2021 NFL Draft Pass Catchers Preview

But on today's podcast we have Matt Harmon of Yahoo Sports and the Reception Perception Project talking all things wide receivers. A busy, busy edition of the Drivetime Podcast today, Let's go ahead and jump right in Miami time and real quick before we get to Matt Harmon, I've talked about this on the podcast just a little bit, that I'm back in South Florida for the first time since the end of the season and doing the podcast from here, and I got to go to the offices at the

stadium for the first time. I had worked previously at the offices and Davy at the current old training facility will be in the new facility sometime this summer hopefully, but I was in the stadium for the first time, and man, the views from hard Rock Stadium, the seeing the field, you know, just going to work and seeing the actual field at hard Rock Stadium and and being part of South Florida. It's it really is a dream

come true. And it kind of was a moment that I took to myself today to to just kind of step back and look at everything and be like this, this is where it's all at. This is where I want to be. So I'm very grateful and happy to be bringing you guys this coverage of Miami Dolphins football here on the Drift Time podcast. And I've also been talking a lot about F one Formula one racing because of the Netflix show, and I'm gonna start watching the

the weekly races. Just finished up the Sunday episode or Sunday Race, I should say, uh this this past weekend, and you know, I talked about the driving in South Florida and how it's a little bit enticing to drive like an F one Razor because everyone else out there does well. I did go to the rental company to replace my car, which is in the body shop because

I was in that accident back in October. Somebody regretted me getting that fixed, and all they had available for me was Chrysler pacifica minivan, which don't don't knock it because it's a great vehicle. But you know, thirty three year old guy who doesn't have his wife and kid here in South Florida driving around minivan, maybe I feel a little bit less cool. I don't know. You tell me, is can you make a minivan any cool? I do have the F one Emmy. They'll kind of buzzing that

thing around down here in South Florida. And the reason I bring this all together was because I have a great story about driving in South Florida I wanted to share before we get to Matt Harmon on the podcast. There was I was on Miramara Parkway at a busy intersection I think was Palm Avenue. It might have been a busier street than that, but there's a shopping center right by there, and somebody was pulling out of that shoppings now are trying to get across to the left

turn lane. So I created a gap between me and the car ahead of me, so those cars had an avenue to pull through and get through traffic and not have to wait for another go round of a lengthy traffic signal. And the person behind me, not even kidding, pulls into the right hand turn lane, jumps in front of me and takes that vacant spot that I left nicely for people to use and cut off that entire way of traffic. So welcome to South Florida, baby, I guess that's how we do it down here. That's enough

of my driving stories. We're gonna go ahead and welcome into the show right now, the author of Reception Perception, one of the best receiver minds in the entire game, Matt Harmon from y'all Who Sports. Let's go ahead and roll this interview. And we've been talking past catchers on this podcast weekly, if not daily, for months now, and we're bringing it home with one of the heaviest hitters in that world, in that realm. He's a wider for

writer and analysts for Yahoo. He's the creator of Reception Perception, a great website, great content. They're talking all things pass catchers. He is Matt Harmon, and Matt, I love the last line of your Twitter bio. I did it my way. I love that. Welcome to the Drivetime Podcast. Hey, thanks so much for having me, Travis. I really appreciate it. And yeah, that is a an ode to a Frank

Sinatra lyric from the song My Way. Um it's it's actually like a very personal sort of story about my my grandmom who was very close with when she passed away. I remember like that song. Is it just it's you know, it seems like a person at the end of their life they're going on to the next journey, and they

did it their way. And I always kind of took after after that happened, and you know, pursuing a career in football and everything like that, I was just sort of looked at it as a you know, I want to do things my way. If I do uh, if I do this thing, if I actually make it happen and you know, spoiler alert, it happened, you worked out,

I want to do it my way. I want to do it in a fashion that you know, I can you know, as a man, I can live with and I can look back on and be be proud of, and and uh, you know I think that I like

to think I did a pretty decent job at it. Yeah, I wanted to follow up on that, because you know, I have a very unconventional path to this position myself, and I'm always curious to hear about people in this industry's path because not everyone in this day and age did the journalists journalism school route and then you do the high school paper and then you move up to college,

like not everyone does that these days. And so, you know, my own path was your Your path obviously steeped heavily and charting, which I just love that work, and that's that's how I came across your work. I did some of my own charting for a website that I created called third and ten five or six years ago, and it taught me so much about the game because I just was so you know, intimate with every single detail

of every single play. So I wanted to ask you, how did you get into charting and how did that eventually evolved into reception perception? Yeah, it is interesting, like this is back, you know, way in the origin story of kind of pursuing this as a career. My original life and was to go back to school, uh and continue my degree and in studying social theory, uh, in like sociology, and eventually get a PhD and like become

an academic. Clearly, I'm sitting here in my backwards hat and looking at football players, like I did not become an academic, right Basically, I just decided, like I loved football. I was in just a pretty tough place in life. You know, life throws you curveballs and um needing to respond to it in a way. I just found something that I got a lot of joy from, which was analyzing the game. You know, I was obsessed with football,

was obsessed with fantasy. I knew like, you know, every Madden roster back to front in like the two thousand thirteen, two thousand and fourteen eras. So I started a website. All my friends had really pushed me to go that direction. But you know, because I was literally a nobody, you know, like just some guy in a one bedroom apartment in Lynchburg, Virginia, just trying to figure out the game, just like you. I wanted to understand the intricacies of football from every situation.

