NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 58. Summer Scouting: Top 5 WRs for 2023 NFL Draft

Episode Date: June 16, 2022

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers continue their summer scouting journey with the wide receiver position. The two give you their preseason Top 5 WRs for the 2023 NFL Draft with background info, PFF stats and film notes for each. Plus talk plenty of other wide receivers in the class who are just outside their Top 5s going into the season. 0:00 - Intro 7:40 - Question of the day 14:30 - Connor’s WR5 23:14 - Trevor’s WR5 & Connor’s WR4 33:08 - Trevor’s WR4 & Connor’s WR3 44:58 - Trevor’s WR3 & Connor’s WR2 56:00 - Trevor’s WR2 & Connor’s WR1 1:03:01 - Trevor’s WR1 1:07:21 - Other WRs in the 2023 Class

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It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com slash BS, device and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital only games welcome to the NFL Stock Exchange podcast in this episode we are jumping right back into the summer scouting series with the wide receiver position same format as we did for quarterbacks and running backs what Connor and I will do is we'll start at number five and we'll work all the way down to number one our number one wide receiver in this class from the guys that we watch now the

cool part about this podcast is there's a lot of guys that I watched that Connor didn't watch and vice versa so the list might look a little bit different but the names that you guys will get to hear the preliminary scouting notes what we want to see from these players moving forward this upcoming season you're going to get a ton of that information. More in this episode than any of the summer scouting episodes that we have done to date. I'm Trevor Sikama. With me, as always, is Connor Rogers. Let's ring the bell. Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. I'm Trevor Sikma. That is Connor Rogers.

Do I bring up hockey? I feel bad if I bring up hockey. No, please. It's okay. We brought up hockey the last couple of pods. If you listen to the Monday pod, I jokingly opened it up and said, Hey, Connor, you know, great series, Bolton six. But we had recorded that podcast before game five had even been played.

And so obviously anybody who follows hockey knows that the Lightning won two in a row. But it's OK because I was in New York over this weekend. I actually saw Connor. We shared some beers. We shared a good meal together. So we are still friends. We are still doing the podcast. Even after a hell of a series, the. So we are still friends. We are still doing the podcast. Even after a hell of a series, the lightning came out on top there. Somebody did remind me. They're like, you said on the pod, if it ends in six,

the lightning winning, you're not showing up Thursday. Like, are you going to hold true to that? And I was like, oh, how do I respond to this? Yeah. You should have just said like, yeah, you're right. I quit. Yeah. Fun fact, I'm not showing up.

He's doing the pod alone. No, we had a great meal in new york we had great years boy did we avoid did we ever the the woman the women of nfl stock exchange gathered as well it was just a big a big feast so all is well uh you know on to next year for my new york rangers and on to the stanley cup for your tampa bay lightning for possibly the third time in a row, which would just be absolutely nuts. I'm very excited to see them in the abs because they are just very different teams, to be honest with you. So I can't wait for this. It was a fun run. And I always put it like this, like it was so surprising that the Rangers made to the Eastern Conference final when you look at where they were projected before the year that as much as I was sad, you try to appreciate the good times. You know, you said when we were sharing a few adult beverages together,

you were like, you know what? Rangers beat the Penguins in dramatic fashion, and I'm going to stay with that, and I'm going to stay happy, and it was a good season because they did that. I made a promise. I said as Game 7 was going on, I went overtime. I looked at my girlfriend, and I said, I will not complain if they win this game. is all i want i need this i need them to win one series especially against pittsburgh yep i will not complain if they get steamrolled against

carolina so i had house money they beat you did you said that you said yeah so i i know it's crazy to hear a sports fan a passionate sports fan say that but i really didn't mean it well as you guys know from the title and from the audio intro, if you guys are listening on podcast form, today we are ranking our top five wide receivers for the 2023 NFL Draft here in the Summer Scouting Series. Now, Connor and I each watch 10 wide receivers, but the way that we like to do this is we don't tell each other

who we're going to watch. And now, like the quarterback position, okay, we watch the majority of the same guys. Sort of the same thing with running back although there were a handful of players that we didn't watch there there's honestly almost i think 20 wide receivers between the two of us there are about half of the guys we we both watched and so we've got some mutual thoughts on them i'm interested to see how many of those get into our top fives but then as the podcast goes on and we get to the last half of the podcast we're going to make sure that we share our notes the background information the pff stats for all of the guys that we watch so after this episode hopefully you guys have a really great baseline

of some names to know going into this college football season and how we see them what we think they need to do better uh going into the season to really make a difference and and rise those boards for the 2023 nfl draft but but look it you know i'm just season to really make a difference and rise those boards for the 2023 NFL draft. But but look, you know, I'm just going to say this, Connor, and I'm curious before we really dig into it. If you agree. This wide receiver class, for as much as we say, oh, every year is going to be incredible wide receiver. This isn't this doesn't look as top-heavy right now to me. There's a lot of guys to like, a lot of specialized skills, especially when it comes to measurables, like shorter guys being quicker, faster players, bigger guys being these contested catch guys.

There's a lot of players like that, but it's not as top-heavy as I feel like the last couple of years have been at wide receiver. I completely agree. Watching this class, it's funny. It goes to show you how spoiled we've been in recent years at wide receiver because you're watching these guys, and there's really good players. There's a couple guys right now that I would project to make it into the first round. But I think you're right, Trevor, that it really leveled off.

It evens out. And even my number one, number two, number three guys, they all have significant questions that I wrote down that I think they can answer this year easily. But there are significant questions that can keep them from being a top 15 pick, which is the new norm. We see multiple wide receivers going to top 15 like it's nothing, or a back-end round one guy, a top of round two guy.

So this is what I think will be one of our strongest conversations because I think we'll have some – we've had differing opinions on both the quarterbacks and running backs, actually. I would not be surprised if that trend continues. But the outlier in this show is that, like you said, we each watch 10 guys, but I think we each watched five different players as well. And then by the end of the summer, we'll be fully caught up

when we make the Stock Exchange big board. But I think that's going to add a really new layer to this episode as well. Yep. We're going to get into the end of the summer we'll be fully caught up when we make the stock exchange big board but i think that's going to add a really new layer to this episode as well yep we're going to get into the question of the day before we get into those wide receivers but before we do that before we get to that q a it's time for everybody's favorite ad read which is a new ad read folks manscape has a treat for you guys gentlemen father's day is right around the corner and our friends over at manscape are here to ensure all of the father figures out there are looking daddy material this June. I knew you'd laugh at that. I knew you would.

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We don't have a closing line. I might have to make one up. That one was very tame. I'm actually surprised. Considering Manscaped reads, that one was a little bit more reserved. When you kind of led in with Father's Day, I thought it was going to be like, is your dad's ball sweat? I don't think they can even seriously have me read something like that because the good listeners.

You do it. You're like Ron Burgundy. I do it. Of course. Anything Manscaped puts on the prompter, Sycamore will read. So good. I wonder if they thought if we're pushing it a little too far, people are going to be like, all right, now I'm picturing my dad.

Now I'm not. Now I can't buy this. Now I can't. I can't do it. Yeah, there's even a limit for manscaped. Instead, you got to just go out and make sure that you get the product. All right, Connor, I got a Q&A before we get into wide receivers or a question of the day.

And I don't know it for those at home. I've been too busy tweeting at the Price is Right every day. I see you and I salute you. I thank you for your I've been too busy tweeting at the Price is Right every day. I see you and I salute you. I thank you for your work on trying to get me on the Price is Right. If you guys don't know what we're talking about, listen to the Monday mailbag episode. We talked about bucket list items for life and career. Or just go to Price is Right if they have a YouTube channel

or any format that you can respond to and just spam them with put Trevor on on prices right we will bully we will bully the prices right into doing this i just want to make sure everyone's aware of that anyways the question the question is how do you eat sunflower seeds okay like when you think are you a sunflower seeds guy you watch baseball so i gotta assume that you're at least like sort of a sunflower seed guy so when i played baseball i was, I was. What is your method? What is your method for eating sunflower seeds? Are you like one at a time, handful?

Like you crack in each one of them? You hold like some of them in your cheek while you're like doing work with the other one, trying to like do a surgery? I won't like just put a massive handful in my mouth and like so much just so much salt it's because it's always hot when you're eating sunflower seeds but sure people people didn't think about that before they made it like the baseball snack yeah separate them the one that you're cracking goes on the right side of the mouth obviously i'm a righty and crack it and then spit the shell eat the seed wave one over and do it again right is that's

pretty that's pretty status quo, I think. I think it's a pretty simple process. Do you have some new way of doing this? So the person who asked this question is an old Locked On NFL Draft listener who wanted me to bring this up, I think simply just to see your reaction. All right.

