It’s becoming the norm for Slot weapons to rest towards the top of draft boards.
Names such as Cooper Kupp and Amon-Ra St. Brown helped pave the way for traditional mid-round wideouts to garner first-round consideration.
You can find explanations for this + relevancy in both the film room/fantasy football communities. Either way, a key step in the evaluation process is breaking down the numbers.
Josh Downs and Jaxon Smith-Njigba aim to make a living here, so their totals are more critical relative to some of the other big names.
You could generally lump Jordan Addison and Jalin Hyatt with those two, but there’s key differences to make note of.
Addison pivoted out wide at USC and should be able to run a full route tree right away, although he didn’t fare too well against contact. Hyatt’s bread and butter comes as a vertical threat, and their offenses led by Lincoln Riley/Josh Heupel schemed up favorable touches.
Quentin Johnston’s last season at TCU was interesting.
Over a quarter of his targets came through the slot (PFF). Among all receivers with 25+ targets, Johnston led the Power Five in:
YPRR (6.14)
Y/REC (20.2)
YAC/REC (13.2)
Just a little alignment diversification created dirty mismatches for QJ.
Given this group’s lack of size and future projections on the outside, it’s probable many will carry over familiar concepts to their repertoires on Sundays.
This hasn’t been the norm across an entire draft class- at least in recent years with prospects like Justin Jefferson or Jaylen Waddle.
I leave you with a chart of notable college wideouts, all of whom saw most of their production in the slot.
One of these columns is quite intriguing... can you guess which one I’m talking about?
Thank you for reading!