This WR Class Is LOADED 👀 | Travis Hunter, Tetairoa McMillan & More | Football 301
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In this episode of Football 301, it's time for the receivers. Matt Harmon joins me to rear back and throw 109 miles an hour. We talk receivers for over 100 minutes. All the top guys for the 2025 NFL Draft Class. First rounders, second rounders, our favorites in the top 100 and outside of it because we had a few names that we had to throw in there. Super fun show. A lot of great stuff from Matt. See you guys in a sec.

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Hello and welcome to football 301. I'm your host, Nate Tice. We are continuing our prospect series today for the 2025 NFL draft receivers. This is it. This is not the penultimate. This is the ultimate prospect series today because the person joining me to do it, this is his fastball. He's going to crank this bag. I mean, I've been hyping him up as this, at least privately, you know, as like,

I don't know, Nolan Ryan of Receiver Prospect Talk. I'm very excited today to do this with Matt Harmon. How are you doing today, Matt? It's been a while. It's been a few weeks. I was letting you rest, go back into your fantasy world, and then we're going to bring you back, rearing to go. So how are you doing today, Matt? I'm very excited. I'm doing great, Nate. Yeah, I appreciate the... I don't even know what to call it. Like kind of a...

an encouraged vacation ish or except it wasn't, it wasn't any time off at all. It was actually just hours and hours spent in route prison. I think it was a little, mostly it was, you know, route prison, baby. That's where I live. But no, it was, it was good to, it was good to take the time. And I mean, it was also on my end to say like, Hey, Nate wants to know, like, when, when do we want to do, when do we want to do the receiver preview? I'm like as late as possible so that I can get my eyeballs on as many prospects as possible.

I texted you like a month ago because I was like, oh, shit, I should probably start playing this out. And I texted you and was like, hey, you know, I had receivers, quarterbacks to start off. And then I was like, actually, yeah.

He watches like eight games on each guy. This, and I want to talk about a lot of players. So this might take a minute. Hey, how far along are you? And you're like, I need a couple, I need a couple of days. I need a couple of weeks. I'm going to need some weeks. And I was like, yeah, yeah, me too, actually. Cause I would only be able to talk about five guys right now, like as deep as I want to. So yeah, I'm very excited to do this though. We're going to be talking wide receivers. One of the glory positions. I feel like this is a great way to cap off this preview series after we did

quarterbacks last week with Dane Brugler. We've done the line. We've done defense with Charles McDonald. But this is pretty fun. Even though this was a class I think painted as, oh, a down year at the receiver position. Yada, yada, yada.

i actually think this is gonna be a fun interesting deep class because that's how receiver is at least to me uh from college prospects getting into the nfl but we're gonna go over the consensus top 100 players from the athletics consensus board which is nice they compile everybody's mock drafts and big boards put them all together and then we get to see what they spit out we're gonna go in that order and then matt and i will give our thoughts on each player matt of course does a

A lot of great work with reception perception. And I mean, I've read a couple of these profiles, but I didn't want to spoil a few because I was like, but I did have to ask you a few things about it. So I'm very, very excited to pick your brain today. But I just want to get to maybe your overall feelings of this class. I didn't want to speak maybe for both of us that I think that there is some depth like there's going to be, I think, for a while on day two at the receiver position. But what were your overall feelings with this receiver class, Matt?

Yeah. I'm excited because you and I haven't spoken about prospects basically since the combine. Uh,

You know, and there have been a few guys that I've wanted to like text you about, but I'm like, save it for the show. Like I want to get the organic sort of reaction. And yeah, again, there's a lot of things I kind of want to cross check with you here. But I think the overall vibe of the class is like, we certainly do not have the top of the line guys that we did last year. I think there's just like, that's a universally accepted reality. And to me, I I'm with that. Like to me, the way I view receivers and like, I have a stacked,

board on receptionperception.com where I look at kind of the last from 2021 to current and kind of put the guys from this year's class into that group. I think a tier one receiver prospect is this guy can go in the top 10 of any draft. Not like I'm not saying this draft, any draft, they'd be a top 10 type of pick and they'd be like a ready-made starter. If not ready-made star in the NFL. I think we only have one,

one of those prospects this year. And he also might not play the position, which I know we will get into here in a second. The rest of the guys, I don't think fit into that group, but I think there's a lot of what I would say are like tier three to four players, which are kind of guys you could take in the late first round. There's guys that you could take early.

like that I really like is day two prospects as well. And then I think there's also two that fit into tier two to me, which is you could take them the first round of basically any draft. So we'll get into all of it. But I do think it's a it's a class that I kind of came into with. Yeah, the expectation that it wasn't going to be like last year. I don't think it's like last year. But again, I found a lot of guys that pique my interest, maybe if not even just in day two, like maybe early in day three. I think it's an interesting class overall.

Yeah, I do too. And even the ones that are at consensus, there's some that are outside the top 100 that I actually would are going to have on my updated big board this week. Charles and I will have our top 75s this week. And yeah, a couple new names for me and some that aren't on that consensus board. And that's what I think is awesome about this receiver class. A lot of fun flavors, a lot of interesting flavors. It's that that's why you have to tear these guys and go like, well, this is better for this team. This is better for this team, which I think

it turns into a fun exercise as we talk about them because you can kind of see some ideal fits a little different than maybe a couple of years ago, the JSN Addison class where that class had, wasn't very big, very small. And I think that's, what's cool about this class is you got some speedy guys, but then you've got some size, some X's. If you can't tell, I'm excited.

about that. Uh, and also just different stacks of all this. So like you just talked about, maybe not that true, true blue chips like last year, where I think everybody can sense this anonymous, that there's three true blue chippers, Roman Dunzay and Malik neighbors and Marvin Harrison jr. And then Brian Thomas jr. Right below that. But then these guys, it's more just a lot of what I call green chips and yellow chips, which I, I really like them. They're

good prospects that could ascend but i just think there's a lot of good starters which kind of emulates this entire draft really like i feel like the receiver class kind of emulates this whole draft a lot of good players they're more late first round day two types as opposed to maybe like oh yeah easy top 10 in a class so thank you for that breakdown but let's start off with that guy

That actually kind of seems like might be going number two to the Cleveland Browns. And actually Andrew Barry, their general manager has said that this player, he sees him as a receiver first. So,

I see you getting maybe a little excited there, Matt. That is Travis Hunter in Colorado. Maybe you can continue to talk about him on Reception Perception as he ascends into the next level. We talked about him as a defensive back as a corner last week with Charles McDonald talking about all the defensive back seven players, but

We're talking about him as a receiver today. He is my number one overall player on my big board. I view him more as a primary corner. They play 12 to 15 plays on offense, just mental load, all that. He's the consensus number two player on the big board. But Matt,

I know you're bullish on Travis Hunter as a receiver. I've seen the reception perception graph. I think it's going to be painted on walls across fantasy players throughout the globe. But please speak to Travis Hunter, the wide receiver from Colorado, and why you're probably so bullish on him.

Yeah, first of all, just because I haven't spoken about this with you, I think it's crazy that everybody doesn't have him as the consensus number one overall prospect because our buddy Ben Toloch made this point today on Twitter that if he goes –

second overall in the draft, he'll be the highest drafted wide receiver. If he's a wide receiver, the highest drafted wide receiver since Calvin Johnson in 2007, obviously Calvin Johnson, like a hall of famer. And if he's the, if he's drafted as a cornerback and he's, he plays quarterback, he'd be the highest drafted cornerback ever. Like, and he could potentially be a great, he is a great prospect at both positions. Yeah.

So again, the fact that he's the consensus second overall prospect on the consensus board is nutso to me. We use the term generational seemingly every draft class, and 95% of the time it's bad. This is actually a generational player. This is actually a once-in-a-lifetime player. And part of the reason that that is the case is because I think he is a fantastic wide receiver prospect. He is not necessarily as...

carved from stone as Marvin Harrison was to be a day one starter. Look, everybody's kind of a little bit disappointed in Marvin Harrison's rookie season only because he was so hyped up. He was so highly drafted in fantasy. But let's not

forget the fact that this guy played as, and started every single game as the Cardinals X receiver. And it was obvious that he was going to be able to handle those duties, even if he didn't execute it to the highest degree, or at least maybe to the degree you might want that was still present. He was able to do that with Hunter. He was probably a little bit more of a projection for a variety of different reasons that we can get into, but athletically he is unbelievable. He's so flexible. I thought his press coverage release package was extremely, not just professional,

but also pretty detailed for a guy that is,

I don't even want to say he's minor in the wide receiver position because he doesn't even go to offensive meetings. He's primarily a defensive player at Colorado, and he's just out there doing stuff as a wide out. But 97th percentile success rate versus press coverage and reception perception among power five prospects. His zone coverage success rate trails only Calvin Ridley. Again, that 84.4% success rate versus press is the best among any prospect that I've had with 22% of his routes coming against press.

He separates extremely easily. He has rare, rare catching ability. And by the way, like the first guy never brings him down in the open field. I made the prime Odell Beckham comparison to you guys at the combine. I still stand on that as just what he is as a wide receiver. I like him a lot.

I was a big Roma Dunzay fan in the class last year. I think I like him better than a Dunzay. I just think he has such an incredibly high ceiling, does Travis Hunter. If he truly focuses on the wide receiver position, I don't think there's a limit on what he could be as a wide receiver in the NFL.

Yeah. Even talking about him as a corner, I kind of started even hinting at why I liked him as a receiver is because what you mentioned, he's a special athlete. He's the top of the bar as an athlete, you know, top of the range. Randy Moss is always my S tier, top of my class, top of my barometer for when I'm judging athletes.

Travis Hunter is a tiny Randy Moss. That's that's like, that's the best way I can describe it, which is, you know, if you know what Randy Moss was described as by Bobby Bowden, because he originally went to Florida state before he got kicked off was, uh,

Bobby Bowen said, well, Deion Sanders is the top of my bar for athleticism. And Randy Moss is a big Deion Sanders. So, wow, there we go. I even think of that point. So as I was talking right now, so yeah, by this math, I basically call him Deion, which is crazy, but he, but as a receiver, uh, I, I totally agree with you. He's really unguardable at the college level because of

like his bendiness and how fluid he is as an athlete and explosive, the ball in his hands, like the receiver screens have never been more dangerous in college than Colorado's offense last year. It was just because not only just Hunter, but the other guys too, but Hunter was just, he's special with the ball in his hands. Like his feel, his ability to accelerate through holes, to find holes with the ball in his hands. Like that is, that's what you need right now.

It was the conundrum I got into last year. You brought up Roman Dunzay. I had Malik neighbors and Roman Dunzay graded exactly the same.

And I could not figure out who I preferred because I was like, man, Roman Tuesdays, just all this stuff that I like does a little bit of everything. But like the name of the game is how you create explosive plays and neighbors had that space and you saw what he was like as a rookie. And that's what you look at a hundred and you're just like, man, this, this is the type of guy you want right now, because yes, I'll get into my biggest negative with him, but it's an explainable negative.

Is that he is so raw as a route runner. He has no idea what he's doing. Sometimes he will step in one step on his break and then just kind of stop his route. I am willing. Usually that is damning. And I'm like, oh, I don't want this guy. That's the catarious Tony. Not this guy, because I can explain that. Just like you mentioned, he barely is an offensive meetings. He's playing both ways in college. He has to go to school.

quote unquote, but he does like that's part of his stuff too at the NFL level. That's why some of the split in the field stuff is going to be it's more theory and more of an idea and you have to spoon feed it and the team that drafts him has to figure it out. But I've he's just special of an athlete and he has star power. So

I totally get the Browns taking him at two, no matter what position they want to play him at, because I just think his upside, no matter what, is just so crazy as a needle moving player. Though I'll get into my one big negative is that the player weight stuff, which is always going to bring up, you'll hear me talk about all the time. But this is again, explainable.

