2026 RSP A-Z Wide Receiver Podcast: Matt Waldman’s RSP Cast

Welcome to the RSP cast. I'm Matt Waldman with the Rookie Scouting portfolio. Today's episode is a solo cast on the 2026 wide receiver class. It's a strong group of prospects. Worthy of your attention as an NFL fan, a dynasty league GM, and in a few cases is a fantasy GM and redraft and bestball formats. Now I'm going to discuss one to two prevailing thoughts that I have about 44 of the 65 wide receivers that are going to be featured in the 2026 Rookie Scouting portfolio pre-draft publication. And as most of you know, it's available for pre-order at www.Matt Waldman.com and that's going to be for April 1 download. I'm on track. I have finished all the chapters. There being most of the edits have come back. The last chapter is off for editing right now as we speak on Friday evening and I'll be editing and putting the book together over the weekend and early in the week so that it'll be available on April 1 for download. Now if you haven't purchased the RSP in the past, it's a PDF draft guide. It covers at least 150 players at the offensive skill positions a quarterback running back wide receiver in tight end. It's been available for download every April 1 going on 21 years and for over a decade I'd also have been delivering a post draft guide that comes out one week after the last day of the NFL draft. And that's part of the subscription price for both publications for 21 95. Now this is how I've been making my living for a while now so if you enjoy the podcast, the YouTube channel, the work that I put on social media, all of that work is just simply me sharing a small amount of my background research for these publications. I go deep with the RSP and it helps you go deep with your knowledge so that you can go deep on your legmates. And yes, I'm selling you but when I'm sharing really is low on frills and massive on substance. New readers always tell me how pleasantly shocked they are with what they get. That's why I came up with the tagline. I didn't make a tagline for my marketing. I literally watched to see how people responded to my work and I created a tagline around that and pleasantly shocking readers since 2006 is the truth. So I'm going to share more detail about the RSP later on in the podcast. We've got a big show here. This is an A-Disease show on wide receivers. It's going to be like the previous solo cast I've done in recent years. I'm going to share one of two things about these players that I find notable and I'm going to do it in alphabetical order. These are thoughts that are going to fall into categories of praise, criticism, lingering questions I might have about them or even broader thoughts about the position. These are not complete Scott and reports. They're far from it. If you want the full deal again, $2195 at MtWaldman.com. It's going to get you that and if you're like most who give me feedback about the price, you're going to feel like that you're underpainting. It's just the truth and a lot of people usually what I find is new readers go you know I heard a lot about this thing everybody really likes it and it seems really cool but it seemed like it's I'm getting kind of sold hard on it and then I got this and I was completely blown away and had no idea I didn't know what to expect and when I got it I had no idea how much information and how much good information I was actually getting and then usually the next thing is I'm going to be a customer for life and then the next thing is you really should charge double. So that's the deal. Anyway, let's talk about why receivers. The past few years of why receiver classes and the NFL drafts they've been strong and this year's why receiver class is good but I would say that the top of the board isn't quite as star-studded as it's been but you know if you're looking at the top of the board this is probably an incomplete way of judging a class so let's dig a little deeper. The headliner from this year's class would have been among the top three receivers in the other two classes. The wide receiver two in this 2026 class is 12 on the RSP's three-year combined rankings board and then the class is wide receiver three is 18th and the wide receiver four is 20th and that probably sounds like this is a weak class if you're going to look at it from the top of the board from that perspective but the depth of talent scores that the RSP uses to rank players tells a different story. Now if you're new to the RSP you're going to discover that ranking suck and that tears based on scores like the depth of talent score that I used to formulate my rankings that score is actually a better way of offering context about individual talent as well as giving you a better idea the talent of the class. Rankings they suck and I'm going to remind you of that throughout RSPs every year I have an essay that states in there that's evergreen. The depth of talent scores tell us that this year's wide receiver one is a tier one talent in the three-year rankings in 2026's wide receivers two through six are tier two talents and these tier two talents are players with the skills to see the field early and likely earn statistical value. Now any receiver class with six players who have a good shot to see the field early is a promising group. Another seven receivers are on the cusp of tier two. So this 2026 wide receiver class may not be as strong at the very top as the previous two but having 13 players among the top 50 from that 2024 to 2026 board is a respectable total. So yeah out of the past three years of classes 13 of the 2026 class are in the top 50 and their players that have scores that show that they could see the field early. So another fact of the matter with this class is that 38 of the receivers from this 26 class have a depth of talent score of at least 79.5. Now depth of talent is scored on a 100 point scale and anything basically 80 and above is a player that can probably give you decent fantasy value based on where they fit what the other talent looks like on the depth chart and how they're being used. So these players have the talent to contribute to a lineup if there's a need. At a minimum there are 38 players who could deliver starter production in a role that's going to leverage that player strengths and 13 of those 38 essentially have enough talent and skill to perform in a full-fledged starting role right now if called upon. That's a lot of draftable receiver talent before we see which of them earns meaningful draft capital and a promising schematic fit. So player fit is a vital part of this evaluation process and every evaluation process providing cogent analysis on player fit requires forecasting the state of offenses in the NFL and that's something we're going to talk more about right now because last year I noted that the 2025 receiver class had a lot more prospects whose best work came either in the Flanker and slot roles or not either but in the Flanker and the slot roles. Now Flankers aren't going away folks you know they're outside receivers. I've been posing the question though for three years now and it's this will the demand for slot receivers drop in the coming years. This is something that may be becoming more of a probability and not just a possibility. Now before we delve into that let's think about the state of NFL offenses aside from the unknown variables of injury and intangibles that could derail many of the talents in this class. There are other factors worth consideration that will shape these prospects. The resurgence of the NFL ground game based on the limitations imposed on the vertical passing game is significant because spreading the field on offense has spread the field on defense. It's also influenced defenses to go with lighter, quicker and faster defenders at the positions of safety linebacker and in some cases along the defensive front. So four years ago defenses took these years of drafting smaller talent and they put a governor on the vertical element of spread offense. We saw that with the chiefs about three years ago or four years ago and they just said we're not going to let mohomes and you know go deep anymore and we're going to take that away and you can have all the underneath stuff. And for the past three years, offenses have responded with more running than any time in the past decade. Now not only were they running the ball more but they were running certain types of plays and those were gap plays. Plays known as power counter toss and trap. These are plays where you leverage the size and strength of the offensive line to dominate a defensive front and NFL teams have shied away from these heavy doses of gap many years because offensive lines usually lack the athletic advantage to do this. But now that NFL linebackers are essentially safeties and disguise based on their size, the size advantage But you know, for the defense has evaporated now the offense has that edge and you can take a pull or a lead blocker from your line and pull them across and let your receivers or excuse me let your running backs. You know, follow that one blocker to one gap while the rest of the offensive line is setting up helping setting up that gap too. It's like filling the blank gap place. You know, there's just one answer and they're going to do everything they can to get that one answer right. Whereas with zone plays are more multiple choice and the onus is more on the running back to manipulate and diagnose information. So with all of this with smaller defenses spread out and offenses responding with more gap oriented plays. This creates the biggest if for this receiver class and the classes that are about to follow and that's will the gap running game to finish the usage and ultimately the demand for slot receivers in the NFL because we're seeing more two and three tight end sets. You know, the offenses are running gap plays out of spread sets, but you know, when you can use two tight ends and one or both are good receivers who can be split outside. This is going to have a lot of appeal for offensive coordinators because two tight ends sets are the most difficult to defend for defenses. And if the tight end prospects are good enough to accommodate the use of these alignments, we're going to see offense is across the league going away from slot receiver alignments. So the key is if the NFL can find a supply of quality tight ends and recent classes included players who were good in line blockers are at least competent at the line of scrimmages, you know, as the teams tied into. Now, when you get the RSP, you're going to read the tight end chapter this year's publication or if you got to listen to the tight end podcast and you'll at least get a little bit of a preview in that podcast, you learn that the RSPs anticipate the NFL is going to adopt more of these sets with two and three tight ends as as the base alignments. And it means we're going to see an increased demand in big tight ends whose best rates are blocking catching and running. They're more like oversized fullbacks. We're going to see less demand as a result for tight ends who win down field against man to man coverage who are good route runners and can catch the ball, but they're not big enough to block in line. So we're going to see more of the oversized wide receivers that have been celebrated over the past decade. Now the past three years combined would could help more than a few teams switch to a multiple look with their base offenses. We've seen more years doing we're seeing more of that happen like the Lions embraced it the 49ers we've seen the San Francisco