20/20: Tajae Sharpe

Nick Whalen Posted On February 14, 2016

sharpe

Welcome to 20/20! As part of our continued Dynasty Scouts coverage and in preparation for the NFL Combine later this month, we’ll be profiling 20 of the top incoming rookies of the class of 2016 by giving you 20 facts you must know.

1.) Player Name — Tajae Sharpe

2.) College — Massachusetts

3.) Height/Weight — 6-foot-2, 188 pounds.

4.) Birth date — 12/23/1994.

5.) Class — Senior

6.) Basic college stats

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2015 – 111 receptions 1319 yards 11.9 YPR 5 TD

2014 – 85 receptions 1281 yards 15.1 YPR 7 TD

2013 – 61 receptions 680 yards 11.1 YPR 4 TD

2012 – 20 receptions 206 yards 10.3 YPR 0 TD

7.) NFL Draft round projection — Day three. It’s possible he could slip into the third round, but he’s most likely going to go on day three.

8.) Current NFL comp — Marvin Jones. He also reminds me of a poor man’s version of Tyler Boyd.

9.) Best possible destination — Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons desperately need someone to take advantage of the one on one matchup opposite Julio Jones. Sharpe is talented enough to thrive in this situation and would greatly take pressure off of Matt Ryan.

10.) Worst possible destination — Jacksonville Jaguars. They are loaded with young pass catchers in Allen Robinson, Allen Hurns, Rashad Greene, Marqise Lee and even spent some solid money on Julius Thomas last off-season. Wouldn’t leave much room for Sharpe to thrive.

11.) Best current skill — Route running. Sharpe not only has the athletic ability to run good routes, but he also has the knowledge to set up defenders. He stems defenders at the top of his routes to create separation and works back to the football. This clip is worth watching because it gives insight into his knowledge of route running, even if it’s basic.

12.) Skill that needs to be improved — Weight (is this a skill?). Sharpe is skinny at 188 lbs and increasing his weight is essential if he wants thrive at the NFL level. Absorbing contact from defenders and not being susceptible to injury is the biggest concern. Other bonuses to weight gain would be strength to help against defenders and possibly added burst and speed.

13.) Past/current rookie ADP — 17th overall and 13th WR in the February ADP. 17th overall and 12th WR in the January ADP. 21st overall and 14th WR in the December ADP.

14.) Projected dynasty value — Sharpe will be very situationally dependent because he’s not an unbelievable athlete and needs to get stronger. He may end up being a better NFL player than FF asset, but his ceiling is a WR2 for FF if everything fell into place just right. Sharpe dominated in college even though he got a lot of attention from defenses. He’s most likely going to fall into the WR3-4 range for FF. The good news is Sharpe has a high floor because he’s a well rounded prospect.

15.) Could he break a record? — The University of Massachusetts and the NFL Draft don’t play nice in the sandbox together. Umass hasn’t had a receiver drafted since 1974 and remember they had some guy named Victor Cruz! Sharpe will likely break that record this year.

16.) He didn’t want to break this record :/ — The Shrine game takes measurements of players and it’s when the news broke out about Tajae Sharpe’s hand size. His hands are only 8 3/8 inches! The minimum evaluators want for WRs is 9 ½ inches with some of the best receivers in football at ten inches or more (Odell Beckham Jr and Amari Cooper for example). Fellow DLF writer and my partner on the Filmetrx podcast, George Kritikos, did some research on hand size for WRs. He found Sharpe to have the smallest hands he could find over the last ten years. Some NFL GMs will hold this against Sharpe as a red flag, but I don’t. On film, Sharpe has no problem catching the football. In fact, I think Sharpe has good to very good hands and shows proper technique. He even has one handed catches!

17.) He did break a record! — Sharpe is the all time leader at UMass in career receptions, career receiving yards, single game receptions, and single season receptions. He also led the entire FBS in receptions in 2015. Still concerned about his hand size?

18.) Top Competition — No offense to the MAC, but we need to look at how Sharpe performed against top competition. 2015 @ Colorado 11/138/0 and @ Notre Dame 8/83/0. 2014 vs Boston College 2/90/1, vs Colorado 5/83/0, @ Vanderbilt 8/73/0, @ Penn State 4/99/1.

19.) Positives — I’ve already touched on his route running and hands, but Sharpe has good body control. He’s able to adjust to passes down the field and sacrifice his body to make the catch. He’s smart after the reception in picking up additional yardage.

20.) Holy Targets!!! — (I thank George Kritikos for the target data) UMass peppered Sharpe with targets! In 2015 he had 176 targets, 2014 he had 135 targets and 2013 he had 101 – that’s a crazy amount of targets and reveals more light into why he led the FBS in receptions in 2015. However, defenses clearly knew Sharpe was going to get used and still couldn’t stop him.

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Nick Whalen

Writer at Dynasty League Football

Nick is going to specialize in college scouting for both devys and rookies. He draws experience from eight years of coaching football from Division 1 college to High School. Nick is a Bears fan living in Wisconsin, which has forced him to live in a very remote cabin away from people to survive. Therefore, he has to submit all of his articles via messenger pigeon to DLF headquarters.

Nick can be found on Twitter at @_NickWhalen