He played both ways, played 100 plus plays every week in college football. Get him in the NFL playing 60 snaps ish, 60 to 70 snaps. Hopefully you can just gain five pounds and that'd be much more explainable. But this is just as one cutoff stat I found. But players taking the first two rounds since 1990, there's only been five snaps.

They're below 190 pounds at receiver that made the Pro Bowl and two made the All-Pro team. And one of them is a great comparison for Travis Hunter, how he moves to All-Pros, Marvin Harrison Sr. and Chad Ochocinco. Travis Hunter and Chad Ochocinco move a lot. Like go back and watch. That is how I see him as a receiver at the NFL level. Odell Beckham is a great comparison as well. But.

That takes some time because those guys were pristine route runners. But if you look at corner at sub 190 pounds since 1990, 23 of them have made the Pro Bowl compared to five for receiver.

and eight have made the all-pro team. Sauce Gardner, Kyle Fuller, Darius Slice, Stephon Gilmore, Samurai Roll, that's a great throwback name, Sam Madison, Ashley Ambrose, and Eric Davis. So again, the players are getting a little smaller now, so this is a little more fungible, I think, in today's day and age. I think he'll gain weight, again, it's explainable, just had to bring up a negative. I just had to because he is such a cool prospect and I love him. That's why he's my easy number one player and I agree with you. I think he should be the

anonymous number one player, not just the consensus number two player, which is kind of crazy. Yeah. And by the way, like I hear your points about the route running. The thing is like he and with any sort of reception perception stuff, if it's not like a guy in the freaking SEC, I always get responses with like, well, level of competition, all this stuff. And like, by the way, you said, as you say, I chart eight games. If you think I haven't charted some

SEC prospects against some goofball defenses, you've got another thing coming. Trust me. You've got to get to eight games. There's not eight quality defenses in the SEC. Get that out of the way. The SEC honks are... The SEC honks are all over me this time of year. I get it, but at the same time, it is worth noting that playing in the Big 12, there's definitely some loose defenses on there. That's for sure. At the same time,

even though he is a little, um, maybe loosey goosey with the route running and the fundamentals at times, he has a great sense of, um, like zone coverage, especially like I said, now he definitely will. I mean, dice guys up in man coverage and he's not like, I know he's getting a lot of flack after the pro days, like a tick tock route runner, but,

I mean, shut up. This guy's not watching TikTok routes during the game. It's a pro day. Learn ball, people. Give me a freaking break. So I love him. I'm a big fan from a success rate versus man standpoint. He does profile a lot. It's like Devante Smith and Chris Olave. Again, those guys were the route runners, like the technicians. This guy's not that yet, but give him some time playing wide receiver, and I think he could be there. So, yeah, he's to me. This is the only spot I will go to bat and

argue receiver rankings is that I think they should start with Travis Hunter. Then we kind of get into sort of a big cluster of debate and like, what's your flavor sort of deal. Yeah. He's kind of his own thing. He's just, it's just a special talent. He's worth all the hype. Like, that's why I've kind of come to. It's just like, yeah. And just like you mentioned the feel for zone. This is what I'll leave it at is that his, his,

The rough route running and all that, maybe, you know, it's just so many plays and there's so much hours you can expend. I think he's a football genius, though. And that's why I'm like bullish. And loves football. Loves football. You can tell. He's a genius at the game. And that's why it's like, that's why even my concerns, I'm like, I'll wave everything away because I've seen this guy play and just tangibly affect the game. And so that's why. And it shows up a lot on scramble drills.

is you see him and how he finds space and everything. It's like those little, just little indicators. I'm like, God, this guy just gets it. So I don't think this is bullish or, you know, breaking news to anybody, but Travis Hunter is very good at football. That's what we're kind of leaving this at. And we'll start with there. But let's get out to a guy that was my, if we're just going to receivers, guys that don't have a second position here, we're going to go on to the guy that's been kind of my favorite

number one receiver throughout this process and i'm excited to talk more about him with you is tataroa mcmillan t-mac not tet mcmillan he prefers not tet so i've realized that i feel bad about it so mr mcmillan though consensus number seven overall player on the athletics big board he's number three on my last big board and i am holding steady when i update that this week spoilers but matt

Oh, I'm excited to talk about this player with you. What are your thoughts on, I almost said Ted McMillan, on TMAC and what he brings to the table? Because I hope it's glowing. Hey, Ted's a good nickname. I think he should be a little more open to Ted. Just nice, simple, quick. It works well. Yeah, I'm a big fan of TMAC. You know, he's just a classic X receiver, but not somebody that I think is...

Should be like a static X or somebody that's pigeonholed there because I really like how he works in the intermediate area of the field, especially on in breakers. Actually, the route where he stood out the most to me in terms of his ability to separate and like, let's get that out of the way. This guy is not some lack of separation stiff player. Just general rule for the people out there, because every year we...

not every year, but every now and again, we get some guy that's a big receiver that people think they can't separate your Drake London's your Roma dunes, a team team act this year, Tetra McMillan, uh,

If the guy can't separate on tape, nobody's talking about him as a round one player or a top half of round one player. We'll get the guys that I think probably they actually do struggle to separate at some point. Those guys are not going to go in the top half of the first round. So I think he can get open. But the route where it stood out the most to me was his ability to get open on comeback routes. 88.9% success rate on comebacks. He sinks his hips so well against man coverage.

Um, smart against zone again, working over the middle of the field in terms of his long speed. Um, obviously I don't think that's the strength of his game. He's not somebody that's going to threaten you from a separation standpoint on like straight up go routes, but he can and has created chunk plays, um,

in the like intermediate area and in like deep in breakers things like that so it's not as if he's he's not going to be a vertical presence in the wide receiver room and he's really going to make downfield plays as a ball winner now I think he's a little bit overrated as a contested catch receiver I think he's more great than elite but we're splitting hairs here again overall I like him if we throw out Travis Hunter he is my next highest rated wide receiver

Oh, that actually just makes me feel better. Just because this is a confusing player for my, you know, some evaluation. I feel like there's some disconnect with him. Actually, I'm glad you brought up the separation stuff because that is QB dependent. It is. It's just the timing of when the ball gets there and when it's thrown that matters for that. It matters what routes are going on. I just think McMillan, I'm glad you brought up the versatility stuff.

This is how I stack receivers and how I value receivers. A guy that I think can win as an X, but also has slot versatility, that's the highest type of archetype to me. And I think McMillan, even if I don't, I do consider him a very good prospect, a guy that I think I stand by this, what I said a month or two ago, where I consider him closer to those top three guys from last year than maybe what we're talking about this year.

is because I see him as an X, I see him as a ball winner, but I see him as fluid. And how he gets in and out of routes is really just really cool to watch. And you don't really see that from a guy that's legitimately 6'4". Not, oh, he's big, and it's like he's 6'1 and change. It's like, actually 6'4", actually has a basketball background, actually has a volleyball background, which you see. You know, his hand-eye coordination I really like. I agree with you. It's not, I would say the contested catch is,

all that kind of stuff isn't at

elite, elite, elite, but very good. And he plays big, which is good too. I do not think he is soft or plays small. I also have no concerns with his speed because I think his acceleration and body control and his agility are able to get the kind of simple yards after the catch while also being able to have some of that buildup speed to pull away. I know there's been so much discussion about his 40 time and say he ran a 4.52 or a 4.55, somewhere in that range. That's kind of what I've chalked it up as at 219.64.

A guy just got paid like $30 million a year to play receiver named T Higgins, who's the exact same height at 260 pounds. He ran a four or five, nine as pro day. So running a middle-ish 40 does not damn you. And there's another player that was 220 plus pounds.

That may be a little more dominant coming out named Josh Gordon. He ran a four or five, five 40. So like that, that Gordon was a little bit more physical strength and all that. McMillan's a little more fluid, but still it's not the end all be all. If you're two 20 and you could run a certain speed, you are fine. Especially if you show it on scale, but I just really like his hands. He plays like a big guy. I have no concerns with his effort.

I think some of the situation there was interesting at Arizona. He was playing with Noah Fafita, the quarterback who he is close with. That's why he went to Arizona. McMillan was a big recruit. Ends up going to Arizona with some of his high school teammates. A lot of plays ended up as scramble drills at Arizona. And I think that wears on a receiver when you're running another route.

And you got to go to another scramble drill and you run another out. You got to run to another scramble drill and over and over and over and over. Fafita led FBS last year and throwaways nearly 40 throwaways. I think he had 38. And I think, and again, we were talking, I just complimented. Oh dude, it was so,

obnoxious watching that operation um and just watching i felt for mcmillan i had no concerns with this effort i actually was surprised that was a takeaway for some people uh because i thought he was just i never saw it i maybe won once or twice at the end of the season but it was like after like three scramble drills uh so i don't know i i just think this is a real deal number one because i just like so much what he brings to the table because he actually shows it

None of it is just an idea or true, true projection. Like he is showing that he plays big and come down with the ball. And I think he's a good route runner already with some branches already. Well, you brought the comeback routes. That's hard for a big guy. Those be able to run full speed and then sink and then come out of your route. Those are tough on big guys. So the fact that he shows it, that's why I'm so bullish on him. So excited about him. But yeah, I, where do you think he ends up going? Cause I kind of liked him with the Cowboys at 12 and I I've been,

that someone someone said this to me it was like you see him as a top 10 talent i go yeah they go where is he going to top 10 i'm like oh good point yeah and so i think you could go in the top 10 like i i think it's possible that maybe a team like carolina if they just don't love the defensive players that are available to them i think that they really need i think they need like one more guy in that receiver room and i think it ideally should be an x because i think

Xavier Leguette's a good idea, but I don't think he's an X receiver. In fact, they tried to kick him to X in the middle of last year, which was a bad idea, and it didn't work out well for him down the stretch last year. So I think he has a chance to go top 10. To me, I think he's probably more...

Top 20. It's certain mocks. I think we've seen him slip to the Chargers or something like that. I think that's probably too aggressive, although he would definitely fit well in that Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver room. I think he belongs... To me, I think he belongs in the family of wide receivers that Michael Thomas, Drake London, Michael Pittman, Cortland Sutton belong to. I think these are all...

X receivers, but don't have like, you know, Pittman, for a great example, doesn't play all the snaps at X. Neither does Drake London, but they're all better separators than you think. I think he belongs more kind of in that Pittman Sutton zone where I think Michael Thomas and London are like true number one receivers. Every single snap that you build the whole passing game out of them and they could be like your number one wide out. I think

So McMillan, Sutton, Pittman are probably like you can get away with having them as your number one. You probably want them as like a really, really great number two. But to me, I think that's still like a top. It should be a top 20 draft pick.

Yeah, it's a guy that can take a healthy share of your target share is like that, that they're of the pie, I should say. Yeah, like I said, Sutton was was the number one receiver for the Broncos last year. Their offense exceeded every expectation. They got a rookie going. And like, again, I think McMillan could be that type of guy. Just again, I think in an ideal world, which nobody's like.

nobody's living in an ideal world 100% of the time. In the ideal world, that's your number two wide receiver. But he can be... You can get away with having him as your number one. I just... Oh, man. I'm a little more bullish on that. I don't know. I think this guy has top 10 potential. Like, I really do. I just... I like it. I do. I just...