and that San Francisco the Rams embrace it more the chargers a little bit they're going to be embracing it even more I think this year based on their additions the Ravens were one as well the Browns. So when you look at this if it this continues along this trend the pure slot receivers on those teams are going to see their volume reduced to situational afterthoughts and it could limit the demand for pure slot receivers in the draft. Now it's unlikely that this outcomes going to happen in mass but we're going to see drops of this change turn into a trickle and then maybe soon enough the transition can become a steady enough flow that teams use slot receivers and base offenses far less often it's going to be the small minority in no longer the vast majority and that's going to limit the upside of the past few classes and others over the next few years. Is it going to happen it's too early to say right now definitively whether it will or and maybe that you know the projection for this is is too aggressive because young tight ends and in the league are still acclimating but if I were to guess I believe this is the direction the leagues going. Now I have a hard time believing you know the likes of CD land mom on Rossane Brown Drake London and Jackson Smith and Jigba are going to vanish all for them excel at flank or two and just because two tight ends are on the field it doesn't mean that the alignment won't place these tight ends elsewhere you know some of them outside and then you could put you know lamb brown London and Smith and Jigba tight to the formation as if they're. Aligned like a tight end but really they're a slot receiver in that case but most of the slot receivers in the league aren't going to be as good as this quartet of lamb same brown London Smith and Jigba just you know we know this the diminished effectiveness of vertical passing is also going to mean that teams will have less demand for deep threat specialist you know not talking about like full flesh receivers who can win deep like Jamar chase and. Justin Jefferson or Malik neighbors I'm talking about the specialists who don't have a fully dimensional receiving game guys in the past like Ted Gainer Mike Wallace or Henry Ruggs those types of guys they're going to have to possess an intermediate timing game to help their offices move the ball and set up deep shots more effectively. There are more and a few of these deep threat types who are not fully dimensional in the twenty twenty six class so these changing offensive landscapes that we're seeing could delay if not the rail the development of some of these archetypes of receiver and the same is true with the big receiver whose game is built on contested catches this class has plenty of prospects who fall into that archetype as well. So what's the reasonable expectation for a wide receiver class and if we use the sample above which. I'm going to say you know I've done some work where I've sampled players and looked at you know a number of years and what the frequency was. Of receivers who actually provided startable production what we're going to see is that the average number of receivers from the sample I looked at. They had at least three years of start of production after at least four years in the league. And if we go with that sample size the expectation for the draft classes moving forward is that it's going to yield four to five receivers that at earn at least three years of production during their first four seasons in the league I didn't say starting production but just like statistical value. And there's going to be a range of four to six receivers of with starter production during a career that spans five to twelve years what that means is that there are four to six receivers or four to five receivers who will have some point in their first four seasons where they deliver starter production during their career doesn't mean they're going to do it every year oftentimes they don't oftentimes only do it once. So if we base it you know this solely on you know how good this you know what are we seeing at the position what is the expectation for receiver class and how that works with the strength of this twenty twenty six class well if we answer it solely on potential. Then the answer is going to be very similar to the twenty twenty five class which is this is a very good class. I would say this is a better class in characterised you're going to hear a lot of draft next I already sought today where somebody goes this is not as good of a class as last year and we need to admit the fact that it's not as good. I thought pretty much everybody already knew that this class was probably seen as not as good but it's a better class than it it was characterised early and I think it's a better class than people who've come along in the past five minutes to tell you that it that it's overrated. I think it lacks the volume of prototypes that the NFL wants from a top fifty pick in the league but from top to bottom this class has fifty five to sixty players that I think are draftable and last year the NFL draft at thirty five receivers and I labeled forty eight of those guys draftable so there's more draftable players doesn't mean that that's fantasy value and most you listen to that sort of thinking from a fantasy lens but still the top thirty eight in this class have compelling talent I mean last year. That was the same total I had for it was thirty eight two years ago I had that number twenty five three years ago was twenty two. So there's more talented receivers available I'm basing this on the number of prospects who learned at least an eighty on the RSP's depth of talent score system that's a rotational starter who sees a lot of playing time every week and earns enough targets to be productive. The fact that I'm even scoring players higher than this eighty threshold more often recent years hasn't been lost on me I mean I talked about this last year the process I'm using hasn't changed since twenty twenty and as you're about to learn a lot of top and receiving talent is packed the NFL since twenty twenty. It just gives me reason to believe that the rise in scores reflects a greater influx of talent and as we've seen an increase in quarterback instructions. We've also seen the same for wide receivers over the past 10 years. There's a demand for young football players to learn the techniques and concepts of the passing game. You know, releases, stems, setups, breaks and route, option routes. All of this is on the rise. And we're seeing more year round flag football and seven on seven football. These are just variants of the game that give receivers a lot more opportunities to develop their routes as supplemental experiences to instruction. So thanks to these opportunities, we're seeing more receiver prospects than ever who are entering the NFL with a greater collection of tools in their route toolboxes. But if you really take a deeper look, you're going to see that the collective increase in baseline skill to position doesn't really mean there's going to be more success stories than ever. You know, we're going to see maybe a small uptick in receivers with immediate starter and franchise caliber grades. But listen, you know, Oprah Winfrey isn't handed out free versions of Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase and Malik neighbors to every team. There's still a limited number of roles available. And I'm broaching the increase of the baseline skills for the position as something to know. But the advanced skills that receivers need to become a Jefferson, a Chase or a neighbors, those are still uncommon. See, receivers are in the league with more tools in their toolboxes than ever, but the NFL is like a job site with a lot more master craftsmen. Laborers who can do twice the quality of work with half the tools. And the craft of how these receivers run routes is what's key here. The best craftsman at the Y receiver position know how to apply techniques and concepts in ways that go well beyond the basics. I mean, think about Devonta Adams. Not only does Adams deliver a hesitation with a double up, these are two footwork release moves that are common, you know, moves that are taught to receivers. And you see receivers use these moves in this combination of moves in college. But he does, Adams does it with a far better use of pacing and stride length than any receiver I've seen in there in the NFL for the past 10 years. And he also applies this combo of release moves in two or three different ways. Most college receivers who deliver a hesitation in the double up as a release combination can't even deliver it one way with the craft required to fool an NFL defensive back. Adams is like the old craftsman at the job site using a hammer in ways that most have never even conceived up and he's using it better than they can use some other tool. So even today college football teams can win with elite athletes that lack a wealth of technical skill. It may take another 15 or 20 years for us to see the collective rise and play at the position in college football, reach the level where the elite athletes must bring more to campus before they can become a starter. They're still winning with their physicality as a bully pulpit. So from the RSP's perspective, we're seeing more receivers with enough skills to project as contributors and rotational starters and we've ever had before. But they're entering the league with the same limited number of jobs that demand starter and franchise level acumen. So the quality is still just not at that level yet. It takes experience. It takes more nuance and more instruction and time and they've just grasped the basic concept of the technique, not how to deliver it in an advanced way. So if this continues, I think we're going to see a lot of players with scores between 74.9 and 84 on the RSP's depth of talent on board whose careers plateau is reserves or limited contributors because more of these guys in those tiers enter the league and yes, it raises the standard of the minimum skills of route running, but they still don't have the maximum skills of route running. And so now you're going to have more guys on benches with higher with a higher baseline of talent, but they don't have the advanced baseline to be the starter. So you know, that's the fascinating part here. So all right, before we get started with the receivers, you know, we're going to look at 45 of them. We're going to go an alphabetical order. I'm going to talk about one or two things. Some are going to be lead me into thoughts on broader perspective ideas about wide receivers and wide receiver evaluation. Again, get the Matt Waldman's rookie scouting portfolio. It's 21st year. You're going to get scouting reports. You're going to get breakdowns of my process and then entertaining in an informative way, where you can really see how I score these players and what matters and why it matters. And there's a lot of teaching with this that goes on in the book and I try and make it entertaining a little bit of humor here and there where I can. You also get, it's like a fantasy resource. It's been football approved. Okay. When I say football approved, it's because this is one of two independent draft guides out in the marketplace that have long been one of the most two purchase draft guides by NFL people, personnel people, scouts, GMs, personnel directors. People who meet with recruiters that I've known and former scouts and former and current scouts that I know who tell me this is what people buy. I know that they buy it. I know that they know your work. I've