13. Jalen McMillan, Washington
Height: 6’1”; Weight: 197 pounds
Age on Draft Day: 22 years and 4 months
Class: RS Junior
Overall Grade: 2.96/4 (Good Role Player)
Comp: Jerry Jeudy
Hands: B
Route Running: A-
Release: B
Yards After Catch Potential: B-
Jump Ball/Contested Catch: C
Body Control/Ball Tracking: B+
Future role: B-
RAS: B+
Strengths:
If you saw my 2024 watchlist, you probably know I’m one of Jalen McMillan’s biggest fans and part of why I was so high on him is his route running prowess. McMillan has very shifty, quick feet to keep defenders guessing and has a great stutter step and smooth in changing direction to put defenders in blenders. McMillan also has good use of head fakes and has very deliberate movements to fake inside/outside to maintain leverage and leave his defender in the dust. McMillan does a good job shifting his weight and using jabs to get defenders off-balanced and seems to have a good understanding of layers of coverage to find easier throwing lanes for his quarterback.
Jalen McMillan brings this awareness to beating zone coverage, finding the hole, and making himself an open target for the quarterback. It was against lesser competition, but McMillan’s game against Boise State at the start of the year was sometimes just dominant from a route running perspective. When the ball is in the air, McMillan has great eyes to track the ball and can follow it downfield and adjust his route to the ball. McMillan has good body control to maneuver around the sidelines when needed and does a good job adjusting to balls in the air and can even get himself in position to make a play on the ball when defenders don’t box him out or get there first.
Jalen McMillan has solid hands and decreased the number of unnecessary body catches that he dealt with last year and did a better job extending his arms this year in open situations. McMillan also uses good hand technique for both balls above his head and below his waist. Though McMillan played nearly all his snaps from the slot this year and last year, he does a good job using his long arms to help him maintain his balance against press. McMillan also has good foot speed to help avoid defenders’ arms, good jab steps, and sinks his hips to get defenders to bite and minimize contact.
Though Jalen McMillan’s athletic testing at the combine was okay, not great, he has good transition from receiver to runner and some explosion in his initial steps to get upfield. McMillan didn’t look overly explosive on his plays but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that his knee injury played a role in this. McMillan also does a good job following his blocks on screen plays.
Areas of Improvement:
Now an elite route runner with decent height, long arms, and solid athleticism should be higher around Ladd McConkey and Ricky Pearsall’s ranking/grading right? Well, Jalen McMillan would be if he was better in contested catch situations. McMillan didn’t have very many contested catch opportunities this year with only 1 per PFF but last year he only converted on 5 out of 15 (33.3%) and only converted on 20% throughout his whole career.
Jalen McMillan just isn’t physical or assertive enough on 50/50 balls or balls that need to be attacked with some urgency. McMillan also absolutely needs to use his long arms and extend them in these situations. When there is a defender around McMillan or on him, he just doesn’t extend his arms out giving him very little chance to win.
Also, at times Jalen McMillan just doesn’t seem to have the strength to get his arms through contact or defenders’ arms and just also doesn’t seem to have the hand strength to routinely finish tough catches. It’s just frustrating to watch at times because McMillan has the hand size and arm length to have the ability to be great at this and he just keeps falling short. Though McMillan’s hands are pretty solid, he did have a drop rate of 10% this year and a fair number of focus drops that need to be cleaned up. Also, with McMillan’s limited strength, he isn’t able to consistently go up and make plays on the ball especially when his arms get tied down by defenders.
Also, though Jalen McMillan’s few opportunities against press looked decent, it’s been a while since he had to deal with it consistently and has a smaller frame that will give him trouble against more physical corners. With McMillan primarily playing from the slot and having two very strong receivers on the outside, he likely benefited from the guys around him creating softer coverages in the middle of the field for him to feast. When McMillan does have the ball in his hands, he doesn’t have much creativity in the open field and often gets more of the expected than having the dynamic ability to make defenders miss.
Though Jalen McMillan’s route running is awesome, he can work on his conviction at the top of his stem on deeper routes to create more separation downfield and can struggle to stack his defenders downfield. Also, McMillan could benefit from breaking down a bit more to have more drive in some of his cuts and he can also be bothered by more physical coverage due to his size. Finally, while McMillan is a willing blocker, he is a relatively ineffective blocker.
Conclusion:
Honestly, I came into the rankings with a plan to write a thesis of how Jalen McMillan should absolutely be a top 10 receiver in the class but just couldn’t bring myself to it. McMillan’s route running is elite and up there with the top of the class, but he needs to find a way to become better at contested balls to really give him a chance to be a slot specialist. It was extremely difficult for me to even find a reasonable comp for McMillan since basically every slot player with great route running I considered comping him to in the past decade and a half also had strong hands. So, when you’re a likely outlier or missing something those receivers had, it’s not a great look.