I, I, the long speed stuff is stuff. I always just try and figure out. It's just that he does so much well that that's why I just think he impacts the game. He's going to rack up touchdowns because I, again, I see like, again, it's not a, Oh, he did it once. And I'm really extrapolating from there. It's like, no, I watched this guy making plays in and out of the game. And also I brought up the whole scramble drill stuff. It applies to him, his feel for space coming down on routes, stopping and starting. Like those are kind of great indicators of like other stuff you can do. So I, I,

somewhere even if he ends up somewhere between us like i really yes that's easily justifiable as a top 15 top 20 guy uh going on to the last guy that's kind of really been a riser i would say not only just last season but after season two and that's matthew golden from texas he's 23rd on the consensus board 21st on my last big board probably gonna hang around the same area uh golden though was a transfer from houston kind of

getting his feet wet throughout the season and then just blew up in the second half of the year um starting with a kentucky game that was kind of the second half of the year i kind of re-watched that one because i was watching the corner harrison and golden put him in the torture rack it was rough uh yeah i was like all right harrison still can talk as a first rounder really after this uh but matthew golden though i i

I'm very curious what you think about him. And I'm excited to talk to you about him because I liked him, but I just think he's a particular type of player. But Matthew Golden also ran a 4-2-9 at the Combine. I also should start off with that. Even if some of the film doesn't show that, he still is able to run a sub-4-3-40, which is notable. But Matthew Golden, Matt Harmon, what'd you think of him?

yeah whether he's just fast or 429 fast who cares like he's fast and he's a vertical receiver i think um yeah this is and far be it for me to sit here woe is us you know me and you nate but this is when we talk about any of these and really i think t-mac fits into this group too but when we talk about any of like the non-hunter receivers in this class and golden is certainly one of them this is where it's it's difficult to rank these guys when we're not

Thinking about them for a specific team, because, you know, when he's been paired with the Dallas Cowboys, you know, I think that fit makes a lot of sense for what they need, which is.

And he's kind of similar to Jordan Addison in this way, because this is how I felt about Addison coming into that 2023 draft. And I do think there are some parallels between that draft and this draft overall, in that if you're looking for a number two, this is the class for you. If you're looking for a running mate to a great alpha receiver, this is the class for you, which is like, that's exactly what Jordan Addison got to do and will always get to do as long as he puts the purple and gold on, or purple and gold, right? If we're talking about

Vikings. It was as long as it was purple and yellow. Purple and gold. Purple and gold. Purple and gold certainly sounds better. Purple and gold certainly sounds better than purple and yellow. Anyways, I was really rolling there and then I blew it. As long as he gets to wear a Vikings uniform, he gets to be the number two receiver across from one of the best wideouts in the world. And I think Golden would get to do that with Dallas. And I think that's like the ideal deployment for him because

He's not the best man beater in the world. He's certainly kind of like average against press coverage to me, but excellent against zone coverage. He is really good in the intermediate area and the deep portion of the field. So to me, when I watched him, I thought, man, if you are and chart him for reception perception, number one, if we're looking at like

Who he compares to from like a success rate versus man coverage perspective, he's kind of in the same prospect score as like Tank Dell or Xavier Worthy, guys that were smaller, faster, but better route runners than you think. And, you know, I did think that he would fit really well in an offense that emphasizes in breaking routes.

I thought, man, these McVay coaches that are using all the motion pre-snap at the snap and just working these big in-breakers, he would fit perfectly in an attack like that. I can see the Cowboys being that type of offense for him. How about the Texans? Yeah. Opposite of Nico Collins. I know that's a little later in the draft, but that's kind of like his range from early teens to mid-20s seems like Golden's range.

I think, yeah, I think that, well, one number one, Nico Collins is like, again, he is one of the best receivers in the world. He's top. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Football 301 favorite, football 301 favorite Nico Collins. So he definitely fits into that bucket. I just think Nico is so, um,

vertically in oh he should be and i think he can win everywhere um but i think that there's a little like vertical to vertical kind of work with him whereas i that cowboys like man he's gonna this nobody loves to hear this for the first round draft pick 12th overall whatever but he's gonna open up so much for cd lamb because he's gonna take those like those vertical routes and things like that and just clear out that middle of the field for like you're being realistic about him

Yeah, I don't think Golden is great in like on quick routes, slants, flats and like getting I don't think I think he builds up speed and then can snap guys off. And that's where his routes are really, really impactful. So to me, I don't want him running a bunch of like quick game stuff. And I think the Texans, because of their

likely problems in pass protection and the fact that they already have an ace quick game and vertical guy. I kind of want somebody for the Texans to be a little bit more of like a layup provider. And I don't think golden's that. So this is, but this is the exercise I think you have to do with all these prospects. It's like, where do they fit within a receiver room? Because you don't have like, yeah, we have Malik neighbors and we can drop him into the giants Garbo offense and build the whole plane out of him and feed him 170 balls. We don't have those prospects. So we have guys like golden that we're talking about with this.

No, I think you have him like just typecasted perfectly. You know, this is I this is I'm a full agreement with you. Like he is a perfect number two in today's age. And I wrote like my first note on him is think he could be a dang good number two for a team. What Addison's role is in Minnesota or Devante Smith is in Philadelphia.

You know, like that is just a guy that is a two a, you know, however you want to put it, but a guy that just really, you can design plays for he's comfortable with everything you ask him to do. I agree with you some of the underneath routes to you can kind of alligator arm it a little bit when he goes over the middle, you know, he plays, I guess I don't want to sound like a damning him. I like him. He plays small underneath. And that that just that's he plays like 191.

when he plays underneath. But as the play expands, I loved your point about the build-up routes because even that clip I even tweeted today against Hairston, he's running a stop route and you see some of the subtleties he's got in his route running. It's really nice where he's kind of

um, throttling up and down. He's just an easy athlete, like easy body control and easy speed and acceleration. Uh, and really I'm not, this is not a one-to-one player comparison, but his route running as far as when it goes down the field reminds me of DJ Moore. The thing is though, DJ Moore is 25 pounds bigger and, and, you know, and also much better, I think underneath. Uh, but it's, there's some similarities as route runners.

like just as far as how they throttle, how they move a little bit. Even when they get the ball in their hands, they kind of move down the field on digs and stuff down similarly. But no, I think we're in total agreement that he is

He's not scheme proof to me, which I, which is what you're kind of getting at. That is landing spot matters. And that's where I, I'm totally agree with you that there's better spots for him. I actually liked the Cowboys pairing more as you just explained it marinated and now it marinated on it. I like that more than I thought because they need someone to

create space. And just like, I agree with you that you don't want to hear that about the number 12 pick, but that is what he can do as well. And it's not just like MVS create space. It's a guy that no, he's a tangible threat that can do the other routes as well. Like it's just that he is a valid deep threat as well, which is a, you need it in today's age, but you do, these defenses are clamping on everything. So it's the same kind of explosive play argument that we're talking about, you know, with other players already in this class. So

yeah fun player he's attending the draft as well which should tip you off he has been told he is gonna he's gonna go high uh he is gonna go high i also don't want to i want to give him some credit as like a one of the better contested catch receivers in this class too um he's got like you said on those short passes he can alligator arm and he's actually got he's one of the weird high at least in my charting high drop rate high contested catch um so it's just like

drops the gimme's, makes the hard ones. But again, I think that only increases sort of what we're talking about here. If you're going to be a vertical wide receiver, it's great that you can get open down the field and you got the speed to burn and all that, but we need you to be a finisher. And I think Golden is a finisher at the catch point.

a receiver is still part of your job description uh yeah no uh also you you mentioned it you know some of the underlying metrics don't aren't warm to him um there's got to be something with that texas offense like there's something that's wow i can't i get i mean i i liked watching the offense i knew this was red meat last year i kind of i i i knew this was red meat so i couldn't help myself i was gonna go to break and i was like wait hold on

Bro, I could not believe it that after last year, not only did I spend all that time charting A.D. Mitchell and Xavier Worthy back-to-back, which I'll never do that to myself again, but there was a guy, Jordan Whittington, that I didn't even look at. And it was like, dang, I wish I had gotten a profile up on Jordan Whittington because he's kind of an interesting little sleeper, especially coming into his second season. And now there's two Texas receivers again this year? I mean, come on, enough already. What are we doing? It's an interesting offense to watch. Sark does a good job. The quarterback.

Dane still likes him. And I was just like, you see me going like, well, I Riley Leonard. So glass houses here. We can't, we can't, we can't be thrown stones about our quarterback loves. No, we are going to take our first break and we'll come back with some more receiver prospects in the consensus top 100. Last year, Americans ate 32 billion chicken wings. Who knows just how many helpless sides of celery were heartlessly thrown away.

But this year, celery neglect can stop with you and irresistible Jif peanut butter. Because you can make a snack to make a difference. You can buy a jar of Jif to save the celery. So please, don't let celery be decoration for wings. Tap the banner to save the celery. It's starting to sound like spring.

But it's not official till you've lit up the grill with Kingsford Original Charcoal. This time of year, as we break in the backyard with friends and family, everything tastes better cooked with authentic wood-fired barbecue flavor. Thanks to Kingsford. Welcome, Spring. Visit kingsford.com for charcoal and more from America's grilling expert. All right, we are back with Receiver Prospects. Moving on.

down the consensus board. We did a little mixing and matching, which I'll explain in a second. But this guy is 28th on the consensus board from Ohio State. Of course, there's a receiver prospect from Ohio State. Just get used to it. This is Emeka Buka.

I freaking love Emeka Ibuka. I'll just start with that. This guy is like, couldn't be more for me at the receiver position. But I'm curious though, what you think of Emeka Ibuka, who has played with some very talented receivers there at Ohio State and is now being looked at as kind of a, I would say a consensus first rounder at this point. But what did you think of Ibuka, Matt? Nate, I also freaking love Emeka Ibuka. He is the other guy to me in this class.

Yes. Souped up Jalen Polk. Just what everybody wants to hear. No. Yeah. I actually think he, to me, is the other tier two prospect in this class. Like I said, it goes Hunter is a tier one. I think TMAC is a tier two. Igbuka to me is a tier two, which again, to me is like you can take in the first round of everything.

any draft. Now, and then everybody else to me is like tier three, tier four, et cetera, et cetera, onward and onward. So there's a separation to me and to him, to the guys like Golden and some of the other players we're going to get to because I think his game is just so clean. And like number one, the immediate pushback you get from folks is, well, he's always been a number two at Ohio State. He's probably going to be a number two in the NFL.

yo, you guys see what receivers are getting? Like who's hitting the open market right now? Okay. Teams are,

teams are willingly not being forced not coerced to they are willingly paying like diami brown and josh palmer 10 million dollars a year to to atwell got 10 million dollars a year like good receivers don't get to the open market uh number two like number two receivers don't even get to the open market the best receiver in the open market this year who wasn't you know past his prime was like chris goddard he barely got to the market because he's going right back to tampa bay so i mean just

Yeah, you want a good number two receiver, you're probably going to have to draft him. And you might have to, quote, like, overdraft what you think for, like, a number two receiver. And Igbuka, to me, is just, again, I think he's so clean, easy projection to every single team, great zone beater. His success rate for his zone coverage actually would have led all prospects from last class, this storied class that we talk about with Harrison and Adunze and Nabors and all these guys. He's as good of a zone beater as any of those guys. Now, he's not the same –

man coverage player that those guys are. He's not even the same man coverage player that the guy he's often compared to because they went to the same school and he was a slot heavy guy, Jackson Smith and Jigba. I thought he was a better man coverage route runner than Ibuka is, but I also think while JSN is the flashier receiver, I think Ibuka is the better dirty work guy. He's got great hands. He's tough. He's rugged. He'll block. Again, just would be useful to basically any wide receiver room. Now, I think he would be maximized on one of these teams that

can use a power slot. Like I think in a best case scenario, this guy can be Amon Ross St. Brown. And it's so funny, all the traits that people ding prospects on a guy's he's not that he's not that effective down the field. He's a slot only guy. He's, he's, he's more reliable than flashy. That is number 14 for the Detroit lions, who is one of the most productive receivers in the league. So again, he St. Brown would not be maximized like he is.

on every team in the NFL. Who cares? He plays for the Detroit Lions. And I think if a team sees a Guka in this fashion like I do and they can use him in that way, I think he can be an incredibly productive player in the NFL. He is, if we're not including Travis Hunter, he's my number two guy after McMillan, but I have him kind of close to Golden because I'm with you is that he, to me, is an ideal number two and a little different flavor than Golden where I think...

