Wisconsin's 2022 football season is right around the corner, so BadgerBlitz.com ranked the top 30 players who we think will be the keys to success for Paul Chryst's squad this year.

Playing time, past performance and positional depth all factored into our staff rankings.

First-year tight end coach Chris Haering, who moved over from special teams, will have to wait until the fall to properly evaluate his unit. During the spring, the Badgers were without Clay Cundiff, Cam Large, Jack Eschenbach and lost Jack Pugh in the middle of practices to an injury. Eschenbach projects to be Wisconsin’s top pass catcher at the position with UW searching for production from a tight end not named Jake Ferguson for the first time since 2017.

“I think he (Eschenbach) is an every-down tight end - really intelligent football player. He’s done a great job coaching this spring and that tells me that he really understands the position,” Haering said. “He’s always back there talking to the players. He’s a guy that I lean on with how have you done this in the past? He’s been really good, so I feel really good about him. His challenge is to make sure he’s healthy and getting a good summer in.”

Of the returning tight ends, the fifth-year senior registered the most snaps, having played 210 in 2021. Eschenbach can provide the most production in terms of a pass catcher having shown flashes in the past. That includes an 18-yard reception against Michigan this past season and a 22-yard grab in 2020 against Indiana.

The 6-foot-6, 245-pound tight end will be working his way back from surgery to repair a dislocated shoulder he suffered against Michigan. Eschenbach labored through the rest of the year before getting surgery in April. The Illinois native spent the spring getting into shape and mentioned that he expects to be ready to go for the summer.

“I’m three months out right now. Everything is going great and I’ll be back to full by the summer,” Eschenbach told reporters in the spring. “Right now it’s a lot of lifting, running, kind of getting back into shape as much as I possibly can. On the field, it’s all mental.

“Getting this surgery and getting everything fixed is, I think, going to take my game to another level. Not having to worry about is my shoulder hurting.”

Given his absence in the spring, Eschenbach will be asked to get up to speed under a new offensive coordinator and get readjusted to the speed of the game. He won’t be asked to handle the bulk of the reps as Mickey Turner had asked of Ferguson, but he‘ll be asked to slot in as one of the top options at the position.

Graham Mertz lost his reliable safety net during the offseason in Ferguson. While unlikely to replicate a similar amount of production and volume targets, Eschenbach should play a key role in providing a solid option. He will likely lead a room filled with inexperience, along with Clay Cundiff. New offensive coordinator Bobby Engram, who had coached tight ends in the pros with the Baltimore Ravens, intends to incorporate the group in a big way.

“He’s got big plans for the tight ends and asking those guys to be a big part of the offense,” Haering said.

Eschenbach and the group of tight ends have seen reps as reserves or on special teams with Ferguson manning the position. While a tight end likely won’t lead the offense in targets this season, Paul Chryst is likely looking for some production from the group given the unproven outlook at wide receiver as well. Next month the storyline to follow at tight end will be the availability of guys at the position and how players look when they return. Cundiff and Eschenbach, who should be starters, will be seeing their first reps of the season during fall camp.

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