So that's when I just started charting games, a lot of differ and stuff. You know, I did some work with quarterbacks to decided I hated it, and you know, offensive line, defensive line, just trying out different things, and I think that's something probably people don't don't really know about that, you know. Like I said, I was charting all these different positions and the one that just stuck

to me really was wide receivers. Because I always tell people if they're trying to start out in this space or kind of trying to find their own way, My my thing that I encourage everybody to do is try to be the person that answers the question, the biggest question that you have about football. For me, it was you know, what are wide receivers doing when they run off the screen on Sundays? Because we know this anybody that follows football or anybody that plays fantasy football, like,

there's so much that goes into it. From a production standpoint. Someone has to go right for a wide receiver just to get a target, a catch, a yard, like be able to put those points up on the board. They're not if their own individual performances is very separate from all that. So and if you just even any basic staff but even more advanced that's like catch rate, yards per target, it you're inherently welcoming in the variable of

the quarterback at the bare minimum. But you're also the offensive line's got to be blocking for them, right, They gotta be put into a good position by the head coach. So that's really the where the idea of reception perception

came about. Was I wanted to try to isolate wide receiver performance as much as possible from those outside variables and really study and try to quantify the qualitative reality of route running because to me, it was look the one thing that the wide receiver can control, like stats and just throw that out. They can't really control that too much on their own. The one thing that they can control is do they run good routes? Do they get open uh? And do they present that good target

for the quarterback to earn a target? And then obviously do they catch the ball and do good things with it after that? So perception perceptions and such you trying to tell you all of that anything you want to know about a wide receiver, and that all came out of basically charting games and finding that one thing I

really wanted to figure out. I watched games at hard Rock Stadium now, so it's different from me, but back when I is you know, uh, you know, fixed on the television set I would have the same complaint every Sunday. Give me a view where I can see the receivers in downfield. Give me that that you mentioned Madden the behind the formation, but pull it back a little bit so I can see the entire box count and the receivers out wide. That's my lifelong dream right there. And

you also mentioned memorizing Madden rosters. I'll tell you my little funny story here. I used to get the Pro Football Weekly season previews and I would read all the content and memorize the rosters and then recite them when I would go for jogs outside. So that's like my nerd,

my very nerd football thing. But we've got you on here to talk about both Dolphins receivers and the college receivers in this draft coming up in just a couple of weeks here, and I have to start off before we get to the receiver class in the draft talking about Will Fuller because a through my own tape study, I think he is an elite, elite level wide receiver and be the data you shared with regards to his win rate by route run is that of an elite,

elite wide receiver. So Matt, how good is Will Fuller. Yeah, I think the version of Will Fuller was incredible. I've always been a big fan of his because one thing that you come to realize when you study wide receivers, you know, on a route by route basis and watch off and they're getting separation, you start to not care about things like drops, and like people forget about this.

But Will Fuller was slammed coming into the league as a guy that couldn't catch the ball, which is crazy because he he's had you know, like he had one big drop. I can remember when he was playing with the Texans against the Patriots in a playoff game and he has brock Oswhiler throwing the ball for God's sake, So like maybe that's the one drop. Is not the biggest problem that the team might have had. But you know, this is a guy that never really developed those drop issues.

And I think when you look at him, even on a year by year basis, he had always been a really strong separator and reception perception. You know, I break things down not only by success rate versus man's own

press coverage, but also by individual routes. You know, he'd always had a really good and if people go to reception perception dot Com and they sign up for the site, they can see not only uh Will Fuller's twenty season, but go compare it to his twenty nineteen season as well, which I think is really useful because it shows you even if you don't get the version of the player, you're looking at excellent success rate on deep routes, of course we know that's part of it, but also routes

like the flat, the curl, you know, some of those more shorter lay up patterns that are gonna be important for moving an offense down the field. And what I always liked about Fuller two playing with the Texans before was he just put defenses in such a bind. This is why I think a player like Jalen Waddle is really going to be appealing for folks in the drafted.

Fuller was never that number one receiver because the Texans had DeAndre Hopkins, and it's like, Okay, we want to, uh, just put some extra defensive attention to stopping DeAndre Hopkins, But then you're gonna leave Will Fuller on your number two corner exposed there on the other side of the field with no help. You're gonna get destroyed. And those those games where it was Watson, Hopkins and Will Fuller. Those guys fired off to w It was real magic.

But going back to the season, which I think is really, of course the important part here, this is a player that jumped up huge in terms of success rate versus press. Like the Texans used him as an alpha wide receiver out there as the ISO X guy, basically just put him in DeAndre hopkins old spot, and he had the best season of his career. And you can look at that, you know, look at that down the route tree as well.