Abuka is going to give you, like you just mentioned, the dirty work stuff, the auxiliary stuff, the usefulness that I just really like about him. He played more in this. I always thought like the slot was one of those things that he just did in a pinch while other guys got healthy. And it's like, oh God, you played in the slot a ton in your career. So I started having to look more what he did on the outside. Cause again, I don't want that to just be an idea. I want to just make sure that there's proof in the pudding play.

Plays he was aligned on the outside, he averaged almost three yards per route run in 2024, 2.97, 2.78 yards per route run from 2022 to 2024. So the last three years in 2022, where he was aligned outside the most in his college career when he's a primary player, he had 117 routes from the outside, he had 3.43 yards per route run.

run so those are promising numbers there's no kind of red alert where i'm like oh god you're no you're not that good from here and that's what the eye test kind of showed as well it's kind of hard with out of state because all the all the stuff they do works so you kind of just really have to see that it matches what i was seeing on film um but i just like these types of players these z slot

you know, inside outside versatile. That is a valid blocker. He's over 200 pounds. He's so smart. You can tell this guy's a smart player too. And that's why I like him too. He's a winning football player. If you have a number one, a true number one, you drop this guy in and you love it.

Like this is exactly what you want. And just a little, my fun little anecdote about him, like not only just that he pops, that he's such a smart player is that I tweeted a play about him blocking. Cause he pancakes some corner. I want to say from Illinois, if I could be wrong, the pancake, some guy,

And his high school coach came into my replies and it was just like, he's like one of my favorite players ever watched this clip of him playing DB. He's never, I never coached him up. He just knew how to do this. And I thought that was really cool. That his high school coach was like, yeah, I love him so much. Like here, let me find this clip. And I was like, okay, cool. And it was like him making like a pick six. And he was like, he never worked at that. Like we never told him to do that. He was just paid attention to everybody else and he knew what to do. And I was like,

Thank you for the tidbit because that's how he plays. He's just a football player playing receiver, but he has juice. He has athleticism. I actually thought he showed more receiver juice this year, maybe because he was more, I mean, Jeremiah Smith was the dude, let's be honest, but is that he showed more playmaking ability than maybe he's shown in the past. So yeah, I'm a big fan. I, anyone drafts him. I go, yep. I totally get why. Cause these types of players stick in the league for a while.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, safe is like is overdone. It's hard. Safe is an overdone word. But I really just think there's a high floor for him. And it's good that you brought up like the coaching love and all that stuff. Because, yeah, everybody you talk to is.

There's definitely some mixed character reports in this class at the receiver position. Not everybody loves McMillan that I've talked to. And then we're going to get somebody who's definitely not for everybody type, but everyone raves about Igbuka and Golden. And I think there's a reason that those guys have been, especially obviously Golden, has been big media risers because of that.

Yeah, I totally get it. And you mentioned too, it's like how much receiver twos are getting paid. Teams need more than one valid receiver. Like even the Vikings went out and drafted a guy because they re they realized, Oh, we have a limitation. The Cowboys have kind of gone through this too. A CD lamb. Okay. Yeah. We can move them around, but then defenses are so smart and going like, all right, we'll run cover two against you here. All right. We'll double team you here. How you punish that is you need more valid weapons. And so surplus isn't just that quarterback.

You can get a lot of surplus and a lot of other positions if you hit on these guys. So I just want to kind of continue that point that you made. This is okay. Going, moving down the consensus board, but actually we kind of skipped over this guy, but this is kind of because I wanted to plant, put emphasis on why that is Luther Burton, the third from Mizzou. He is 18th on the consensus board. Last updated a few weeks ago. I should mention 34th on my last big board, probably hover around the same when I updated this week.

I'm actually curious to hear what you think about Luther Burden III. But he had, I would say, a fun player, explosive stuff, a lot of kind of highlight reel type of plays. It kind of did a lot in that Mizzou offense. There's good reasons for that, and I think maybe some bad reasons for that, but I don't want to spoil it. But Matt Harmon, what'd you think of Luther Burden, who was very high on a lot of people's boards before the season, has maybe tapered off a few?

Yeah. Really interesting player. I think he's the ultimate grade to the flashes guy in this class. If you are grading to flashes, I think you're going to really love Luther Burton because he does flash real deal receiver ability. Obviously, in that Mizzou offense, he was fed a lot of Mickey Mouse production, screens, just everything.

nonsensical stuff underneath. He was a almost pure slot player in the games I charted. He took 82.9% of his sample snaps from the slot. He was in the backfield for 6.3%. He was off the line of scrimmage for 81.7%. So that is pretty – we're in that Mickey Mouse territory with these numbers, but I don't see him as like a Wandale Robinson type. Whenever I'm talking about like fake receivers, Mickey Mouse, I always go to Wandale. And I'm sorry, it's disrespectful, but it is what it is.

Wandel should be beeped for you because you use it like a slur. Yeah, I know. I really should. He's like a Wandel Robinson. Beep, beep.

But you know what? Hey, Wandale's making himself a career in the NFL. He was on pace for 100 receptions at some point. Now it was like six yards per catch, but it was 100 receptions at one point. But yeah, there's a guy like that in every class. I don't think Burden is strictly that player because he does show you some man coverage ability. 71.2% success rate versus man for him.

And again, it's a lot of slot receiver stuff. And he's really good on these routes where he can gain leverage and snap to the outside. The right quarterback, like if he can build that trust in chemistry, if it's a quarterback who can attack outside the numbers is really going to make good use of Luther burden. But again,

I thought he was kind of like just okay as a zone coverage receiver. You know, he was the guy that I mentioned, like there, you know, there are some real mixed character like reports with him. And I normally don't bring that into my reporting at all in terms of like the grades and stuff like that. But the problem is I do think you see some like,

not great stuff all the time on film. Like, I think that that impacts actually some of his reception perception results. But again, with your grading to the flashes, I think you can squint at him and see kind of like a Bud Light Malik neighbors type because he's, he is really good after the catch and he's bigger than you think. He's more powerful than you think. He's more explosive than you think. And I also think he tracks the ball and adjusts in flight at the catch point. I mean, really well, that's where it's like,

okay, Wanda Robinson ain't making that catch, you know, and there's plenty of those Malik Nate, like plenty of those neighbors ish tile style catches on burdens tape. But again, I don't think he is consistent. I think that there is some, some concerns in terms of like the down to down play for him. But overall, I do think he's,

I got he's probably again, Travis Hunter, like we're including Travis Hunter, he'd be my receiver for without him, he'd be like my receiver three, because I think if you're betting on the upside, you could hit pretty big on this. And even if he doesn't hit that high end of his range of outcomes, he is still really good and useful in the run after catch game.

Yeah, he's explosive as all get out. And that's what that's what I like. I say great to the flash because that's what you're chasing with him is those highs. And it's just that, man, it's these types of players are always are just buyer beware. You know, some red flags are waving pretty, pretty brightly and pretty highly with him. You know, I'm not going to say a full on.

that smell cadarious tony but i you know there's just some there no there's just some stuff here that i'm like okay i i because i i will say i'll start with the negatives is that i do see some inconsistencies with the stuff and when the guy gets moved around a lot gets put in the slot a lot that to me is like okay we're telling you exactly what to do as opposed to you can understand what the flow of the offense is

And when you hear, I heard the same kind of character whispers, I would say. And some of it tracked too, was that the combine, if you look at his GPS numbers, you can look per route

And like what route everybody ran, how fast. And it's like, okay, certain routes. There he is. Burns, one of the top guys and other routes. There he is at the very bottom. And one of the things was that some scouts complained about was that he was kind of dogging it during the combine. And it's like, whew, that's a job interview, man. There's one time for an hour, you know, when you're on the field or a couple, I know it's longer than an hour for a few hours when you're on the field. Like let's, let's give it, let's give it, give it your all.

And I don't know those types of players. That's concerning because it shows up on the field. Like if a guy plays hard and plays tough, okay, fine. I'll sliding scale. But it's again, you're chasing those designer plays, those slot plays. I've seen the flashes. Like, I mean, we've been going back to last year. He had a couple of

plays where he's on the outside, I agree with you on the ball skills. That's funny you brought up the neighbor stuff. That makes a lot of sense why you're saying that. He can adjust to it. He can do some crazy hand-eye coordination where he comes down with it. I agree. He's bigger than you would think. He moves like he's 185 and he's 205. He's a thick dude. But yeah, there's just inconsistencies. And when a guy is so heavily designed on his touches, I'm just always...

sniffing, you know, just to make sure why that's happening. So like, he is a guy that if you're chasing the talent, I like him like in the early second and everything, but it's one of those where I just be like, Hey, whoever takes them, just make sure you know what you're kind of getting. So,

Don't want to totally damn him because there are some cool plays with him. And I agree with you. He's not full on Wanda Robinson. It's just that there is some, some caveat emptor with him a little bit. And also he played with some poor quarterback play this year too. Brady. Yeah. One of the most disappointing plays and players in FBS, I would say, because I actually liked his 2023 film. So let me double checking. It was the same player.

Yeah, that was not a fun offense to watch this year. Not a fun bit of film for Luther Burton. But yeah, I do want to hold out a little bit of a candle that he can figure it out. But that's going to come up to him. And that's going to come down to him and come down to the effort and everything. And that's just something we are not going to be able to know.

Yeah. All right. We're moving on to the first of an Iowa States receivers. This is Jaden Higgins, who is outside the top 50 on the consensus board, but it's 56.

On the consensus board, I just missed my top 50, but he will be in my top 75. I can guarantee that. Higgins, big bodied receiver. This is a X, but which also might be a discussion point. So I don't want to spoil anything. 6'4", 214 pounds, long arms, 33 inch arms. Ran a 4'4", 7 at the combine, 39 inch for 10, 8 pounds.

broad uh my little stats for you he only had two drops last year 1.6 drop rate and he ranked ninth in fbs and explosive receptions per route but matt when you watch jayden higgins what were some of your thoughts i'm actually very curious because his reception perception profile had some red on it which just which which draws some eyeballs i think so what do you think what would you think of a matt

Yeah, this is the guy I've been most excited to talk to you about. And actually, I'm trying to avoid avoid talk with texting you about or anything like that, because I just people like him a lot and seemingly are a lot higher than me on him. And I'll kind of get into the reasons why. But I want to start with some of the positives of his game because he's overall he's a player I like. It's just, again, relative to where other people are with him. Like, I think he's.

he's going to come down to me as like a good day to pick, I think is, is where I would have him. But not a guy like, I got to get this guy in the second round or like early second round or anything like it's a good day to receiver. And again, I'll kind of get into that, but some of the positives with him, you mentioned he's a big receiver, you know, he's like six, four, just shy of two, like two, he's like two 14. I thought he,

felt bigger than that when watching him. And it's probably because he has a fricking 91st percentile wingspan. Um, he didn't drop any passes in the games that I charted the eight games. Uh, I tried it. He's got great hands, uh, when we're just like working underneath, uh,

He's a good contested catch receiver, but I think he needs to extend those arms more. I'm like, dude, you got a 91st percentile wingspan. I don't need to be seeing a right angle from you. I want those things. Let's get those arms out. So that's like one little minor nitpick. But I thought he was solid against zone coverage, especially working underneath routes and things of that nature.

He draws a lot of P.I. flags because he's so big and he can. I mean, just an absurd amount of P.I. flags. I don't have the number. I don't have the numbers or anything. I don't know if you do, but I mean, it just was it was striking every single game. It's like multiple, multiple P.I. flags down the field because he's so big and he can like get on top of you with long strides and things of that nature. But you mentioned it.

