LEBills

My Personal 2025 WR Rankings: #13 Dont’e Thornton WR Tennessee (RD 2-3) - Oregon transfer - Helped take care of 4 younger siblings while his father was in prison - 2 time SEC academic honor roll What does he do on film? You have to have Safety help over the top - 1:43 RPO draws safety toward the LOS and Thornton fills the vacated space for another easy touchdown - 6:34 copy and paste - 6:48 ditto Deep ball tracking - 1:33 Thornton is excellent at tracking the ball in the air - 3:46 late hands and cradles the ball as he runs full speed while being dragged down from behind Weaknesses: - Is not going to shake a tackler but will politely fall forward - College offense schemed open looks rather than Thornton creating separation via route running Conclusion: Being 6’5’’ and running a 4.3 is a superpower. One that forces teams to account for you each snap you are on the field. He also is a pretty good run blocker which will be important for him to stay on the field in 2 WR sets. But Thornton comes with many questions that can’t be answered by his measurements. Despite his size, he was never used much as an end zone target and his contested catch rate varied wildly from year to year. He also was only used on a few routes, and not having a more varied route tree will make covering him easier than it should be in the pros. Thornton is a package player with a very important role in an Offense (Tennessee used him as such as he wound up with the 4th most WR snaps on the team). I think a Christian Watson role may be where he carves out his niche.

With the 22nd pick in the 2025 TSW Mock Draft, the Los Angeles Chargers select Tyler Booker, OL, Alabama. Though fans may clamor for a flashier pick at WR, TE, or Edge, the Chargers fix their biggest weakness. Zion Johnson has been very bad and interior pass protection was a key factor in the most recent playoff loss. Zion Johnson has been rumored to be moved to Center, Mechi Becton was signed to shore up RG and now we add the best OL in the draft to fill LG. Things are finally turning up Chargers! The Green Bay Packers and @EmotionallyUnstable are now on the clock.

Keon had a 1.89 yprr vs zone and his career yprr was 1.87

Bond may wind up great because he has talent but the precedent isn’t there. It’s used mostly in Fantasy Football but having above a 2.0 career YPRR and above a 2.20 YPRR vs zone is critical to hit at least one threshold if you want to be in the bucket of all the best receivers. Their have been some outliers - DK Metcalf, BTJ but both were significantly bigger players than Bond is. BUT, if you just count the games this year where he was healthy, he outperformed Matthew Golden and easily cleared both of those thresholds. So that is why you get the variance. Some teams will see him for what he is. Some will see him for what he could be. For me, a smaller WR (I like above 190 pounds and 9 inch hands), with questionable production, injury concerns and character concerns is a bad mix. But if the Bills draft him, I think the character concerns were probably overblown and would have more confidence in him reaching that ceiling.

My personal 2025 WR Rankings: #14 Isaiah Bond WR Texas (RD 2-3) - Youngest receiver in the draft - Poor advanced metrics - Played with two very poor QBs What does he do on film? Can he play bigger than his size? - 8:39 lower the shoulder and set the tone - 11:31 shallow crossing route in the end zone, goes up for the poorly thrown ball and hangs on after being flipped by the defender - 19:15 the catch or route are not impressive, but how the defender came out of the play worse after hitting Bond is. We are all here for the long ball: - 2:46 Free release out of the stack and the CB just can’t keep up - 9:17 moving at a different speed than his defender - 10:20 nice tempo to start his route before attacking the shoulder and torching Jahdae Barron - 20:07 But literally no one within 5 yards of him. - 2:44 just toasted his DB 1 vs 1 Weaknesses: - Measured in smaller than expected with only 8.5 inch hands - Not a natural hands catcher - Rumors of big time character concerns - Limited catch radius on poorly thrown balls - Basically non-existent contested catch ability or broken tackle ability Conclusion: If you draft Bond, you are drafting a shadow of Jaylen Waddle. Waddle was a top 10 pick and Bond you can get on day 2. Right now, Bond is a very limited receiver. His best uses are to send him deep or use him on crossers to try and get him an easy catch and some open space. But the speed is natural and effortless, I know other people had faster 40s than Bond, but I will take Bond in any foot race on the football field. Texas used him like they used Worthy last year and using him like the Chiefs did Worthy this year would be the best way to acclimate Bond to the NFL.

Charger packers rams thanks Virgil!

My personal 2025 WR rankings: #15 Tai Felton WR Maryland (RD 3-4) - Tied for first in the class for both first downs and touchdowns inside the redzone this year - Dropped his average depth of target from over 15 to below 10 this year What does he do on film? One of the best YAC players in the draft - 6:24 his acceleration is great. So if you miss the tackle he gets up to full speed very quickly - 9:53 able to squeeze between two defenders in the zone, leave them in the dust and get into the next level of the defense - 10:27 so quick turning the corner and getting upfield - 15:10 gets upfield so quickly after the catch Weaknesses: - Inconsistent hands led to some bad drops - Had a high drop rate for someone with a low Air yards per Target - Light and got thrown around when trying to block Conclusion: Maryland really seemed to lean into what Felton does best by dropping his aDot and peppering him with screens, crossers and slants in 2024. An excellent runner with the ball in his hands who could fill a Khalil Shakir type of role for a team. Likely to be a majority slot player, his red zone efficiency in college gives him a chance to eventually emerge as a starter for a team. A low contested catch rate and poor blocking likely prevents him from being on the field in 2 receiver sets.