seen them have it on their computer or their phone or accessing it. They're talking about it. And I've certainly gotten that feedback from people in the league from that as well. So it's football approved because I tried to make it a football publication. And oh, by the way, I happen to be writing about fantasy football since 2003 and playing since 1994. So yeah, let's give it a fantasy angle as well without sacrificing the football. So yeah, Matt Waldman dot com. Let's start with Aaron Anderson, LSU. The thing that I notice that I think I want to share with you guys right now is that Anderson does a good job of using directions with his stem, diving meaning that you're narrowing it inside or widening it to the outside. He has a good job of doing what he needs to to sell what's called a stair step where you dive inside, straighten it out to challenge the defender on what looks like a vertical route and then break inside. But he has an extra step that he should be taking, which is challenging the leverage of the defender after you dive and start to straighten out. He should be running into the toes of the opponent and then counter the defenders attempt to defend him with his hands rather than try to round off his brakes early. So what you're seeing with Anderson is that he's he's not confident in using his hands at the top of his stem so that he can actually make a sharp break. And when you round off a break, it opens the angle for opponents to cut off the target. So if he runs at the defender, he should force that defender further backward and create more separation at the break point. And this is going to be important for intermediate routes that like curls and digs and the timing routes that maybe aren't the most common routes we see every week, but they're the ones that the top receivers run and get targeted on when they are when they're needed and they're the money routes. All right. Antonio Williams of Clemson. I would say an underlying theme to Williams at the stage of his development is game looks like it can become very good against man and man coverage as an outside receiver. But this is in theory right now because too much of the reality of Williams game doesn't match that projection for the NFL. His release footwork, his route setups and his boundary work against tight coverage all need refining. Now I think even if that's the case, the fallback plan for a team would be, yeah, we'll try Williams at Flanker, but if it doesn't work out, we can play him in a slot. And an organization could do a lot worse than having Antonio Williams in their slot. He handles most of the underneath work right now and against some coverage. He's still going to offer a big play element as well after the catch and downfield from the slot. This is a compelling player that you need to know about for sure. Brennan Thompson, a Mississippi state. Look he's got speed and nuance. He's got to stop stumbling with his routes. I've watched him repeatedly where he's maybe diving a stem inside and change the pace of the stem to set up the defender. Good things, directional changes, pace changes. He'll even take the back of the defender the way Aaron Anderson needs to do. But the thing is, he ends up in a situation where he stumbles. So what ends up happening is that he loses his balance and then he's late to snap his brakes. He has difficulty being able to finish the route or he gives the ground back to the the defender after he earned the separation. This is a guy with great long speed and the ability to win deep and if you're stumbling out of your blocks, you know, that's tough and he seems to do that a little bit more than I'd like to see. Bryce Lance, Tray Lance's brother, also at North Dakota State, listen Lance positions himself well to the ball and the defender. He's got late hands. He has a smooth and fluid jump up and through that's timely and it includes a high point near the boundary. So after and then after he makes the catch, he has a fluid pullback too. So earning position and those are good things at this point with Lane's game. Or Lance's game, excuse me, but tracking the ball might be the biggest obstacle for Lance in the same way it was from Marvin Harrison Jr. As you know, if you're an RSP subscriber from the past, you know that I was one of the few really talking about this with Harrison's game and pointing out that he was going to have some inconsistencies and struggles because of how he tracked and attacked the ball. And he has at Ohio Stadium and he had it in Arizona. These types of technique flaws usually get magnified in the NFL. So if they see minor in college, you got to remember that you're not looking at them under the magnifying glass and the defense is going to be the magnifying glass and they're going to burn a hole in your ass like they wouldn't hand on a sidewalk. You know, when they train their their lens on it. Lance also leaves his feet unnecessarily for targets. And usually when the targets are arriving at his chest and he did this repeatedly. There was a real lack of confidence in his game when it came to attacking the ball with the technique that he should be using and it led to him fighting to drop on the ball. You know, Lance is going to be drafted to stretch defenses. You know, he's going to be that early on that one dimensional receiver or not as multi dimensional as you would like to see. And I think he has the potential for a well-rounded game. But the team that selects Lance, they're going to have to draft him really late on the second day or early part of the third day because of that deep speed and the the promise there. But if he continues making unforced errors and he doesn't address this part of his game, he could endure similar amounts of inconsistent production as Marvin Harrison Jr. And I think it's likely to unfold this way for Lance because tracking issues aren't his only catch point problem. He's a habitual clap attack or the ball. Now, if you're not familiar with clap attacking, it's when it's a term I created mainly because that's what it looks like. You're clapping to the balls when a receiver doesn't have his hands close enough to each other when the target arrives and it forces the receiver to make a clapping motion onto the sides of the ball instead of meeting the ball with the hands already in a close and still position. And from that still position, that good catch technique is going to support the ability to use your fingertips to catch the ball. The fingertips have this subtlety and control to stop the spin of the ball. When you're clap attacking, you're using one or both of your palms or the flats of your lower fingers to strike the ball. And this is a larger surface area. And large surface areas without the dexterity of your fingertips lack the ability to make subtle adjustments on the spinning ball. And that creates a violent recoil. So this is why if you pay attention to tip passes and do this next time you watch a receiver clap attack a ball versus a receiver who tips a ball where his fingertips touch the ball first. You're going to see that the passes tip with the fingertips have a slower and softer recoil. It's going to look like the ball's floating. While you know the tip passes of the you know that come off the palms or the flats of the fingers, the ball moves way more radically and with greater velocity and that's harder to catch. So fingertip catches reduce recoil. They make the ball easier to catch and if they don't snare the ball immediately that recoil is often softer and easier to catch on a second attempt. Bryce Lance is clap attacking happens when he's using the underhand attack with targets arriving on his frame. He could prevent this. He just needs to end these lapses with by attacking at the earliest point of the ball's arrival away from his frame and using overhand position with his fingers tight to at least his index fingers and thumbs tight. He allows targets in his frame and he should and this is what exacerbates his problems. So you can see you know what I mentioned a very talented guy but he's got some he's got some technical work to do that could really slow him down. Camden Brown, Georgia Southern, formerly of Auburn. Brown has physicality at the catch point and after the catch. I mean he's an acrobatic ball winner who stands contact after he runs good position on his opponent and he's going to bounce off hits. He makes defenders miss with the ball in his hand but the thing is his his techniques as a route runner need work from the release off the line to the setups of the brakes. Brown just has a lot of route tools at his disposal but he's not a master of any of them right now. There's a lot of suddenness to his game that I love but he's kind of developed some patience with how he sets up that suddenness and that way he can bait defenders in the mistakes and if he does this Brown's gonna unlock his power at the most most opportune moments during a release or at the top of the route. It's gonna make him even more dangerous at earning separation. All right Ohio states carnell Tate. You know there's process let me just compare him to Jordan Tyson because there are a lot of people who like Jordan Tyson. There are a lot of more people who like him but don't love him. I'm more than that camp at this point. I could love him. I think most of us who like him but don't love him are more like we could love him but we need him to show us that he likes himself enough to work on his game. Okay so there's prospects like Tyson who possess all the moves you want from a route runner but they haven't figured out yet how to consistently make those moves meaningful enough for defenders to react to them. So if and when Tyson figures this out he could do things to defensive backs that we often see from Devon Tate Adams but right now if we're gonna compare Jordan Tyson as a route running to carnell Tate Tate is further along the Tyson in this nuance in the nuanced aspects of route running those nuances that separate top NFLY receivers from top NFL prospects and you know to me a prospect is a perspective talent not an actual talent and I think carnell Tate is going to be an actual talent right away. Tate's moves possess that timing and the gravity of the movement to allow the defender to register what's happening and reacting. You know what I mean is that you want to be able to make a move that is sudden enough to get the defender to react but last long enough in that suddenness that the defender will react to it. Okay and I'll give you an example in a minute but you know the timing and pacing of Tate's setups is probably the most notable thing that's going to separate him from his peers early in his NFL career because it's what the true experts in the league do you know he's he's and I'll give you an example with Jordan Tyson when we get to him but he allows him move to breathe you can move it suddenly you can move suddenly but if you don't allow that move to to breathe long enough it's not going to register in the consciousness of the defender covering. If you're so fast that the defender didn't even realize what happened they're not going to instantly react so you've got to give it room to breathe. Now Tate's more than a big play threat he's well on his way to becoming a strong runner of timing routes intermediate routes you know these are go-to target routes and vital points of drives I talked about this earlier this is where the defense usually has its best cover defender on the receiver and it's still difficult to stop so Tate is you know Tate's my number one receiver it's not even close okay just put