LSU
Ht. 6-4 Wt. 208
Hands: Randle is an above-average catcher of the football and will only get better with more reps. He is great at catching the deep ball and going up and snatching the ball out of the air. For the most part, he’s a hands catcher and doesn’t let the ball get inside on him often. Haven’t seen many drops in two years worth of film.
Route Running: Randle’s route running sums him up as a wide receiver. It’s under development. He looked a lot better from 2010 to 2011 in this area which is a promising sign. Mostly was used in the vertical game but uses his head well to set up double moves and is becoming more savvy in this area. He has a solid understanding of defenses (probably from his days as a QB) and does a good job of finding holes in zone coverage.
After the Catch: Rueben Randle is another slow twitch athlete with a longer stride so he lacks the short area burst to be really great in this area. Of all the WR’s that I lumped into the slow twitch category, he’s the most effective at getting the ball up the field. He catches the ball and finds north pretty quickly given his frame. This is another area that we could see considerable growth in over the years.
Athleticism: Randle’s size is imposing. He doesn’t have great speed or the second gear to be a guy that can score with each touch but he’s deceptive. Watching him on tape he doesn’t look to be running real fast but guys aren’t catching him from behind. A long strider that will have to work on his short area quickness in the NFL.
Bottom Line: Rueben Randle is a work in progress. He’s still new to the WR position and has a lot of growing in many facets. His ceiling is very high and he could wind up being a very good receiver in the NFL if given the time and coaching. He probably needed another year of college football but he could go in the second round based on his shear talent.
Draft Projection: 1-2
