Scouting Notes
- Perfect foot plat and route breaks.
- Way too many body catches.
- Can tend to take extra steps to try and fake out a defender.
- Often didn’t seem like the focal point of the offense. Contrary to the statistical production, he was quiet for stretches in games.
- Little-to-no vertical success or even experience.
- Tends to fixate on the Quarterback too intently after the route-break, leading to him losing any separation he created.
Short Summary
Josh Downs has sterling stats, and comes from the now high-flying offensive juggernaut of North Carolina, with future star Quarterback prospect Drake Maye. This offense with Maye at the helm helped Downs rack up some great-looking numbers. He didn’t just happen into these numbers, though. Downs is exceptionally shifty with crisp footwork and cuts. He changes direction with ease and creates separation as a result.
Unfortunately, that is the full extent of his abilities. He lacks many other necessary traits for NFL success and even has concerns in the areas where he excels. All this is before even mentioning that he (like many others in this draft) is an extreme size outlier. To be successful at that size, you have to either be lightning fast, possess high-end toughness, or have flawless skill traits. Downs fits none of those three.
After being productive in College, I won’t say he can’t do it in the NFL, but my expectations are very low.
Scouting Card Key
- Age refers to the age of the player come draft night, rounded to the nearest half-age.
- Percentage numbers in the Player Info and Combine Stats sections – This refers to the percentile that number belongs to among all players at his position, going back nearly a decade.
- Percentiles in the Advanced Stats portion for cumulative stats are snap-adjusted. In other words, naturally, a player with more snaps will allow more sacks.
- Drop% – Drop rate, or the percentage of overall targets that were dropped.
- CTT, CTC% – Contested Targets, Contested Catch Rate.
- Y/RR – Yards per route run.
- 1stD – Total 1st downs accumulated.
- Line-Wide, Line-Slt – Percentage of snaps lined up wide or in the slot.
- COD – Change of direction.
Credit
Advanced stats – pff.com
Scouting card template / idea – Jordan Pun @Texans_Thoughts
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