Only one route did he fall below the NFL average in terms of success, right, and that was the out route. Everything else, Like, the Dolphins are getting a complete player in the peak version of Will Fuller, and uh, you know, it's it is sort of interesting just talk about like where did this season come from? Um, But I think he had this ability in him all along and it

was just taking that next step of development. So even again, at bare minimum you get the nineteen version of Fuller, you're getting a really strong number two receiver that wins in the most important areas, wins vertically right, and in the contested games, who has always been an underrated contested catch receiver, so you're bare minimum getting that player, but the version does show he has true number one receiver

upside in them as well. I'm glad you mentioned the impact that he and those receivers in Houston have on the offense in general, because I went back and watch this tape this last year and teams played too high safety because you got him and Kenny Stills on the other side, you know, taking the top off the defense. That can have such a big benefit, not just for the run game, but for Mike is Sicky and Devonte Parker over the middle, and all the possession receivers Dolphins

have in that regard. So yeah, I I couldn't be more excited about it. I'm glad you mentioned his old tape because I went back and watched him his rookie year compared to twenty, and he was running like you mentioned, curls, screens, flats. It wasn't doing a whole lot in the route tree. But now he ran the whole damn thing and look

good doing it. So that's great to hear. Let's go ahead and transition now into this college class, another one that is coming in a build, possibly one of the best receiver classes of all time again for back to back years, and I want to stay on that frame of mind of the prototype. And one thing I've been on about this offseason, Matt is the type of receiver this offense could use. And I don't have a prototype per se if what Miami might want, but to consider

Parker Williams, Hollands, even a tight end Mike Sicky. These guys are contested catch this type of dude. So separators, yak that sort of thing. So before we break into this thing into tears, as far as who's in your first tier, second tier, and so forth, I want to get your best in class by category. Does that work for you? I love that idea and I think it's perfect for the Dolphins too, because of, like you said, what they need. They had a lot of guys that

were redundant with each other last year. I think they have a good start with Fuller, but there's a lot of room they can have in this draft class as well. That's a word I've used a lot, redundancy. So let's go ahead and get into it. Then, Who's who's the best separator in this class? Yeah? I think the best

separator It's easy. It's DeVante Smith, because when you break it down by look, I actually I think folks if they do go to Reception Perception and they subscribe and they see the rookie data that's going to be hitting the site on Monday morning, uh, it's it's they're gonna look at it and they're gonna see. Look, Jalen Waddle is really high in terms of success rate verse man coverage.

He's right up there. But when you look at success rate a lost the route tree across a press coverage and man coverage, you're looking at DeVante Smith is a guy that just knows how to get open. And I we can talk more about Smith and and the you know, the weight concerns, the b M I concerns and all that and and sort of how you reconcile that when

you're talking about him as a prospect. But I think in terms of just best separator, there's a lot of really good separators that I really like in this class, but I think Smith does take the cake there. Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that. We I was expecting a different direction, you know, the guy that everyone builds as a top receiver. But I'm with you on Davante Smith. I'm sure, we'll get to that guy here in just a second. But who is the best yards after catch?

Is it possibly Smith's teammate there at Alabama? This is interesting, right because this is another again, this is a class where I not only do I like a lot of these guys as separators, I also think there's some really good yards after catch threat players. Um you know, I think of a player like Elijah Moore from Old Miss. He's he's there as well. Uh you mentioned Jalen Waddles

A good a good a good bet there too. Maybe not from the physicality standpoint where and it's kind of like, do you want to talk about yards after catch from from just a literally piling up yards after the catch? Because Wattle can do that in bunches. But if you're talking about like physical guys that break tackles, and this is just a personal um like a personal bias, those are the players. Because I do chart like how often do you break one tackle, two tackles, get down on

first contact, everything like that. I do chart that as well interception perceptions. So I end up I feel like preferring those guys that break tackles with physicality and Jamaar Chase, who is, you know, the consensus top receiver. He's really underrated in that yards after catch away that he That's sort of why he's a tough player to find a comparison for. I know, I've seen Davantae Adams, I've seen um like a faster an Kin Bolden from my buddy

Daniel Jeremiah from the NFL Network. But the one I kind of landed on with him his early career Larry Fitzgerald because Fitzgerald was so good, Um we think of him now is this big slot receiver, almost like a tight end type of player. But Jamar Chase, I think fits into that early career fits when he was absolutely dominant in some of those Kurt Warner offenses for the

Arizona Cardinals. But I said all that, Uh, the guy I'm gonna give it to though the best yards after catching to the breaking tackles, for physicality, and people don't think of this guy in this way, but it's for Shod Bateman from Minnesota. I love him as a separator. I love him as a contestant catch receiver. I think his twenty nineteen film, which is the film that I decided to go back and chart because I think people

don't really know this, but he was dealing. He actually had COVID and had a rough battle with it and like lost a bunch of weight and just wasn't himself. And he's playing in the slot after being an outside X receiver in twenty nine. His twenty nineteen film, I think is up there with Jamaar Chase, is up there with Davonte Smith in terms of the best in the class. So I'm gonna give it to Bateman because I think he is really underrated and how good he is after

the catch. My good my good friend Matt Walman, who writes the Rookie Scouting Portfolio, compared him to like pre route that this is my same comparison for Bateman is Keenan Allen, like Justin Jeffers and that type of player.

