Bobby Petrino Excited About UNC's New-Look Tight End Room Entering 2026

It was not the year of the tight end last season in Chapel Hill. In the wake of a year that saw four Tar Heel tight ends combine for 226 yards and two touchdowns, UNC’s tight end room — much like the rest of the roster — looks drastically different heading into the 2026 season.

Four of North Carolina’s six scholarship recruited tight ends on the 2026 roster are newcomers, with transfers Jelani Thurman, Jordan Washington and Jaxxon Warren all arriving in Chapel Hill via the portal, while three-star freshmen Carson Sneed and Dream Rashad are set to begin their collegiate careers this fall.

New Tar Heel offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino made an appearance on the university’s in-house podcast Carolina Insider last week and expressed excitement about the revamped group as training camp inches closer.

“Our tight end group had a very, very good spring,” Petrino said. “They’re big, they’re athletic, they can run and catch and block the line of scrimmage.

“A lot of new guys there that weren’t here before, but they had a very, very good spring, and gave us some really good weapons.”

Across Petrino’s last three seasons between Arkansas and Texas A&M, his leading tight end alone eclipsed UNC’s entire tight end production from 2025.

Last season, Arkansas tight ends combined for 844 receiving yards, while Razorback tight end Rohan Jones — who finished third on the team in receiving — more than doubled UNC’s production by himself with 519 yards.

It remains to be seen who will be under center for the Tar Heels come Aug. 29 against TCU, but regardless of who wins the quarterback job, UNC appears poised to have more talent and versatility at the tight end position than it did a season ago — both attached to the line of scrimmage and split out wide.

Thurman, the No. 17 tight end in the portal according to On3’s industry rankings, arrives as a redshirt junior from Ohio State, where he appeared in 33 games for the Buckeyes, logging 13 catches, 144 yards and two scores. 

Washington brings a powerful 6-foot-4, 264-pound frame with him from Texas, where he appeared in 12 games for the Longhorns last season as a redshirt freshman, catching seven balls for 109 yards and a touchdown. He was rated as the No. 18 tight end in the portal. 

Both were consensus four-star, top-300 recruits coming out of high school, with Thurman checking in as the No. 5 tight end and No. 117 overall prospect in the 2023 recruiting cycle out of Langston Hughes High School (Ga.). 

Warren heads east after an injury-shortened 2025 season at Colorado State limited him to two games, though he still hauled in seven receptions for 95 yards and a touchdown. At 6-foot-8 and 245 pounds, Warren presents an intriguing matchup problem for opposing defenses.

“Jelani (Thurman) did a real nice job, (Jordan) Washington is a really good player and can do a lot of different things for us,” Petrino said. “Jaxxon (Warren) did a nice job of coming in, and then they can do different things.

“We can line up in two tight end formations with them, we can split out with them. So their ability to do multiple things helps you be able to balance the field for what the defense is going to put out there to try to defend you.”

Shamar Easter — UNC’s lone returning tight end who saw action for the Tar Heels in 2025 — will also reunite with Petrino, who served as Easter’s offensive coordinator during his redshirt freshman season at Arkansas in 2024.

Replacing UNC’s production from the position last season shouldn’t prove difficult. And if Petrino’s recent track record is any indication, the Tar Heels’ revamped tight end room could quickly become a calling card of Carolina’s offense in 2026.