Transcription
This is Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate. He's the most quarterback friendly wide receiver in the class. He's 6'3, 195 pounds. He's got 94th percentile hands. And as you guys watch the highlights on this episode, it stands out. He catches everything thrown his way. He has really good tempo in his routes. I thought his work against off coverage really stood out. He's really good in the scramble department. Could find the soft spots in zone coverage. Uh, so the only thing lacking versus, you know, the top end guys in the league is he's a four five40 guy. I think he does enough to overcome that. I would still take him inside the top 10.
Just turned 21 years of age in January. He actually caught, I think, 120 of his 160 targets in college. I mean, that's a high high catch rate. 94th percentile hand size. Put a pin in that because we are definitely going to talk about his hands. And like you said, a four five 340 161 10 yard split. And you know, with now in the era of wide receivers only running if they're fast, credit to him for running and being quote unquote slow comparatively. But I'll say this, four 53 doesn't do his skills service to how much ground he chews up immediately off the line of scrimmage and after his release. I mean, these vertical routes, Hayden, it shows you don't have to be the fastest wide receiver on the field to be the best vertical wide receiver on the field.
Yep. I think he's really good right off against press coverage at the release point. He can stack guys and then he's really good at kind of shielding himself versus the corner that's behind him because he's 6'3 and he can also jump like crazy. I thought his contested catch stuff there was like some really high-end moments. Uh a really insane touchdown grab against Wisconsin as an example. So yeah, he's not going to just like stack and then keep running by someone like Terry McLuren for example just down the field like he's running four threes like it's just completely over. It's a little bit different but I do think that he can kind of sink his hips. I think that he can run the full route tree and I think that's what helps him a lot is because these defenders don't know if he's going to get run they're going to get run by or if he's going to hit the brakes and come back to the football. I think that's where I come come back to the quarterback friendliness with him. He just always on time like his his route lines up with the quarterback. He comes back to the football. He just knows where it's going to end up and he catches everything. So even though he doesn't have the top end speed, I still think he's a very well-rounded number one wide receiver.
Mentioned the 94th percentile hand size. He is an easy, confident hands catcher. He puts that like cone or W in front of his face mask. I mean, glue on his fingertips it feels like.
And then to talk about the route running, he is an efficient movement player before and after the catch. He tells a story with his routes when he needs to, when he has a time to on these five or sevenst step drops. I mean, he forces these man corners in the opposite direction that he wants to go and then boom, bangs it to the sideline. I mean, there there's that Texas game. He has that stem inside. come back to the sideline, then works back about like seven yards because the protection on the right side is super bad and the ball is a bit of a lollipop and he still catches it with a defensive back on his back. And it's actually funny. I think his releases can be so good that sometimes the breaks in his routes then allow the cornerback to kind of catch up. like it creates so much separation early on, then when the actual break forces him to slow down or to tail it to the sideline, then that allows the quarterback to actually get back in phase. But it shows you that he can to me despite being a 4-3 and a 161 10 yard split guy, create separation at basically every level of his route.
Yeah, I think he's still gonna be able to work down the football field for sure just because of the press man coverage reps were really good. That's 3.1 yards per man route removing screen. That's a really high number. And then again, zone coverage, removing screens, 3.2 yards per route, which is very close to Mai Lemon, kind of like the zone slot beater in the class. He's doing this on the outside against, you know, Jeremiah uh Smith, who's just a complete freakazoid, still averaging 80 yards per game. By the way, he's also a five-star recruit from the IMG Academy. Early declare, you said at 21 years old, like this is the profile, man. Like, if if you can't like Carnell Tate, man, you got I think you got some issues here. Uh, and I think you just have to realize that the NFL is not all about speed at this position. Like, there's so much more to playing wide receiver than just raw speed. A lot of the first round bust are the really flashy speed guys that don't have the things are a little bit harder to measure at the NFL combine. I think that's where the Carnell tape shows up to me.
Tons of two wide receiver sets, plenty of snaps on the outside. We can just talk about these vertical routes all day long. I mean, big time versus single high, he is terrifying with how economic his movement is. And again, the storytelling, if you're a pedaling corner, and if he gets, you know, one-on-one versus a safety because the defense is sending a blitz or it's cover two or it's cover four, it's off to the races. I mean, he always seems to force these backpeding corners or these stationary safeties waiting for him in the wrong direction. Your hips, baby. Good luck.
Yeah. And again, that allows you to run by someone. I I'm going to reiterate this point. We love these 428 guys or these 435 guys. If you just line Carnell Tate up, even next to Jeremiah Smith at times, he was faster vertically down the field just because of how much grass he eats up, how economic his movement is, and when you force a corner to be guessing, then you're going to have even more separation down there. And there's sideline awareness, I think, on top of this, too. like a 39 versus Illinois. He's on the far side of the field. A simple speed out, but he makes sure to run it two yards beyond the sticks, the line to gain, and he finishes it with a strong tow drag at the sideline. I guess my question to you is a big one. Is he a primary wide receiver on an NFL team or is he simply a very good complimentary one?
No, I think he's a one. I think he's a one. He's not superstar Jamar Chase one and stuff like there's there's a different tier to this. Some of my comps, I think Calvin Ridley is one that kind of stands out to me who name I had written down.
I mean, it's like it's every show, man. It's every show. Maybe it's because we watch every single one of these uh reps that these guys have. Uh a lowend comp would be like Jeremy Mlin, who by the way, Jeremy Mlin had awesome seasons. My upside comp, and you're going to have to like listen to this for a second. There's some like DeAndre Hopkins to uh the Cardinal Tate game who was not a really fast player but was so dominant, caught everything and threatened at all three levels that even though he wasn't blowing by everybody, he still was super productive. Now, John Hopkins a little bit thicker than Carnell Tate, but Carnell Tate's a little bit taller, but just stylistically like that's how like this type of profile we're like I don't know exactly know why he's getting 150 targets. But I do think there's something to his game where I think in a year or two he can be one of these like true number one wide receivers even if they're not going to reach, you know, like the the top five uh wide receivers in the NFL status.