But post catch, he's almost like Cordero Patterson, which like, you don't want to be Cordero Patterson runner rounds right, because he's he's like a running back up at this point, but he's an He's not even awesome after catcher, which why one of the best kick returners in NFL history. Now you mentioned Jamar Chase. The physicality of the Yak and you see that in the way he gets off of the release, off the line, the way he's just so physical, so that that checks out Rashaan Bateman's twenty

nineteen tape. I'm glad you mentioned that because I always got confused watching him when number thirteen that switched the number zero. That always threw me off for some reason. But yeah, that's a great note about about having COVID and that's something you don't think about, and you know

that's it's a much bigger deal. I think people let on about so great stuff there, Matt, how about you might have covered this again already, but the best contested catch receiver in this class, Yeah, I'm almost tempted to be a contrarian and give it to Davante Smith because I think the funny part about him is, you know, he's a small guy, right, Everyone's worried about the uh, the size and the b of mine everything, but like you watch him play, like he wins, He boxes out

wins and contested catches against SEC defenders down the field and the short area, intermediate like wherever you want. Um. He plays with a ton of physicality. But I'm gonna go with consensus here and I'm gonna give it to Jamaar Chase. I think he is the best fifty fifty ball receiver in this draft class, not just because he wins, but he gets a lot of those contested catches because

he plays so much downfield. UM, I definitely have some questions about Chase as a as an intermediate level separator. I think he can run slants. I think he can run some of those shorter patterns, but you know, some of the some of the more you know, the curls, the digs that out, stuff like that more in that intermediate range. Got some questions there, But he's such a good downfield receiver and I love the like the idea of him running downfield routes with how good he is

as a contested catch treat as well. You had mentioned will full Or kind of playing that exposition role and filling in for DeAndre Hopkins and doing the whole entire route tree, the whole game from that position. And you know, going back to what coach Flores talks about all the time, they like to have guys that play multiple positions and that's not just restrictive to the defensive side of the football, like Davanta Parker kicks inside and play slot a lot.

People people don't realize that because of his size and the downfield prowess, but he plays slot. He gets open at that position quite frequently. And so you know, Lynn Boone is a slot guy. Jachem Grant does a little bit of both inside outside. Uh. You know, we've talked about DeVante Parker. He might be more of a traditional X receiver who does kick inside sometimes. So taking all of that into account, you know, I guess this might

be a grouping question here. I want to know about who's the best inside, who's the best outside, and who's the best combination of both in this draft class. I love that's a fantastic point about positional versatility of wide receivers.

It's one thing that um, I probably didn't take into account enough about in reception perception in the early days of you know, I've been doing this now for seven NFL seasons, so I like to say a lot on on podcasts, and it shows that, like I probably made statements based on reception perception data, you know, three or four years ago, that I would never say now because

that's just the benefit of more data, more context. Like at this point I have three NFL players in the database, Like I pretty much know what the data is telling us, you know, but at different times during the charting process,

I didn't always know that. And one thing I think is key is where players lineup can often dictate the results of their route metrics, of their success rate verse coverage metrics, or on the other hand, you know, for a player, I always bring it to back to like Jujus, Miss Schuster, Cooper Cup, Like, those guys don't win at a very high rate against man or press coverage, but who cares Because they are those big slot receivers. They do so often line up against smaller corners on the

inside or or even linebackers in zone coverage. Like, if those guys can beast against z own coverage, I'm not too worried about the fact that they can't get off pressed. So I do love a guy though, that can play all three positions, the X, the flank or the slot, what have you. And I think there's a lot of like inside outside guys in this class. There's so many

players that are are slot receivers. Like I mentioned Elijah More earlier, I think he might be the best pure slot receiver I know Jalen Waddle again, he lined up a ton of the slot for Alabama. I think he can play outside him a little more confident that he can be an outside receiver for Elijah More. He just so rarely faith press coverage. Only six point five percent of his sampled routes and reception reception came against press.

That's incredibly low. That's nothing, and he's a great separator. But I think he could probably fit into that Doug Baldwin, Tyler Lockett mold of players. Honestly, sometimes I know this is like wide receiver blasphemy, but sometimes there are some shades of Antonio Brown, like early career Antonio Brown, the way he transition like plucks the ball out of the air and transitioned to yards after catch, stra at the way that he uh he wins with foot quickness, at

the break point of his routes. There are definitely some shades of Antonio Brown to Elijah Moore's games. So maybe he could be an outside receiver. But I think from just a pure slot perspective, he's the best in a class. To me. I think if you're looking at outside separation, uh it is Davante Smith. But I think prototype wise, I think you have to give it to Rashad Bateman there, uh, simply because you know he's again he has played both. So maybe he's actually the answer to the best inside

outside designation. But he's just so it was so much more effective as an outside vertical receiver. I tend to think he has the upside to be a traditional X that can play on the outside. And sure it's smart to give your top receiver of the route from the slot because it's just so much easier throwing to the slot than it is, you know, the tight windows outside. So I think he's probably the answer there in terms of outside separator. And I actually think to Mark Chase

could be a guy that could could do both. Could could maybe, like I said, Larry Fitzgerald, maybe transition from he was a pure X receiver in college, faced a ton of press based a ton of hard man coverage, and that's why you see so many of those contested passes for him. But at the same time, I think in the pros, maybe in that Larry Fitzgerald mold, the Michael Thomas mold, he could become an inside outside guy

like that. I actually think that might be the best way to optimally use him as a pro Just real quick before I move on to a topic I'm really excited to ask you about here. You mentioned Elijah More. I can see the excitement both in your voice and your face about the prospect of that. Love this guy. He's great, I am. I put a threat up about him like two weeks ago. I just I can't the quickness and after the catch and the contesting. I mean,

it's all, it's all there. It's fun to watch. But when you consider a guy that maybe is restrictive, not completely restrictive inside, but more so than other prospects. Like, what's the value of that in the draft, because I'm thinking pick eighteen might be too high for that, pick thirty six, maybe the range we pick fifty for the Dolphins,

