Rookie Profile – Keyarris Garrett, WR Tulsa

I’ve always had an affinity for under-the-radar rookie players, especially at the receiver position.  Over the years I’ve had particularly good luck uncovering fantasy third round gems that tend to fall as quarterbacks, lower-tier running backs and even tight ends and IDP players start flying off the board late in the second round.  Non-marquee quality receivers always tend to slip beyond pick twenty.

Of course, every year is different with widely varying depth at each position so it pays to understand the tiering of the rookies within each class, but there always tends to be an inflection point as the beginning of the third round nears. This year’s draft is flush with similar talent at most positions meaning that the well-informed fantasy coach has an advantage over most other years.  Read that as:  This year, your increased work during this off-season could net you a few real steals in the draft.  And of course, DLF has you covered like none other to help locate these gems for you.

Keyarris Garrett, wide receiver out of Tulsa was on my list for film review but, outside of a few short minutes of research, I had yet to do any real analysis on the player.   That is, until a help desk question (thanks Frank!)  hit my email box asking about Garrett’s current ranking, or lack thereof, on our rookie list.  As is typically the case, heading into the NFL Combine, I don’t spend a lot of time watching tape on the lower tiered players outside of the top 12 within each position and Garrett is on the outside of that list.  That said, I have an asterisk next to him for a number of reasons indicating that he is intriguing on some level.

His breakout year occurred in 2012 when he tallied 67 receptions for 845 yards and nine touchdowns. Following a devastating compound fracture in his lower-left leg in in 2013, things weren’t right the following year and he received a medical hardship designation.  The five year player finally returned to full health in 2015, hauling in 96 receptions for 1,588 yards and eight touchdowns.  It was a great finish to what was an unfortunate college career.  Through it all, Garrett worked hard, rehabbed hard and finished strongly.  Let’s take a look at the receiver Keyarris Garrett has become.

Let’s start by viewing Garrett’s Mock Draftable Chart which displays his measurables and analytics compared to other 2016 Combine participants:

As can be seen here, his 6’3″/220 lb. frame stands out when also looking at his arm length in the 97th percentile of receivers.  Interestingly enough, however, his hand size is surprisingly small (9″) for as tall as he is.

Looking at performance measurements, Garrett turned in a respectable 40 time given his size, running a 4.53. He also achieved a 90th percentile score in the broad jump while only barely eclipsing the 60th percentile in the vertical jump.  One must immediately note his shuttle and cone drills, which shows with no uncertainty, a lack of agility, something we’ll touch upon shortly below.  If not for his alarmingly low agility scores, Garrett would be an intriguing first round candidate given most metrics.

Next, let’s turn our attention to Garrett’s Player Profile courtesy of PlayerProfiler.com .

Without going into detail on these particular ratings, a simple visit to the link above will more fully explain some of these scores.  In short, Garrett approaches the extraordinary in a few key metrics while,again, falling VERY short in overall agility.

When comparing these two charts, the question quickly boils down to:  Is Keyarris Garrett’s elite size and intriguing explosion metrics enough to overcome his very poor agility rating?

Popping up a recent tape (and I spent the better portion of a night watching everything I could find), a few things stand out. For a better indication of what Garrett accomplished vs. lesser competition, seek out his 2015 highlight tape against Memphis.

Garrett uses his body and hands well off the line of scrimmage.  He doesn’t always trust his hands, sometimes annoyingly so.  In the above tape, hand usage is very good but in other footage, he too often lets the ball into his pads rather than extending and snatching.  While he possesses decent leaping ability, he appears less than elite.  His size gives him an advantage in jump ball situations and he shields well as would be expected.  Garrett also plays almost exclusively from the right side.  As a big positive, he tracks the ball extremely well.  If not elite in this area, he is as close as they come.  I have no problem hanging an “elite” tag on him in this area. Revisiting his hands again, you can see that in many cases, Garrett catches the ball fluidly, trusting his hands, extending to secure the ball.  I’ve seen enough to believe this will not be an issue at the next level.

Focusing on a few of his negatives, Garrett is a long strider and does not reach top speed quickly.  For this reason, getting over the top of the defense usually involves post, go and deep slants without change of direction.  Out of his breaks, he tends to be lazy and round off his cuts.  His stems, when called to do so, are fair and he does show some ability with shoulder fakes.  Coming out of sharp breaks, he loses speed and is susceptible to having the route jumped by quicker corners.  His hips are VERY stiff and he does not rotate well above them, leading to slow transitions out of his receptions and less yards after the catch.  He’s slow to reach top speed, again leading to fewer yards after the catch. Once up to speed, Garrett’s long strides make him difficult to catch from behind.

Summary

Looking at Garrett’s physical gifts, he looks much like top tier receiver from this class, Laquon Treadwell.  The writing is on the wall in that Treadwell may well mirror Garrett’s agility scores and run a slower 40 as well. Should that occur, there isn’t much separating these two receivers other than polish and production.  That said, polish and production arguably matter most for young receivers and there’s no questioning Treadwell’s production vs. quality opponents while Garrett fared well vs. much softer teams in the AAC.  This, however, does not immediately exclude him from potentially becoming a household name.

All in all, Garrett makes for an idea third round selection in fantasy drafts.  He’s got intriguing physical measurables in combination with the hands and ball-tracking to get an opportunity to produce at the next level.  My belief is that his agility is so poor it may be an uphill climb for the rookie, but in the right system, that upside is worth the lower round selection in fantasy.

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Jeff Haverlack

Co-Founder / COO at Dynasty League Football

Appreciative husband and proud father who poorly attempts to balance family life with his passion for creating the largest, most helpful and most impactful fantasy community on the planet! DLF was created for the community and we're committed to each member within it! Hope anyone playing this great game will call DLF home in some way!

You can find Jeff on Twitter at @dlf_jeff

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