Oh, boy. I just eat the whole thing. Stop. No, you don't. No, you don right. Oh, boy. I just eat the whole thing. Stop. No, you don't. No, you don't. No, you don't. I will grab anywhere from six to ten. He's out, folks.

Of all the things that we have talked about since January, that's what got Connor to get out of his seat. There's no bleeping way. I will take about 6 to 10 anywhere from 6 to 10, chuck them in my mouth and just start chewing. That's it. Recklessly. So that you chomp on the shell. Correct.

Yeah. Yep. What? Yep. Does it even break? Yeah. Like apart into little pieces? You never get stuck in your throat? They never get stuck in my throat they never get stuck in my throat there are times when like i've chomped down like a little piece of it's like a shard into my gums but um when did you find out that this is not this is like borderline we might have

to put you at home pretty pretty early like i think i think that i would go to a baseball game with my with my dad and i'd have to to – you know that Russell Westbrook meme, that gif where he's sneakily eating popcorn on the end of the bench and nobody sees that he's eating popcorn? That was kind of like me with Sunflower Seeds. I wouldn't let my dad see that I was just eating the whole – Oh, so you really enjoy this. You didn't even think – you knew it was totally screwed up and you just

had to get away with it i don't know i don't know what to tell you i don't know what to tell you you're really not messing around like this is actually yes no i'm i'm sometimes connor i wish i was trolling have you found anyone else that does this there's always that one person on twitter that's like hey i'm i'm with you buddy like keep your head up you know what i haven't all right as you can hear my dog marvels like maybe my dog maybe my dog's also defending me and he's like hey i eat the whole sunflower seeds too but uh no uh no digestion issues it just everything's smooth with the sunflower shells i've never experienced any digestive issues no so uh i wish yeah i don't know what to tell you i don't know what to tell you don't i don't wish you to have like an x-ray or a cat scan or anything

like that but there is this comedy element of it to me if that you did this with sunflower seeds and then ended up having one and they print out your x-ray or your cat scan and there's just millions of sunflower shells like they never they can't die they're like do you eat rocks like what is going on here did you ever did you ever uh have the shoot i i guess i don't know this is if this isn't true or not but like as a kid they were like oh if you swallow gum like it can't digest in your system yeah they say it's in your stomach forever right so i just thought that like if i swiped every every piece of gum that i've ever swallowed just uh just is in their stomach maybe that's the case with sunflower seeds so i had to embarrass myself there i do embarrass myself to to start with the

podcast i cannot remember i'm so sorry i cannot remember who asked me that but i hope that that answer and connor's reaction lived up to the hype of me saying that i'm an absolute savage with my sunflower seed by far the most savage thing i know of that you do yeah like i i'll try to think of something that i can give it time give it time i'll top it i'll top it somehow so uh so wide receiver thinking of savage uh i don't know how that's a transition i really really don't. I mean, I guess there's a couple of Savage wide receivers. But, you know, I talked to the top of the podcast, and I said, hey, this group isn't as top-heavy as it has been in years past.

But there are a lot of fun skill sets to like. And as we have seen in the NFL, whether it's with NFL draft, whether it's draft picks, or whether it's capital and free agency, shoot, even draft capital that trades certain picks for wide receivers, teams are always trying to get better in that area. They're always trying to find the perfect skill set that's going to complement their passing attack, who they already have, what they're trying to build.

And I think there's a lot of guys that could be really great complimentary pieces, if not takeover pieces for this offense. So let's do the same thing that we have in episodes past for summer scouting. We'll go from five to one. You tell me, you kick it off. Who is your number five wide receiver of the guys that you watched? So out of all the number fives, right? Running back, quarterback, now wide receiver. This was the one that by far I struggled the most with. I mean, there were truly six guys that could have been in the spot and i wouldn't feel any differently that drastically well hold on wait wait the people who have been listening from day one know that they know what i do here you fudged it the six

wide receivers when we did the 5a and 5b. And they both went in the first round. They did. That was brilliant on you because you got the point for both those guys. So I'm not going to do that anymore. Who do you have at 5-6? It was Olave and who? John Dotson.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you got both of them. Good for you. Got both of them in there. Ooh, top 20 too. Yeah. So, all right. So with this one, because we are going to get into the many honorable mentions today,

so I won't waste much time there. Number five for me was Rakim Jarrett from Maryland. So definitely a guy that, you know, former five-star. I think a lot of people, especially Maryland fans, of course, are very familiar with him because expectations were huge. I'm sure Rakim himself has had to deal with just constantly hearing the name like Stephon Diggs all the time another guy that was a former big time recruit that came in there and was a really good player but at the end of the day you know was somebody that didn't ever become that first round wide

receiver and we know the rest is history from there, Stephon Diggs went on to be one of the best receivers in the NFL down the road. So with Rakim Jarrett, he's someone to me that I think can explode this year. He's been pretty good already. He's coming off a season over 800 yards. Half of those yards were after the catch. Five star traits. I think that's the thing I wrote down right away there. There are guys that have probably been more productive than him already. But when you're projecting him six traits. I think that's the thing I wrote down right away there. There are guys that have probably been more productive than him already, but when you're projecting him six foot, I think he could play at 200 pounds. He is somebody that has played about pretty even in terms of playing in the slot and playing outside, and they even motion him around, would get a little creative with him, which is good to see.

And you're going to hear a lot on this show today. Some of these guys just live in the slot. So it was kind of good for Rakim Jared, who I think had a lot of his explosive plays out of the slot. He does have experience on the outside as well. The thing is, for me, you could just see the five star traits, right? Even if it's not a down by down basis, it's not even a game by game basis. You could see the five star traits, the lightning releases, the ball skills. The most important or most notable thing I wrote down with him is he's a spectacular catch machine with insane adjustments. There's just plenty of times where on a deep, outbreaking route outside the hashes towards the sideline, he can adjust to the ball, control his body over the middle of the field. He can adjust and focus. So there was

a lot I liked in his game. There's obviously a lot of things I would like to see him progress to the next level. I would like to see him consistently play that fast. I would like to see him be a dominant force. And I think some things have been out of his hands at times at Maryland. I think if he was in a situation that not only was there more talent around him, but you know, it might be a little easier for him. He's coming in. And when you're a five-star going to Maryland, no offense to Maryland, a good program, you're looked at as a superhero.

When you're a five-star that goes to Alabama, Ohio State, or Georgia at wide receiver, you're just another guy. So that can help you. That can hurt you. But with Rakim Jarrett, like a lot of players you'll hear on this show, he's definitely in a tier below the next four guys I have. There is a noticeable difference. But the five-star traits flashed on film,

and that was something that got me notably excited with his game. So I did not get to him. Did you get to his teammate? Have you watched his teammate, Dante Dimas? I did not. Okay, so I got to Dimas, and I had him at number six. So he's right outside of my top five. I think that those two wide receivers,

they're getting a lot of pub already. I didn't have time to get to Jarrett. I know that I need to. A lot of people were talking him up and you having him at number five just pushes me to definitely watch him more. I guess I'll talk about Demas and we could just check the two Maryland guys

right off the list there. Like I said, right outside of my top five, but a player who I like and you know i remember going through summer scouting last year me and ben solek when we were doing locked on nfl draft and ben liked demas a lot and i didn't like i didn't love him and and what ben brought to the table was he said okay this is a six foot four, 200 pound wide receivers, probably right around 200 last year. And he's like, the way that he moves is just, there's not a lot of big guys that can move in similar styles to him. And I was just like, yeah,

but I just didn't see it. I didn't, I feel like I didn't see him really put that to use as much as I would have needed to, to give him the praise that Ben was kind of giving him. I liked what I saw from last year before he got hurt. Obviously he the acl and that sucks he's he's coming back from that injury this year and i really hope that he can because i liked what i saw i believe he led the big 10 in receiving before he got hurt and when i looked up jared's production um while you were talking there a lot of jared's production Jarrett became that focal point number one no question about it wide receiver on that team when Demas went down now Jarrett had a 100 yard game while Demas was still healthy early on in the season but that I think that really helped Jarrett

and shoot it might really help into this year with those two guys as long as Demas comes back off the injury Jarrett now has the experience of what it's like getting all the targets being that main guy and they could really have a uh a dynamic duo there which I'm very uh very intrigued about when you look at Demas he was a three-star wide receiver a little background on him three-star wide receiver from Washington DC he led Maryland in receiving both his sophomore and junior seasons and you know I was reading up on him a little bit and they talk about his coaches talk so much about his work ethic now, and they do so in the tone where they go, you know, Dante wasn't always like this. Like he kind of had to mature a little bit right when he got on

campus, but the way they speak about him now, a quote from, from his head coach, Mike Loxley, tremendous leader on and off the field a guy that is very vocal in being a leader and a guy that will put in the work he will visibly be a leader in what he does and what he says they consistently praised his work ethic no matter what and his coach kind of went on to say you see a lot of those skills show up now in bigger ways because of the work that he has put in. So I think that you like that certainly as an X factor when your coach has that much good things to say about him.