Not a great separator. Man coverage, not great. Sub 35th percentile success rate versus man and press coverage receiver. Guys that fit into that bucket. I did a whole breakdown on YouTube on my channel about this last year, especially when looking at Keon Coleman's profile from last year's class. And I kind of feel very similar to him as I do with Keon Coleman. And you and I have talked about this on this show before.

I think this type of receiver, like, yeah, you can line them up at X and they can be ball winners and they can be tight coverage targets and things like that. But if you're going to maximize this type, and I mean, again, this is the whole breakdown I did on YouTube last year. These guys that are sub 35th percentile success rate versus man and press players, the guys that go on to be high volume players in the NFL, they're all big slots. They're all power slots. And that's what I'd like to see Higgins do. And this is where it's hard again, like,

if he goes to a team and gets moved into be basically like, I mean, one of the biggest jumbo slots in the league, I'm going to look like a jackass with that, you know, all bunch of red route chart getting, you know, memed on the internet. But yeah, I think that in that role that he was in last year as Iowa state's X receiver, I don't think that translates to the league in terms of like a high volume player. But I do think if you move him inside, he can be

like a really, really quality player that could, you can get a lot of layup production out of. So to me, I like him. I just want to see him moved inside to be maximized. And I think that that is possible. It's just going to, again, it's going to take the right coaching staff.

I've chuckled throughout the entire breakdown because it's literally my notes. It's literally the exact. I feel like I'm crazy, dude. I feel like I'm crazy. As a power slot is one of my notes. My top one of my top notes has upside as an X, but has limitations. Think he needs to be moved around.

Doesn't always play to his speed. I think his ability at the catch point, while there are nice plays, is inconsistent. And that's what worries me. What do you have a big guy that doesn't always play big? That is, oh, that's always just going to get me because then it's like, this is how you have to win, dude. And then you're showing at college, you can't win that way. Yes, guys, some guys figure it out, but it's just like, that is, you're already asking him to do something he already doesn't do consistently. Yeah.

So there's sometimes where he falls away from the ball and that kind of man, go get it, go get it. And yes, he has good hands. But again, it was more underneath stuff. And I think, too, was like the slot stuff is that even though he's big and physical, press gives him issues because because he's a little stiffer on

He's stiff, yes. He can't really bend with the, you know, when DB gets their hand on him, a corner gets their hand on him, he can't bend around it. So he can kind of just get stonewalled.

And that's why power slot makes sense. You're off ball. You know, you get to move a little bit. You're inside. So guys can't press you as consistently. You know, that would make a lot of sense for his kind of player profile. So I'm with you. I liked him, but I saw him as a guy. I'm more comfortable late round two, early round three. I shockingly spoilers. We'll talk about another Iowa State receiver in a little bit. Jalen Knoll.

And I actually prefer no more than Higgins, which I actually, if you told me this, the player profiles going in, I prefer the big X that can maybe move inside. But it's like, I watched these guys and that's why I'm glad I did. It's just that there's something missing with Higgins for me. And again, like him, he can maybe be,

I don't know what you said, the power slot. That's actually a great idea. I was like, if he is an X, it's like the Gallup tier, you know, of X as opposed to it. But I don't know. Gallup was more fluid, I think, than Higgins is. And I do like him. I think there is a role for him. But I'm with you that I already had a lot of these thoughts. And so I saw your player profile on him. I was like, oh, OK, OK. I'm not totally crazy. So, yes, safe space to talk about him. So you just get the word I kept coming back to is he gets stuck a lot.

stuck at the top of a break stuck against press stuck coming out of a break you know and again big guys that do that those are the ones that the quote-unquote separation concerns should actually be the discussion about so kind of glad that kind of came to the same conclusion through uh through different means though so i mean it's just he's an interesting player i mean i like him a lot but just there are some flaws to him that i think they're just a little concerning for me

Yeah, same. Oh, man. But at least that size as opposed to, oh, yeah, that's concerning. And he's also 5'9", 180. Yeah. Well, like, again, I think Keon Coleman's a great example for him because the Bills...

Dude, the Bills used Keon Coleman the exact way I wouldn't have used Keon Coleman last year. But it wasn't like, oh, man, we're playing Keon Coleman. Like, this is embarrassing or anything like that. It was just you're going to be in that role. I think he's going to be like a five target a game player and more of just like a true ball winner. But I mean, I think Keon Coleman is a better contested catch receiver than Jaden Higgins. So it's just. Yeah.

Yeah, I know. Isn't it funny too? It's like, oh yeah, he's big and he doesn't drop anything. And you, so you expect, oh, this guy dunks on everybody. It's like, well, 90 degree angle. I don't need, I don't need that anymore. The DK Metcalf. That's what that is. Yeah. Yeah. But moving on.

to our last guy before we hit a break and that's Jack Besh from TCU a senior bowl player was consensus 66th player on the athletics census board did not make my top 50 or my last updated maybe top 75 we'll see we're good we got some other guys I'm more bullish on we'll talk about them in a sec but

Jack Bash. I truly have no idea what you think about Jack Bash, though. I'm very curious what you think of him, Matt, because I thought he was a fun watch, a fine watch. He has some qualities to him, but there's some flaws as well. So what do you think of Bash? Yeah, I'm a big fan. I think he's a great second round receiver in this class is Jack Bash. Now, he's he's not the cleanest prospect valuation because he's played multiple schools, yada, yada. But

Man, I he well, let me he is the first guy to come up with this that I should bring up with receivers that I've charted, you know, and this is like obviously multiple many classes. Now this is 2016, 17, 18, and then 2021 to current. If you're a receiver who lines up

The vast majority of your snaps on one side of the field, like 70% plus. And there's a tweet out there about this. But it's a long list of a lot of busts and just guys that haven't worked out in the league. I'll just read off some of the names here. These are players, again, that I've charted that are taking over 70% of their snaps on one side of the field.

Kevin White, Corey Coleman, Josh Doxson, Doriel Green Beckham, Kenny Lawler, Kiaris Garrett, Laquan Treadwell, the other Michael Thomas, not Ohio State Michael Thomas, Southern Miss Michael Thomas, Roger Lewis, Juju Smith-Schuster, DeeDee Westbrook, Chad Hansen, Darius Stewart, Taewon Taylor, Ishmael Zamora. What a name. Josh Reynolds, DJ Moore, James Washington, Deami Brown, Tylan Wallace, Drake London, David Bell,

Danny Gray, Cedric Tillman, Rasheed Rice, Charlie Jones, Quentin Johnston. And then last year, three guys, Javon Baker, Devontez Walker, and Brendan Rice. So I would say that there's some interesting... Josh Reynolds, decent little role player. Cedric Tillman, we'll see. But to me, there's only four high-quality starters on that list. It's Jujus Mishuster, it's DJ Moore, it's Drake London, and it's Rasheed Rice.

All of those guys are, you know, number one, like DJ Moore took a minute to kind of catch on as a route runner, but now he's good, really good quality starting receiver. Juju's a power slot. Rasheed Rice is a power slot kind of gadgety guy. And Drake London moves around the formation. So like we don't have any just pure perimeter receivers. And the reason I think this is a red flag is because, I mean, think about this, Nate, like

nobody lines up 70% at one position in the NFL. You've got to like move between both sides of the field. So like, it's just like a muscle memory thing. And the games that I have on Jack Bess so far, I don't have the full profile done, but he's over 70% at right outside receiver. Now he does kick into the slot at times, but you get this a lot with these like big 12 wide receivers and these simple offenses and things like that. So it's just a, it is one red flag to note in his profile. Um,

All that being said, I do think he beats man coverage. Well, he works really well underneath. He definitely does not stack and win on go routes on the outside. I don't think he's a great straight line speed player, but good hands really sneaks up on you after the catch, man. He rarely goes down on first contact and he has some true like contact balance in the open field. So I like him a lot.

I think he could be a guy that is a flanker slot type of player. But yeah, again, that one side of the field thing is probably the one biggest negative I have on him. But otherwise, I really like him. And I think if you took him in the second round, I wouldn't blink. Who was the second name you listed? It was Kevin White and then Corey Coleman. Corey Coleman. Yeah. Former Baylor receiver. You know who Corey Coleman's office coordinator was at Baylor? Kendall Bryles. You know who...

who TCU's offense coordinator is Kendall Bryles. So there you go. Yeah. In the big 12 family there. There it is. Yeah. Those browse offenses. They have fooled to have many, they have tricked a lot of people, but no, but Besh, I warmed up to him as I watched him. I felt like he should be, he earned more targets than he got. And this is a guy that got a thousand yards this year. I was like, this guy is there your best player.

feed him. Only had one drop this year. 1.1% drop rate. Only had four career drops on 200 targets. Awesome hands. Yes, you mentioned it.

Yeah, great hands and great body control. Body control was the biggest note I had from him. Smooth, really good body control and strong. He plays strong. With his route runner, you mentioned the man coverage stuff, but also with the ball in his hands. He bounces off tackles. It's kind of fun. He was a transfer from LSU. He led a receiving room as a true freshman. Had multiple future first-round picks on it. Another smooth athlete. I mentioned that, but he had good agility drills. Did not run the 40, which I...

I know why. But I know why. Yeah. But I think he could be a really good secondary target for somebody. You know, maybe a number like a high end three option, like if you had a receiver in a tight end or something like that, where he is, you know, works with another guy because he just does a lot. Well, good feeling zone, really good hands.

I just love the ball skills. I already brought that up, but the ball contortion or body, how you can contort his body for the throws is really nice. And that's a, there's so many teams playing zone. That's going to be really valuable with zone, especially when you have good hands, because quarterbacks are going to fire it to weird spots. You better come down with it. Those are the chances you get. I'm with you. I think I, another guy that kind of having that late second, early third round grade. So that's a guy that's a top 60 player, you know, and I, that's probably, we're going to have up.

have or have them end up on my updated big board uh but man i i just really grew on me because it's just like every time good things happen when you targeted him yeah and i like those types of players where it's like nothing only good things happen and when he got the ball he wasn't dropping the ball he was getting positive yards he wasn't working backwards um every he wasn't bobbling the ball ever it was just yeah just like a just nice steady player but has some stuff to him so

I'm glad we got to talk about him a little bit because I think he'll, he'll make a team happy. And I think a lot of, a lot of teams do like him anyways, especially his senior role showing about to take our next break. And then we'll come back with even more receiver prospects. Cause that's what we're doing on football 301. Last year, Americans ate 32 billion chicken wings. Who knows just how many helpless sides of celery were heartlessly thrown away.

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All right. We are back. And we just left off with a receiver from Lafayette, Louisiana. And we're going to another receiver from Lafayette, Louisiana. I didn't know that until right now. As I looked him up. Trey Harris. Ole Miss. Part of the Lane Kiffin circus offense.

Highly productive. Oh, I'm actually curious how this evaluates or this ends up in your evaluation. But Trey Harris, though, Matt, he came in at six to two or five, almost 32 inch arms at the combine for five, four, 40. That's some good jumps, though, which kind of tracks. But what do you think of Harris, though, Matt?

Yeah, we go from prior to the break, the guy who led the team with Malik neighbors in receptions in his first year with LSU there and Jack Bess to Malik neighbors is college quarterback was Trey Harris. So a lot of Malik neighbors connective tissue here. And.

