The NFL draft begins April 30 in Chicago, with all 32 teams looking for the next great pro talent to emerge from the SEC.

We’ll take a position-by-position look at the SEC’s draft prospects in the days leading up to the event. We started with running backs, receivers, defensive tackles, defensive ends, safeties and quarterbacks. We continue today with tight ends.

If you’re here expecting to read about the SEC’s next Jason Witten (Tennessee) or Jacob Tamme (Kentucky), sorry to disappoint. Come back next year, or maybe 2017.

According to CBS Sports, the SEC claims two of the five best tight ends in the ’16 draft class, three of the best five tight ends in the ’17 draft class — and zero of the 10 best tight ends in this year’s draft class.

RELATED: Ranking the SEC’s top returning players: TE

Despite the buzz surrounding the tight end position at the NFL level in the last decade, with players like Dallas Clark, Rob Gronkowski, Antonio Gates and Jimmy Graham, only three tight ends have gotten drafted in the first round in the last five years.

Georgia’s Ben Watson (2004) was the last SEC tight end selected in the first round. Recent history has been kind to the position in one regard: the conference has produced at least one drafted tight end every year since ’05.

Will anyone in this year’s class catch the attention of NFL scouts?

Let’s take a look at some of the news, projections and buzz at the position entering this year’s draft.

BIGGEST STAR: C.J. Uzomah, Auburn

A notable NFL Combine snub, Uzomah, at 6-foot-5 and 262 pounds, ran his 40-yard dash in 4.63 seconds, unofficially, at Auburn’s pro day in addition to a standing broad jump of 9 feet, 10 inches. Both of those marks would’ve placed him in the Top 5 at the position in Indianapolis.

Auburn rarely utilizes an in-line blocking tight end, instead featuring an H-back as a lead blocker in the running game. So although Uzomah possesses pass-catching skills that probably land on the good side of “draftable” when considering his athleticism, he’s needed to prove to teams that he can be an adequate blocker in the NFL.

The Tigers didn’t feature Uzomah all that much as either a pass-catcher or blocker, so there’s not a lot of excellent game video by which NFL scouts can analyze his game. Much of their evaluations may come from his performance at this year’s Senior Bowl, where it looked like his blocking still needs work.

“He’s got a lot of height, he’s very athletic, he can catch the ball,” Senior Bowl executive director Phil Savage said, according to the Montgomery Advertiser.

“I think the thing he’s probably going to have to really dig in and do this week (at the Senior Bowl) is block at the end of the line, the line of scrimmage blocker. If he can show more capacity to do that he can really help himself because people are intrigued by his overall skill. They just want to see more physicality and more blocking ability at the point of attack.”

Uzomah doesn’t rank in Mel Kiper Jr.’s Top 10 tight ends in this weak draft class, nor in Mike Mayock’s Top 5. But CBS Sports projects him as a sixth-round pick, and Uzomah will get a shot to prove himself in an NFL training camp in some form or fashion.

RISING: A.J. Derby, Arkansas

If NFL scouts don’t have a long dossier on Uzomah, it’s even shorter for Derby, who has just one year of experience at tight end. Derby also suffered a knee injury in the Texas Bowl, further limiting how much information NFL teams have been able to gather about him during the pre-draft process.

But some analysts, and perhaps some NFL teams, view him as the quintessential diamond-in-the-rough undrafted free agent type who is worth a long look as a bottom-of-the-roster guy or practice squad developmental project.

At 6-foot-4 and 255 pounds, Derby displayed great hands and has some ability after the catch. But he’s a long way from polished with his fundamentals; things like route-running and hand placement for in-line blocking are relatively new to him. Still, in a draft without many tight ends who should even make 53-man rosters after training camp, he’s the kind of player who holds speculative value as a stash-and-grow future second tight end.

FALLING: None

There’s nowhere for this group of SEC tight ends to fall, as it started as the weakest group from the conference in 10 years and that won’t change unless a few of these players, possibly as undrafted free agents, can make an impact in the NFL in the news few years.

NON-SEC PLAYERS TO WORRY ABOUT

  • Maxx Williams, Minnesota
  • Clive Walford, Miami
  • Nick O’Leary, Florida State
  • Tyler Kroft, Rutgers
  • Blake Bell, Oklahoma

THREE BIG QUESTIONS

  1. Will an SEC tight end get drafted in 2015?
  2. Can A.J. Derby and Rory “Busta” Anderson stay healthy throughout an NFL training camp?
  3. Will Alabama’s O.J. Howard finally grow into his future first-round pick label in the SEC this season?

THREE TO WATCH FOR 2016

  1. Dillon Gordon, LSU
  2. Jake McGee, Florida
  3. Jay Rome, Georgia

RECENT BUZZ

  • South Carolina’s Rory “Busta” Anderson tore both triceps muscles in college, and also missed time due to a hamstring injury. But at 6-foot-5 and 244 pounds, he’s an intriguing physical specimen with good speed and leaping ability. He also is a solid second- or third-level blocker in the running game and can line up all over the field. Though he’s likely to sign as a priority free agent after the draft, NFL.com’s Charles Davis listed him as the tight end on his All-Underrated Team. “If not for the injury issues, I think he would be in the conversation with the most highly touted tight ends in this draft,” Davis wrote.
  • Alabama’s Brian Vogler told the media that he “crushed” expectations of NFL scouts at his pro day in March. An old-school wall-off blocker at 6-foot-7 and 262 pounds, Vogler ran in the neighborhood of 4.7 seconds for his 40-yard dash and posted a vertical leap of 29.5 inches. That’s better than many expected, but still not enough to change the perception of him as a one-trick player. If Vogler somehow makes an NFL roster, it will be because a team really appreciates his blocking.
  • Those hoping that brothers Trey and Clay Burton can reunite in the NFL better wait for a miracle. The Florida prospect ranks 48th out of the 48 tight ends listed by CBS Sports, which projects 14 tight ends to get drafted. Trey Burton made the Eagles’ 53-man roster despite going undrafted last year, but it’s unlikely that Clay Burton will achieve the same feat.