Demas, I already mentioned that his size, 6'4". I think he's right around 205 now. He's gained a little bit of weight. I got his strengths, good athlete for a player of his size. Now I definitely see him making the most out of that athleticism with his measurables. He can create some separation vertically. He can bring in some yards after the catch element too, with again,

that work ethic, that mentality. But he can also be a quick hit guy. I think they used him in the screen game and the short game off of slants more than I thought that they were going to honestly had some really nice contested catches getting towards the middle and deep parts out of the field, which you love to see the lateral quickness was also something that was really impressive for me for a player of his size. Because, Connor, you know this, man. When you are just bigger, we watch wide receivers all the time,

you can't judge a 5'10 wide receiver and how he moves laterally the same that you judge a 6'4". It's a trickle-on thing all over again. Right. It's just these are different players. And I thought for the lateral agility portion of his scouting report i was very pleasantly surprised um with what he did the weaknesses you know the injury obviously sucks i think last year he was really onto something special but the numbers they were good enough to lead the team but it's not like you look at him and they really stand

out to you it's not like they were really eye-popping yet he's obviously recovering from the acl tear as well so you've got to make sure that that he's fully healthy that he can get back to that athletic form seems a bit out of control at times gets off balance a little bit more than i would want him to when he's running his routes and this other one really stood out for dante demas at pff we have a percentage of catchable passes stats so it's not just targets how often they came in like we judge the situation on whether or not it really was an actual catchable pass not just a target to you and percentage of catchable passes that were caught were in the mid 80s for demas which is okay but

certainly for a player that has the frame that he does it's going to command that x position that number one receiver kind of looks you want that to be a little bit higher there were guys on that list that were consistently right around the lower 90s and that's kind of what you want to make sure that you get if it's a catchable pass you want your guy to haul it in so i think that's certainly something for him to work on going into this year but it sure sounds like with me having demons at six and you having jared at five that these are two wide receivers that shoot, man. We got to pay attention to Maryland this year. Make sure that we're watching them.

Absolutely. And, you know, this kind of reminded me, as you talked about Demas, who I know is a senior, I think a fifth-year senior now. Yeah, I believe so. He's a redshirt. Trevor, I only watched one senior wide receiver. Like, in fact, I know senior wide receiver Jacob Cowling, who transferred from UTEP to Arizona,

who by eligibility might even be considered a redshirt junior. I'd have to really look into that. But he'd be senior bowl eligible is how I would factor it in. Every other guy I watched of the nine are all underclassmen. The youths, the kids. Good group, too. All right, so who do you got for number five excuse me that came out of nowhere number five i have the reigning belenikoff winner i have

jordan addison the wide receiver from pittsburgh weighs in at six foot 180 and when i say weighs in on it i mean i'm just looking at the school's bio So they could be lying because we know they do that all the time. So that's just what he is listed at their little background on Jordan Addison. Four star athlete was labeled as an ATH coming out of high school, not just a wide receiver. And that's because he played wide receiver. He played quarterback and he played defensive back in high school. Something else that I noticed about him when I was reading about him is

apparently he didn't have the best eating plan. And like he like never. Any good nuggets? No pun intended. So he would not really eat breakfast or dinner for games, but he would eat a bag of Skittles before the game for energy. No dinner after the game. I think he might do dinner after the game but i think it was like before the game okay he wouldn't he wouldn't eat breakfast he wouldn't really eat dinner and he just skittles right before the game that's kind of what i what i read which is interesting

something's working right for him something's working right for him clearly so uh the skittles i mean we we better have an nil deal lined up for our guy here chose pit over notre dame and maryland and an interesting note here is that notre dame only scouted him or only offered him as a corner if they would have offered him as a wide receiver an article that i was reading was talking to i believe it was his grandparents and uh his grandfather said yeah he probably would have gone to notre dame if they would have offered him as a wide receiver so not great brian kelly that's a tough one we'll swing and miss there played in 10 games started eight as troop freshman in 2020 uh led the team with 60 receptions and 666 yards but in 2021 ma'am nuts just absolutely blew up led all of college football and touchdown receptions with 17 uh also caught 100 passes for 101,000 sorry 1,593 yards was first team all acc a consensus all-american

and as i mentioned before won the belitnikoff award given to the nation's top receiver another thing to note he's no longer a pit kenny pickett's gone and he went okay well see ya see ya he ended up transferring to USC this past offseason. There were a lot of offers for him to go to plenty of different places. Little tidbits on him. Grew up a New York Giants fan and also a big Madden guy. Jordan Allison.

Big Madden dude. Strengths in the game. Smaller guy, as you would expect, but he's a quick, he's a really quick player with good athleticism for his frame especially when it comes to that change of direction route running specifically some guys they like to save a lot of what they can do in the change of direction when they're trying to make guys miss in the open field when they're trying to break some ankles make guys

whiff on the tackles and they can't exactly translate that into route running when it comes to getting in and out of your breaks jordan addison absolutely does he's a confident route runner who consistently sets up defenders really well in space both with the ball and without the ball as i mentioned they're really good long speed as well to stretch the field does most of his damage over the middle of the field but you certainly get vertical as well the weakness in this game it's a smaller frame and the smaller length also causes some issues when getting off the line of scrimmage against press coverage. And then naturally, you know, if you got a 50-50 ball coming your way and you're only

5'11", 6 feet tall, that's just not an advantage that you have there to go up and get it that we see that some receivers have. So look, I think that he had a ton of production. It was fantastic to see him on the receiving end of a lot of Kenny Pickett's success last season. Very interested to see what he does with Caleb Williams, with Lincoln Riley at USC. I think it's going to be another really strong year for him.

I thought the best quality that he brought to the table is route running. I think that's going to still be the case, and that's why I still think the NFL is going to love him. Did you watch Jordan Addison at all? Is he further up on your list? What do you got? I did, and this is the easiest transition ever. He was number four.

Love to see it. You had him at number five. You had him at number five. I had him at number four. It sounds like we see eye to eye on Jordan Addison, right? And it's crazy to see. It really is crazy when you think about it, to have a guy that won the Balikinoff as a sophomore, and he's not in the top three wide receivers for either of us.

And he's definitely in a tier where it's close either of us and he's definitely in the in a tier where it's it's close right he's a really good player i'll start off with the positive stuff because there was a lot a lot of things i really really liked about his game that was pretty similar to you i wrote down easy gas off the line of scrimmage like that kind of acceleration was not a problem for him getting into his routes sells routes with sharp steps and head slash shoulder fakes yes uh knows how to change the tempo of his route so this is just a guy that not a problem for him getting into his routes sells routes with sharp steps and head shoulder fakes yes uh knows how to change the tempo of his route so this is just a guy that knows how to get open right that's it you know it was kind of if you're looking to always trace it back to the

last wide receiver class i think that helps listeners you know kind of put an easy image in their head it's never going to be an exact science but the closest thing watching him this summer was a little bit like watching garrett wil summer, where it's like, okay, this guy knows he's been well coached, he works on his routes, he knows how to sell his routes with not just his lower body, but also his upper body, and he knows how to make plays because of that. Now, there's also plenty of things that he's much different than Garrett Wilson at, but I wrote Shifty before and after the catch with great balance. I loved his balance. Here's some of the things where you start to go, okay,

it's got to get a little better. 11 drops in 2021. That's a lot of drops. I don't care how many targets you're getting. It's a lot of drops. And I believe he had 10. I know he had a lot in 2020 as well. So drops are a thing with Jordan Addison.