it to you that way I've been saying that on other podcasts I'm not giving away state secrets here Chris Belalooval massively good athlete but inconsistency with his execution is an underlying theme in a scouting report. Bel's decisions with settling or properly using tempo at the pace of his breaks against zone coverage that's a good example of it it's been a problem and I've seen both Bell and his quarterback be liable for the mistakes and there has been routes where Bel is settled even behind like a fallen defender which isn't a good idea and then leads the quarterback into the turnover is that the fender gets back up and cuts off the route. And you know, Bell's communicating that that's open. He's got to be more cognizant of where and when he can settle. There's been a route like this from Bell, like not being in, not communicating well enough to his quarterback and confusing the situation. It's been a route like this from Bell in almost every game that I scouted for him. So keep that in mind. I mean, this guy is massive physical talent. But again, massive physical talents don't usually have the same success as really skilled technicians with the baseline of physical talent that you want from a starter. BYU's Chase Roberts. Now, he has a good feel for cutback lanes when he's in the middle of the field after the catch. He knows when to veer the opposite side of the field so he can maximize his deep speed and force a cornerback and tight pursuit. So that the fender has to chase 25 to 30 yards to catch him. He's really good at pressing blockers within a step. And he splits defenders during the cutbacks as well. He's just got a good feel for blocked and unblocked pursuit angles and the depth that he's going to need to avoid them. And that's good because he's going to be more of that intermediate vertical underneath receiver who stretches the middle zones, but is working underneath a safety or a cornerback. And when he catches the ball, you want someone who can, you know, if you want him to get yardage, you want him to have those types of skills. And you're going to see him as kind of a Tim Patrick, Eric Decker, like receiver, who works those ranges of the field. Now, Chris Brazel, the second Tennessee, if I pronounce that wrong, I'm sorry. I know that people get, you know, are sensitive to the idea of pronouncing the player's name when I've heard some podcasts about that. I just want you to know something, folks. I'm not trying to be a talking head on TV. I'm not trying to do that. I just want to scout players. I just want to teach you what it is that you need to know about them in terms of their abilities and what they can and can't do. It's nothing personal if I mispronounce. The player's name. If you're but hurt over that, you know, I don't know what to tell you. I'm not trying to be on ESPN. They, I'm not trying to be on national TV. I'm trying to do exactly what I've been doing for 21 years. And sometimes I'm going to mispronounce names because I'm not paying attention to their name, really, when I'm studying them. It's, you know, it's one of the, it's not one of the major things I'm trying to do. I'm literally just trying to study the guy's name and study the guy's game. And that's basically it. So anyway, enough about that mini ramp. Chris Brasel, the second, while the comparison's going to be superficial, you know, I would say that he's probably the closest guy on this board for me to George Pickens and there's a number of guys on this board who have that stylistic comparison. Brasel kind of wins it, okay. Now, people are going to have doubts about him because he played a Tennessee. Well, he also played it too late. But, you know, when people start to associate programs with the successor failure of a player's prospects, that's a form of logo scouting. And that's frowned upon. And, you know, it's natural that there's some level of logo scouting everywhere. It's because it becomes a thing when information meets the desire to simplify that information. Now, I understand that Tennessee's program hasn't been a hotbed for future NFL starting receivers in recent years. I mean, if we review the recent Y receiver draft picks and their NFL careers as top end contributors as Tennessee Looms who may have been there, it's not great. Dante Thornton last year, unlikely, that's going to happen for him. Jalen Hyatt, he's one dimensional. Cedric Tillman, promising moments, but he's been a contributor on a bad team. The offense has been on a really basically a clown car, stuff with quarterbacks. And it's just a bad cycle right now. And what we see mostly him running are slants in this offense. Vailess Jones, it's been more of a return special and specialist in running back. Josh Palmer and Joanne Jennings, they came the closest. And they're essentially third options and offenses who do their best work against zone. And both of them have had moments during their career where they've been productive starters to injuries. Listing these players though, when you list them out like that, kind of giving you some vital layer of information about low-go scouting. These players, yeah, there are a lot of the same program, but not all of them came from the same scheme. I mean, Josh Palmer, Joanne Jennings, they played in this Baylor, they didn't play, that's what I'm saying, they did not play in this Baylor variant of the spread system that Tennessee has been using. You know, the low-go isn't the problem with these players. The system on the other hand, that could emphasize certain traits and skills while minimizing others. So one thing that we could see is whether the player has merited the draft capital, and it provides an indication whether the team that selected these players overvalued them. Thornton was a fourth-round pick. You know, a lot of teams have starter, future starter grades with fourth-round picks. And the organizations that use rounds for their grades, which all of them do, the fourth round has always been that notorious grade for individuals within the organization to hedge. You know, if they like the player better than everybody else in the room, they, or they don't like the player as much as the rest of the room. They can grade them there and not appear out of touch. You know, it's kind of the NFL's use of the word interesting in court that we see used in corporate America. You know, it's a word that, interesting is a word white collar workers who neutralized and weaponized at the same time. It's kind of the penalty of evil on display. It's only been one season and probably too early to have a definitive answer, but the coach that was a part of the process has gone, Pete Carroll, and Thornton's time speed was more appealing than his actual ability to separate. So he was a preseason buzz generator, but that was about it. I would say, "Hi, at Tillman and Jones." They were all third-round picks, and that's a designation where there's an expectation for these players to fulfill a starting role or at least deliver multiple high-end contributions within a year or two. And Tillman has had the most promising moments as a receiver. High, it caught some deep balls as a rookie, but he hasn't emerged as a viable contributor in. And Jones, he's got 1,244 kick-returning yards on 48 attempts, but he's also fumbled four times. That's a lot on 48 attempts. His receiving game, non-entity, the Saints reassigned his offensive role of running back before cutting him, and now he's on the Seahawks' practice squad as a running back return specialist. So as receivers, only Tillman gets someone of a pass for not fulfilling that third-round expectation. Pawr was a third-round pick, and he's had three seasons with at least 580 yards receiving, and that's pretty solid, why do you receive your three value in a spread offense? Not why do you receive your three fantasy value? NFL, why do you receive your three value on a team? Now Jennings, he was a seventh-round pick. He's delivered 416 yards as a third receiver during his second year, and then he followed that up with 1,618 yards and 15 scores during the past two years. And that includes a 975 yard campaign in 2024. So Pawr and Jennings didn't come from this version of the Tennessee offense, and they've delivered or exceeded our expectations. So when looking at the spread system, the recent picks came from, Tillman's had limited success. Jones was always a gadget player and a special teamer that Ryan Polz overvalued in Chicago, and the Raiders likely overvalued Thornton. So the reality checked to me on this issue is this. We're talking about three vastly different styles of wide receivers from the same team. It's like we're looking at seven flankers, you know, it's like we're looking at seven flankers from LSU, who possess similar dimensions, athletic ability and fundamental route skills. But that's not what's going on. You know, it's very different than that. The information on this is incomplete. And I think the simplest answer about logo scouting with Tennessee is best. Let's just regard these receivers as individuals and save the system act impact for a point when there's more evidence to correlate its impact on the player's future success. I mean, after all, how many university and Georgia receivers have been drafted in the past eight to 10 years than have fulfilled expectations other than Latin, Macon, and George Pickens in recent years. I mean, the lead draft at 10 Bulldogs and the only two just mentioned here are the ones that delivered. The rest included a second round pick and three fourth round picks. I mean, is that so different from Tennessee's recent track record? So let's look at Brazil's game for its merits flaws while abl supporting the public opinion of Team logo. So from this lens, Brazil has enough promise to become a first year starter for a lot of teams. If there's an immediate demand for it, he's been a standout deep threat. He possesses elite speed, excellent length and body control to rebound, the ball and tight confines. And he has the focus and toughness to play through contact. There's a lot more compelling details about Brazil's game that go beyond just a speedy high pointing rebounder at the boundary. I mean, he has good deceleration and he uses that well as a route where an ball carrier too. Miami's CJ Daniels, formerly of LSU, he's one of those players where it's just hard not to like him when he watches game on the field. And that's because he's physical, he's a ball winner, he displays acrobatics skill, he has terrific hand-by-coordination and tight coverage. Just get him within the semi-realistic area of the football and he's better than most at making the difficult catch. Now Daniels also runs with physicality after the catch. He's not explosive or sudden, but he's powerful and he's determined. So get Daniels free in zone coverage or scheme targets form, scheme him open. And he can work open with the help of misdirection. And if he does, he's going to make some big plays. So he's an interesting player, but does that make him a starter? Probably not. But could it make him a valuable reserve and situational opportunities? Very possible. All right, Cincinnati Cyrus Allen, shifty slot receiver, big playability after the catch, and shows skill in the vertical game against zone defenders. I think he's at his best against underneath coverage where he can serve as an extension of the ground game. Or as a receiver who works across the middle into an open space as he earns the ball in the intermediate game. He's got potential though to become a viable boundary receiver. But there's just details to address with