Like where does that typical value come off the board? Yeah, in in some way, we've gotten so far to the point with slot receivers that they've essentially replaced the fullback as the starter or like the the eleventh starter on a football team, Like everybody lives in eleven personnel for the most part. Um, like you want to have that really good slot receiver. So but I also think we developed so much of the slot receiver that there's different types of guys, you know, the big slots in terms

of the Juju Cooper Cup that I mentioned earlier. They're different from what I like to call the pop gun slot receivers, like a Jamison Crowd or even like a Cole Beasley up there in Buffalo, you know inside the A f C s there. Those are two examples of that type player. And then I think of guys that are still smaller but true vertical weapons from the slot, and I think that fits that Tyler Lockett, Doug Baldwin mold of players. They're they're always might go to examples there.

I think Adam Feeland has been that player at different times in his career too. He's sort of a mix of that big slot but also the vertical weapon from the slot as well. I think those guys that third group there, the vertical weapons from the slot to lock It, the Baldwin, the the Adam Delon guys, I think there's enough tactical value to constect consider them just as good as having a good outside receiver. Like all of those guys too. All three of those players I mentioned can

play and function outside. You know, They're not like a Jamison crowded, like you have to use a Jamison crowd on the slot. I do think Elijah More because he's just such a good separator. I think he can hack it out side as a flanker, just like I think Tyler Lockett or Adam Delon can hack it outside as as a flanker as well. So I don't think there's a huge gap between a really good first round pick at at an outside receiver and a really good first

round pick in those vertical weapons slot receivers. I think the eight teen range is fine there. It's just about how much do you want to value the wide receiver position as as a whole, because you know this is a whole. Another conversation we can have. This position is so so damn deep at this point. Like was the year that wide receiver was supposed to be the strength of the of the draft. It's sort of that again this year. But even like twenty nineteen, those classes were

considered like weak wide receiver drafts. But like the stars of today and tomorrow came out of those classes. You took my Calvin Ridley, Terry McLaurin, a J Brown, DK Metcalf, like those guys came out those years and and like just took the wide receiver position when we weren't expecting it, took it to a whole another level. I'm shaking my head because that's ridiculous. I go back to Daniel Jeremiah's advice,

go go play corner man, Go play cornerback. You'll you'll have a better chance, a better path to to get in that big pay day someday. Uh, Matt Harmon, y'all, who's sports and the reception perception just fantastic stuff there. And you mentioned this off air before we got on the podcast here. You worked with next Gen Stats and incorporated that stuff into your work at NFL dot com when you were previously there. And you know, alternative data has always been an attractive thank to me obviously with

the charting and whatnot. And I think in any sport there's gonna be a little bit of initial pause with regards to you know, possible new procedure, new ways of thinking. But I've also heard the lack of in person type of scouting processes, you know, during this pandemic has helped introduce some new ways of looking at players at the very least increased it to the use of the pre pandemic days. So how much have you incorporated GPS and

player tracking into your scouting process? And our teams using that stuff pretty heavily as well. I think they're they're really tempted to get it to a point where teams want to use it much more than they were. Like I'm telling you, man, I was at the NFL and summer two thousand and fifteen, that's when I started. That's when I moved out here to l A for that job.

And you know, the next gen guys, God bless him, like gave this big presentation to a room full of like me and and by the way, I'm sitting there like what what the hell am I doing? You know, like like Bucky Brooks and a bunch of like former players are are in there like getting this, getting this presentation, and everybody's just kind of like no, not like not interested, not and like not interested in watching these like little

dots move on the field or how fast everyone's going. Meanwhile, you know, goofball, like low level editor that I was then, I was like very interested in this, you know, Like so I have always had a fascination to it, and and I've always like basically from then on, like tried to work with next gend as much as possible. Like I said, I'm not there anymore, so I'm not really doing this work at this point. But you know, back then, I

was in it's infancy in two thousand fifteen. I think you're right, it was a very like I don't know about all that type of situation. But and I think they've gotten better and better about putting out metrics that

that really tell the story of the game. And I think that's the biggest thing for me with with like media facing analytics, it's all about and even like reception perception, right, there's there's a a deeper degree of that because I'm actually like telling you what went on in on a game, right, Like I'm watching an absolutely absurd amount of routes. Nobody should do this, like watching an absurd amount of game film, a serve amount of routes to tell you what happened

in the game. And I think that's the biggest thing when like with analytics and data, it can they can tell you better than almost anything else, like what happened in a game, But you still need you know, folks like yourself or you know, maybe me or whatever, like someone to tell you why, like why this happened this way? And so that was always my philosophy with the n

GS and and next gen tracking data. But on the team side of it, I think the speed of the game is something they're really trying to hone down on. You know, I've heard Daniel Jeremiah like there's been DJs me like a couple of coffee or something. We've name dropped him like fifty times here, but um, you know I've heard him talk about like basically teams essentially want to just throw out the forty at some point and

only focus on that GPS data. And you know, I you know a lot of people used to raise their eyebrows at it because like what do I care that Tyreek Kill ran twenty three miles per hour and you know Stefan Diggs ran twenty two miles per hour at their top speed when yeah, they're just in the open field.