One more good thing I wrote at the bottom. He's legit punt returner when they used him there. I think he averaged about 12 to 15 yards per punt return when they started to use him like that. He's very legit with the ball in his hands if they have to go that route. Once again, the drops, overall physicality because he's playing at, what, 175

pounds. He's a slender guy on tape. It's not like, oh, they didn't update his weight because nobody's doing that. It's pretty obvious on tape so there's a lot to like skill body by skittles yeah you you nailed it yeah body by skittles is you know it's been working but in the nfl i don't know if it's going to carry over that way it's not marshall lynch we gotta we gotta find out how to get a little bit of protein into some skittles i don't know it's mixing shake protein protein skittles now or something there's got to be a protein company out there that can make a skittle flavored shake that jordan addison is going to be a big fan of two skittle shakes a day there you go or an addison get to 185 you'll be fine yep um yeah no wide

receiver number four in this class ton of production a ton of the little things the right way and and that's why he was so successful now I will say it was interesting watching Addison uh play with a guy that went in the first round of the NFL draft at quarterback and it's it's a credit to Addison but it's also a credit Kenny Pickett threw him a lot of good balls and Addison made the most of them Addison with the timing was right leading him was right finding him was right um and it really helped Addison and he he gets open so he deserves that credit right there some of the guys we're going to talk about today it was interesting him was right um and it really helped Addison and he he gets open so he deserves that credit right there some of the guys we're going to talk about today it was interesting did not always have that luxury and a lot of them are probably more on the honorable mention list but it was just

definitely something I noticed where I'm like oh I forgot this is Kenny Pickett like these are good throws um yeah so good player and and you know a conversation that uh I know we had last year at the PFF office and I think a lot of people love to just do this naturally. You go, okay, star wide receiver, star quarterback. Who's making who? Like, is Kenny Pickett making Jordan Addison or is Jordan Addison making Kenny Pickett? And he just helped each other.

They were good together. It's a super boring answer, but it was. I think that they were just really great together. And yeah, I think that you saw obviously a lot of success. Kenny goes in the first round. Jordan Addison wins the Boletnikoff Award, which is really good. I think I had one more thing on him that I wanted to make sure we get to. I mean, he had 144 targets.

So in terms of volume, this was the guy that we're going to talk about today. His volume was just bonkers. I mean, 144 targets. He tied with Josh Downs, but everybody but everybody else they're gonna hear about isn't sniffing that so we have a we have a stat at pff and it's labeled in pff ultimate it's labeled threat and essentially what it is is when you are on the field how often are you targeted as you when you're a wide receiver so it kind of it just takes that and just divides the the targets by the receiving snaps. And you end up getting a percentage Jordan Addison's threat percentage was

26.9%. So 26, basically 27% of the time that they're throwing the football and Jordan Addison's on the field, they are throwing it to him, which is it's not the highest because there's another guy that I'm working on to talk about later who has it's not the highest because there's another guy that I'm going to talk about later who has the higher one, but I think it is second highest of all the wide receivers that I watch. They went to him early and often.

So yeah, I wanted to make sure that we threw that one out there, as well as slot percentage. He played 68% of his snaps from the slot, which you would probably expect from a guy of his size. Yeah, and that's going to be lower than a lot of guys we talk about today which is bananas which is nuts yeah when you think about it so Addison to me it's hard it's wild to say this about a guy that just had a monster year an award-winning year and everything to me I thought he was he was kind of a high floor, lower ceiling player when watching him.

And he could be a first-round wide receiver. I'm not saying that. It's just like I don't look at him and go, man, he's in line to be like a Jamar Chase. I did not get that either. No. I thought his best case is he's a Devontae Smith-level prospect. And I think because of the drops,

he's not even close to that right now. So once again, obviously you and I like him, but I think some people listening to the show, when they know the awards, they know the numbers, might be a little surprised that he's not in either of our top three. Yeah. Yeah. No, you said it correctly.

I'll go into my number four guy. My number four guy, I wonder how high he is on your list. It's Keishon Butte, the wide receiver from LSU. So I have him at number four. I know a lot of people had him potentially as number one. A lot of number ones right now. I think Mike Renner, I think he had him at number one when he did a real quick, like,

hey, here's a look at the wide receiver class. Here's some guys I like. I think that he had Butte at number one. But of like a real quick, like, Hey, here's a look at the wide receiver class. Here's some guys I like. I think that he had bootay at number one, but of course, like, that's not a hard ranking. So I'm not going to a hundred percent hold Mike to that LSU wide receiver though, guys, six feet tall, 190 pounds, some background info on, uh, on Keishon bootay, four-star wide receiver from Louisiana ran track in high school, reportedly ran a four, three, seven in high school as well, 40-yard dash.

I believe it. Okay, so when he was on the track team, he was part of a 4x200 relay team that ran the fastest time in state history. It was a record-breaking time that he was a part of there. And then it was also recorded that he ran a 21.29, 200-meter dash, which is fast, okay? Like this dude can fly when he gets open. Really wasn't supposed to play much as a true freshman.

There's a lot of really cool games that you point to at the end of his true freshman season and sophomore season, but he wasn't even supposed to really get much play time. But the reason why he did is because Jamar Chase opts out from that season at the beginning of the year. And Terrace Marshall opted out after, what was it, five, six games right in the middle of the season? So all of a sudden, this four-slash-five-star wide receiver,

it's like, all right. You're playing, buddy. You're the dude now. Finished the season, though, with that opportunity. Made the most of it. Finished the 2020 season with three straight 100-yard games, including an sec record breaking performance 308 yards in a single game in the season finale against old miss nuts absolutely

nuts this uh this past year that he had he kind of picked up right where he left off over 100 yards three touchdowns again against uh ucla to open up the 2021 season but was only able to play in six games last season because of an ankle injury so he just had surgery on that i believe honestly it was this week or the week before that he was actually just cleared to that's correct go full speed so you're hoping that he's certainly uh that he's certainly going to be able to go full speed because when he can man he's pretty special vertical threat wide receiver who can do a lot of damage when he gets a full head of steam.

If defenders don't get hands on him in the contact window, he's got the speed to get behind him in whatever route he is getting there as a wide receiver. Also a very dangerous yards after catch player on any kind of mesh and dig concepts. Now, I recently wrote a feature about K about k sean because i got to sit down and talk to him a little bit and i understand that this might come off as cherry picking and i guess like it kind of is but it this is how you have to set it up if you take the full

context of he didn't really play towards the until the end of his freshman season and then he didn't play beyond six games of his sophomore season just smush it together. You take those three games at the end of his freshman season and add them to the six games as a sophomore. No wide receiver had more yards after the catch and more yards after contact, and I think receiving touchdowns, in case Sean Boutte did. I think he led all of the FBS if you kind of make that the timeline. If you want to call it cherry-picking, fine,

but I just want to let you guys know how good that guy was when he was fully healthy. Weaknesses, and I'm very curious. I don't know if you're going to talk about him in your top five. I think that you're going to, or if you're going to talk about him next or whatever, but I'm curious what you have to say about this. Perhaps I was being fooled by just how easy he makes it,

but I felt like his speed was much more smooth than it was like full-on explosive like really explosive especially in the change of direction i wasn't as impressed with the acceleration which is crazy for me to write down but i watched a handful of games of his and i was like okay you see him get to the top speed i just thought that he might be able to get to it a little bit quicker maybe it's the shorter strides that kind of fooled me there. So there were times when I knew his speed background and he wasn't getting as much separation in the early parts of his routes as I thought that he was going to.

Any PFF stats that stand out? Obviously, I mentioned the yards after catch, yards after contact. Ooh, contested catches. There you go. I was going to say I had one written down that was pretty notable. Contested catch percentage, 37.5%, which is low. Like, we got to be higher than that, especially if you're doing a lot of work over the middle of the field.

You know, you're going to be working through clutter. There's going to be some guys around you at least threatening to hit you, if not hitting you when the ball is arriving. So, definitely got to make the contested catch numbers we got we got to secure that ball but uh kashon butte overall really nice athletic player i got him at number four so remember i opened the show and did the whole like man we were different on quarterbacks we were so different on running backs like today he's gonna be more different than ever. Number three. He's number three for me. So we lied. We lied.

We lied to the people. We completely lied. We're absolute frauds that we just put together the same exact rankings, even though we watch totally different players. This means that I know for a fact that you have one other player in your top two. That you will not have. But I, no, no, no, no, no. Well, that is for sure you did not

watch a player who is in my top i knew that one going in yes but okay go ahead go ahead talk about kate so i mean yeah i agree with you and i think we're on we're alliers in our thought process with him i all right let's just let's start with just kind of mix it up good and bad he'll be 20 years old on draft night if he enters the 2023 draft, which is, that's pretty nuts. I mean, you're talking about a guy that has a birthday, as far as I know, on May 7th, born in 2002. So an extremely young player that, when you look at it,

he's produced on a college football field at what age is 18 and 19 that's it's pretty insane and that's something that does matter to me when you look at wide receivers because I it was a big argument the entire year not to keep talking about Jamar Chase but everybody was like oh he was away for a year of football out of and it was like do you realize when he was like a 19 year old he was running running by NFL caliber corner. So I really like it. He had like, what, 20 touchdowns or whatever it was. Yeah. Yeah. So Boutte's youth is something that is extremely exciting when you factor in some of the flashes on tape.

