2019 Rookie Wide Receiver Upside Analysis: Part Two

Welcome back for my deep-dive look into the upside of the 2019 wide receiver class!

In part one, I outlined the general process I’m using, my goals, my disclaimers and took a look back at recent draft classes to give you examples of what this metric tells you. I’m going to trust that you actually looked at all of that and get right down to business with the current draft class. If you didn’t already read part one, you might want to go back and take a look.

I’m going to talk a bit about most of the meaningful prospects and what they bring to the table, both in terms of their physical traits and their other abilities. For the top prospects, I’m going to push them to a special article (part four  in this series)  because they deserve a little extra attention in my eyes.

Keep in mind that a score of a zero is the average for the best wide receivers in the NFL, so there is absolutely nothing wrong with being around zero or even a little bit negative. Where I start getting concerned is when a player gets below a -2 and especially when they are below a -4. The score in the parenthesis is the score without height and arm length factored in for those who feel height is overrated. Also, not all players participated fully in the combine. If you see an asterisk next to their name, they missed at least two drills at the combine, so their score might not be 100 percent accurate. On with the show!

Top Dog

Miles Boykin: 9.744 (7.903)

With all of the hype leading up to and then coming out of the combine, I’m guessing many people expected DK Metcalf to take the crown this year. Yes, Metcalf nailed the 40-yard dash and has great size, but his agility drills were pretty terrible. On the flip side, Boykin nailed it across the board! Aside from being a little lean for his size (220 pounds at 6’4”), Boykin tested better than the control group in all aspects while really out performing the group in the jumps. His score puts him into rare territory with the likes of Calvin Johnson and Julio Jones.

Being the top scorer doesn’t always mean great things. Sometimes it is just a workout warrior who doesn’t have the film to back it up. Chris Conley (7.43), Devon Cajuste (7.04), and Robert Davis (5.49) have been the top scorers over the last few years. All of them were fringe NFL players based on their tape who blew up the combine. While these players make great fliers in the last round of your rookie draft, you can’t expect them to be super stars. However, when a top prospect does score super high, it really gets my attention. For example, players like Odell Beckham (5.51) and Jones (8.13) lead their respective draft classes with massive numbers. Of course the question is which one is Boykin?