Rookie SWOT: Keyarris Garrett

Editor’s Note: As our coverage of the 2016 NFL Draft and its impact on fantasy football continues, we bring you our 2016 Rookie SWOT series. These articles will feature video highlights, combine reviews, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, short-term expectations, long-term expectations and rookie draft advice for over 30 of the best dynasty league prospects from this year’s draft. We’ll follow that up with team-by-team draft reviews because, you know, that’s kind of what we live for.

Make sure you’re ready for your dynasty league rookie draft by staying up on all these articles, checking out our rookie draft guide, rookie rankings, rookie draft cheat sheet and mock draft rooms. There are simply no better resources out there for dynasty fantasy football enthusiasts.

Name: Keyarris Garrett

Born: September 26, 1992 (23 years old)

Position: Wide receiver

Pro Team: Carolina Panthers

College Team: Tulsa Golden Hurricanes

Draft Status: UDFA

Combine Review

• Height: 6’3”
• Weight: 220
• Hand Size: 9”
• 40 Time: 4.53
• Bench Press: 14 reps
• Vertical Jump: 36.5”
• Broad Jump: 128”
• Short Shuttle: 4.33
• 3 Cone Drill: 7.30

Video Clip

Strengths

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• Prototypical size for a number one receiver
• Excellent long speed for his size
• Great hands (I don’t care if they are small)
• Uses his body well to block out defenders
• Consistently wins at the point of the catch
• Polished deep threat
• Elite production as a fifth year senior including against big time programs such as Oklahoma and Virginia Tech

Weaknesses

• Limited route tree
• Runs a very sloppy inside slant, which was one of his bread and butter routes
• Looks lost versus zone coverage
• Tulsa schemed to get him open, inflating production
• Weirdly awful after the catch
• Undrafted players have an uphill fight no matter how much they impress
• Shows an utter disinterest in blocking
• Old for a rookie

Opportunities

The lack of quality receiving depth in Carolina is no secret. Behind a returning Kelvin Benjamin they have only the unproven, often uneven, Devin Funchess and role players Ted Ginn and Corey Brown. Garrett is competing against the likes of Benton Bersin, LaRon Byrd, Kevin Norwood, Stephen Hill, and Damiere Byrd for a roster spot. I legitimately haven’t head of three of those guys and I get paid to write about fantasy football.

If Garrett can capitalize on his considerable potential, it is not at all inconceivable he could find himself in four wide receiver sets as early as week one.

Threats

As an undrafted free agent, Garrett’s rope will be short. Despite facing middling competition for playing time, he will likely need to impress in camp to stay off the practice squad. Also working against him is a complete disinterest in run blocking; Garrett would just stand there and watch the play unfold as often as he’d give a bit of halfhearted effort. That sort of mentality likely makes him a poor fit for special teams, something nearly all teams look for their fifth and sixth, if they carry that many, wide receivers to contribute to.

Short-term Expectations

Unless Garrett comes out hot, he may have difficulty seeing the field or even making the team. Despite having strong measureables and the upside to be a team’s leading receiver, his lack of polish and ability to run anything more than nine, curl, and slant routes, which made up 83.7% of his 2015 routes run according to Matt Harmon, will make him a liability at this level.

My feeling is he redshirts this season before potentially making a push in 2017.

Long-term Expectations

When I started my research for this article, I fully expected to confirm my opinion of Garrett as an unrefined mess who will be the next big fast Draft Twitter darling to wash out. After watching two games of film (Virginia Tech and Oklahoma) I came away with an altered perspective.

Despite a huge percentage of his production coming out of the spread in situations where the play was schemed to get him a five yard cushion, Garrett did display many things you like to see in a future top-25 receiver. He beats man coverage, wins in traffic, boxes out defenders, and catches the ball very well. His deep routes are NFL caliber, meaning he could contribute as a Ted Ginn type out of the gate if the Panthers deployed him as such. Basically, there is enough good that I’m quite unsure of how he went undrafted. I would have been fine with him going off the board in the fifth or sixth round.

So why did he get passed on so many times? Well, his slant routes are an unmitigated slop-fest, something Mr. Harmon also noted in the article I linked above. That wouldn’t be a massive concern if slants didn’t make up nearly 40% of his routes run.

In general, Garrett shows little subtlety on all his routes, displaying a total absence of double moves, head fakes, inside/outside leans, or anything else outside of getting from point A to point B. He is also horrendous after the catch, turning into a 5’8” 175 pound slot receiver when it comes to taking on tacklers.

With all that in mind, if Garrett can develop, something he has a bit less time to do than many considering he will be 24 in September, there is top-25 upside here. I am not sure he gets there as the battle will be uphill, but at least it will be interesting to watch.

NFL Player Comparison

I have seen the Randy Moss and Dez Bryant comparisons bandied about, but that is more optimistic than DMing Taylor Swift to ask her to attend your Tuesday night beer league softball game so you can make Cindy jealous enough to take you back after she left you for smashing up her Camaro while doing donuts in the parking lot. That said, if you wear glasses that are 12 prescriptions too weak at night with only a new moon to light the sky, I could see it.

Rookie Draft Advice

Looking at our June rookie draft ADP, Garrett is currently going off the board at the 3.04. In my experience, you will likely have to snag him in the late second if you want to be assured of having him on your roster. To me, that is a tad early as I’d rather take a shot on a handful of running backs and the likes of Mike Thomas and Malcolm Mitchell, but I can’t fault anybody for taking a gamble on his upside.

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