South Carolina
Ht. 6-4 Wt. 231
Hands: Alshon Jeffery’s hands are right up there with the tops in this WR class. He has a large catch radius and plucks the ball out of the air. He very rarely allows the ball to get to his body, occasionally in traffic but it leads to very few drops. His concentration on tough catches is incredible as he routinely pulls off circus catches.
Route Running: Alshon Jeffery’s route running is the scariest part of his game and not in a good way. He is lazy in and out of breaks as he relies on his physicality too often to overmatch defenders. He doesn’t possess the burst to get separation on defenders which could scare off a lot of teams in this draft. He looked very disinterested at times in 2011 as you can see in his routes. The laziness in routes is a major red flag.
After the Catch: Jeffery lacks the speed and explosion to make short passes into big gains. He is tough to bring down one-on-one because of his size. He won’t make any miss with wiggle or blow by defenders at the next level.
Athleticism: Alshon Jeffery is a rare physical specimen. He may be the one of the most physically imposing receivers since Calvin Johnson. The difference comes with Jeffery’s lack of a second gear. He doesn’t have the speed to get separation in the NFL and his size will become a non-factor as teams adjust to his game. He has an outstanding vertical and could be a major threat in the redzone. He came into the 2011 season clearly out of shape and will have to answer some questions about his willingness to control his weight. I wonder about his functional strength as he seems to get jammed at the line fairly frequently.
Bottom Line: There’s just too many red flags with Jeffery to make him a top pick. He has elite size and leaping ability but lacks the top end speed and burst to be a top receiver in the NFL. The negatives on Jeffery are compounded by the fact that he came into the 2011 season out of shape and looked disinterested in playing at times. His production fell through the floor in 2011 due to spotty QB play but an elite receiver needs to overcome that instead of packing it in on their team.
Draft Projection: 1-2 but buyer beware.