But if you can break it down by you know, against this coverage on this third down play when he's running this route like that can be really helpful and scouting for sure, Yeah, when the balls in the air, how fast is here moving? Right? Like? How much can you separate once the ball has left the quarterback's hand.

That's it's so fascinating to me. How you know we have this very not archaic way because tape still was king, you know, but to introduce the analytics and to really just hone in on those things, it's it's so cool to me, and I'm excited about the possible future of what the NFL has in that. So Matt on this podcast asked every positional expert. You're my second to last interview here, going position by a position here. We have

running backs coming up later this week. Uh, I've been asking to separate the classes by tears, and I think I probably have a good idea for who your top tier is, um, you know where they go off the board, But where's that drop off in terms of who's in that second tier? Maybe Rashaw Bateman's in that first tier for you. Can you go through your first couple of tiers for us and how you separate those two. Yeah, I do think Rashade Bateman is in that top tier.

I think the first tier is Davante Smith, Jamar Chase, Jalen Waddle, and Rashad Bateman is in that tier. You know, and you could flip those guys around in terms of rankings whatever. I think that next tier, and I'm honestly I am tempted to put Elijah More in that first tier.

You could tell like the excitement that I talked about this guy with, but simply because of the questions about how much like slot is he going to play or how much like we just such limited exposure of him against press coverage and and he's he's good against press when he does face it, but there's just you know, there's gonna be some transition questions there. I'll probably put him at the very very top of that second tier.

And the second tier of players is interesting. Uh Dammy Brown, Dammy Brown from u n C. I've probably screwing his first name up. I actually don't think I've ever actually said it out loud. Um, Like, yeah, he's He's a player from UNC that I really like in a way that like, you know what we're talking about will Fuller, like what people thought he was going to be coming into the NFL. You know, just a vertical threat, a guy that probably can't really play X receiver but and

he's gonna drop a lot of passes. But he's gonna make big plays down the field. I like Brown and sort of that. Like I said, what people thought will full of the haters, what the haters thought will Fuller was going to be. I think Brown can actually be that player where he makes some mistakes, he has some drops, doesn't really always win in the contested game, but man, he gets downfield. He's tough, he's physical, and I think he has some upside to be a starting player in

the NFL. Uh Derres Marshall. He's another guy in that second tier, another player that I think can be that I as well. So it's it's an interesting group when you get into that second tier of players, and then it comes down to, like those four guys into the first year, I think you can figure it out, like any team can find a way to deploy those guys

and they'll be good pros. The next year is where it's gonna come down to fit a scheme, quarterback, all of that type of stuff, or whether how much success they're gonna find even if they always do. Like I said, you can isolate them and um, their individual performance can be great in reception perception, but if you want to find the best fit for them, I do think they're it's going to sort of come down to um, come down to that fit. Tyland Wallace is another guy too.

I didn't mention him. He's a player that I think his best days might have not been his most recent season, but I really do like his ability as a separator and as a downfield guy as well. I was really bummed out when he got injured back in nineteen. Like you mentioned, he was having a hell of a season that year and winds up getting hurt. So, yeah, he's

a he's a good looking receiver. You mentioned something there about Elijah More maybe some of the perception about being, you know, kind of pigeonholed kind of reminds me of rondel Moore a little bit because he didn't have it on tape and didn't wasn't asked to be a lot of the intermediate and vertical stuff. But he just broke so many tackles before the lastcrimage that they didn't have to have him do that. So that's a good way

to look at to like not this. Don't look at a guy's tape of college and say he can't do it because he wasn't asked to do. It's a very interesting dynamic there. So let's say Miami winds up with Jamar Chase or Davonte Smith or Jalen Waddle or Rashon Babin, whoever it might be. Let's say they get one of those guys early and they circle back on day three and maybe you go more fit here with two in the offense and the quick rhythm game. Who do you like as a possible day three fit with Miami at

the receiver position? Yeah, I think. I don't know how you feel about this with two of but I thought coming into the NFL, he was very much like a timing, anticipatory passer, you know, in that sort of Drew Brees mold Um. I actually talked to to her recently and like made that comparison. I can tell I al right, I can tell you was like, that's a little aggressive. I was like, come on, man, I'm trying to ip

up here, right. Um. I think though, that, like he that was what was interesting at first, Like when they were coming into this receiver corps last year, you know, they were really like more Fitzpatrick guys, right, like the big contested receivers, DeVante Parker, Preston Williams, those guys are not by any means great separators, but they are those

great receivers. It was just like kind of an interesting fit um there if you're looking at if you're looking at just again stylistically, what what I think to needs. And I think all of these guys can be that from that tier one can be that type of stylistic fit with two. You know, someone that gets clean separation, can win on in breaking routes, can play a lot

of different positions. I think those are fits there too, um just in terms of like more Day three guys that could fit into that quick separation way, you know that might not have the same upside I look at i'man Ross st Brown from USC. He might be a Day two guy. He might be an early Day three player as well. There doesn't seem to be a ton of buzz on him, but I could see him fitting into sort of that pure slot receiver mold that like gets that quick inside outside um free release and could

win in his routes that way. He's a player that I would at least keep an eye on. Um also, uh MARII Rodgers, I don't know if he's you know, again, it's hard to say where these guys are gonna go, but he's another player that could go in the in

the third round, in the fourth round. They could also be that type of separator they can give, you know, Miami, a guy that they're not gonna funnel it ton of targets to, especially if they pick a player in the first round and they also have Devonte Parker and Will Fuller, but someone to add some more bodies to that room. And then if you're looking at like do we want another big play type of type of guy, I would look at James Darton as well. He or Jalen Darton.

