 grade, #17 TE-H
On3: 3-star, 89 grade, #21 TE
Rivals: 3-star, 5.6 grade, #44 TE
247 Sports: 3-star, 88 grade, #34 TE
Hit the jump for more.
Michigan jumped into Bonner's recruitment in December of 2024, offering him shortly after National Signing Day for the class of 2025. The Wolverines had been at or near the top of his list the entire time, and he scheduled official visits for Minnesota and Michigan for the upcoming two weekends; now it appears he will cancel the Minnesota visit and just visit Michigan officially on June 6.
Bonner exclusively plays wide receiver at Mullen, so it's tough to see exactly how he would transition to the tight end position. He's more fluid in his movements that most tight ends Michigan has been recruiting - including 4-star Matt Ludwig, who committed a few days ago - but that's to be expected for someone who's 200-205 pounds. Bonner adjusts well to the ball in the air, and he's great at making 50/50 catches. Granted, he's going up against shorter defensive backs, but he has some of the impressive film of contested catches that I've seen. Mullen's quarterback consistently throws to him when he's covered - even when other guys are open - and Bonner comes down with the football. Bonner eats up cushion with his long strides and has enough vision and smoothness to make him a guy who should be able to catch and run a little bit.
Blocking is the major projection for Bonner. He plays for an offense that mostly appears to be a spread offense, so he's split out wide or in the slot exclusively (at least in his highlights). Even when Mullen showed a tight end, Bonner was playing out wide. There are a couple clips of him being aggressive against cornerbacks, but those guys are probably six inches shorter than him and thirty pounds lighter.
Overall, Bonner is an intriguing prospect whose deployment reminds me a little bit of Ian Bunting. Bunting came out of Illinois in 2014 as a tight end who basically only played receiver in high school, and after redshirting, he made 11 catches for 124 yards over three seasons at Michigan; he then transferred to start at Cal, where he made 18 snags for 195 yards in 2018. Bunting then went undrafted and bounced around with a few teams through 2022, when he played in one game (3 snaps at tight end, 12 snaps on special teams) with the Cowboys before retiring due to a neck injury. Nick Eubanks is another player who comes to mind as a guy who largely played in the slot but who became a tight end at Michigan, but Bonner is more like the former.
Bunting was an unremarkable player at Michigan, but there was obviously something there or else he wouldn't have bounced around the NFL for four years. I think Bonner has a slightly better athlete profile, so there's some upside for him. Much will depend on how he handles the additional weight needed to play tight end and whether he can pick up the skills needed for blocking. He's a tough projection for those reasons, but between Bonner and Ludwig, Michigan has a good combination of size and receiving ability in the 2026 class.
I would assume Michigan is done landing tight ends in the 2026 class, since Ludwig appeared to be their top target on the tight end board and Bonner was strongly pursued for the past couple months. Unless there's some unexpected roster turnover, tight ends coach Steve Casula can probably move on to working on 2027 prospects.
Michigan now has seven commitments in the class of 2026. The last time Michigan landed a player from Mullen was tight end Steve Watson in the class of 2007, nearly twenty years ago. The state of Colorado has sent a fair number of players to Michigan, most recently offensive lineman Connor Jones in the class of 2022, but not many of them panned out. Other guys on the list include Reece Atteberry, Chris Fox, and Dylan McCaffrey, though Drake Nugent (who transferred from Stanford to Michigan for the 2023 season) and Carlo Kemp are a couple success stories.
TTB Rating: 75
TE U
ReplyDelete6' 6" looks pretty legit on him at 16 years old. He looks like he could get to 230 maybe even 240 without impacting speed and quickness much. I'll still like him at 220. If he wants to block he looks like he could be a real problem were you to move him around. I think he gets on the field here.
ReplyDeleteHe runs the route like he was taught it, he's not thinking much about running it on the guy who's in front of him ... if that makes any sense. If he starts working on his guy, he could be real hard to cover, maybe not have to make so many contested catches.
They sure have nice AV toys in Colorado.
Yep another TE from the Mountain West. These coaches have a type.
ReplyDelete:)