People who think this year's tight end class isn't very good while last years was all-time good are caste clowns. Gesicki, Andrews, Hurst, and Goedert (my top four prospects, although Schultz, Conklin and Fumagalli are also good prospects) are as a group certainly better prospects than last year's four black TEs taken at picks 19, 23, 29, and 44.
Total production of top four prospects in final year of college:
2017 Draft (Howard, Engram, Njoku, Everett): 189 catches, 2874 yards, 22 TDs
2018 Draft (Gesicki, Andrews, Hurst, Goedert): 235 catches, 3191 yards, 27 TDs
Meanwhile at the combine (averages between the four prospects):
2017 Draft: 6'4, 242.5lbs, 4.44 40-time, 21 bench, 6.93 3-cone, 35.25 vertical
2018 Draft: 6'4 and 6/8ths, 252.25lbs, 4.62 40-time, 21 bench, 7.09 3-cone, 41.5 vertical
So overall this year's prospects had far better production and pretty similar combine results - slightly slower but at ten pounds heavier and almost an inch taller on average (both good things for tight ends).
And now I know PFF can be unreliable and are far from perfect, but the four top black rookie TEs ranked out of all tight ends:
Pick 19. OJ Howard - 41.9 grade, 68th out of tight ends
Pick 23. Evan Engram - 42.2 grade, 67th out of tight ends
Pick 29. David Njoku - 69.2 grade, 25th out of tight ends
Pick 44. Gerald Everett - 46.2 grade, 54th out of tight ends
As a comparison, fellow rookie tight ends George Kittle and Adam Shaheen had grades of 63.4 and 72.4.
From my perspective, not only is the caste media (and DWF) perception that the 2017 class of tight ends being far better than the 2018 class is wrong, it's actually the opposite - as we saw by those top four rookie tight ends struggling in 2017.