releases, stems, setups, breaks, and positioning against defenders before he attacks the ball. The likelihood for Allen to develop all these skills and overcome the labels of late round or underapted free agent space players, probably small. But that's worth monitoring. The brass cas dain-key. So key sets up routes effectively heading into his breaks. And I think his breaks need more consistency and refinement, though. He can bend his weight-- he can bend into weight drops. And he's shown that he can execute the flat speed turns that you're looking for. But he's got to do it at every range of the field and with more precise execution. Now, I think that that's something that he can continue to work on. He's a good pass catcher, too. I'm interested to see if he gets a late round pick. Illinois State has Daniels of Sobquits. Illinois State's Daniel Sobquits. Sobquits is some of the best hand-eye coordination on contested catches among the prospects in this class. His catch radius is wide, and his body control and skill would just one hand give him a flare for the dynamic. Unlike that Sobquit's drops his weight effectively with breaks on timing routes, he's got to develop precise speed turns, though. I think this is an easier skill to learn than learning hard breaks. And he's already developed that, so that's good. I think his releases and setups need work. He has some of the tools, but little of the craft that's really going to separate prospects from reliable route runners to reliable-- from-- I'm sorry, how would I best put this-- he has some of the tools as a route runner, but that craft isn't there, and that craft is really what separates a guy who is a prospect from a reliable NFL starter. So I think most prospects, like Sobquits, lack this craft with route running. It's not a death knell for his development, but he just has to work out it to get every little advantage. And you've got to be able to run routes at this level to be in the starting lineup or a major contributor. Now, as impressive as Sobquits' acrobatics are on film, there's a lot of targets against tight coverage where the defenders have success just not going to ball lose from his hands. And these are targets that he should have hung on to. If he can get his hands to the ball without the defender striking his arms and hands, and makes-- no difficult adjustments, he can do that all day long. But when he's hit on the forearms, wrists, and hands, and he's catching the ball, some of these catches he should make, and he drops a lot of them. All right, Oklahoma is Dion Berks. He has good speed. And he's willing to stack defenders when he earns separation early. That just gives him the potential to become a dangerous vertical threat from a variety of receiver spots. He has really good knowledge of using pacing to vary routes, and this extends to his stems and setups, too. I mean, like he pace as well with those stems and setups. And it's kind of like the invisible thread that transforms technically son routes and a routes that compel defenders out of position. To be able to be patient, but sudden is a great-- it's a quality that generally makes routes sing. I think the one weakness of Berks' route game is his brakes. He's got to develop flatter terms, so defenders really aren't in position to cut off or undercut the brakes. I like that Berks rerouts quickly when a break doesn't earn a target. He just has to be on the same page with his quarterback, where he's going to settle, or whether he's going to continue his path across the field. And he's been at fault for some of the communication problems between himself and the quarterback that can lead to big mistakes. Washington's Denzel Boston. Now, he's got multiple setup strategies midstem that really work well as brakes are still a work in progress. But he's got a speed term with reps where there's a flat driving line step. But most of the speed terms are lacking the flat versions of these steps. He tends to round off the route just enough that the tightman coverage that he's going to see in the NFL is going to have a much higher probability of exploiting Boston's inefficiencies here. Now, speed terms are generally easier to execute than the hard brakes that require that drop and weight. Boston drops his weight into hard brakes effectively, and it's a great set of complementing skills to accelerate and decelerate well. So when considering the two possible players, where his development path could take him, I would say the acceleration, deceleration pairing is something that Nico Collins executes well. And I compared him to Collins and T Higgins, like he could go either path here or be a mix of the two. Well, depending on how well Boston develops his route game, he could aspire to become a featured option like Nico Collins, or if he develops into a skilled and secondary sidekick, it's going to be like T Higgins. The variable I think here to decide that is how much Boston adds and improves to his already promising game. Louis Voles, DeZon Stribling, tall receiver, big receiver, explosive receiver. But I don't think he shows up as well in the field as he did at the NFL combine. His release is from the line. They lack a real range of motion and pacing contrast that all the good NFL starters on defense or seem all the good NFL starters at Y receiver, they incorporate that patience but suddenness into their techniques to get off the line and at the top of stems. And I think his work at the line of scrimmages just way too predictable at this point. He's a linear ball carrier who sometimes reacts like he's playing in concrete. Some of this has to do with the lapses and judgment as a decision maker. And he's got to learn to play big and fast in all phases. Indiana has Elijah Sarat, well-built possession receiver. He delivers plus yardage plays, definitely with the help of play action and double moves or constraint plays. These really fool the tendencies of coverage. And that's thanks to good scouting and coaching. Sarat's just beginning to grasp how to apply patience and suddenness contrast to his releases. And his timing with stem work to attack the coverage of the defender isn't really accurate yet. Sarat's got to begin incorporating pace changes into his route setups so that he can make them compelling to NFL defenders. Because when Sarat executes hard breaks, the expected weight drop at the top of the stem to the break isn't always deep enough, even if it's a technique that he uses. So he's got to become more sudden. He's got to be better at applying patience and suddenness in key areas. All right, Navy's Eli Hyde-Rike. For Hyde-Rike to become a wide receiver, he's got to develop a complete route game. And he's not as far away from that possibility as his role with Navy might lead you to believe. He seems like a gadget play a lot of times. He uses a glorified running back. But he's developed technique for releases, setups, and breaks. He's just got to expand the precision of their execution. beyond the shallow range of the field. Okay. Since Anadie is a manual Henderson, formerly at Florida, I believe he set, or Alabama, excuse me, formerly at Alabama. He set up unblocked defenders with a pretty well. He has, you know, an effective spin to work through contact. He can use a stick and work away from them. I think he knows how to kick his feet. Just a little higher to avoid low shots from the trailing, pursued in the open field. And he only needs like something like a double up to the outside, to transition from the perimeter approach to a downhill path, to get inside a force defender on, you know, the perimeter at the short side of the field. This is an agile play-rook and change direction at a good clip of speed. Now, as a former running back at Alabama, Henderson experienced with press increases toward unblocked defenders and getting with one of two steps before bouncing or cutting back. I think he's a really skilled kick return option and he could take a straight path and use minimal movement to work past angles. So I think the ability to be a kick return might earn him an end to build his routes from there. Eric McAllister, TCU. Now, after the catch, McAllister's physical, he's agile, he's capable of generating big plays and he decelerates well. I mean, he flips his hips effectively for a tall receiver and he has lateral cuts that work well in tight space too. I've seen him make multiple unblocked defenders missing traffic and he's patient with his blocks. So once McAllister creates space though, man, listen, he's has a really good feel for maintaining separation in the open field as well. And he doesn't need space to earn yardage either. McAllister keeps his feet moving through direct collisions to his waist and he can run through the wraps. He spins through wraps to his lower legs from linebackers and he can even play through hard hits. He wards off reach as well with his stiff arms. So if the wrap skills can develop and he can continue to refine the already strong catch point skills that he displays, look out. Eric Rivers, George Tech. Rivers, he's a slot receiver with some down field ability. And so I was saying Rivers, his slot receiver with some down field ability. But I think the strength of his game is underneath. He has good snap with breaks, finds the open area well. He gets yardage after the catch. Very good stop start quickness and sets up blocks patiently. Alabama's Jeremy Bernard. Bernard's route running is not going to be confused with Robert Woods' short term. I think he's got a good library of release maneuvers. I think he executes them with the real contrast of patience and suddenness that you want. And his setups though, that's the problem. They need more detail. He doesn't have enough of them in his portfolio of work right now. And while he executes breaks reasonably well, it doesn't work effectively at the NFL without good setups. So I think Bernard's going to often be dealing with tight coverage at the catch point if he gets targeted all based on execution without good setups. And these are targets he probably earn more often in college because he was just a more dominant athlete. So considering that Bernard has difficulty with tight coverage right now, we might be looking at a future wide receiver to get schemeed open more often than just a primary guy. And I think this is really potentially a hidden trap door with Bernard's game if it's not corrected. So if he's rushed into a big role early in his career, the potential for errors due to technical laps is could pose a difficult obstacle for him. Now we're at Harrison Wallace, Ole Miss, formerly a Penn State. Wallace has the fundamentals to develop a well-rounded game. I mean, especially as a flanker, someone who could stretch the field as out of the flanker spot when he's isolated, say, to one side or in a play action scenario. And a lot like the young receivers in most classes, Wallace has acquired a lot of route tools and techniques, but he just hasn't mastered enough of them to be NFL ready beyond a situational role. So I think his best work right now as a route runner is against zone coverage. And he's got good feel for the triangle of defenders in the assigned area of his routes. And he knows where to settle. Wallace slides to get open in space quickly when that first break doesn't earn a target either. So there's some savvy there. There's some skill to continue to mine. Jay Michael Sturdivine, a Florida, formerly of UCLA and before that Cal. Cardinals receiver Michael Wilson and RSP fave back in the day when he was at Stanford. If Michael Wilson came out of school as