Rookie Profile – Will Fuller, WR Notre Dame

Kevin OBrien

When evaluating wide receivers, my first litmus test is quite simple; do I enjoy watching him play? After that, I use a blend of film, metrics, and a look at which past wide receivers have similar characteristics. For film, I use Draft Breakdown and YouTube to get a good look at a player’s ability. This can be quite subjective at times, and hard to qualify, let alone quantify. When watching a wide receiver, there are typical things you can look for, such as, acrobatic catches, highlight reel plays, beating coverage, etc. However, there are also a few items I look for specifically.

One of my favorite techniques for a wide receiver is positional and situational awareness. Does the receiver have a grasp of down and distance? This would be illustrated by noting that it’s 3rd & 7, and the receiver runs to the top of his route, right before he breaks, at eight or nine yards. This ability shows he can run a route, such as a comeback, and leave 1-2 yards post-break in order to complete a first down. This shows me the player has situational awareness of the game, not just his own play. Positional awareness is the ability of the receiver to realize his spacing relative to the route being run and where he expects his quarterback to lead him on the field. For instance, an out route where the receiver is starting from the slot, and knows his break will put him in danger of running to close to the sideline. The better job a receiver does at disguising his route, the more space the receiver can create inbounds along the sideline. This positional awareness also can be in a seam route. Can the receiver focus on his route and technique, while reading the defensive backs around him. Generally he will have a cornerback and a safety to tend with. The receiver needs to beat the cornerback and see where the safety is lurking. If done properly, the receiver can sell his route for something it’s not, attack the cornerback with straight-line speed, cut outside and allow the safety to believe the receiver has no intention of running a post route up the middle deep. Later in this article, I will illustrate this with Fuller in his game versus USC.

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Let’s start by taking a look at the Mock Draftable chart.

The Mock Draftable chart gives us a nice visual how Fuller compares to other wide receivers in multiple different metrics. While he is near top of the 40 yard dash and the Broad jump, he is sub-50% in many of the key metrics scouts look for in a wide receiver. Overall, he does not have many favorable comparable wide receivers. Most notably he compares to Kenny Stills (78%), Tyler Lockett (76%), and T.Y. Hilton (75%). The most concerning numbers here for me is the combination of weight (15%) and height (29%) along with a short arm length (16%) and low bench press (10%). This concerns me as Fuller will likely struggle fighting for 50-50 balls, and also fighting off of press coverage. As a receiver fights for a 50-50 ball, he needs to be able to high point the ball while in air, and also aggressively fight off a defender. This is a red flag to note once we go to the film. Having short arms and limited strength also can limit a receiver’s ability to fight a corner’s ability to re-route or press at the line of scrimmage. This also will be something to note in film work.

The numbers that are in his favor are his 40 yard dash (97%) and his broad jump (82%). The 40 yard dash has grown into an excitable stat for many draft enthusiasts. However, wide receivers that have excelled at the 40 yard dash haven’t always become the best wide receivers. We will have to see how well Fuller uses this tool to his advantage. The broad jump is one that intrigues me quite a bit. This drill is intended to test the player’s ability to explode from a standing position and see how far the player can propel himself forward in a controlled manner. As a fast as Fuller is and as we have already noted that he might struggle off press coverage, I am interested to see on film how well he uses his explosiveness to get off the line. Before we do, let’s look at a few more metrics, courtesy of PlayerProfiler.com

fuller profiler

Fuller has some numbers here that are certainly favorable. His College Dominator rating of 46.7% is impressive, along with his YPR showing that he was a big play, long range weapon for Notre Dame. As we saw in the Mock Draftable chart, his 40 yard dash time is very good, but here we can also see his height-adjusted speed score is in the 82nd percentile, which shows that relative to his size, he runs very well amongst his peers. His worst score is the catch radius of 9.93 in the 33rd percentile. This is consistent with the shorter arms noted in his Mock Draftable chart. This really is becoming a red flag for us to note when watching his film.

Metrics can be a useful indicator of a player’s abilities. I love to review the metrics and take notes on the characteristics that might highlight a deficiency or an ability that might transfer into their on the field capability. This creates a symbiotic relationship between film and metrics that I wish many would embrace.

Let’s get into some film on Fuller; this is a cut-up from Draft Breakdown on the game vs USC where Fuller performed fairly well against solid competition.