Excuse me, He's a guy that could win vertically. He's a smaller player. I know that Miami has a ton of like small gadgety type of receivers, but if you're looking for more speed, he's a guy to look at as well. We have a ton of receivers in general twelve and total right now, so they're all over the place. I know they suddenly just like got you know my guy,

Albert Wilson. I've always liked Albert Wilson. He's he's coming back after the opt out, like they had like a ton of guys like fluction back into the room there, Albert Wilson, Alan Heards coming back. People forget about Lynn Bowed, and people forget about Malcolm Perry last year was a fun player, you know, coming out of the draft process.

And I have to tell my audience I did not grease Matt before this podcast because Matt, you just talked about something that I feel like I've been trying to convince people of for a long time about replicating this type of speed athletic you know, quick receivers with Towah, and I've had a hard I've kind of met some resistance on that point as far as we'll just get him good receivers. No, there's there's stylistically, some things you can do to really, you know, magnify his strength. So

I appreciate you following along there. This is the first time we've ever talked, so I did not grease on that point. I do want to bring it home with this though. But it's so true though, just just to hammer on on that since since since we brought it up like this probably happened to be about three or three years ago. So like doing reception perception, and you know, I guess I'm an idiot. I didn't think about this

until then. But like I'm spending so much time with wide receivers, you're inherently spending so much time with quarterbacks, and I think you start to learn a lot about

a quarterback based on the wide receivers that they thrive with. Um. And I bring it back to Cooper Cup again, like Jared Goff just could would kind of go on the fritz whenever Cooper Cup was out of the lineup, And I think it's clearly because Jared Goff wants to see this guy open, wide open against zone coverage in the middle of the field and hit him on those lay

up throws over and over and over again. UM. I bring it to you know, Carolina in twenty nineteen, they had Curtis Samuel as a vertical threat that just the Kyle Alon I couldn't get that guy the ball. But DJ Moore running thirty five slants and digs per game and on those like more rhythm lay up routes, Kyle Allen was working well with Dj Moore. In a real

throwback example that everybody probably forgets about, Michael Crabtree. This is one of like reception perceptions early backpaths, like in the first year of doing this full fully full season charting and do that, and fourteen, you know, Michael Crabtree was coming from the San Francisco forty Niners to the Oakland Raiders. People basically left Crabtree for dead on that

free agent market. Um. But what reception perception was showing was like, this is a guy that still runs those timing and rhythm routes really well, sort of in the same mold of what I would love to see the Dolphins get for to a guy that can win. And I think even Jamaar Chase, like I've seen people like Nate Tye from The Athletic Football Show compare Jamar Chase to Michael Crabtree, and I think, you know, Larry Fitgerald micro Crabtree. There's some connective tissue there as well, but

he runs those timing and rhythm routes well. That was just not a good fit with the player that Colin Kaepernick had become at that point in his career. He was very much more of a see it, throw at guy that could, like he could rifle that ball to to an Kwan Bolden, no problem, because like an Kwan Bolden doesn't need to be open to catch the ball right.

But when going from the player Kaepernick had become to Derek Carr, who is like not nearly the type of physical talent that Colin Kaepernick buzz but was a much more timing based thrower. Um. You know, and Derek car has got a lot of flaws, but I think one of his best traits is that he does feel the timing and the rhythm of a play very well. Um and knows where ain't smart, like knows when things are coming open. Crabtree had a couple of good years with

Oakland before eventually moving on as well. You know, So this is it's so key when you're scouting wide receivers, when you're trying to find out their best fit. I do think reception perception is a good tool for that as well, because it matters so much. You know, you could be a good wide receiver and even be a productive wide receiver and like even be playing with a good quarterback, but if the stylistic fit is not there,

it's just not going to happen the way people wanted to. Yeah, that chemistry takes you know, you can kind of develop quickly when you have that that fit and maybe does never develop so you don't have that type of fit. And with this draft, like you mentioned, hopefully plenty of options for all kinds of styles with this receiver class. But I want to finish up talking about one player

who's not a receiver, but he kind of is. And you and I talked about an off air about how good this guy is, and everyone's got to going, you know, first player off the board, first non quarterback off the board,

Kyle Pitts. And you know I've talked about how you can add him to the to the running game, and it gives you an extra gap if you have twelve personnel, two more gaps to your running game, and then the defense has to make a decision do we stay in base because then I can flex him in, GESICKI out, and all of a sudden, I've got a linebacker on two basically wide receivers, or if they want to go six defensive backs and go dime. Now I've got forty pounds on your dB in the running game. So it's

a fun balance talk about. I want to hear you talk about Kyle Pitts where he should go off the board and is he really that true matchup, dynamic, game changing piece that so many people think he is. Yeah, I think, you know, there's a ton of skepticism about taking a tight end that high because the history of it's not great. Um, you know, but Kyle Pitts is not Eric Ebron, like Kyle Pitts is not t J. Hopkinson, like if you flex, Hawkins is a pretty decent player.