Due to both being very good route technicians but having some issues with their hands and lacking that athleticism to make them really dynamic, I have Jerry Jeudy as Jalen McMillan’s comp. Like Jeudy, I think McMillan will earn his playing time thanks to his route running but both need some improvement as catches to minimize concentration drops and finish catches through contact despite their leaner frames. Jeudy bounces between slot and out wide and I think McMillan could do the same if asked to. My biggest thing for McMillan is that if he can become a better contested catch guy, he can become a really exciting player for any team.
14. Javon Baker, UCF
Height: 6’1”; Weight: 202 pounds
Age on Draft Day: 22 years and 2 months
Class: Junior
Overall Grade: 2.92/4 (Good Role Player)
Comp: Michael Gallup
Hands: C+
Route Running: B
Release: B-
Yards After Catch Potential: B-
Jump Ball/Contested Catch: B+
Body Control/Ball Tracking: A
Future role: B-
RAS: B-
Strengths:
Javon Baker is someone I’ve had my eye on for a while during the season and man, he’s fun. Baker’s one of, if not the best at contorting his body to the ball, and sometimes the adjustments he made were just sensational. Baker already has good length and long arms and used this to extend out to high point the ball and wasn’t afraid to rise for balls. Baker has great timing with his jumps and also showed good awareness to track back shoulder throws and work back to the ball to get better positioning against his man.
Javon Baker has great ball tracking skills to follow deep balls and jump balls and also showed the ability to finish catches over his shoulder. Baker was just so good at adjusting to misplaced balls and even could adjust to underthrown balls. I’ll get to it later, but while Baker lacked focus in easier catches, he showed tremendous focus when securing catches that he had to adjust to the outside of his frame. Baker also plays with late hands to give defenders little chance to win against the adjustments he can make.
Javon Baker’s also very solid as a route runner who can win in all areas of the field despite his highlights primarily showing him as a deep threat and ran a pretty full route tree from what I could tell. Baker has good use of head fakes and jab steps that he can combine with his quickness to put his corner in a blender at times. Also, Baker has great awareness of how to get into defenders’ blind spots and does a good job selling vertical routes before cutting inside/outside.
Javon Baker also does a good job getting consistent leverage and can eat a cushion quickly with his long strides. Baker has quick feet for both his release and with the ball in his hand along with good change of direction and good transition from receiver to runner to give him a chance to make guys miss. Finally, Baker played most of his snaps out wide but played a third of his snaps from the slot giving some versatility.
Areas of Improvement:
Steve Smith said that Javon Baker makes the hard catches look easy, which he does. But, I’m not sure if Smith finished the full statement on Baker and mentioned how he makes the easy catches look hard. For the ridiculous catches Baker makes, he can have some really frustrating focus drops in part due to inconsistent hand technique and also at times being overly reliant on body catches. For a receiver that can snatch the ball as well as Baker does, you would like to see better than a 10% drop rate for this season and for his career.
Also, while Javon Baker is capable as a YAC guy, his acceleration is okay and he isn’t overly quick to pick up chunk yards after the catch. Baker’s route running can use a few tune-ups as well. At times Baker ran with good tempo, but other times he just ran at one speed making it easy for the defender to adjust. This may also be part of why he struggles to sometimes get separation on vertical routes and also struggles to consistently stack his defender. Baker’s lack of separation may also be from having trouble getting clean from defenders and their press.
Javon Baker has decent foot speed with press but could benefit from using his hands and long arms more consistently to stay clean. Baker can also be moved off his route by physical corners and even pushed out of bounds at times. Baker’s cuts are solid but they can be a bit rounded and they could become more sharp if he broke down in his cut a bit more. Finally, it wasn’t a major problem that led to incompletions, but it seemed like Baker could sometimes lose track of his feet around the sidelines and will need to be more attentive with this transitioning to two feet inbounds in the NFL.
Conclusion:
I really like Javon Baker and the sensational catches definitely get me excited. However, if he really wants to get to a solid starter level, he will need to clean up his focus drops and separate better. Both are things that can lose young players playing time very early in their careers and end up in the doghouse. Due to both having a great ability to make some incredibly hard adjustments to balls and sensational catches with occasional lapses in simple catches, I have Michael Gallup as Baker’s comp.
Like Michael Gallup, Javon Baker can struggle with separation at times but can make up for it with his adjustments. Both Gallup and Baker were also solid route runners who could win in the middle depth of the field. If Baker goes to a good situation like Gallup did, I think he could be a good contributor on day one and could be a steal if he either cleans up his hands or improves his separation.