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This game wasn’t Fuller’s most productive game; however, I chose it because there are a number of plays that illustrate a few different aspects to his game. In the early part of the 1st quarter, Fuller runs a deep post and completely abuses the cornerback. Fuller starts his route by attacking with straight-line speed. The corner is now in full backpedal. Fuller takes a side step to the outside, and without slowing down, breaks back into the middle of the field. This sidestep created just enough of a hitch in the cornerbacks hips which with Fuller’s speed, allows him to blow right past the coverage and in for the 75 yard touchdown. This play obviously shows Fuller’s deep speed and big-play ability, however also shows an ability to confuse a cornerback into believing that the route is heading in one direction, but actually is heading elsewhere.

With 0:25 left in the 3rd quarter, Fuller draws a pass interference call where he clearly had his corner beat, however, his quarterback misplaced the ball or flat out didn’t have the arm strength to throw it out in front of Fuller to run under it. This play won’t show up in the highlight reel, nor in the box score, however by watching film, we can imagine that if his quarterback gave Fuller the chance to use his speed by placing the pass out in front, this may have resulted in another big play for Notre Dame.

On the very next play, Notre Dame goes back to Fuller and looks for him, again draws a pass interference call, this time in the end zone and again, another questionable throw from his quarterback. With better timing and placement, this could have been big play for Fuller.

With 8:18 left in the fourth quarter, Fuller runs a route starting from the numbers on the outside and runs a bit inside and then cuts towards the sideline with just enough spacing for his quarterback to place the ball for Fuller to make a very nice over the shoulder catch. This play shows me more than just beating a corner for a 40 plus yard gain, but highlights his ability to understand spacing and how he can show the cornerback a route heading in one direction, then at the break utilize his speed to create space, leaving enough space along the sideline for the reception. I absolutely love these plays by wide receivers. The cornerback wasn’t beat at the catch point, but really beat before he knew what was going on. Fuller completely dictated how the cornerback would cover him. Here is the example of a wide receiver having positional awareness, not easily coached.

So as we’ve gone through Fuller’s game vs USC, we still have some questions left unanswered from our metrics study. Although, we saw Fuller’s speed, and should some burst off the line on deep routes, I really didn’t see any plays where he had to use his arms to high-point a catch. So does his speed and route running afford him the luxury of not needing a catch radius? Maybe the short arms just don’t become a part of his game.

At this point in our evaluation, we have seen some things we like, but I’m feeling unsettled with his short arms, small hands, and the low vertical score. This is where I demand more input. Let’s see if maybe another matchup put Fuller in some different situations. I went through the games available on Draft Breakdown, but mostly in those games, Fuller was either leaving his defender in the dust, quarterback made a horrible throw, or was mauled, drawing a pass interference call. So I went to YouTube and found a highlight reel looking for specifically for some high-point catches.

In this YouTube highlight, at the 0:56 minute mark, Fuller runs a slant and makes a touchdown catch on a high throw. Fuller is able to extend his arms and make a catch with his hands to secure the catch. This is a skill many look for when evaluating a receiver, whether the receiver only can secure the catch into his body, or if he can extend his arms out and snatch the ball. There is another touchdown reception against Michigan, where Fuller makes an excellent high-point catch. So while there isn’t a lot of evidence, there is some which shows he uses good timing to compensate for his lack of catch radius (i.e. short arms, limited vertical jump, etc). Throughout my evaluation of Fuller, there are some consistencies that stick out. He is allowing the ball to come to him, more often that reaching out, however, in many instances, the ball has been under thrown and not out in front of his body. During the gauntlet drill in the combine, where he is running from sideline to sideline, it appeared as though he was running at less than full speed to allow for the quarterback to throw it out in front of him. I wonder if this was intentional to show scouts his ability to extend his arms and catch the ball rather than over-run the route and have to catch the pass into his body.

Multiple national reports indicate Fuller will be a top five receiver in this year’s class, taken in the first round of the NFL draft. However, so far in rookie mock drafts, Fuller is the WR8 off the board and going on average at the 1.11. There is a pretty wide disconnect between how the NFL views Fuller and how the fantasy football and draft community view him. I personally have him ranked right now as my fourth ranked WR. I believe Fuller has limitations, for sure, however his ability to create spacing, read a defense, and exploit a secondary like he can, puts him a bit higher than the others in the middle of the first. Some potential destinations I can see for Fuller would be as early as 12 to the Saints, 16 to Detroit, along with Houston, Minnesota, and Cincinnati all having a need at wide receiver.

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kevin obrien