Rookie Profile: Amba Etta-Tawo, WR Syracuse

Say it with me.  Amba Etta-Tawo.  Yes, in the interest of being polite, let’s just say that Amba wins the “Most Unique Name” award for this year’s draft class (besides that defensive lineman named Taco Charlton, of course).  But besides forcing your tongue to play Twister, Amba is actually good at a few other things. 

No, he isn’t the best wide receiver in this class.  In fact, I’m not even going to go as far as definitively saying “I like him” as a prospect.  Etta-Tawo is simply intriguing as a late round flier pick in this year’s NFL Draft.

Why?

Let’s break it down.

Came Etta Nowhere

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Statistics from sports-reference.com.

If you’re new to Amba’s world, one of the first things you’ll notice is that his massive production in the 2016 season seemingly came out of nowhere.  So what in the world happened?

The short answer is that Amba got a drastic change of scenery.  How drastic?  Well, let’s just take a quick peak at the numbers.

The Maryland passing offense collectively threw for a measly 2092 yards, 15 touchdowns and 29 interceptions in 2015 (Amba’s sophomore year).   That doesn’t sound too unfathomably terrible until you add in the fact that those same Maryland passers couldn’t even break 50% completion rate on their passes.  No, they settled in at a lovely 47.3%.  So, it’s not even that Maryland didn’t throw the ball.  They just simply couldn’t hit any wide receiver that happened to be open, anywhere, ever.

But I still don’t think that you’re getting just how bad this Maryland passing offense was in 2015.  Let’s compare them to the offense that John Ross (that fast guy everyone seems to like) had to work with this past season.  Washington passers threw for 3623 yards, 47 touchdowns and just nine interceptions with a completion rate of 62.3%.

That’s a little bit of a difference.

“But Travis, you’re just choosing an arbitrary example about a completely different team to make a point.  How does that make Amba Etta-Tawo good?”

It doesn’t.  It just goes to show that not all numbers and college offensive situations are created equal.  Amba’s story is no different.  However, one of the (and possibly the only) thing(s) that makes Amba Etta-Tawo slightly intriguing as an NFL prospect is what he did with the opportunity when he finally got it at Syracuse.

Do you want to see the whole list of college wide receivers who grabbed at least 90 catches, 1,400 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2016?

Corey Davis – Western Michigan

Taywan Taylor – Western Kentucky

Anthony Miller – Memphis (You NEED to know this guy for 2018.  That’s a freebie.)

Amba Etta-Tawo – Syracuse

That’s it.  That’s the whole list.

“Well, Syracuse must have thrown the ball a ton for a billion touchdowns.”

Nope.  In fact, the whole team’s passing offense threw just 24 touchdowns last year.  Amba Etta-Tawo caught 14 of them.

*This is the part of the article where market share fanatics start paying attention.  You know who you are.*

And no, Amba wasn’t just some compiler who caught 22 screen passes per game (I’m looking at you, Zay Jones).  He averaged 15.8 yards per reception on those 94 catches of his.  Yes, it is true that Amba’s route tree wasn’t exactly diverse at Syracuse.  Yes, he did run some screens, but his versatility to add “legitimate deep threat” to his resume is what made his game in 2016.

Are you sold yet?  No?  Good, I’m not either.  Let’s keep going and see if that changes for either of us.

Ambalievable Athlete?

Yeah, that header’s a reach.  I know it.  You know it.  Let’s forget about it and move on.

What’s really “ambalievable” about Amba’s athletic profile is the roller coaster ride of emotions you have to go on when you really break each segment of the information down.

Etta-Tawo’s speed scores are definitely adequate and even slightly above average for his size.  Any time a receiver can break 4.5 in the forty that’s a great thing.

However, there’s also his burst score (basically taking a look at his vertical and broad jump to illustrate burst from a standstill).  What’s so strange about Amba’s burst numbers are that his broad jump was well above average, but his vertical jump of 31 inches at the Combine was borderline embarrassing.

His agility results were similarly bewildering.  Amba was stiff in the hips on the 20-yard shuttle registering a 4.32-second time (.07 seconds below this year’s average WR).  However, his 3-cone was perfectly adequate at 6.95 seconds.

Those numbers seem confusing until you actually watch Amba play.  When he wins on “jump balls” Amba doesn’t generally go all Randy Moss on his opponent.  He simply quite often reads the ball well and adjusts better than his defender.  Then you can see the positive broad jump and 3-cone show up on his start off the line of scrimmage.  His first step can often be just fast enough to get beyond the shoulders of defensive backs.

The Comps

That leads us to the final step in analysis with Amba: comparable NFL wide receivers.

By the way, are you convinced that Amba can be a legitimate NFL wide receiver yet?  No?  Good.  I’m still not either.

Truth be told there are a few decent comparable wide receiver options when it comes to raw talent according to Mock Draftable (obviously excluding life choices and health): Sammy Watkins, Justin Blackmon, and Stevie Johnson.

Let’s go ahead and pump the breaks on the Watkins and Blackmon comps for a second.  They were both top five overall picks in their respective NFL Drafts.  Amba Etta-Tawo is most definitely not in the same league there.

However, before even visiting the fantastic resource that is Mock Draftable the Stevie Johnson comparison was one that came to mind.  Why?

Amba and Stevie are similar in height, weight, and even confusing inconsistency in their jumps and agility scores.  They both were late college career bloomers as far as production goes; their final seasons they dominated, but lacked a large sample otherwise.

But wait, there’s more!

Both Amba and Stevie ran a limited route tree gaining the majority of their total yardage off of a solid mix of long receptions and screens.  Their intermediate routes were definitely both lacking in sharpness and execution (even when they were highly productive).  And to top it all off, Stevie was a seventh round pick.  Amba will probably go around that range if he is selected at all.

Stevie Johnson might just be the ideal comparison for Amba if he plans to find any success at the next level.

Summary

Amba Etta-Tawo is clearly a bit of a conundrum.  He carries with him solid production, albeit in a limited sample size.  The athletic attributes are adequate, but by no means impressive.  He projects to be a very late draft pick if he is selected at all this year.  If Amba is going to find success he will need to land in a fantastic situation bearing either a terrible depth chart (similar to Stevie Johnson) or an amazing quarterback.  I would imagine many are still torn on Amba, as they should be.  However, he’s a name to know for rookie drafts that many of your league mates may not be thinking about in round four and beyond.

As always, I’m on that Twitter thing @FF_TravisM if you want to tell me how wrong I am or want to become best friends or something.  Also, enjoy some fun Amba highlights below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI-I0Q74U2Q

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