15. Luke McCaffrey, Rice
Height: 6’2”; Weight: 198 pounds
Age on Draft Day: 23 years and 0 months
Class: RS Senior
Overall Grade: 2.92/4 (Good Role Player)
Comp: Chris Hogan
Hands: A-
Route Running: B
Release: C+
Yards After Catch Potential: B-
Jump Ball/Contested Catch: B
Body Control/Ball Tracking: C+
Future role: B-
RAS: A-
Strengths:
When I went into watching Luke McCaffrey I expected to call people out for the pseudo-nepotism of his fans since he’s the brother of Christian McCaffrey. But, I have to apologize to Luke McCaffrey for not giving him the credit he deserves. Not only is Luke McCaffrey a good receiver, but he might have some of the best and toughest hands in the class and always uses sound hand technique when going for the ball.
If you watch any highlights of Luke McCaffrey, he is a throwback slot that would snatch balls and survive vicious hits while still finding a way to hold onto the ball. Seriously, go look up some highlights and some are just absolutely ridiculous. McCaffrey has tremendous focus and grit to routinely finish catches in traffic and doesn’t care how hard a defender is going to hit him.
Luke McCaffrey’s eye for following the ball was a bit inconsistent early in the season but seemed to improve as the season went on. McCaffrey showed great focus to follow the ball and ignore defenders around him while making the catch. Some of the catches had so much traffic around him that it seemed impossible McCaffrey would find the ball leading him to have such a high score for his body control/ball tracking despite limited body adjustment abilities.
Luke McCaffrey is also a very solid route runner despite converting from quarterback to receiver in 2022. McCaffrey ran a variety of routes and did a good job breaking down in his cuts and using head fakes to get defenders turned around. McCaffrey showed great awareness by finding openings against the defense while knowing how to adjust his route with defenders in his path. Honestly, the strides McCaffrey has made this fast at receiver are incredibly impressive and will make a team wonder how quickly he could continue to develop.
Luke McCaffrey isn’t Christian McCaffrey with the ball in his hands but he still provides a nice boost for an offense. Luke McCaffrey has quick acceleration and a quick transition from receiver to runner to pick up some good yards. McCaffrey also showed decent contact balance and ran with solid vision to follow his blocks and found openings in the defense.
Areas of Improvement:
As I alluded to, Luke McCaffrey is a much stiffer athlete than his combine testing suggests. You can see this when McCaffrey is in the open field and has a defender one-on-one and he just doesn’t have the agility to make him miss. This stiffness also showed with some of McCaffrey’s trouble adjusting to balls away from his frame. McCaffrey makes life a bit harder for himself with some poor positioning, but he still just really struggled to adjust to balls in his vicinity.
Luke McCaffrey also offers pretty little in 50/50 balls outside of making some tough catches. However, I have concerns that higher-quality corners will have more success punching those balls out. McCaffrey also could help himself by breaking back to the quarterback rather than having a corner right on top of him at times.
Luke McCaffrey played about two-thirds of his snaps from the slot and will likely need to play there in the NFL. There weren’t a lot of outside snaps for me to watch, but McCaffrey typically struggled with press and would be really slowed down. McCaffrey has decent lower body mechanics thanks to his quick feet but he gets too bullied from the waist up.
Finally, though Luke McCaffrey looked like a solid route runner, his cuts lacked explosiveness and limited his separation. This limited separation will only become more limited in the NFL causing some serious concerns if McCaffrey will be able to get himself open in the NFL. Also, there were a few times when McCaffrey still showed signs of being new to the receiver position with some sloppy cuts and getting slowed down when defenders got their hands on him. Tempo seems to be lacking from McCaffrey’s routes and this one speed nature also makes it easier for defenders to get a handle on his routes.
Conclusion:
If Luke McCaffrey continues to develop as a route runner and proves he can get separation out of his cuts in the NFL, he could become a very productive slot player for a team. McCaffrey’s hands and toughness in traffic are already up there with the other top slot options in this class so a team will need to see if they can coach him to their level. Due to both coming from small schools and limited experience at receiver in college, I have Chris Hogan as McCaffrey’s comp.
Like Luke McCaffrey, Chris Hogan had great athleticism but was a bit of a stiff athlete and needed time to develop as a receiver. Both McCaffrey and Hogan also had very tough hands and a good foundation as route runners to project them as productive slot players. Hogan needed to be protected from press and I feel McCaffrey will at least need the same at the start of his career. Luke McCaffrey obviously doesn’t have the ceiling as Christian McCaffrey, but he absolutely has the makings of being another productive NFL player.
16. Jermaine Burton, Alabama
Height: 6’0”; Weight: 196 pounds
Age on Draft Day: 22 years and 10 months
Class: Junior
Overall Grade: 2.92/4 (Good Role Player)
Comp: Kendrick Bourne
Hands: B+
Route Running: C
Release: B