And it's funny, too, thinking about going from Bess to Trey Harris is big time whiplash because Jack Bess, like he's effective, but he kind of looks a little goofy out there as a receiver. This is the dumbest take I have on any of these prospects. But I think Trey Harris just looks like an NFL receiver, like even even just at the snap, like he looked he looks like an NFL receiver, looks like an old school kind of classic receiver.

volatile X that I do think teams have sort of moved away from this archetype, right? Like a lot of these guys have become the sacrificial X receivers. You know, it's a thing that I like to say about these guys. And I think Harris does profile kind of in the

Alec Pierce ish world of, of receiver prospects. You know, I mean, you just look at obviously that role in the Ole Miss offense, which is, you know, pretty Looney Tunes ish to use a Charles McDonald phrase, but,

Interestingly, actually, he was used a little bit more in the slot in 2023. And some of those games that I looked at, he was almost kind of used in the same way that Jonathan Mingo was. But for the most part, he was a pure perimeter X. And he's running goes, curls, throws.

and screens. 56% of the sampled routes I have for him were screen curl or nine routes. So this isn't really all that out of the ordinary for collegiate receivers, especially kind of goofy ones like the Lane Kiffin offense operates, you know,

I understand that some people said this about Brian Thomas last year. Ooh, limited route tree. Number one, that wasn't a major sticking point for me with Brian Thomas. Number two, Thomas showed an excellent ability to win across the route tree. I think Harris is a little bit more straight line. I mean, he primarily...

wins in, uh, in, on nine routes, he wins on curl routes, he wins on slant routes. And like, he does really win at a high level on those patterns. And I think he's got like flashes and sort of the very beginnings of solid route running against man coverage, particularly on those routes. Um,

it's still a limited application player. I actually had a pretty devastating comparison for him that I don't like. I'm not saying his career is going to turn out to be this player because I also, by the way, didn't think that this player was going to turn out to be. I hate to be mean, but like completely useless in the NFL. A lot of his reception perception metrics line up pretty similarly to Terrace Marshall coming out of LSU. I mean, like actually scary. Oh my God. Similar. They're both. Yeah.

built exactly the same really good success rate versus man and press numbers not good against zone and only really affect now Harris is a little bit more effective on like curls actually a lot more effective on curls I think he actually stops down really well drops his weight and works back to the quarterback well but Marshall was only go routes and slant routes and that was it and

And so it was weird to see the good cumulative numbers. But when you parse it out by route, it wasn't that good. Harris is, again, he's like a bit better version of that. And I still think I would take this guy in early round two because I do think like, okay, worst case scenario. Well, I guess worst case scenario, you get Terrace Marshall. And Terrace Marshall actually has the second lowest success rate versus man coverage score I've ever charted. But putting that...

put that aside for a second the floor at least it's not justin hunter anyways uh no but like i think worst case worst ish case scenario you get alec pierce okay that's fine like he's useful in in certain you like alec pierce we we kind of been quiet pierce bros at times i've had a bit of a volatile journey with pierce but whatever uh so okay you could have a dynasty leagues by the way as like a

like a flex dart throw or spike week. Yes. Sometimes you get two points and sometimes you get 29 points. What could be more predictable than that? So I think like you could get that player, but I do think there's like when this archetype hits, if it really hits, it can hit big. So I don't mind taking the swing on him if you need an X receiver in the early second round.

You, yeah, you did a great job encapsulating them. It's the route tree is what I come back to is that's why there's receivers are just so talented now. Their floor is so high as far as the craft. We think of just quarterback clinics and quarterback camps and all that. It's every position is getting camps now. Wait till you see some of these tackles that are going to enter in college. There's this kid that's the number one tackle in the country. He's, he's looks like he's 22 already. But these guys,

They, he's a converted quarterback from high school, which is common. But he plays like a converted quarterback. And I mean that in the sense that I like the, I like, you know, some of the ball skills I like,

some things that he shows but then also his route tree is so limited it's like the british royal family like just a very narrow route tree straight line and yeah there's not a lot of branches uh coming off that route tree and but that's to be expected i think he's a little rarer but he's not an overall raw player so it's kind of it's hard to kind of talk about him got that old miss office

And it's just that I like some of the flashes I see and what I picture as role. You just mentioned Alec Pierce. I want him to, I hate to sound like an old scout. I wish he could just time like that. If he just went out there and ran that four, four, four, I'd be like, Oh yeah, yeah. Okay. I know what you are, but these types of,

It could go any which way. And that's why I think if he goes to that right lane spot, he's gonna be a good secondary receiver for you. Like you say, he's intermediate deep guy. You expand his route tree to me. I'll take him around three. I'm a little lower than you. I would say, but man, I don't know. There's maybe some DeMarcus Robinson here. Uh,

That's a guy that that's who came to mind. And maybe that role is kind of the middle ground for him. You know what DeMarcus Robinson has become in the league, but it just kind of, that's the middle ground, you know, our projection for him. If Terrace Marshall, Marshall is the bottom, but I, but I like, I mean, when you said Marshall to my brain, what?

And I was like, that's who he moves like. It was like that. But I like Harris better. I've never I was so low on Marshall. So I like Harris better than that. But that's a perfect little thing. But there's a lot of projection, I think, needed with him. But there are some cool flashes because of his size, his speed. And I mean, the underlying numbers are bonkers because, again, what you're going to see in that Ole Miss offense. And so he's productive as well.

Yeah, just, yeah, Terrence Marshall. That's always what you want to get compared to. We're going to move on to Jalen Royals.

Utah State, another player I'm actually curious what you think about. Of course, that's why I have you on the show. That's Consensus72 on the Athletics Big Board. Came out 6 feet, 205 pounds, 4'4", 240. Ran a 1-4-9 10-yard split, which is really cool. Also thought it was pretty funny that he came out and did the bench and he did 13 reps.

I don't know. That was just, I just thought that was a funny thing that he just was like, yeah, I'm going to do it. And then he just puts up like average numbers. It's like, all right, thanks. Thanks for doing it. Mr. Chuck of the season with a foot injury. What'd you think of Royals though? I know he does have a lot of fans in the league and I think in the media space as well. Kind of a fun day two guy to talk about, but what'd you think of Royals?

Another one of these guys that only lines up on one side of the field. So let's get that out of the way. And he comes, obviously, not high level of competition, everything like that. He's got a lot of juice. He's got a lot of speed. And I think he separates pretty well, like just in isolated routes against man coverage on especially slants. I mean, he cuts up a lot of probably bad DBs on slants. But he can also stack well on the outside, I thought. And he, this is another offense that's not that fun to watch, by the way, Utah State over there. So, yeah. Yeah.

gets a lot of screens i actually think he was pretty productive as a screen player uh he went down on first contact on just 40 of the in-space attempts i chartered for him so again there's speed there there's athleticism there i he's pretty raw player um and i didn't love some of the play like at the at the catch point in tight coverage so i thought he was okay i thought he was okay like i i'm not i'm not super super bullish on him but i'm not out on him either i thought he was a

I could see him being 72% on the Rotten Tomatoes score. I'd watch it again. If it's on the plane, I'd check it out. I'd check it out. I can't watch my movies on my... Which, by the way, why can't we watch... Why are you going to put the laptop away on the plane? The producers are definitely loving that. I'm going to want to go down a laptop rant on the hour or whatever we're on on this show right now. So I won't.

Yeah. So anyways, I won't do just full Jerry Seinfeld stuff here, but no, I'd watch it. You know, like I got to put my laptop away. It's playing on the little in seat movie thing. I'd watch the Jalen Royals show, but I don't know that I'm like queuing it up every Saturday night or anything like that. So I liked him. Good player, but not somebody that like I'm I'm open to him is what I guess I would say.

There you go. Yeah. I, I, another guy that I put in probably the round three conversation as well. That's fair. Mind you a little bit of Khalil Shakir. Maybe they're kind of built the same. He's a little bit. Yeah. They have the same tenure at split. Yeah. Interesting. I thought Shakir was so much more like rugged, which is what I loved about him. I thought he had great,

balance. He just was able to like shuffle through multiple moves where I think like Royals. Yeah, he still does. Like I thought Royals is more of like a speed merchant type and probably somebody I want it. Maybe he could be like a speed slot receiver or

But I kind of would rather see him like kind of on the perimeter a little bit. So I don't know. I also better zone. He was a great zone beater in reception perception as a prospect. And like, I think Royals is better in like these isolated man to man routes, which also makes them kind of a weird player, by the way, a little bit like, I don't know that I love this comparison, but pop Douglas is this guy for the Patriots where he's a better man coverage route runner, but he's a slot player. So it just kind of makes them like a weird fit.

Yeah. And Rose had a lot of time outside. Like he's mentioned is on one side and God, I went back and forth with him. And so I've kind of been comfortable like, yeah, I'll keep you on round three because I liked his body control. Like that's what really showed up, but his route running wasn't great. And, and he really rounded on breaks, like crow routes and stuff, which is crow route. Breaking routes is where you see detail. And so I could crow route guys really loose. Yeah.

Okay. We got to work on that because it's just, it's a non-starter in the NFL. Like now you won't start, but also we need to work on that because you need to be tight on those because quarterbacks are throwing it to a spot. But yeah, it makes sense. Again, got to bring the caveat. Little bit of his background. He was a Georgia military college to start. Goes to Utah State, 9th.

not a high level, you know, sorry Aggies. Um, but it's just not a high level where you're getting maybe well-rounded coaching, well-rounded teaching. Um, so if you are bullish on him, you're saying, Oh, he's ascending. Uh, you know, I just like how his body control, how he contorts his body. That's why I just kind of kept coming back to what I did, like positives of positives of them, but I couldn't figure out what to do with them. Like, are you a slot guy? Okay. Um,

But you're more finesse-y and explosive. You're not really like just, like you said, rugged. You know, that's not how you win. Not saying he's soft or anything, but it's just not how he wins. So I kind of just like, I like him. I think he's an auxiliary target type of guy, but he's got to refine his parts to really get the most out of him. Most of you guys do once we're talking these day two guys, but he's more of an idea right now than really a fully fleshed kind of contributor, I think. So yeah, I don't know. I like the body control. I like some of the athleticism.

All right, moving on. This guy's a big receiver, kind of some people all over the place, but kind of was pretty high on going into the year. I've kind of feel pretty good about where I'm at now. That's Alec Ayomanor from Stanford, 75th on the consensus board. He'll be in my top 75 as well. Maybe a little, well, maybe, I don't know. Top 75, that's fair. You had a recent tweet though, that I thought was very apt.

for this player and that was this just feels like a packers wide receiver so matt why did you tweet that uh size good blocker some interesting route running can't catch like that's a package packers are strong the drops is where it came from

Packers receiver. Yeah, I don't know why now I can't get it out of my head because I actually kind of think he compares pretty well to Romeo Dobbs. And Dobbs is like a... I don't know. I went on quite a journey with Ioman Air. He was a guy that was...

I liked it again. He's a good man coverage beater. He's over 70% man coverage, which by the way, like if you're an outside receiver, you're over 70% versus man. Like I'm interested. Okay. To some degree, I am interested, especially once you do it in the NFL, then it's like, we're going to hold this guy into like a pretty good esteem. And like, we want to, we want to see him in the right situation.

As a prospect, it's obviously a little different. He kind of has a bit of a similar profile to Michael Wilson, who was drafted by the Cardinals in the third round. I think he was probably more of a high fourth. Stop looking at my notes.

So funny. He's very similar to another Stanford receiver, but he has some similarities to Michael Wilson. Dude, I actually forgot that Michael Wilson went to Stanford, so I didn't even realize I was helmet scouting there. But yeah, that's right. He's a Stanford receiver as well. But I thought Wilson had much better hands to me, like in contested situations. I think Alec is...

It's so weird because I think he's got good positioning and he generally has good timing at the catch point, but he just loses the ball going to the ground. I don't know if it's a focus issue or he just doesn't have the strongest hands in the world. I think he doesn't have the strongest hands in the world because he drops passes. He's the other end of where we talked about guys that sometimes drop the easy ones and then make the hard ones. He didn't do either one of them. He drops some easy ones and he loses in contested situations. But again...

he has some makings of good solid route running, but I think he struggles against press because I don't think he has a lot of like burst. So again, very similar to like, are you an X or are you just more of a,

possession perimeter receiver, which is where I think Romeo Dobbs, that comparison comes into me because just a good solid starting outside receiver that like, again, we're not embarrassed because we're playing Romeo Dobbs. And he was at times a really good player for the Packers last year. And he's actually been an ascending player in his NFL career, but at times has struggled with drops. And like I said, it's just kind of a mid-level starting possession receiver. I think ceiling wise, that's the best case scenario for this guy. So I've come down a little bit lower on him.

