The second round of the NFL draft proved worth the wait for Stanford tight end Coby Fleener, who was selected by the Indianapolis Colts on Friday.
Fleener—a Joliet Catholic graduate from —was the second pick for the Colts (34th overall), and the first tight end to be drafted. He joins his friend and college quarterback Andrew Luck, who was the first overall draft pick Thursday night.
"I just sent (Luck) a text message that had a lot of exclamation points in it," Fleener told the Associated Press. "I expected to be on a team where I wasn't familiar with the offense or the quarterback. I can't wait to get started, to be honest with you."
In his final season with Stanford last fall, Fleener led the Cardinal receiving core with 10 touchdowns. He racked up 667 yards on 34 catches while also leading the team with a 19.6 yards-per-catch average.
In December as a member of the CBS Sports All-America Team and earned first-team All Pac-12 honors.
He has appeared in 51 games over the past four seasons for the Stanford Cardinal. He has 96 career receptions for 1,543 yards and 18 touchdowns.
In January 2011, he helped his team to a 40-12 victory over Virgina Tech in the 2011 Discover Orange Bowl. Fleener caught six passes for 173 yards and three touch downs, for yards receiving and tying the record for touchdown catches.
Prior to his time at Stanford, Fleener was an all-conference, all-area, all-state and all-academic honoree at Joliet Catholic Academy. He caught 34 passes for 706 yards and eight touchdowns during his senior year, and was rated as the top tight end prospect in the state by Scout.com.