a less accomplished route runner than he was, he'd probably look a bit like Sturdivine. And if Sturdivine was his RAWs, it may appear to others. He'd probably be more like a former wide receiver at Auburn, Seth Williams. Instead, I think Sturdivine is somewhere in between these guys. He's a little sneak, I think his best route running displays actually came at Cal. And I felt like UCLA and Florida really used him in a more simplistic fashion in their scheme than what he actually is capable of doing. He's a big athlete with speed, can win the ball. He's an interesting prospect in that respect, like he's a compelling guy who, like, keep an eye on. I don't think he's a finished product, but I think there's a little bit more refinement to his game than he's getting credit for. USC's Jacobi Lane. Everybody talks about his catchpoint stuff, but let's talk about Rouse. When running a curl against off coverage and that defender has cushion, Lane has to continue his brakes. He doesn't brake fully. He's been caught out of position and it forces Lane to make diving attempts against contact that he's end up dropping the ball. And if he continued the brake, he wouldn't even have been out of position. And so he has to avoid the situation and be a little more complete with a route runner. So he doesn't drop passes or put defenders in better position than he's in. Jalen Wathall of Incarnate World Word and Formally Hawaii. Wathall is really quick. Short air equitances is strength. Pass catchings is strength. I think he strings moves together in succession with footwork and spins that are really well executed. His stop start, footwork and pressure cuts are strong. And he opens his hips efficiently so he can get those 90 degree changes in direction. He only needs a couple of steps to transition downhill from a perimeter path when he's working outside and then tries to get downhill on the defense. And when he's got the ball in his hand, he gets his feet over low shots. He makes sharp pressure cuts. He undercuts pursuit arriving against the grain of his run. And he's very capable of jump cutting to work away from pursuit over the top. If you get him in open space, Wathall's going to generate yardage. And at the same time, if a quarterback gets Wathall, just within reasonable position of the ball, he's gifted enough to make the catch. What I have questions about is his dimensions. He's a skinny receiver, but he looks like he might be able to add more weight to his frame. Scouts will often tell you that if you're come from a small school, small program, you don't have the nutrition and training budgets that these big power five programs have. And so they usually aren't as physically developed as they could be. And so if he can get into an NFL weight room and training program or off-season training program with guys who have NFL clientele, Wathall could end up becoming a bigger, stronger, faster player. And that will only help his game. Kentucky's Jamori McLean, formerly in North Texas. After the catch, McLean and McLean, yes, is Jeremy McLean's cousin, I believe. McLean only needs two steps to accelerate transition from a path across the field to a downfield path. And he accelerates fast enough to beat defenders and tights pursuit and getting them to overrun the deceleration phase of that movement. So McLean's really good at stop start moves and deceleration. And he makes the first defender miss after the catch. He works in open space well, engages pursuit well enough to time that the deceleration and force the overrunning. I think he's good at understanding game script and when to get out of bounds, so he's wise as a runner. And he keeps his feet moving through contact when he's finishing his runs against pursuit. Good stiff arm because of his placement. Winds direct collisions with safeties and bounces off glancing shots in the open field from them, too. I kind of think that he's better than the guy he replaced at LSU, Barion Brown. We're not going to talk about Brown today. But McLean is a guy that I don't know if he's going to get drafted. but he's, but I think he could be an interesting player as a role player. All right, Jordan Tyson, Arizona State, you know, there's compelling reasons why Tyson could emerge as the best wide receiver prospect from this 2026 class. When we look back, say three to five years from now, but there's equally compelling reasons why Tyson isn't a top option today. You know, he has all the moves you want from a route runner and a separated or against man to man coverage, but like most prospects and even some of the most promising prospects, Tyson doesn't always make the moves meaningful enough for the opposing defender to react to them. The concept underpinning great releases and route work is delivering the moves with a contrast of patience and sadness. I talk about this a lot. These new off pace changes are what you see from veteran masters, like Devonte Adams or young masters like Jamar Chase and Justin Jefferson and Malik neighbors. If there's no slower pacing to the part of the route techniques meant to bait the opposing defender, then the sudden move that's delivered can just be way too fast for the defender to even register what happened. And if they can't register it, they're not going to react to it. And Tyson has too many lapses where he delivers the right move, but he's executing it so fast that it has zero fact on the defender. Now, if he takes the time and he does do this at times when he can take the time to incorporate a contrast of patience and sadness to set up the move, he's successful at getting defenders to bite in the wrong direction. So the fact that Tyson already has success with this patience, but sudden this concept is promising for his gain. He's just not doing it often enough to project him with full, you know, with the full confidence that you need that Tyson's going to incorporate this approach with every release and route concept. This is the next step for him. And it takes practice and it takes a strong conceptual feel for when to apply the patience and sadness to a route based on the defender's position, the type of route it is, the coverage and how the defender is adjusting to the receiver. And this is the type of practice that make two to make, take, you know, two to three years after Tyson reaches the league. It took the Vante Adams that long and he was a promising prospect in his own right. So Tyson's going to need acclimations to the NFL coverage disguises and craft of, you know, NFL pro cornerbacks and to also work on, you know, incorporating more refinement with his route running. And I think there's a chance that Tyson may deliver certain routes and releases with a high level of craft, but maybe fail to ever master other patterns. So I think he's going to get there. But when I'm comparing his work to the best route running prospects like R and L. Tate, he's just not going to score as high, at least not at this time. Jordan Hudson. I think he's SMU. I don't remember right off the bat. I've been looking a lot of guys lately. He has more work ahead with route setups and breaks, okay? The setups he uses are good, but he needs to develop more of them. And his breaks are better with shallow routes. And then they're less precise with some of the intermediate routes. This is common. Both vital phases of the route running are heading in the right direction. He's just got to continue to work at it and refine it. Baylor's Josh Cameron. This dude has just about every release, footwork and hand counter technique that I would list in my checklist for ways to techniques used to defeat press coverage. But I have not seen Cameron earn separation against tight man to man coverage, despite the fact that he has every technique that you can pretty much imagine. The craft underscoring that technique just isn't there yet. So he's winning against zone and off coverage and the display of the techniques promising, but he's got to make a translate to being practical in its production. Junior Vanderaus of Toledo. Junior Vanderaus, the third excuse me. Vanderaus, he's quick. He has promising routes, hands, skill after the catch. He also offers more promise with intermediate and vertical routes than the guy that's similar to his size. And that's Wondale Robinson. He's more promising than those areas, you know, intermediate and vertical routes and what Robinson was at Kentucky. Vanderaus has a nice selection of release moves. He executes some of them with that patient's suddenest contrast that Tyson needs to learn. And you don't often see this from a lot of prospects in the way that he does it. He stacks coverage when he or in separation early in a route. And that's uncommon for a lot of young receivers to. And his route setups get him open. He's got good pace changes, peaks, insets, and a peak is when you look to the boundary, late in the stem to get the defender to buy into the idea that you're breaking outside, but you're going to break inside the insets, the opposite. You get the defender usually to your back and you start running around as if you're going to basically make a break inside and you're usually turning your pads in your head to sell the in the in cut and then you're breaking outside. And so Vanderaus, he combines those with pacing variations within his stem work and his setups and he really bates defenders well. He's not these aren't playground moves, you know, this isn't Braxton Miller at Ohio State, who was a quarterback who's, you know, using movement, but not in a very refined way and winning in, you know, college all star games where he's got a two way go. And it's really you could, if as long as you're athletic, you could do some ridiculous things that are never going to match with the timing with routes. Vanderaus is efficient and technically sound with what he does. His breaks, he his turns and our precise, he has snapped to the turns. This includes hard breaks with weight drop. His speed turns are flat. You know, he does this well on short and intermediate routes and he's got good hands and toughness in the middle of the field. And he knows how to earn position on defenders to track the ball and he has few lapses when he's in this area. So Vanderaus probably not getting drafted, but another one of those players that could stick to a roster if he gets an opportunity. And if he doesn't, he's going to wind up in another league and be a good player if he chooses to pursue football. Texas A&M's Casey Concepcion, formerly NC State, I believe. I think it was NC State, it was either Maryland NC State, it was NC State. Concepcion gets down hill quickly on shallow targets and he's good at identifying, pursuit and bending away from the defender when he tries to cross their face against the grain of their path. He's an effective return specialist and you can see as a runner in the open field or in traffic after the catch. On offense, he presses creases in the open field, he sets up defenders, he can bounce or cut back. He's good at creating openings with or without blocks. He's finding solutions to anticipate it and sudden obstacles. He clearly has some running back experience in the NC State. He displayed real creativity and balance between risk reward when he was working between the tackles often in the red zone. I mean, so really dynamic player and I like him a lot, even though some clap attacking stuff is is an issue with his game at times. Kendrick Law, Kentucky. He's an earned a high and contributor grade in the RSP on the cusp of maybe a rotational starter somewhere and you know the 78 to 80 range. And it's because