Yeah, I kind of just am trying to figure him out because it's like you just mentioned the man cover stuff. And I that was actually where I'm actually a little concerned with him is because it's that he's not a very sudden player. It's there's a little bit of explosion, you know, as especially as a blocker. He started with his top top strength, which he is an awesome blocker, competitive blocker, smart player. You can tell all these things. It's just that he.

It's not quick twitch. And even when he high points a ball, it's, it's gather and then get up. And I know I sound like I'm splitting hairs, but I'm just trying to show the indicators of kind of athleticism, especially for a big guy. He timed well, you're in a four, four, four. But if I were to estimate it, like where I was like, what this guy ran, like before the combine, I would be like, he's a four or five, four guy.

And I know that's not fair because he actually went out and ran well. But that's how he kind of just plays. It's just not that easy explosive ability.

Having said all that, I do like him. I really do. I just think that he is a useful player as a blocker. I don't think he'll ascend to a number one. I don't think he's a sneaky Puka Nakua candidate or anything like that. I just think that, you know, he's a guy that I could see him being a, to bring up the Michael Wilson comparison again, but a number three in an offense, not your number three receiver. He can be your number two, like your Z, but he has to be your number three target getter.

after Marvin Harrison Jr. and Trey McBride. You know, that is how it is for the Cardinals. You know, now let's talk about, you know, Alec with that Cardinal. He was in this really rough offense too. Like multiple quarterbacks played there. They couldn't block at all. And he was just

as all get out, which that's going to earn, you know, some brownie points to me that your guys are down by 20 or 30 and there you are trying to pancake a guy out of bounds and you're trying to high point a dog. I just kind of like that. It's not performative. Like he has potential to me as a power slot because of some of that, because also maybe it would hide maybe what I think might be some of his blemishes. But again, we have to see how he is in the NFL, which is I think maybe some tighter man coverage will get him. I agree with you. The drop stuff is a

A little disappointing, especially for a big guy. You want these guys to be snatching that football. And he has 10, he has big hands. He has 10 inch hands, but he had seven drops this year. He had six drops last year. That's a thing. So I'm with you that there's a comparison for the Packers receiver, which I thought was so funny that you brought that up because I thought of the drops right away too. But yeah,

I liked him a little more than you, but I do think that his ceiling is pretty capped. I think that I know kind of what this guy is as a useful Z that can do a lot of dirty work stuff.

do some stuff on the move, like crossing routes where you use some buildup speed, you know, over routes and all that. I just think he's not for everybody, but he has a role for some people. And maybe kind of be that nice dirty work. Z like Wilson has become for the Cardinals. You know what? Like Wilson does like we've complimented him on this. You mentioned as a rookie year, he had to play X and you're like, yeah, she did. Okay.

Yeah, that's what I think L.A. can do for an offense. Oh, you can play a little X. You can play a little Z. You can play a little power slot. He's decent at all that. Not overwhelming, but decent. He doesn't he's not embarrassing. That's kind of what I think his upside is just that kind of a contributor to an offense. Yeah. So late second, early third. That's that's where I see him as for me.

Get to the other Iowa State receiver here. The one already mentioned him. I like him a little more than his teammate. That's you nodded, which also makes me feel better. Jalen Knoll, not Noel, Knoll from Iowa State. Have that confirmed now. He is the consensus 76th player on the big board. Or sorry, the consensus.

consensus big board. He was in my top 50 though. He just snuck in there. I think he was 50 on my last run or 49 somewhere around there. I think we'll hang about the same when I update it. So what'd you think of Noel though? Because I, I, I, another player, we have not really indicated anything. So I was glad to see you nod your head a little bit when I mentioned his name.

Dude, I like him way better than a bunch of the guys we've already talked about. I do too. I'll get right away. Because when I saw that, I didn't look at the consensus board, but I saw you had written down here, he's 76 on the consensus board. I was like...

Shock me. Yeah, what are we doing here? By the way, you know who I compare him to based on his reception perception profile is Josh Downs, who went 79th overall and has way outplayed. Yeah, that's my freaking guy. You know, I had Josh Downs that year that he was drafted in tier three of my overall rankings.

same tier as Zay Flowers, Jordan Addison, and ahead of Quentin Johnston, like all those guys that he, that, that in that same class. And that's the group where I'm going to have Jalen Knoll. I'm going to have him slotted in there as well. I really like him. I'm a huge fan. He gets,

He gets open. He beats man. He's not just like a little pop gun slot receiver. I actually think he's not that good after the catch. He's probably the worst like tackle breaker that I've charted this year. But okay, great. Sorry. Oh, you can't throw him the little three yard pass and he breaks a few tackles to get you seven yards. You know, he does. He goes out and you do 15 yards because he can run a day. He can run out around in the intermediate area. He's also a great contested catch receiver, just like Josh Downs was.

And he's bigger. He's actually bigger than downs, like 15 pounds bigger than downs, maybe even more than that. So, yeah, I'm a huge fan. Jalen Knoll, I think in terms of like upside for these guys, I'm always going to like these guys more than consensus. The downs is the Knolls and everything like that. I just I'm a big fan of his game. Like, yeah, give me him ahead of a bunch of the dudes we've talked about here. I'm a huge, huge fan.

Like I mentioned, he was a top 50 player for me. He's staying there. I like him better than Alec. I like him better than Royals. I like him better than Harris. I like him better than Jack. I like him better than Higgins, his teammate. I have him closer to burden. You know, like I really dig Nolte's game. You know, if I were adventurous, I'd have him ahead of him. Who knows? I got a couple more days. I got 48 hours to decide that. You mentioned the...

He is tight. The biggest negative, he has short arms, little 29 and a half inch T-Rex arms. But at the catch point, the dude...

like his adjustment and he was like an outfielder. He can go up and get it. He can high point it at the wall, like against, like he can fight through contact. He's fricking strong. I mean, he blew up the combine and like it matches five, 10, one 94. So he's a near that baseline for me. So I'm like, okay, okay. We're cooking here. Four, three, nine 40, 41 and a half inch for 11, two broad. That means you were an explosive little pocket hamster, you know, six, eight, two combine. Okay.

Or three cone, I'm sorry. 23 reps on the bench. So again, those short arms help. I have long arms. You can't tell that. That's how I know this. But he's a guy that I, I, my upside comparison to him is what if Christian Kirk could block

That's Jalen Nolte. Yeah. Yeah. That's what the intermediate vertical slot guy, but can block and do the dirty work. So you don't have the limitations that Christian Kirk presents to your offense. You know, that is what I think he is just an easy moving athlete. I just explosive as far as like, as he's at the catch coming out of routes, he creates that separation out of routes. Cause he has that little, you

little pop out of his break. So yeah, I'm glad you're high on him because I'm super high on him. I think he's useful. I think he's explosive. I think this is a type of secondary receiver. You want your offense, even if his, even if I think he is limited to the slot. I just think that he's worth it because he can do other stuff and it's not just some slot Wendell Robinson, you know, a guy that's like, no, you have to play here and you only can do these certain things. I think he brings so much to him. So yeah.

sweet that made me feel that was worth the whole show yeah i i watched him a few weeks ago i tipped him off on where we did the little painting for prospects but i was like man i just i just dig him i watched two more games on him it's like yeah i'd like him baron higgins which again going into this process significantly not what i thought i would end up on so yeah yeah it just speaks to what noel brings to the table

I'm not shocked that I like him better than Higgins. That's actually not that's not shocking for me. But yeah, just last on him, 74.1% success rate versus man, which is, again, better than a lot of the guys we've talked about so far. And that's in the same neighborhood as like Ladd McConkie, Ricky Pearsall last year. And I think he's going to go way later than where those guys went. And he should go closer to that range. I'm a very big fan.

Sweet. That's awesome. We got we got football 301 stamp. Jalen Knoll. I love the player comparisons you throw out because it's just a bunch of guys were just like, Oh, yeah, lad. Hell yeah. Downs. Yeah, let's do this. This is this is exactly who I want to hear. Yeah, these are the comparisons. I don't want Marshall.

Not Terrace Marshall? No, I don't want that as a player comparison. All right, we got a couple more that are still in the top 100 here. We'll go quick. Isaiah Bond from Texas, number 89 at the consensus board, promised that he would break his teammates 40 times, came nowhere close to it, still ran fast. Isaiah Bond, though, what were some of your thoughts on him, Matt?

Yeah, I'm a little mixed on Bond. I think he plays fast. I don't know what he runs. I mean, I know what he runs, but I know he didn't run like he wanted to run, but he plays really fast. You really feel how fast he is when you watch him play. He can get on top of guys in a hurry. He can get into his routes very quickly, but I think...

bigger defenders give him issues um i'm still kind of like working on him overall i i think he is very i think he will be i mean if he's dialed in another guy that doesn't have great character reports and stuff like that but yeah if he's if he's if he's dialed in i think he actually can be very tactically valuable to a team uh because he's the speed is there he wins on some outbreaking routes that can create some real mismatches you know another guy that like

Oh, if he was, if he was in the two, two at well role in the Rams offense, like I think we'd be maximizing that role maybe a little bit more than two, two at well is because I think he tracks the ball well and things like that. But yeah, a guy that I just, I'm a little mixed on.

I'm mixed on him too. And, and kind of one of those guys when I come mixed on, it's like, all right, what else do I hear about them? Like these are the tiebreakers. And then you hear about bonds character and teams are just saying like, no, thanks hard out on him. Uh, which is not what you want to hear. Not even just like, oh yeah, he's got some stuff and I can't confirm anything. Like that's why I don't want to bring up individual examples, but it's just kind of one of those things where it's like teams do not

approve of the character evaluation, which should also mean he might drop where he's at 89 consensus board. I would bet the under on that as far as, or, or after that, I should say, um, they would go after 89 because just cause of that. And there's so many other guys that we think are in this tier, not just us. I think, uh, the collective evaluators as well. And we're going to talk about a couple more that, uh, teams are going to dig that, especially what happened with Burton last year. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And people were saying comparing that they're comparing those two situations. And Burton was much better. Burton was much better. In my opinion, it was a much better prospect than bond is. Yes. Agreed. Yeah. Just get yourself jail and all.

It's a good blocker, too. Come on, man. That's why I'm saying Christian Kirk with the blocking. He's a good blocker. I love him. Keep talking about him. I'll go with the last guy here on the consensus top 100. That is Xavier Restrepo from Miami. Cam Ward's favorite target. He's 90th on consensus board. He's had an eventful offseason. He was a Tyler Van Dyke's favorite target. That's when I first learned about Xavier Restrepo. He's one of those players. He truly is like

horseshoe up the ass kind of player like just only lucky and good things happen when xavier restrepo gets a target but then he goes and runs a 482 40 or something of that sort i couldn't even get me to the west welker range in the low four sevens um but restrepo slot only just kind of wins on his routes and comes down with it but i'm curious actually what reception perception and matt harman thought of xavier restrepo because he is a unique player

Very unique player. I agree with you. Slot only, but very competitive. A little Jarvis Landry-ish, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, like he's a zone beater. He actually even... Yeah, right. Same 40 time. And by the way, he also did come out and say, what did he pull? The hamstring or something of that nature. He had an injury thing ready to roll right after, which is the same with Landry. He also ran the 40 herd. And he's even got that same...

ass, like bent over kind of...