Yeah, I wrote down more like Falcons Calvin really stuff which by the way, he's playing opposite Julio Jones. That kind of goes back to my question there. if you want to look at the Tennessee Titans version or the Jaguars version, which by the way got paid a ton of money, uh just I think much better sideline awareness. I don't know if he has the same dunk on you skill set like DeAndre Hopkins had at at Clemson. By the way, it's very clear that Hayd and I do not share notes. Somehow they do overlap. Uh that's what every single one of these videos are. That's what makes it great. If you've made it this far in the video, about 45% of you that have watched over the last four weeks have not hit that subscribe button. Change that right now. It is totally free and uh there's plenty more videos just like this one on the way. Let's talk about more of this because I think it's a very fair question and I think teams are going to have that same one. Is he a primary or is he a secondary complimentary piece? And again, those are extremely valuable. Those are even difficult to find in free for agency like if covered, if he doesn't win with the footwork that we keep talking about, the salesmanship that we keep talking about, what is his trait to become uncovered to me? Is it size? It's not high point. Not really. Like his contested catch numbers though were unreal. PF charred him with winning 85% of his.
Yeah, I really liked him in that. I I might see him differently than you on that aspect. I think there's some plays like even like really down the field where I think a contested target is harder to measure because there's a sevenyard slant contested target and then there's the 40 uh yard down the field jump ball which obviously that's much harder to come down with and he got a lot of those and he was still coming down with them. I saw real development from 24 to 25 as well. Like you watched in 2024 his comeback versus Michigan State. It was a bit more rounded, kind of late, no urgency to it. Now to me, he immediately forces again that uncertainty that we keep discussing with him. And you know, because they had Jeremiah Smith on the opposite side and maybe this quarterback didn't want to throw a lot over the middle of the field or in the intermediate section, it was a lot of underneath stuff and then it was even more vertical stuff and not necessarily a ton of intermediate route running. But because of all the footwork and technician and like you said in the flow of the offense with the timing of it, I think he can run every single route even if he wasn't asked to run every single route in every single game.
Yeah, I think I think dig routes will be a big part of his game at at the next level. Um, and like you said, when you're confident catching the ball over the middle, I think that he will have some some more yak opportunities. He didn't get a lot of yak opportunities in this offense because you would rather just throw the ball to Jeremiah Smith. I don't think we should like really hold that against Carnell Tate all that much because we're talking about like a Julio Jones level prospect that he was dealing with. So, might be the 101 if he was in this class for sure. So, I think there's more yards after the catch ability with him at the next level. I don't think it'll ever be in the craziest tier that we're seeing before. So, um, yeah, there's a lot of like really high paid number two wide receivers that got these contracts with just like Jaylen Wadd is a number one, number two, doesn't really matter. Uh, Devonte Smith, kind of same situation. A lot of like the guys that get paid 25 plus million dollars a year. They kind of live on this border. In this draft class, I just think he has the more unique skill set because a lot of the guys are like, "Oh, he's a slot. He's a flanker." And I just think that you can park this guy at X receiver and I think you're going to get a full field uh route runner and I think it's really valuable.
One more stat from the great Lord Reeves. 53% of Carninal Tate's targets resulted in a first down or a touchdown. That's the second highest rate in this class. And again, uh that's at Ohio State against all the competition that they faced. Reeves had an interesting comparison of Rody White during the Atlanta Falcon days, which is kind of a throwback there, too.
Yeah, I always felt like Rody was so much heavier than Carl Tate, but that's he was not coming out. It was about the same about five pounds heavier. And that was something where you're talking about a 21-year-old early to clear. I wouldn't be surprised. Why is he right now 195 if eventually we're looking at his NFL pro uh football reference page and he's like at 208 or something like that and that he puts on a little bit uh of of muscle there. I also thought that he really competed as a blocker in fact that they would like put him pretty condensed uh and ask him to actually be like a part of the run play. uh it kind of came and went with him, but he does have the size and I think Ohio State acknowledged, hey, you have to go do like the dirty work because we're not going to put Jeremiah Smith in that role. We cannot have it at torn ACL with Jeremiah Smith. Carnell Tate, guess what? You're going to have to get your hands dirty. And I do think that he that's is something that I would check with his box where some of the other round one wide receivers like I'm not sure if he could physically do it or if they don't want to do it or a combination of the both. I think Carnell T uh checked the box there.
Wrote it in my notes as well. definitely examples of getting condensed to the formation, especially versus a loaded box when they'll motion him inside, uh, put him right next to the tight end or especially just a pure offensive tackle and then he attacks a walk down safety. He sets the edge and then they run off of him. Even some of his like bad blocks were him actually like doing the work and the, you know, running back getting by him and then maybe his guy will escape around and make a chase down tackle on top of it. Uh, I am trying to read between the lines with you. Am I correct in saying that Carnell Tate for you in this wide receiver class is in a tier of his own?
Um, he would be pretty close to it. He's he's my number one wide receiver and I would take him in the top 10. Uh, there's a guy or two that we really like that might be close to that. Um, but they're just totally different style players. It's kind of even hard to compare them. Um, but I would take Carninal Tate number one inside the top 10.
All right. Later this week on Thursday, maybe even by the time you're watching this video, we have our wide receiver prospect rankings on the channel. So, uh, hit subscribe, go and watch that or another video right now and we'll see you over.