My personal 2025 WR rankings: #16 Nick Nash WR SJSU (Rd 4-5) - Played three years as a QB at San Jose - Began playing WR in 2023, and earned the triple crown of receptions, yards and touchdowns in 2024 What does he do on film? Deceptive - 2:18 gets on the corners toes, takes several hesitation steps before attacking the corners outside shoulder. The corner is thrown off balance and a long completion ensues - 2:25 curls the route like he is taking it to the corner of the end zone before breaking inward. Huge hops to snare the touchdown. - 3:52 out of stacked formation paces the route as he approaches the corner before changing gears for a long PI penalty Good in the red zone - 6:48 and 7:16 same play to either side of the field. Crisp route making excellent use of the pick and resulting in a touchdown each time - 7:08 he does an excellent job making sharp cuts which creates separation even in areas like the red zone Weaknesses: - You can tell he wasn’t always a receiver. - - He lacks power in his leg drive and isn’t very fast which leads to very little yac - His focus is on running his route, when the play breaks down he just doesn’t really adjust and get involved Conclusion: If Sean McVay drafts him, oh boy. He is still very raw as a receiver, but his second year ever doing it he led the country in all three major receiver categories. Personally I think the way he runs is pretty impressive for a bigger guy, his short and choppy steps really allow him to be precise with his routes. He is not a burner and only played in the slot so he won’t be a fit for everyone but their is very high end potential here if drafted by the right team.

That’s a deal!

#17 Pat Bryant WR Illinois (Rd 4-5) - Recruited to Illinois by Lovie Smith - Top 5 in class in both man and zone yards per route run What does he do on film? Physicality - 5:16 hand fights with the CB to the catch point and then decisively rips the ball down - 7:12 he isn’t going to run away from every defender but will lower his shoulder if he can’t - 7:40 knocks over two attempted tacklers - 7:54 violently runs through the DB sending him flying - 13:55 stiff arms the defender into another defender, sending him flying Not his strength, but there is some manipulation of CBs - 5:29 attacks the outside shoulder to flip the CB, then gets upfield to the inside - 11:35 makes the same move in reverse and takes the catch for a long touchdown - 12:16 had the CB thinking 2 different routes were coming before finally getting upfield for the big gain - 16:32 gets the CB to bite on the curl then beats him for a long completion Weaknesses: - Pushed off a lot to create separation downfield at the catch point - Stiff athlete leaves some plays unmade - Most of his production came against the worst teams on his schedule Conclusion: Romeo Doubs with more juice. A “sacrificial X” who can make teams account for the position but does not have the speed to draw extra coverage. His worst statistical games this year were against all the better teams Illinois faced and the games where his QB struggled the most. To me he is a cog in an offense, but not a playmaker that you can run your offense through to get an offense moving. Fun player to watch and someone who will have a long career in the NFL

Kyle Williams wingspan is even smaller than Noel’s. In fact Williams, Noel and Tai Felton all have wingspans smaller than 155 pound, 29 and 7/8 inch arm length Tez Johnson. Don’t think any of them are going to be close to majority outside WRs in the NFL.

My personal 2025 WR rankings: #18 Keandre Lambert Smith WR Auburn (Rd 4-5) - Penn State transfer -Uncle is former legion of boomer Kam Chancellor What does he do on tape? Speed - 1:21 he has legit eat dust speed. Give him a runway like that and he won’t be caught - 1:33 comebacks are on the table as corners have to respect being best over the top - 1:44 and if you do try to cut off the shorter routes he will take the top off Length gives him a good catch radius - :26 re-establishes himself in bounds and catches a ball thrown out of bounds - :56 one handed grab on ball thrown well in front of him - 4:18 goes around the back of the defenders head to pull in the ball - 4:26 finishes the drive with a defender draped all over him Weaknesses: - He gets pushed around a lot in his routes with DBs often taking him to the sideline - Body catches the ball Conclusion: Wiry outside receiver with deep speed to burn. Took him transferring to a more vertical passing offense at Auburn to breakout after showing flashes during limited production at PSU. Though he has a lot of tools to work with, I think his play strength is not quite where it needs to be to avoid getting controlled by NFL DBs. Starting his career as a backup and going through an NFL training regimen will be good for him. I think he could develop into a multi year starter like Robbie Anderson now Robbie Chosen.

Per Pauline, Bills to work out Edge Barron Sorrel from Texas today https://www.sportskeeda.com/college-football/insider-notes-lsu-pittsburgh-pro-day-latest-will-campbell-s-arm-length-nfc-south-s-interest-konata-mumpfield

I agree, he isn’t a fit for the bills, just my 19th ranked WR of this class