Like I want to give him a posture corrector, like, you know, way of running routes that Landry did too, where it's just like maybe, I don't know, it's a weird watch. But again, good zone beater, smart player, settles well, pretty competitive after the catch, although I don't know that he necessarily is going to be like an after catch player in the NFL. But again, good hands, good zone beater. I wouldn't mind him, you know, in the early day three or something like that, even though the 40 time is atrocious.

Yeah, that late third, early fourth. That's my grade on him. That's probably where he'll end up going. The Jarvis Landry's 40 at the combine. I was in the stands where the Scouts are timing 40s. And actually, I think the guys at GM now that was said this, but the Scout behind me was timing the 40. And okay, everyone time. Okay. And then all right, next, they make the announcement.

Jarvis Landry will not be running the next 40 due to a pulled row. And all you can hear is a row, row, row. And then another scout goes, pulled what? And the scout behind me goes, pulled his pride.

Yeah. Ran out, ran a four, seven, eight or whatever he ran, pulled his pride. Who cares about the hamstring? That's what he pulled. Yeah, for real. But it kind of fell about that. But yeah, no, that's a good little comparison. Slot kind of like little maneuverability kind of comes down with every ball. I really liked Restrepo, but I'm realistic about what he is. But if he ends up being that annoying slot guy for some team that just earns a bunch of first downs for eight years, wouldn't be shocked.

But again, just got to be realistic about what he can do. He can't play on the outside. Don't think it's a possibility, especially at the NFL. So you're limited there. Got to learn how to do dirty work stuff. And are you worth it? So I think he ends up going around four-ish. But no, I tweeted this multiple times the last couple of years is only good things happen when you throw the ball Xavier Restrepo. And everyone could use Xavier Restrepo because just stuff, good stuff happened.

But yeah, just have to be realistic what he is. All right. Those are a top 100 players, at least on the athletics consensus board. We're going to wrap this show up this doozy pushing it 100 minutes here. We're pushing it. Maybe some guys we want to highlight outside the top 100. I'm going to give you the floor because I believe there is one that you really wanted to put a little highlight on here.

Yeah, I will say just before we do kind of the grab bag, I think Kyle Williams deserves to be in like the top 100 as well. I don't know. I don't know where you are with him. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

60, I think for me, uh, once it's all said and done. Yeah, I really like him, but he was going to be one of the guys I brought up. So, yeah, I, I really like him as well. I liked him a lot better in 2024 than 2023, just because I thought he was so much more decisive and aggressive as a route runner. Um, like I think he like number one, I should say one of these guys that lines up on one side of the field. So again, let's get that kind of out of the way. Um,

Um, but I don't think he's a slot only player despite the size. Um, now he gets a little bit overwhelmed to me on, uh, vertical routes, but I mean, he is just devastating against man coverage on like base routes, slants, curls, things like that. I mean, he, he could pile up a lot of production and be a very reliable target. Um,

Again, I'm still kind of working on my final thoughts on him, but there's a little bit of Diggs stuff to his game. Smaller guy, and Diggs is bigger than Kyle Williams, but he can get open and everything that you kind of want to see from this archetype of receiver. Good release package, faced a lot of press coverage in the games I sampled, and handled it pretty well too. There's some big, big Kyle Williams fans out there. I'm not quite there, but I really like him as a day two guy.

Yeah, no, I really like him. I remember at UNLV here, he was, shoot, like worth a ticket. Just explosive as all get out. And it's like what I said earlier, like that's the name of the game. Can you create explosive plays? And he can. He's dynamic. Underneath screen stuff, yak stuff, I agree with you. Their route running could be a little...

it was a little loose sometimes, but I actually didn't overall. I thought he was okay. I actually was, it wasn't a concern for me at all. And his yard after catch ability, you know, it's a sliding scale, you know, if you, well, you know, not the greatest route, but you got the ball in your hands and that you made two guys miss. Okay. Well, we'll let it slide. He just like my line on him. My first line is he just makes it happen.

Like that's just one of these guys. He just makes plays happen. He's great at tracking the football deep. He's great with the ball in his hands. Can have some double catches. I thought, you know, some, sometimes, but yeah,

Just when he played, when he was on the field, he looked like the NFL player. He is just faster than everybody. He moves quicker than everybody. He's been like that since his first school. And just has a knack for contorting his body as well. So, like I said, maybe not make top 50, but top 60, he's easily making. Because I just think, I like him above a bunch of other guys that we talked about as well. So that's why we got to highlight him here. Because, like you said, I'm not saying top three, top four guy, he goes in the first round, but

In the second round, I'm totally comfortable with Kyle Williams. I just think he is that dynamic, and that's what you're chasing at the position. You want the easy polish guys, but you also want the dynamic guys as well. I'll throw my guy here. That's Torrey Horton from Colorado State.

Who in 2023 had a phenomenal game against Colorado, which I think the whole nation was watching, battled some injuries in 2024, came back and ran the 40 and had a good time, too. I really like Horton. He is to me. He's long legged. Again, didn't play the full season, but he's an easy mover for long leg. He's not very rigid.

I can actually sink a little bit like his underneath routes. Like he knows how to use his length too, as a catcher, as a receiver to like, he needs up the ground and he'll extend for some throws. I just really liked this guy. And I think he's an ascending player. I wish he was healthy this year because I just think he's a, a good possession receiver that has actual, some explosive play ability and,

You know, it can take that drag route, that crosser route, and take it 20 yards, 25 yards, and just have some polish to him, too. Didn't get to see a ton of it, again, this year. And it's a very wide-open, pass-heavy offense. Of course, it's traditional air-raid stuff. But I got to see a lot of the route tree, and he's good at it. And I think he's just got some real juice to him. He moves like he's not...

This guy was such a unique guy. But Devontae Smith, you know, Devontae's long-legged, even though he's really skinny. I mean, that's why he's like a fashion model already. But I think Horton kind of moves like that. He's long-legged, but he's not stiff. Like, he's not stiff-hipped. Like, it's just that he eats up ground with his strides, and he's able to kind of like just move easily with that. But I don't know. I've been trying to figure out who he moves like. But I like Horton a lot. He's going to make my top 75. I'll tell you that. And I just think he's a guy that can –

And I wish he was healthy this year because I think he'd have even more fans. But I just really like him. I think he's a good player. And I kind of put you a little homework assignment on him. So I was curious what you think. Yeah, I was going to throw out a – do you remember Tyrell Williams, the Chargers receiver? He kind of reminded me of him a little bit, like bigger, longer, lankier, skinny X type. Like Western Oregon? Yeah.

Something like that. I don't know. But he had a season of a thousand yards in the NFL because Al Smizzle, Al Seidenfeld, he used to do stuff with DraftKings, a lot of daily fantasy ESPN stuff. He called him the gazelle because he would get in the open field and just have those long strides. I don't know how fast he's moving, but he's moving. That's sort of what Torrey Horton is.

And he was good on those little quick in-breakers, slants and things like that, man. And again, he can stack and get open down the field too. So I actually hadn't charted him until you put me to work because I was just sitting around here waiting for assignments. Yeah.

You don't have enough on your plate. I don't got anything else going on. But yeah, so after getting my homework assignment from Nate Tice, I did put in a couple of games and I liked them. So I'm going to probably...

If not get a full profile up on him, at least have him in my prospect roundup sample. One other guy that's going to be in that that I wanted to highlight before we get out here. Andrew Armstrong from Arkansas. He's got a teammate to Tesla that I think is a little interesting as well. But Armstrong's an older prospect, kind of a weird. He's like he played all the way back in like the COVID season. So he's an older guy. But out of Arkansas, he has all the measurables. I thought he kind of.

I don't know. He's definitely not like Bud Light Brandon Ayuk, but maybe he's like Miller High Life Brandon Ayuk or like a 40, a 40 Brandon Ayuk, Steel Reserve, Steel Reserve Brandon Ayuk. I don't know. Mickey's a malt liquor Brandon Ayuk just in the way that like.

Come on. Don't be disrespectful to Bud Light, but Bush Light like that. I mean, give me a break. You're a Midwestern guy, Nate. Come on. But no, Armstrong, I thought, actually got into it. He got into his routes well. He works well after the catch, and he extends at the catch point. Like,

he uses his wingspan and he has a pretty big wingspan to his advantage, but he's very raw as a route runner. He's very developmental, but he is a guy that I would want to take on day three and be like, Hey, can our receiver coach get you to kind of stride it out a little more? Cause he's got these like little choppy steps in, in this routes that I don't like. He's like a short strider in his route, but a long strider after the catch. So I want to see if we can balance that out a little bit, but, but a decent day three developmental guy.

There are Arkansas quarterbacks. Interesting to tail and green, big, long legged guys, big, long legs, a lot of long legs as we end with Armstrong. Ha ha ha ha. But also I just looked it up. Torrey Horton, six, two and a half, one 96, four, four, one 40, one five, three split, 10 yard split. Tyrone six, three, two or four. He had four, four, three 40 and a one five, one foot 10 yard split.

Yeah, but no, actually, that was a really good comparison. I like that a lot. As soon as you said it, my head went, boop. I just thought of them. And then the Raiders paid for them. Yeah, that didn't end up great. But the show ended up great, though. That was fun. 100 minutes of wide receivers.

No producer heart attacks. It was good. It was good. Maybe half. That we know of. That we know of. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see if we got the alert from Stone. But no, we're closing it out today. Thank you so much to Matt. But we'll be back Thursday with Charles. We're going to have a big board off.

Compare our top 75s, any discrepancies, any differences, anything we agreed on, anything we think is spicy. I'm curious what Chuck has updated because I know I have some thoughts. But Matt, thank you so much for joining me. Everyone can find his stuff at Matt Harmon underscore BYB on Twitter and Twitter.

Now, blue sky. Now, actually, when I tag you, you respond to it on there. So that's always great. I was tagging you with shows to just air for a while, but great to see on there. But Matt, what are you working on? Because I know you have 500 million things you're working on, but highlight some of the stuff that you're doing for Yahoo and Reception Perception.

Yeah, trying to pump out as many of these profiles on receptionperception.com. All the guys we've talked about today, they're not all up on the site, but they will be by draft day, dropping new profiles every single week leading up to the NFL draft. And then, yeah, just put out an episode of Mock Draft Monday with some guy, Daniel Jeremiah, was kind enough to join the plebs on Mock Draft Monday. So some good receiver talk there as well. We talked Matthew Golden and a lot of different things. Some people can check that out as well.

I'm actually going to check that out as I do my mock draft. So I'm actually excited about that because DJ is great. No, but make sure you guys check out Matt stuff. Not only because if you're into fantasy, but even if into real football and I'm not trying to knock fancy, but just even into your real team and everything, it's so great. It applies to all that. It's just a great resource. Even before I worked with Matt,

I looked at it, glanced at it, respected Matt's work. It's so much better to be a coworker with him and to be able to actually pick his brain about some of the stuff that he sees and charts because it's some of the best out there. Not just saying that because he's my bud, but because I believe that. Of course, dude. It's a lot. I know how much work you put into it and it shows. It's really worthy of the praise and you can tell how much work you put into it. So everyone makes sure to check.

I am Nate Tice. You can find me at Nate underscore Tice. Nate Tice on Blue Sky. I got a big board coming out, top 75. Make sure to check that out. Also send those questions to the mailbag. I promise we'll get to them next week. We'll have space. There's just been a lot of prospects. If you can't notice, we went two hours on D-Lyman, two hours on receivers.

Talk to offensive lineman for like an hour and a half. Come on. But we'll get some of those mailbag questions soon. Football301mailbag at yahoosports.com. Or you can leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe to us. Follow us. Rate us. Watch us on YouTube on the Yahoo Sports YouTube channel. Subscribe to that as well. A lot of good stuff on there. Thanks to everyone behind the scenes. Thank you to everyone for listening. See you guys next time. ♪♪♪

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