Ebron has even had his moments. But like if you flex uh t Ja Hockinson like out wide or something, an X receiver like a cornerback is gonna laugh in your face because like, sure he's bigger than him, but he's a lot slower. Kyle Pitts is not that guy. Like Kyle Pitts can line up everywhere. As you mentioned, he might be one of the better receivers in the draft class if he was just a wide receiver. But I think he presents so much more tactical value as

that tight end. And I love the fit with Miami. I don't I don't know if he's gonna get there, Like he might go and pick four, he might go and pick five. He really is that good. But if he's sitting there staring at you know, staring him in the face at six, I would really think long and hard about going with pits there, even though I like Jamar Chase, I like Themont Smith, like Jillen Waddle, like all these receivers that are probably going going to go in the top half of the first round in the

NFL Draft. I think we talked about it like wide receivers deep you know, you can find an impact wide receiver and you already have like two guys. I think Parker and Fuller is a there. There's not a lot of long term stability there because Fuller is only on a one year deal. Parker at some point he's gonna come up as well. There's not a lot of long term stability there but for one. And I think the priority for one is like, at all costs, let's get to a go and you know, let's put something around

him that can work. You got two guys that are competent starting receivers, and at eighteen or thirty six or whatever, you can come back for some of these second tier wide receivers as well. So I would love pittss fit in Miami because it's as you mentioned, Yeah, they have Mikeasecki, and I like Mikeasecki, but number one Mikeasecki is not, you know, a player that would prevent you from taking perhaps the best player in the draft. You know, no,

almost no one is at that level. Like you just get good players and you figure the rest out later. And also, by the way, like if Mike Casseki ever had a season where the Dolphins were gonna franchise tag him, you bet his representatives are gonna be in that front office like like, hey, look at where he lines up. You know, look at how any lines up in this lot, Like you're probably gonna have to tag this guy's the

wide receiver right like there. You know they're gonna try to do that Jimmy Graham things so you can as you mentioned, the options are limitless. Like I think if the like compare what the Dolphins were playing with in like week fifteen, week fourteen of last season two then week one or not sorry, week two, because I gotta gain.

I'm gonna have to get used to that. That's gonna be almost as hard as trying to remember that we have a seventeen game uh, and those and those records and everything, But think about that Week two of NFL season, Like you said, you've got pits and Gasecki as your you know, uh, tight ends, but also you put Gasecki is that big slot, and then you've got Parker at X and Fuller red Z or maybe vice versa. You can move those guys around. That is a huge improvement.

And then again maybe you do have another receiver waiting in the wings that you took later on in the draft from this very interesting and deep class. Um there's a lot of potential there. If I was Miami, I think I would just simply from the rarity of not just a player like Kyle Pitts, but also the tight end position in general is kind of a pain to figure out as it is like anyone who plays mantasy football, I can tell you that is a pain to try to find a good tight end out there. Uh, it's

I would go with Pitts. I think over over some of these receivers. May June, July, August, September. We got about five months until the start of football season. You've got me fired up, Matt. You're talking out that lineup at hard Rock Stadium, getting out there and the hundred degree weather, hundred percent humidity down here in South Florida. I can't wait for it. Matt Harmon, y'all who sports reception perception. I know you're dropping something big on Monday.

Where can the people find you on social What are you working on promote the work Matt? Yeah, of course on social media, Twitter and Instagram at Matt Harmon underscore b y B. Don't bother follow him on Instagram unless you really like dogs or cooking pictures, So let me just stick with Twitter at Matt Harmon. Who doesn't like those things? All right? At Matt Harmon underscore b y B. On Twitter, use the hashtag reception perception to keep up

with what's going on there, and reception Perception. Dot com is the UH is the u r L is the site. Uh. The subscriptions will be available hopefully before Monday, but yeah, Monday will be dropping all of the rookie Like some of these rookies we talked about today, they're gonna get dropped right away. And then before the NFL Draft, the rest of the twelve or fifteen guys that I've worked on this offseason, those will be up there as well. And then in the summer. I mean, Will Fuller is

already on the site. He's a there because he was a free agent, But we're talking about you know, forty plus fifty plus NFL players are going to be added to the site by the time training camps open in the off season. They're just you're you're gonna get like, if you're a fan of Reception Perception before this, you're gonna get more access than you ever have before to

the data. Trust me on that. Or if you are new to the series, you're gonna get blown away by all the information that's about to hit you in the face. You're doing yourself a disservice as a football fan if you do not use this resource. It's so valuable. Matt. We really appreciate your time today. Man, Let's come back and do this maybe in training camp and preview this receiver room when it is complete. Maybe, Yeah, let's lets let's run this all back again, because it's gonna be

I think it's gonna be pretty fun group. And I'm actually excited about the Dolphins offense for sure. I can't wait. Thanks a lot, MA, I appreciate it, man, And away he goes. And you know, I told Matt this off air about how I'm always a little bit you kind of dip your toe into the podcast guest you never interviewed before with Matt. Before we got on the air, we were laughing like football dorks, Like you can tell someone loves it like you do, and he definitely takes

it to another level in that regard. You heard him giggling on the podcast and geeking out about these prospects. That's what makes this job so fun, the love and the passion and the fire for it. We are way over time, but I don't think anyone's can playing out there. We are gonna go ahead and wrap up this podcast though, because as for today's time, that will be my time. You all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, podcast, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast from.

Go ahead and leave us a rating, leave us a review. Follow me on Twitter at Wingfield NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out The Fish Tank and the Audible podcast and Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, fins up