he's a good blocker. He's a good runner. He's a good pass catcher. He tracks them all well. He attacks the targets early. He's got sound technique and he makes plays against physical coverage. Once he's got the ball in his hands, he's like a good running back in light traffic and space. He's patient. He has hit mobility. Various is stride and pace to set up blocks and defenders and pursuit good ball, security contact balance. I think the final frontier for law that could elevate him to an NFL starter or high and contribute without work is just route running. He's got to develop setups to the compelled man and zone defenders out of position before he X in the break. And his breaks need more precision, you know, especially when he's going to start running routes with greater depth than just the shallow ranges of the field. If you're going to consider him for a starting role. Kevin Coleman, first at Mississippi State, then wound up at Missouri. His pass catch in the ballcaran are a stretch. He's technically sound with his hands. His very few habits and no bad very few lapses. And there's no bad habits. After the catch. He has really good stop start quickness and acceleration. He's going to outflank or split defenders in traffic. And he's a good processor. He's fast enough to be with his processing to be a step ahead of defenders with angles up. him in traffic and he presses and bounces to open lanes. He's also pressing leverage of defenders to cut back inside. I think he understands how to dictate the chain of movement between opponents. You want to be the aggressor and the chain of movements that defenders are anticipating. If you're the aggressor, they can't anticipate it as well. They're reacting to it. So Coleman's the aggressor and this puts the defenders in reaction mode and he allows him to defeat multiple unblocked defenders at a time. He seems to know when to take what's in front of him without trying risky paths that could lead to losses in yardage. If Coleman can build on his route game, there's potential for him to develop into a never down flanker. Most likely he's going to begin his career as a slot option and he's going to need a good offensive pairing from the deliver weekly production. But I think he's an underrated player. The Mikae Brockington of Minnesota, sure handed possession receiver, real good strength for his size. He's like six feet, 198 plays bigger. Winds contested targets in tight quarters. He's a bully to defensive backs and even some linebackers when he gets an open space. His game isn't built on great speed, but he seems quick enough to earn separation within the first 10 yards of a route and stack defenders. And that controls the pace of the path of the route. I have a sneaking suspicion. There's good reason I think he's faster than I'm characterizing. There just wasn't enough proof to really stand by that he's faster than than we think and giving him a score like that. USC's McCye Lemon. I've been listening to one of the best past catchers I've scouted in recent years. He's tough at the catch point. He's clutch and pivotal moments. He's got advanced positioning with his hands and his body at the catch point. And he tracks and attacks the ball like a long time NFL veteran. I mean, he rarely leaves his feet unnecessarily. Foundry work strong time in position with contested catches is excellent too. He doesn't lit. He doesn't mitigate his height when he does the jump up and through attacks. You know, like the the back shoulders and high pointing on back shoulders. He doesn't do. He doesn't lean backwards. George Pickens often did that during his ten with the Steelers and at Georgia. And it allows defenders to get into your frame. It makes it harder for you to make uncontested catches and block out people. McCye Lemon goes straight up in the air. And lemons also delivered multiple clutch moments as a past catcher. So when you combine his technique with physicality and focus, it just leads to timely plays. I'd say lemon and carnival tape have the best hands. I've scouted in recent years. Malachi fields. Listen, we're talking a little bit about relative athletic score, RAS score. They're fun. They're informed of layer of information. You get to see how players compare to each other athletically over a history over a historical timeline. And as much of it's a great conversation starter and an entertainment, entertaining reference point, I think it's catnip for beat reporters and feature writers. You know, you give them information and let them weave them into something magical because they're, you know, they're facts and they like facts, factoids. But they may take that fact and start to expand and editorialize on that fact in a way that may not be accurate. Here's the thing about RAS scores. They're based on the NFL combined and we already know that the NFL combined uses tracking equipment to record measurements of time. That's not the best available in terms of accuracy. So these drills that measure ability and increments of time football players are getting track training to perform the drills at optimal speeds. And these are skills they're learning that don't even match football process and the exercises are supposed to measure that very thing. So while it's impressive sounding as a data point to hammer home how fast or how slow a prospect performed relative to history, it's more important to have an idea of what's the minimum numbers for a player to perform his job to a specific expectation. In other words, does it really matter that a wide receiver is in the 47th percentile of his 40 yard dash. If we know that the current minimum standard for an NFL starter is 4.59 seconds. What if that 4.59 second mark is the 40th 47th percentile? I mean that RAS percentile would make that mark sound bad. But if it's the current minimum standard, it gives a context that the mark is acceptable. And we also haven't considered a lot of other things like the players height and weight relative to that mark. There are also compensatory factors within a player's athletic profile. Remember Dalvin Cook, the former Florida State running back, the Minnesota Star running back? He had subpar numbers in the shuttle times and vertical jump that that really concerned the spark and athletic crowd. One of the things that I noted during that time was that the exercises were cook struggled, were attempts to mimic how the most backs changed direction, but Cook doesn't run like that. Cook used curvy linear movement as his primary means of changing direction. And it meant that Cook bent his path like a racing motorcycle around a hairpin turn. So a little of anything about Cook's game included stop start cuts, jump cuts, and lateral changes in direction. So the exercises trying to measure Cook's game didn't even fit how the player played. Dalvin Singletary is another insanely an example for compensatory factors. He's short, he's light, he's slow, he lacks strong acceleration. I know I probably say this about, he usually brings Singletary up and say these very same things about him multiple times a year, but it's important to learn this stuff. You look at Singleton, he's pretty much everything that you wouldn't want from a net if I'm running back except there's two things that have made him a productive net if I'll contribute. You know I'm not talking a star or an annual starter, but someone that you can plug in to the offense when you need it. He has vision and he has quickness and these two skills are excellent enough to overcome the sub part rates that would have kept most running backs out of the league. So when you take this perspective on the combined and RAS scores and compensatory factors and what a minimum acceptable score might be for speed, look at Malachi fields of Notre Dame. You're going to see that he ran a 461 second 40 yard dash. It's probably a low percentage RAS score for that mark. But in my defined standards for separation, which includes techniques, concepts, and physical characteristics, speed, acceleration, change direction, vertical leap, or all part of those physical characteristics. And there's acceptable ranges that serve as guidelines for each tier. You know, and these tiers that I use are elite starter committee reserve, free agent deficient. The minimum mark for the starter tier to be in the starter tier is 4.59 seconds in the 40. So without even considering Malachi field size as part of a factor with his 40 time fields is 200s of a second from meeting the acceptable guidelines of a starter in my evaluation process when it comes to how fast he should run. That's a much smaller gap than the variation of error generated from the third rate machine, the NFL combine uses the measure speed while players use a track stance instead of a football stance. See what I'm adding here. So when you're examining fields, compensatory factors of height, weight, acceleration, quickness, and vertical leaping, the picture changes significantly. I mean, he's a big receiver. His acceleration at 4.35 seconds in the 20 shuttle, solidly in the starting tier for the RSP for separation. His initial acceleration out of release footbook for footwork or the acceleration out of a break is more important for most routes than, you know, a tight straight line speed route. I mean, there's more routes in the in the raw tree that require acceleration and amount of breaks. Fields marking the three cone drill. Well, that's 6.98 seconds and that's a leap. Okay. That drill is meant to measure the dimensions of change direction, quickness, and it's more candy using intricate footwork or stringing moves together in succession. So fields might not be fast on the go route or fade if these routes were merely straight line routes. But if you watch football with just, with a critical eye, you're going to understand that most of these straight line routes begin with quick movements to freeze the defender, earn advantageous position, and then accelerate and open the full speed. Fields athletic skills, a size, a strength, they give them all the high level athletic tools to earn separation on a defender within the first 10 to 15 yards of a route and the positioning and manage to sustain it throughout the catchpoint. Malik Benson, Oregon, he's got some skill with setups midway through his stems to work free over the middle, but he got a cut down on laps as it tip off his intentions to safety's playing over the top. You know, he's got some potential to deliver flat breaks full speed, but he's the most precise with his breaks when he's running at partial speed. So Benson's on the right track. but he's got to continue improving his precision at top speed. Omar Cooper of Indiana, I've heard in multiple spaces that the popular comparison for Cooper's D-Bose annual. I mean, this has got to be a figurative example or excuse me, a figurative comparison. It's got to be rooted in plain style and how much that might project to an NFL scheme if the players used in the same way they were in college. And Cooper is physical as a runner after the catch. He makes the athletic plays at the catch point. Samuel does the same thing but when you make a more literal comparison of them physically before going straight to plain style and scheme, you're going to uncover factors that might make it a misleading comparison. You know, Cooper's at least 20 pounds lighter than Samuel who laid way 210 to 15 pounds when he played for South Carolina and then had another five to ten pounds as a pro. And we're not counting the unusual weight gain Samuel had last year which was an out-watt liar for his career weight. It's