Like you said, Trevor, you smush in the amount of like the times he's actually playing compared to everyone else. And when he is playing, he is typically better than everybody else. He's coming off season ending injury in 2021 2021 i believe he's had multiple ankle surgeries because oh i didn't know that i i'm for sure there was one i was reading a couple things that there reportedly has been two um so i'm very curious you're saying since last season there's been that as long as i can read and sometimes i can't oh okay so let's i'll double check as long as i can read and sometimes i can't yeah so the advocate wrote kashon butte underwent second surgery uh on his right ankle and apparently

that is from brian kelly so it's just it's something to watch i mean you this guy's game is speed and and he he missed you know obviously a lot of last year um because of this injury that was a season-ending injury and now he's working really hard to come back from it and you know with some weird quotes from brian kelly too said, look, he's a great player. He's a good kid, but this has been a rough spot for him. You tend to get distracted because you're not involved in everything. He's learning. You've got to be involved in everything, whether you're injured or not.

I don't know. Maybe it's me. Like, that's not something I think a coach needs to say to the media. If like, I don't know, man, I feel like, yeah. Brian Kelly didn't recruit him there, right? Keep all this in mind right right right right right i don't know i feel like something i feel like brian kelly's done this before though does it every year where he's all the time use the media to motivate his players and yeah not every how about go be an adult and speak to him instead anyways we won't go down the brian kelly road today but when i read that article i was like this is just like not the best um for anyone involved but butte back to the player who is my number

three overall wide receiver in this class he's electric um excellent secure catch to acceleration rate there are a few times and it's a lot of in-breaking routes uh that like i said he looks his best on in-breaking routes where he can just eat up the middle of the field there is one touchdown he has where he catches the ball in an in-breaking routes where he can just eat up the middle of the field. There is one touchdown he has where he catches the ball on an in-breaking route, and he does explode in terms of securing the ball and getting upfield. But the guy covering him runs right into the back of the ref. And he did... I was shocked.

Oh, the UCLA game. UCLA game. I was shocked. Like, the guy was a good sport about it and didn't, like... I didn't see him turn around and, like, scream at the ref or blame the ref. But I'm like, I don't think he would have caught Boutte anyway

because he's that fast and has that good of acceleration. But I was like, ooh, that's a bad situation. It's a savvy move by Boutte coming off the screen. Find the space. Find the space and create. You got to do that. It's a great pick play. It's a great pick play.

Yes. He truly is somebody that when he's on the field, there are plenty of moments that you just know he's moving differently than everybody else and he's on the field, there are plenty of moments that you just know he's moving differently than everybody else, and he can be the fastest. He has that breakaway speed on the field to run away from anybody that he wants to. Now, why he's wide receiver number three and not wide receiver number one

or two, there is just really no physical element to his game when the ball is in the air. And the bottom line is the NFL is just not a perfect league. There's a lot of times where I think it matters a lot in terms of working through traffic where whether you're bracketed whether you're running into the middle of the field towards linebackers whatever it may be you might be playing with a quarterback that just is not doing a good job getting you the ball on time and you're gonna have to fight for the ball like you said trevor the contested catch rate is extremely extremely low and it's something that i'm i'm gonna really focus in on him this

year can he be a more physical uh c ball wind ball kind of player rather than uh i'm so fast i'm so sharp with my cuts if i get open and the ball is there i'm gonna catch it and run away from everybody that's great a lot of guys are very successful doing that and he does that in the sec which i think matters. 100%. People who want to say that conference stuff doesn't matter, absolutely. No, it matters. I mean, he's running away from people all the time. So he's an awesome player. Once

again, it's a matter of can you be... I think a lot of people are going to want him to be Jalen Waddell. And I think he has... And he's not. He's not Jalen Waddell. But he has the raw ability to become a player I still think that's right I loved Waddle and I know you did too yeah so I think I'll never get there but he has that kind of electricity to his game where he's the point

I'm trying to make is I get why people are labeling him the top wide receiver in the class there is something to his game that leaves you more excited than other guys, but obviously you and I did not come away with that same feeling. But Boutte is, he can run, and when you can run and create explosive plays with the ball in your hands, people are going to value you really highly. But once again, the question is, can you develop a physical aspect of your game and can you stay healthy because right now it sounds like the comeback from this ankle situation has been a bumpy road yeah and i mean you absolutely have to see him get back to form right it's because that's

his bread and butter that's his trump card the speed and there's not uh there's no backup plan is the point right and right and that's something that you you and i are both looking forward to hopefully seeing him kind of develop a different part of his game there, really round out his game beyond just speed. But that speed's got to be there no matter what. Before we get to my third guy, I'm going to tell you guys that right now you can get 25% off any PFF subscription when you use the promo code NFLSE. What do you get with PFF sub?

Well, so glad you guys asked. You get all of PFF's locked article content. You get the fantasy football rankings. You get the projections, which are coming out soon if you're big into fantasy football. So as the summer goes on, you can see all those things. You get all the data, all the premium grades entering the 2022 season for the NFL,

no matter what team that you root for. You get so much more. You get the draft guide. You get all the betting tools. You get everything. Support this pod. Use the promo code NFLSE. If you're getting a PFF sub, you get the draft guide you get you get all the betting tools you get everything support this pod use promo code nfl se if you're getting a pff sub you get 25 off when you use that promo code make it happen guys you know what i'm i'm kind of disappointed here because you are right

we started this podcast and we said that we were going to be a little bit different on the wide receivers and i think i already know who your one-two are. You definitely know one of them. I definitely know one of them. Everybody knows him. And I think I know who your other top two player is because I think he's number three for me. Okay, fire away. Because I saw you tweet about him.

Yep, I did give a little teaser. Is it Quentin Johnston? Man, he freaking rocks, dude. Quentin Johnston. TCU wide receiver, baby. I mean, there was a point where I sat there and go. Is he your number two? Is he your number two?

He's number two. Okay, so we could just, then we could talk about him. We could just talk about him. Yeah, it's a back and forth thing all over again. You're one behind me on every guy. So we're getting to somebody different for you soon. We're getting to somebody different yeah we are we are so okay all right well i'll give a little bit of background information on him and then uh we can we can both go over why he's awesome first of all six foot four 210 pounds you absolutely love to check the

size boxes there with quentin johnson four-star wide receiver from Temple, Texas, was originally committed to Texas, decommits, ends up going to TCU. He played the Z receiver in his early time at TCU, so he's more of the flanker guy in that offense. But when Sonny Dykes came over and Dykes was introducing his version of the air raid, he perfectly molded what he wanted to do to exactly what Qu what Quentin Johnson was playing that exposition player and an exposition in a Sonny Dykes offense in his own words is is just somebody who is well

I got the quote right here actually I'll just read it the X is you're more vertical guy they end up running more vertical routes than anybody else in the field and that is Quentin's strength you want the X guy to be able to take the top off the defense which he can absolutely do you sit back and you look at his skill set how it plugs into exactly what we want those guys to be able to do X in our offense is a natural position for him so the X position it's going to be a sideline position right it's going to be something that's to the outside in fact uh Quinton Johnson only took 8.6% of his snaps from the slot last season. He was always on the outside, always to the strong side, which was a right-handed quarterback,

so it was always to the right hand of where they were playing. So he really didn't move around a lot. It's not like you saw him all over the field. He had his one spot, but holy shit, man. He was fine. I did not know anything about sam constant before i started this the strengths on my on my notes here big man who can really open it up and get vertical at the sideline most of what sunny dykes does in that air raid offense is on that vertical tree so we're talking

about nine routes comebacks curls posts things like that good amount of explosiveness for a bigger wide receiver which is something that you definitely look for right when we talked about the jordan addison the kashon butte and like when i was talking about dante demas you kind of have to evaluate these guys almost on a weight adjusted plane but when you see plus explosiveness plus uh change of direction plus speed whatever just plus movement skills when you are six foot three six or four that is a major bonus something that you have to highlight that you have to give these bigger guys credit for and and quentin johnson absolutely brings that to the table no doubt about it the weakness i have in his game bigger body gives him plenty of advantages against smaller corners but there are times when I think that he struggles to separate

versus press coverage. And kind of as I was watching him, there were a handful of instances where I was like, oh, man, I thought he'd break off a little bit quicker than that. And I went back and I watched Hakeem Butler because Hakeem Butler is a massive draft miss of mine. A lot of people like to be like, oh, like, what are some of your biggest misses? Hakeem Butler was a massive miss for me, guys. I fell way too much in love with

the down the field production and I wasn't focused enough about what was going on at the line of scrimmage on a snap by snap basis Quinn Johnson is not Hakeem Butler he does not lose no no unpressed coverage uh like that he does not get bullied as a big man but there are just times where I think especially when working to the outside, right, when cornerbacks have inside leverage on him and they are planning for him to go and up on the outside. Are there little subtle things that he can do? Either hesitation or something with his hands. Just create something where you can get a little bit more space getting vertical because I know you got the speed, distraction, feel. Just get that separation a little bit sooner.

