Ht – 5’11” Wt – 183lb Class – JR Age – 21
Career Statistics
2021 Stats – 70 Rec, 1058 Yds, 12 TD (11 Games Played)
Career Stats – 143 Rec, 2213 Yds, 23 TD (32 Games Played)
Attribute Breakdown
Hands – Great ability to secure the football. I would say his hands are like Velcro, but he struggles to make catches outside his frame when he would need to extend his arms. However, there are few WRs in CFB I would trust to make a catch more than Wilson. While he struggles in the aforementioned area, he makes up for it with a phenomenal ability to leap, adjust, and contort his body so the ball is always in his frame, nearly eliminating this issue entirely.
Contested Catch – Has no problem securing catches even with defenders draped all over him. His ability to leap up and secure tough 50/50 catches is extremely impressive for his height. As mentioned before, if he needs to extend beyond his adjustment, it’s rare that he will reel it in. This is especially true with tight or press coverage.
Size & Speed – Has great quickness to go along with a surprising bulky frame. His modest weight doesn’t properly convey his true size. He uses that to his advantage, as DBs struggle to play through him. His long speed isn’t elite, but he has the ideal quickness to make up for that.
Release – Possesses a large release package, with duck moves, hand checks, and a great stutter step. He can occasionally get too fancy with his stutter steps and take too long to get to the route; however, he is generally very quick.
Routes & Separation – With very quick and sudden route breaks, Wilson looks like an elite NFL route runner already. Defenders were lost once he broke off the top of his routes. He has more than enough speed to keep that separation alive. The comeback/hitch route is his bread-and-butter, and I wouldn’t want to be the DB tasked with stopping that route.
YAC – Outstanding playmaker with the ball in his hands. Wilson is shifty and crafty and continuously makes defenders miss with ease. Whether it’s the dead-leg move, cutting up-field, stopping and going, or just leaning his body away from arm tackles. He seemed to be the designated screen WR at Ohio State, and in an offense with stars like Jaxson Smith-Njigba and Chris Olave, that says a lot about his ability.
Football IQ – This is the “Cooper Kupp test”. Kupp has a knack for always knowing exactly where to be and what move to pull to get wide open and find the soft spot of the zone. Wilson may not be Kupp, but he’s darn good at this himself. He even turned a potential route collision into an advantage, as he managed to predict them in advance and miss the collision narrowly, causing his defender to get jammed.
Versatility – Played in the slot and out wide, handled many jet-sweeps and juggled being the YAC receiver (on many screens) while also being an elite deep and intermediate threat. There is no task too tall for Wilson.
Combine – Wilson didn’t test in many drills at the Combine, but in the few drills that he tested, he showed outstanding athleticism and explosiveness.
Overall
Garrett Wilson is a phenomenal talent, and while coming into the year he may not have had the pedigree of his teammates, he separated himself not only from them but from most of this draft class (JSN draft stock pending).
Tyreek Hill’s biggest flaw is his ability to extend his arms and catch balls outside his frame, but he makes up for that with the great ability to always leap to the ball. That is Wilson’s biggest flaw, and he makes up for it the same way. If Hill can have the success he’s having with that flaw, I’m not too worried about Wilson, who may not be as fast but is much shiftier and a smoother technician.
Like QBs, the difference between the elite and the “really good” ones is massive, and Garrett Wilson has put himself in that tier (among this draft class).
Wilson’s tape blew me away, there is little he can’t do, and he can be the ultimate weapon for any offense that adds him to their arsenal.
See Garrett Wilson’s overall ranking among other players on my Big Board.
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