not realistic Cooper's going to add this much weight to playing the league. AJ Brown is the same height as Cooper but he was always 220 to 25 at Ole Miss. This is the weight difference of a running back sized receiver who plays a running back role like Samuel and a receiver who runs the ball well as a receiver that's Cooper. So Samuel's never been a strong route runner against Man to Man Cooper as a greater ceiling than this department. He's not a refined technician against press coverage yet but he's got a repertoire of releases and some of them are refined enough to bait defenders. You know, I think Cooper is someone that you know if you're going to compare him to anybody, maybe he has five to ten pounds of muscle and he's more rotty-wide. A physical player with good speed who eventually mastered route running became a 1B to Julio Jones 1A when they were a tandem in Atlanta. I mean, White had six consecutive seasons with at least 1150 yards and seven touchdowns and that was you know all but one of his seasons during that time were seasons where you're in 1,200 to 1,300 yards are ceiling. So it's an ambitious ceiling but if Cooper maximizes his route skills and technique laps as a pass catcher he could have some of those heights. Scholar Bell Connecticut. This is a prospect who might serve as the exception to the rule when it comes to an area of prospect evaluation and that's a dangerous game to say oh this guy's going to be the exceptions to the rule but one of the common ones that's invoked with why receiver prospects is the productive college player who has lackluster technique as a pass catcher and look good scouting involves projection and determine when one's going to go too far with the projection or not far enough is the challenge of the craft. Scholar Bell is an excellent example of the challenge that he's presenting Scouts in 2026. You know Bell has routine technique gaps as a pass catcher. He doesn't use the appropriate tack for the trajectory of the ball and there's a lot of clap attacking on his tape. And so from you know if you look at this you know you understand that you know someone like Quentin Johnson and Marvin Harrison were good prospects with lackluster catching technique that limited their perceived upside. Johnson showed improvement with technique last year and had a much better season. Sutton was a serial clap attack or Quentin Sutton like Johnston there were lapses with his game but he's improved the egregious issues at least. But then there's some clap attackers who have good years and then regress as they work on it. Deontay Johnson was a good example and I bet that he probably worked on fixing his technique and then stopped too early once he saw initial success. You know so they want to you know you want them to continue to work on it. Even after they've had initial success because it's got to really get ingrained. Now there's receivers in the league's history who were serial clap attackers in college and they were and they were as productive if not more productive in the NFL and it's a small list but it's notable includes Golden Tate, Terry McClure and Marvin Harrison Sr. Now I'm not counting players from the 1970s and 1980s because back in that era trapping in clap attacking was far more common in the NFL at that time and I'm not counting recent players in draft classes until I've seen enough seasons of consistency. So when we lay out this context let's get back to Skyler Bell because there's a palpable risk that Bell's clap attacking leads to a lot of drops when he's career and if he doesn't address it the league's perception of Bell as a super as a future starter disappears. But looking at Bell's depth of talent and ranking I'm actually optimistic that Bell can start and thrive right away with only minor issues to iron out in early this career and I think that comes down to this question that people will probably have is what is it about Bell serial clap attacking that has me betting on him becoming the exception to the rules instead of another acclaimed rookie who runs in the difficult obstacles and struggles. I think it's because if you look at the games of Tate McClure and Harrison in college you see that they clap attack most of their passes. Almost every catch included a clap attack. It was really the basis for their technique. We're in contrast if you look at Quentin Johnston, Quarland Sutton or play like Robert Meachon from the early 2000s. These players either used good technique with most catches or they trapped the ball as they're alternate attack form when they weren't clapping it. And then when they were forced to abandon these techniques and trying to get better you know or based on the trajectory of the target they were trying to to do it well. They would end up clap attacking and then they drop the ball. And I think in this case clap attacking served as the reveal of what these players lacked which was confidence experiment experience and skill with the proper attack. But whenever I watch games where these receivers drop multiple passes they didn't tighten up their hands they just reverted to trapping the balls. Like they didn't really know how to do something then it scared them and then they went back to the bad technique they had. Now the prospects who've been the exception to the rule they basically just had one way of catching the ball and it means that the drop couldn't really be correlated as clearly to their technique as the others. So Bell's also unique because when he uses the different attack it's actually the proper technique and he has success using proper technique. He's not a pass-trapper trying to use his hands and failing. It just looks like that Bell frequently uses clap attacking and he looks more like Tatemakers Lauren and Harrison Sr. so projecting a player to become an exception to the rule where it becomes an established technique that central to the position is a risk of course but from what I've observed about Ciro clap attackers Bell's more likely to be an exception who produces in the NFL with that flawed attack. Ted Hurst think his development could go in two different directions and he's a Georgia state receiver. If he emphasizes precision and refines his routes and adds a little music see me a little muscle to his frame a little music to his frame a little muscle to his frame. Hurst could become an aspiring AJ Green type a big play primary receiver who defeats press man and runs that full rotary but if Hurst balks up further and his route tree is a little more limited maybe he becomes more of a big play possession receiver like T Higgins who's not asked to run a full route country and wins with size at the boundary. I think Hurst was effective with speed turns and weight drop when breaking on routes. I thought a set-ups were limited and he's got to develop more of them. He has a lot of release techniques but he's got to develop patience and suddenness with the moves or else he just won't be compelling and effective in the professional games so you can see upside with him but there's work to do. Vinnie Anthony of Wisconsin you know like he's quick good acceleration he's improved his game over the course of his college career has a decent range of tools to run successful routes at the college level but he's got to refine those tools to execute them with the savvy of a pro and this is going to include releases stems setups and breaks and these are all forwarded elements that require better use of pacing and emphasis for Anthony to become a versatile and reliable flanker or a slot option in the NFL. Zachariah Branch. Branch is a boom bus profile. I bet it's new as grade that I think requires some explanation. I think he's explosive enough to eventually play insider outside in the NFL but to do both there's gotta be some development to play either the slot role or the outside role at a full-time level and if he doesn't handle his business stairs career is going to take the shape of Nicole Hardman's as a special team's option who can deliver as an offensive gadget. The issues his route running they're good enough. You know his his rods are good enough to get him on the field but not good enough to get to have him stay on the field on every down branch just lacks refinement Or competent execution in every phase of route running He has enough release moves to defeat man coverage or set up zone coverage at the top of stems But he just doesn't execute them with the patient sudden contrast that It's got to be embedded with every technique. It's kind of like watching. He's like a salesman with a product But with no sales strategy to accompany it and He's got to get better at that the last one is a Vian Thomas Thomas is likely fitting somewhere between Devon Duvernet and DS Gritch You know meaning that Can run after the catch. He's got speed big playability in the return game big playability in the vertical game There's some starter level athletic ability and traits that could translate into a weekly role for Thomas, but there's work to do And I think that there's gonna be draft capital limitations. He's gonna have to overcome He's got some running back skills, but I don't think he's as accomplished of a running back as Duvernet was I still think that NFL Then mainly the Ravens really Wasted their resource of having not trying to make Duvernet and Danny Woodhead plus type of player Thomas has deep speed Kind of like Matthew Golden, but he's got to develop the contrast Again between patients and suddenness with his releases and setups so it can become a reliable deep threat in the NFL Thomas has route setups hands and open field skills are all good enough from become a situational contributor right away if there was a demand for it Probably won't be there's gonna be minor lapses with Thomas's attack to address, but it's probably not gonna hold him back So if he can sharpen his routes he can become an outside and inside threat in addition to what he offers in the running game And he could probably emerge as a high-end contributor off the bench or starter You can think early career Devon Duvernet or maybe Curtis Samuel over the long haul He's a reserve and I don't think the things that are Tough about his gamer. You can get away with that or things that are gonna give him his way to being a reserve Well, that's it. That's 45 44 45 players out of the 65 that I Studied for the rookie scouting portfolio couldn't share everything we'd be here for two and a half hours probably But thank you for listening to this podcast. There's a tight-end podcast That I did last week that would be helpful and I'm gonna probably record a running back and quarterback podcast in this coming week probably the running back podcast tomorrow You'll probably get this to apply out this out tomorrow or It's probably gonna be tomorrow when it comes out as 11 30 at night right now on Friday So it'll probably be out Saturday morning and then maybe Saturday evening. I'll have the running back one out And then maybe Monday or Tuesday. I'll have the quarterback one out. So get your RSP www.matwaldman.com You can learn more about it at that page if you have any questions for me. It's gonna be busy time for me Until I get it published and finished editing so I'll be a little slower to respond to people by email but I generally respond to people within 24 hours otherwise and once I get the book published I will definitely be responsive within 24 hours usually sooner than that but thank you so much and I'll see you on Monday. Those of you who Listen to that profane show that Bob Harrison. I do. See you. Love you. Bye [BLANK_AUDIO]