I'd love to see it from him because when it comes to attacking on in breaking routes like when he is taking a step one way and then hitting a slant a quick slant to get the ball he can separate very very easily so i know that that's not an issue of his game i think it's just a technique thing something to really set up defenders a little bit more when they're playing them with inside leverage but overall dude he's number two for you he's's number three for me. We clearly really, really like this player. Loved him. Loved him. I think if it was such a pleasant surprise because I just admittedly did not watch a

ton of TCU last year where I was so aware of the dominant force this guy can be. I mean, you're looking at a former four star. He chose TCU over Texas,as oklahoma baylor notre dame i just wrote down big alpha male outside wide receiver huge strides for build up speed he gallops he gallops there's it's a difference it's you know you might have a guy that's 5 foot 10 and runs 4 4 435 and has these little choppy steps and can fly and is a jitterbug. With this guy, when DBs open up their hips and turn to run down the field with him, he just covers so much ground.

He covers so much ground, and he's waiting for the ball a lot. Crazy. So I looked at that, and when you write down alpha male outside wide receiver, I didn't write that down about a single guy of the 10 I watched besides him it was not a single player that I wrote down like a definitive dominant outside wide receiver right like if people that really like Drake London are going to really like Quentin Johnson because his style of play is kind of some things you said where it's he's really big but he's not clunky

he knows how to get open. He knows how to play with the really, really smooth element to his game, has plus tracking, has plus ball skills. He will rip the ball away from DBs. I posted one of them against Oklahoma where right at the pylon, he rips the ball out of the Oklahoma DB's hands, and he does this and stomps on the ground. And the ref kind of told him, like, I'm not going to flag you, but chill. And he's like, all right, I'll chill. It was, this guy plays with a different edge to his game. You know what's funny is Jordan Addison will do the same thing.

Jordan Addison on some of his touchdowns will do, like, the little boy celebration. He'll look back and he'll do, like, the you're too small but it's hilarious because jordan addison's like six feet tall so it's almost like i imagine jordan saying to them i'm six feet and i make you look like you look small like i'm making you look like a little person next to me with what i'm doing to you which it was hilarious and i wanted to give jordan addison his props for that because that's awesome but uh you're right yeah well same quentin johnson does make players look small he'd make nfl corners look small that's how big this guy is yep um it's not a situation last year like the whole year we were told jalen tolbert's 6-4 and then he measures in like 6-1 at the combine this guy looks big on tape

yes huge he's huge he plays big on Once again, he just plays with this attitude that he knows he can be the most dominant player on the field, and it shows up. And I just think that he's better than his numbers. And that's probably why you and I were so pleasantly surprised by him, honestly. It's probably why when we turned on the tape we said wow this dude is way better than we could have ever expected and doesn't really drop the ball too i can't believe you got him at number two yeah i thought i was gonna be high i'm at number three

i was like this is gonna be my like this is gonna be my guy like this is gonna be my guy that like i'm off the rails on and everybody's gonna be like who and yeah obviously you you did your work as you always do and had him number three uh the stock exchange is the quentin johnson podcast and yeah i'll tell you what man i like i couldn't do it but i i could i wanted to make an argument of why i think he's the best wide the most talented wide receiver in this class and i i won't do it today i'm not there yet i just want to make it clear that if that's how i feel by the time December or January rolls around it's it's just not a surprise he also doesn't drop the football he doesn't he catches everything as well and he's a lot of his catches are in traffic what was so oh no his contest catch was 33.3 that was way lower than I thought

it was gonna be yeah and some of the the he's catching some punts out there. I'd like to make that clear. Not all contested catch opportunities are created. Sure, sure. As much as we love the data that we have, it helps that you can click on it and watch them. So I think that his contested catches were a little different than some of the other guys that had that low rate. He forces missed tackles with more creativity

than a 6'4", 215-pound guy could have. I saw a spin move. I saw a stiff arm. And that was the same experience I had watching Drake where I was like, wow, he's not just like, catch the ball, plod, lower my shoulder, pick up three yards. There's a little creativity because of the feet he has.

This dude's awesome, man. Average depth of target was 18.7. I mean, obviously you and I are huge fans of him. I watch TCU every single weekend this year just to watch this dude play. You know what? I think you could have put him over Jackson Smith and Jigba, the Ohio State wide receiver who you have to have number one, right? Yes.

Either you have him at number one or you have him at number six, and we're going to have to have number one, right? I mean, like you didn't either, either you have them at number one or you have a number six and we're going to have to have a conversation here. Absolutely not. I also have a Jackson Smith and jig bed at number two, which means the player that I watched that you didn't. I have him at two. So the player I didn't watch you have is the best wide receiver in this. I have is my favorite.

That makes me want to restart the podcast. And I knew that right when you told me we're right in the pre-show folks we told each other uh all the guys that we watched and when you didn't name that player I went that's the reaction that's why I was like oh because I knew I had this player at number one I didn't know we were going to be so similar here but before we get to him let's just talk about Jackson Smith and J-Bo who is such a fun player he was part of that trio of garrett wilson crystal lave and jsn uh at ohio state last year with cj stroud and that incredible passing offense six feet tall 195 pounds that's what ohio state's got him listed at this is a true threat of a slot receiver you go over to the slot percentages that we have at pff over 88 percent

yeah he's a he's a what is it diamond club member in the slot he is a diamond club member no doubt about it background on a five-star wide receiver recruit from rockwell texas rockwall texas excuse me had 97 receptions for 1800 yards and 20 touchdowns as a junior then as a senior at 100 catches 2 000 yards and 35 touchdowns was named the texas gatorade football player of the year which anybody that knows anything about texas high school football that might mean more than a heisman it feels like for some people uh played seven games the true freshman season is oh at osu but didn't play a ton obviously because of all the talent that they had there became a startle his sophomore season last year and at the end of the year with with gary wilson and chris olave opting out of the bowl game he set a college football

single game receiving record with 347 yards in the rose bowl against utah fun fact his brother plays outfielder for the pittsburgh. So a very athletic family that we have there. Strengths of Jackson Smith and Jigba. There's so much to like about his game, but truly the number one reason why he is so high on this list is that he just understands the position so well. When you play in the slot, sometimes it can be because a coach is trying to mask something

you don't do well right where where you go okay this guy doesn't really separate super well let's let's give him two-way goes like like let's make the defense guess let's get him some mismatches maybe a linebacker will be on him sometimes like let's do something to manufacture where we can get his skill set um in the best situations possible it is not a crutch that jackson smith and jigba is in the slot as much as he is it is an advantage believe that because when you give this guy two-way goes and you when you allow his mind to evaluate the coverage in front of him the coverage pre-snap post-snap where he needs to go to uh to make sure that he is in a great spot for

cj shroud to deliver him the ball he does it so well every time um you got to be you got to be good at two things that i think consistently win in the slot you got to understand stay in space really well and you've got to be able to have reliable hands over the middle because there's often so much clutter again there's guys that are either bumping you hitting you something they're around you they're behind you you've got to be able to reel it in dude did you see his contested catch percentage uh yeah it's what like 90 90 that's unbelievable this guy simply does not drop the football no now he's not an insanely explosive athlete when it comes to change the direction but he's very smooth good enough i'll say that understands how to work in

a vertical offense as well he could certainly be a threat when going up the seam he understands the the coverage leverages as i said the inside the outside what teams are lining up in where he's going to be able to find this pace the space he could be a quarterback's best friend and he absolutely was because with an offense that had garrett wilson and chris olave jackson smith and jigba had by far the most first down catches of any wide receiver in that group. So weaknesses, he's not super twitched up. I'm going to be honest. You're going to hear a lot of people all year long

talk about how he's limited as an athlete. He's not this super explosive athlete. He's going to be labeled as more of a smooth runner than an explosive one. The zero to 60, if you will, is the issue that I had the most because the long speed, I think once he gets speed, he can stretch the field. He can be be a vertical guy but he's just not like you're watching some games you're watching Garrett Wilson on the other side of him you're going okay these are two different players right Garrett Wilson's much more of a twitched up wide receiver than in jig but it does

he's just more of a smooth smart wide receiver but man does he play that position well he's so good the reason he's my number one wide receiver is especially over summer where we have so much time and these things change you'll never miss taking a Jackson Smith and Jigba you'll never miss the only way you ever miss is if he just falls out of love with football and is like you know what this isn't for me anymore I'm gonna go do something else um and obviously the way he plays, it looks like the guy adores the game. I mean, it's so obvious the kind of work he's put in. He's 20 years old. He won't turn 21 until February. So he's going to be a 20 year old going through the beginning of this draft process. And he has had a dominant season of college football already under his belt in an

offense that was bringing in a new quarter a young quarterback and cj stroud who got better as the year went on a lot of that was because he had a player like this as a safety valve yes garrett wilson and chris alabe draw a lot of attention that might help him but he was still the dude in this offense and that means something uh 89 of his 2021 snaps, like you said, Trevor, were spent in the slot. He's the Diamond Club member of the slot. Actually, not Diamond.

