| kccrow |
02-29-2024 10:13 PM |
I'm going to be blatantly honest with you with what I see with Mitchell and it's not what you see.
Let's start with him physically. He has a bad build for his size and doesn't show great play strength. I know that you keep preaching strength, I don't see it. Not at all. I think NFL press corners, something he didn't really face in college, are going to give him a lot of problems (more in a bit). He doesn't show a strong ability to go up and get the football. I question his vertical.
He's also slow. His releases are painfully slow. He won't be facing #2 PAC-12 CBs when he gets to the bigs. He's going to have to play against really good players who will even more easily stay in phase with him. He's also going to be an EASY jam at the line. He leaves the line on a vertical plane. With a relatively slender build for his height, a slow release, and no real threat of beating NFL corners deep, press will be a major issue. Obviously not all teams play press, but the ones that do will give him issues.
His route running is not as advanced as some scouting reports seem to indicate. It's relatively undeveloped in my opinion. His only real go-to move is a subtle head juke and stutter-go that can't be his only staple in the pros. He's not crisp, he rounds his routes. He telegraphs routes quite a bit and he doesn't have much quickness out of breaks, though he is smooth in transition. I think there's a big difference between making quick, sharp breaks and being smooth... they are mutually exclusive. Imagining that he's going to get any kind of open release in the NFL is hard to think positively about. I think he's going to have to work extremely diligently on his route running in the NFL and become much more sophisticated, to the point of being a technician.
He never really had to face double coverage. He was always 1-on-1 with the opposition's 2nd best CB, at best. Teams always had to roll coverage to stay on top of the better college WR, Worthy. They also had to account for Ja'Tavion Sanders, who is probably also a top-40 player in this draft.
Mitchell does have good hands, and that's a major positive. You can coach the routes, that's a positive. But I just don't think he has enough of anything to be particularly great in the pros. I'm not saying he's going to be a bust or a really bad player but I don't know that I'd draft him and hope he's an "alpha." I saw a lot more on Tee Higgins' tape coming out that I don't see with Mitchell, especially his play strength and ability in tight coverage. That's what scares me. I see Higgins as Mitchell's ceiling but I think his floor is lower to put it in draft terms.
I know Steve Smith doesn't like him at all. That's not the end-all-be-all, obviously, but I think it more or less echoes my hesitation. I don't think he's an "alpha" WR. I think it'll be an uphill battle to be a quality #2 but there is at least enough there to hope he can become that. And that is where we defer largely on opinions. A team that can be patient and values height and not as much speed, like maybe Dallas, should look really hard at this kid. KC, not so much.
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