He's Silver. There's a couple of guys that are Diamond. Wait, he's not a Diamond Club member? No, maybe Gold. Not Diamond. Not Platinum. Not Platinum. And I'm curious how they use him this year.

I'm curious how they use him this year. If they move him around more, I think they will. there's just so much polish in his game it's the route running in my opinion understanding spacing understanding tempo the adjustments to the football the timing of the football understanding when the ball is going to come his way and not making it obvious turning back waiting late hands there's so much in his game that screams he's going to be a thousand yard nfl wide receiver he's uh and he's in his sleep and he could have done it this year he could do it i would i would say this jackson smith and jigba as a 20 year old could be on an nfl team right now and put up a thousand yards and you if you put jackson smith and jigba on the jacksonville

jaguars he leads the team in every category and gets over 1,000 yards. Yes, and he might never, because of some of the things you hinted at, Trevor, maybe he's not the twitchiest guy. Maybe he's not the fastest or the most explosive guy. He might never be a top five receiver in the NFL, but his floor is so insanely high at his age that he, a lot of, like his question is, how is he going to play out of the slot? Right?

That's really it. That's really it. That's the question. All the other guys haven't even sniffed, besides Addison, sniffed a season like the one he just had. And it's just this school churns out wide receiver talent. They coach wide receiver talent. They recruit it.

Obviously, they went down to Texas and got this kid. That's a big statement. And they did that with garrett wilson as well garrett wilson was a five star from texas so they're i mean there's a reason these guys are going to ohio state and they're making the most of that opportunity and developing at an alarming rate all right you're ready for it yeah yeah well i mean i don't i didn't get to watch this player so i'm just gonna say i'm truly a listener of the pot right now. It's A.T. Perry from Wake Forest. Dude, I... Boy, did they throw the shit out of the ball.

Loved him, man. And boy, was he on the opposite end of a lot of those passes, okay? Here is the breakdown of him. 6'5", 205 pounds. So he checks the size boxes. Again, you absolutely love to see it he was only a three star wide receiver from lake worth florida okay he was an all-county athlete in football basketball and track in the long jump his mother also ran track at arizona state so he comes from athletic

background played a lot of sports growing up massive leap as a red shirt sophomore wide receiver last season. 12, over 1,200 yards, almost 1,300 yards, 93 catches, 15 touchdowns. This guy had an unbelievable year when it came to production. Again, took that massive leap from what was the year before. That was really his coming out party last season. Dude, the strength of his game, there's so much to love about his game. One of the most all-around wide receivers in this class. This is my blurb on him. A lot of other players in this group have specialized skill sets

according to their measurables. Not only does A.T. Perry create separation and win at the catch point like you would want from somebody who is 6'5", he has lightning quick feet, off the line of scrimmage, and well above average agility as well change of direction considering how big he is he's also very willing and aware as a blocker instantly becomes an athlete and a playmaker when the ball is in his hands despite his size looks for that yards after the catch and even makes defenders miss in the open field which you don't

see a lot with guys who are six foot four six foot five he brings so much to the table as a wide receiver he did not really play much in the slot i think that he was 9.6 percent in the slot he just doesn't do a lot of it he is your true outside wide receiver but i think that he brings so much to the position so much more than a lot of these other guys even when you look at okay this guy's big is his trump card winning with strength okay that it is does he give extra stuff to the game ah okay outside of quinn johnston maybe not a lot of these guys are doing that i think at perry absolutely does i think that you can give him a variety of different routes he wins off the line scrimmage he knows how to beat press coverage now the contested catch number i think is right around like 34 okay like i want

that higher you were a big wide receiver. You've got to be able to bring in the ball. One of his weaknesses that I have here is he doesn't always extend the arms to get the most out of that frame for the contested catches, for the catches deep down the field, those 50-50 balls, if you will. I'm not saying that he's a perfect prospect with him being my wide receiver one. But when I look at the leap that I feel like he again can have on top of last year as a baseline when it comes to the disciplined portions of the

game the consistencies being more reliable I've already seen so much of the potential of flashes as a vertical wide receiver as an over the middle wide receiver as an in-breaking wide receiver as a quick hit a guy with slants a guy with against screens everything man i feel like he brings it all to the table because of how incredible his footwork is it allows him to be a great route runner at his size which you don't see a ton of from those kinds of players and so the reason why i have him number one isn't because he's a better wide receiver this second than jackson sm Jigman it's because what I believe the potential is of A.T. Perry this upcoming season especially with Hartman still

as his quarterback I think he has an he has the chance to bring the most skills to the table of any wide receiver in this class as we sit here today there's a lot of football yet to be played but man I am so excited for excited for A.T. Perry and the potential that he has moving forward. And I am too now, obviously, to watch him. You gotta go watch him. And I've watched Hartman, so I've obviously seen plenty of him

without realizing I was watching him. But obviously, a big breakout player last year, a big-time breakout player last year that has been... He's been with that program for a while. He was a freshman in 2018. So he's been with that program for a while. And obviously he's in for a monster year with what they have going back to

that school. Big fan, very big fan. Okay. So we got the top fives down. What about some players that didn't quite make the top fives? Cause we started this podcast saying we had about 20 that we watched clearly of the five that we similarly watched we saw them very similarly and we had them in our top fives but who are some guys you want to give a shout out to

that didn't quite make your top five list that you watched man well here's the diamond club member of the slot okay josh downs oh yeah Trevor, 96%. This man does not. It's like the Snapchat. He froze. He hasn't moved. He's just always there. He's always in the slot. Yeah.

I mean, Josh Downs is pretty awesome, honestly. A former four-star, top 100 recruit in his class. Success in high school, triple jump and long jump. So he's a good athlete. And he did have 10 drops in 2021. I noticed he attacks the ball sometimes, but when they just keep things simple for him, manufactured touches, he's electric off screens.

Once again, those manufactured plays and extended plays. When the play breaks down, we know that, you know, a guy like Sam Howell, that can happen a lot. He did a really good job in those situations, and he can return punts as well. So Josh Downs is somebody I wanted to throw out there. I mean, I could just rip through these, honestly. Jermaine Burton is somebody that I think people are going to be really excited about because he transfers from Georgia to Alabama. And when he was a factor in George's passing attack, which we had this conversation how many times about George Pickens.

There were flashes of an outside wide receiver with a thick frame that knows how to shield defenders, reliable hands, and the limited targets he got. So you wonder, what is that going to look like in an Alabama offense with Bryce at quarterback just kind of carving things up? The last one that needs to be mentioned to me would be Marvin Mims from Oklahoma. I did not get to him.

And a lot of people do like him. So I'm curious. I really like him. He's a middle-of-the-field monster. He knows what he's doing out there. He knows how to – and that's the coaching that he had under Lincoln Riley. But he knows how to find the soft spot of zone. He knows how to adjust the ball.

He makes plays at all three levels of the field over 70 of his snaps were in the slot he's a true slot demon uh so really really like mims mims was the closest guy to being wide receiver five you know okay jared was that guy it was almost mims parker washington from penn state is another guy that was in that combo as well um and then like like I said, and then Burton and Downs. And then the only other guy I'm trying to think, because I think we each watched five different ones. I did watch Jacob Cowing, who transferred from UTEP now to Arizona.

He's been a dominant force at UTEP, so I'm really excited to see what he can do at Arizona. He's a pretty electric playmaker. But there's a theme with a lot of these guys is that they're small. I mean, Downs is 5'10", 171. It's a small class. Yeah. Cowling is 5'11", 170. So he's probably 5'9", 170. Mims is 5'11", 180. Like these guys are light. Parker Washington is the interesting guy from Penn State because he's only 5'10", but he's like 2'15". He's just built like a truck. It's a small class. I watched a lot of

small, projectable slot receivers and they're good players, but you do get a little like, okay, I know what this guy is compared to the guys we had in the top five. Yeah, and I'll talk about Downs because I definitely wanted to talk about Josh Downs a little bit. Background,

fun background information. His uncle is Dre Bly who played in the NFL, um, played for UNC, uh, as well played in 11 seasons in the league. Um, currently the cornerbacks coach,

which is funny enough on a Mack Brown staff. So he gets to, uh, coach nephew there. Yeah. It's kind of cool. Downs father, Gary actually played running back at NC state.

So it's funny, you know, UNC, your son goes to UNC. you're from NC State. Also played in the NFL from 1994 to 2000. He's now the running backs coach at East Tennessee State. So definitely got a football family there. That's a long time in the NFL.

Yeah, man. He played. It wasn't just a cup of coffee. He was playing for a while. Love the way that Josh Downs moves as a wide receiver. I think that as a wide out, I really loved what I saw from him. I think that he is a true master of the slot position. Like he,

he understands it really well. And his skillset is perfect for it. Now he felt like Jackson Smith and Jigba, but the refined parts of his game, the detailed, the X factors, those things that put Jackson Smith and Jigba over the top. I feel like Josh down did not necessarily display all the time i didn't feel like he was as strong towards

contested catches i didn't he's not nearly as willing of a blocker as jackson smith and jayba is which i did not mention as much which i'm glad that i got the chance to shout out now because they will off they often threw chris olave and garrett wilson screen passes to jackson smith and jig beside because he was such a willing blocker to try to spring them loose. The contested catcher's thing, the strength profile, just was not there in his game. And he also just doesn't have exactly that feel for soft spots the way that Smith and Jigba does.

So I liked him as a receiver. I feel like he's perfect as a slot receiver. So he's playing the right spot. We're getting to see where he's going to play in the NFL, but that strength profile of his game, Jason can elevate that. And I just, I did not see that same thing from downs.

I Dante Demas, I mentioned is my number six guy from Maryland mentioned him when we talked about the two Maryland guys at the top, wanted to talk about Zay flowers because Zay flowers has been around Boston college for a long time. I know a lot of people like him five foot 10, 180 and I did too you know I really I I like them as well some fun facts about Zay Flowers he's from Fort Lauderdale is a three-star wide receiver fourth youngest of 14 siblings 14 connor 14 that's that's wild grew up in a five bedroom house nine brothers four sisters

wild just incredible it's like having your own wolf pack just like yeah yes 100 yeah yeah absolutely a uh a pack of buffalo even you're just like, you're rolling deep along the, oh, shoot, where are Buffalo? Where did Buffalo roam? I mean, I guess I could say, like, Idaho. But I wanted to say something, like, more exotic than Idaho. Somebody yell at me in the comments, tell me where Buffalo roamed. The Dakotas? With a better play.

I mean, that's not exotic, either. I was thinking, like, I don't know, somewhere in Africa, but maybe I'm just a giant idiot. Zay Flowers played both wide receiver and defensive back back in high school. Helped to lead his team to back-to-back state championships as a junior, as a senior, and as a senior. I like Zay, man.

I thought that he was a really natural athlete. I think that the way that you talked about it, I can't remember if it was Addison or who it was, but you talked about them being able to gear their speeds really, really well. If he wanted to make sure he hit the final gear, he could get to it very quickly. If he just wanted to kind of pace things out, running across the middle of the field, waiting for spots to open up,

he can absolutely do that as well. I think that he really understands that part of the game especially well. Knew how to attack the leverages of defensive backs a lot like Jackson Smith and Jigba did as well. One would think that his size would limit him to just a slot wide receiver, but even at 5'10", 185 pounds, that's absolutely not the case. He played in the slot only 24.9% of the time. And so he was definitely somebody who they moved around a lot. He played on the outside more lot he played on the outside

more than he played on the inside i don't think that he's super reliable in catching through traffic i think that that's something he could seriously work on but i really thought he was a really good natural receiver he seems like somebody who's going to be like a mid-round draft pick who a team's really going to love maybe a late day two guy there the other guy that i really wanted to shout out before we got out here jordan Whittington from Texas, redshirt junior player. I've seen a little of him. He caught my eye, 6'1", 210 pounds. He caught my eye last year, and I was a real big fan of his.

He's got some decent background information that I want to tell you guys about. Five-star recruit from Pueblo, Texas. Third youngest of 10 siblings. Again, I didn't do that on purpose, the back-to-back, but crazy big family, Texas, third youngest of 10 siblings. Again, I didn't do that on purpose, the back-to-back, but crazy big family that Jordan Whittington's coming from. His older brother, Quincy, was a running back at SMU. His uncle, Arthur Whittington, played at SMU before going to win a Super Bowl, playing with the Oakland Raiders at the time.

Earned all-state honors. Here we go. This is where it gets interesting. Earned all-state honors as a wide receiver, a defensive back, a kick returner, and an all-purpose player while he was in high school. During the state championship game, Whittington had 334 rushing yards, which was the state title record. 34 receiving yards for 377 total yards.

He had six total touchdowns on offense. This is in one game. It's insanity. And he had 11 tackles as well was named both the offensive and the defensive MVPs of his state championship. The MVP of the game. Absolutely. Now you might say to yourself, okay,

how is this five-star freak of nature football player? How have I not heard more about it? Well, unfortunately the injury history is long 2019 uh he played the season opener and then he aggravated a high school groin injury which the doctors then shut him down for so he didn't get to play at all in 2019 in 2020 he had a pre-season hamstring injury then he had a torn meniscus in the season opener that was followed by a hip flexor strain that he suffered in october when he tried to come back last season things were going well until he suffered a broken clavicle against

oklahoma in total whittington has only played 13 of 35 games over the past three years while he has been there which sucks he also started his career as a running back at texas then switched after that first season he switched over to wide receiver but i want to give a shout out to nate tice by calling jordan whittington a power slot player because that's exactly what he is brings good size strength and contested catchability to the slot position we talked about a worry for contested catch guys in some other instances but not for uh not for not for jordan whittington 80 of his contested catches he was reeling in was also a slot player 86 of the time so that's where his home was he can be a physical mismatch against

all sorts of defensive backs from that slot spot um whether they're safeties or slot corners whatever it is and he can often out athlete linebackers so he's a really good mismatch player doesn't look very refined for the position but once you get the context of the injuries and the position switch from running back that makes a lot of sense all in all just want this guy to be healthy man right he's so fun when he's healthy i think he could get this wide receiver position down really really well being an all-around player just an overall offensive weapon on the football field i just need the man to stay healthy need him to stay need him to stay healthy last guy i'll shout out tank dell you know anything about him no i love the name though wide receiver from houston okay tank dell what do you think his size is you tell me

you just get tank tank wide receiver i'll say 5 10 220 okay he's 5 10 you got that correct nice nailed it you missed the weight by 70 pounds he is 155 pounds his name is nathaniel tank dell he's at an interesting background uh i think he went to i believe it was alabama a and m to start played one year there then he went to independence community college where netflix was for the last chance you he wasn't on the show but that's the college that they were at at icc then he transfers transfers and he transfers over to houston and uh daniel holgerson has made an offense out of him incredible route runner very unique player definitely wanted to give him a shout out if you guys have not watched tank dell yet you absolutely should there we go i love it man we got through a lot of different names on today's show.

I think we, we, we went through 20 wide receivers, I think today. And that's the point. And that's the point, right? That's the point.

We want to give people a baseline as they are watching wide receivers, as they are gearing up for college football and another draft cycle. We just want you guys to hear these names, the measurables, the schools, what we think about them. You know, the rankings are obviously going to change. You know, shoot, the rankings could change.

As I watched some guys that Connor didn't watch, as he watches some guys that I watched. And when we kind of get together and create the NFL SE preseason big board at the end of the summer, at the end of the summer scouting series, those rankings, I think, will be a little bit more concrete. So it's less about the rankings here, more of just giving you guys some names to know. And fun class.

I think fun class that a lot of people can see very differently depending on who you are and what you're looking for. That's the thing. There's going to be so much good debate over it, which is phenomenal. Good discussion. A lot to watch throughout the season. Indeed.

That's what people need to keep in mind while doing this. This gives you a baseline of what to look for during the season and if you have this conversation last year I remember last year Trevor over the summer I watched Drake London Chris Lave Garrett Wilson John Dotson but nobody watched Jamison Williams right it changes an entire wide receiver class there's always a guy like that so I think that's the fun part of it as well. Yep. No doubt about it. Wide receiver. We know that every team in the NFL is always looking to get better at playmaker. That's why everybody's always got to get eyes on this position. We got three positions down quarterback, running back wide receiver in the summer scouting series, tight end class could shape up to be a damn good one.

We'll talk about those guys a week from now but before then we got a monday episode for you it won't be a full monday mailbag but maybe we'll get some fun mailbag questions in there at the end of whatever mock draft format that we're going to have for you at the beginning of next week that's connor rogers i'm trevor sycamore we'll see you guys on monday Thank you.