Transcription
This is Tennessee wide receiver Chris Brazzle. We have another one. They all look the same. 6'4", 198, runs 4.37. You have to find him on tape. You can look right next to the sideline. That's where he lines up. You can see him running pretty much two routes. You know, a downfield route, whether that's a post or a go ball or a little hitch. That's kind of the extent of his game right now.
With all that said, the draft community, fantasy football community is in love with Chris Brazzle. So, we need to figure out and the big question for this entire episode is how is he different than Jaylen Hyatt? How is he different than Dante Thornton? Just a couple more stats out here. He's about 22 years of age. Spent two years at Tulane, the last two years at Tennessee. A uh cool 15.4 average depth of target. I mean, he had 23 targets, one to nine yards on the field, 35 10 through 19 yards this past season, and then 28 28 20 plus yards down the field. On those 28 targets, 13 receptions, 59 yards, 20 plus yards on the field, and six touchdowns. So again, I wind it all the way back. Why might he be different than the Jaylen Hyatts and the Dante Thorntons of the world?
Well, he's a lot bigger than Jaylen Hyatt, for example, got like 20 lbs and like 4 in, which does matter. I think that he's got a better chance of, you know, surviving on the outside and winning some of these high-pointed balls down the football field. And he's going to have to get really good at that because like you said, so much of his game is right now built on winning down the football field. I don't think that he was like awesome playing through contact and and fighting through um the contact down for the football. Uh, some of the back shoulder throws when he's like going up in the air. I thought it was pretty inconsistent. I think if you turn on like, you know, the UAB game, you're just being pushed out of bounds too often. So, he's better because he's bigger, but it's still the same exact worries. Like I I see him inside the slot a couple times, but these corners are so fearful of him that it's almost like just like off coverage for so much of the game. It's the same exact route. And I think the NFL caliber corners are so much better than the college corners that what he's getting away with in college, like I'm not sure if I can see him or if I can project him to be able to do it in the pros.
So, I asked myself that same question and when watching every single one of these games and I came away with kind of two routes, okay, two receptions. He ran a legit route in press coverage versus Georgia, a normal tightish alignment. He took that inside release with a quarterback with outside leverage. That's where he has to get to is to the sideline. So at 14 yards, he swipes the corner forward, breaks outside, creates a massive five-yard gap, five yards of space, and then ends it with an hands catch off frame. Then you go and watch the Mississippi State game, a tight alignment in the red zone, release, post versus press coverage, elevates for a touchdown. I bring up those two plays because I'm not even sure you can point to one singular snap per game that says he is different than all this other cycle of Tennessee wide receiver. And just a quick reset on that. I mean, the reason why this is difficult is just the pure spacing that the Vols offense brings to the table. I mean, they will line someone basically on two opposite sidelines, maybe two feet uh inbounds off of those. Everything is built off this vertical line. You have hinge routes, you have comebacks, maybe a couple slants off of those. And just to put that in perspective, he had 63 targets this past season outside the numbers versus 36 over the middle of the field. And I'm even wondering if I went back and counted those 36 over the middle of the field if I could uh even get to that number.
Yeah, I thought some of his dig routes and stuff when he would run them on occasion, I didn't think that he would come out of his out of his out of the break like with that much intensity and stuff. Like there's one like a deflected ball up in for an interception stuff. I don't know, man. Like just looking at the Jaylen Hyatt stuff for the comparison, he averaged 106 yards per game as a true junior and Chris Brazzle is a little bit older averaging 85 yards per games. Like there was a reason why some of us like were tricked a little bit by Jaylen Hyatt and Yeah. Yeah. So some of us me as like a second round player, but like this is I think that's a good conversation with like Hyatt versus Cedric Tillman for example because they were in the same draft class and in the same offense and I like Cedric Tillman because he actually ran inbreakers. He showed toughness. He showed compete at the catch point even coming out of this offense. And so you can still show it in this system. It's just going to be I think in a different package. And then what exactly translates?
And you can be just a downfield receiver. Like if if that's just your calling card and you come in for, you know, you're the number three or number four wide receiver and you're not playing all the snaps and stuff and you're just so fast that you have to be respected, that's an NFL role. And I think that's the role I would absolutely sign up for him. I just don't think that role is a top 50 pick. And I I have not been sold that he's gonna turn into now he's like turning into like the Alec Pierce kind of profile where now he's doing a bunch of inbreakers, has a good feel and a lot of toughness and stuff. I am not sold on that projection and I think that we've kind of thought that it's going to happen way too often. The reality is the downfield guys kind of usually just stick as downfield guys and I think we need to be realistic at what that should mean in the NFL draft where I think that's more of a third or fourth rounder, not a top 50 selection. Alec Pierce is the hope for all of these players. You know, be a role player early on, really master that and develop in year three or year four. I mean, the issue here again is free access post over and over and then once you kind of clear these underneath corners or guys in man coverage, then you basically just run to space because there's going to be so much open field and the quarterback just lobs the ball in into that area.
Now, if I was to say, who do I like more? Chris Brazzle, Dante Thornton, and Jaylen Hyatt. Brazzle is easily the number one for me. Like, I actually have hope, more hope I should say, of him than I did the other types because there are some wow ball skill moments I felt. And then there's plenty of other occasions where he's very light on those tight window targets. He's kind of the nail in the equation. And like you said, even against like UAB and Vanderbilt, he was thrown around. I mean, there were multiple snaps, I think, against UAB where he was pushed four yards out of bounds and and continues in the paint, continues his route, gets back in bounds, and tries to catch the football. So, everyone seen that Georgia game. He was dominant. He crushed that contest. I mean, that long touchdown through pass interference is fantastic stuff. It's just the inconsistency in that department where you can throw out a handful of snaps where he was great with it and a handful of other snaps where he looks lightweight now.
Yeah, it's just really tough. Like Deontay Thornton was like just like not prepared to get any snaps with the Raiders last year and he almost had the exact same physical profile as uh Brazle does. Like this is extremely great opportunity for it too. For sure. Yeah. And like these guys like it's just the first year it's hard to like hit the ground running when you're in this really bonkers offense and then it gets into like year two, year three and then all of a sudden there's somebody else that they've drafted or signed to kind of take the role. Like I think there's like some MVS to his game, you know? Like that's kind of what we're shooting for here. I think that's like a realistic kind of role and uh player type for him and like you're going to have to deal with some of the drops down the field, some of the lack of toughness from time to time. He could run by you though. Uh, and like MVS I think always was probably a number three or number four wide receiver who can has like kind of one role and I think that's what I would be aiming for here. And um, I like that closer to like 80th overall, not 40, 45.
I wrote down Treylon Thornton. Uh, now he's about two inches shorter, 15 pounds lighter. But even Treylon Thornton now having a role and carving out an opportunity in the NFL, it is purely as a downfield player. Yeah. And it's taken a while. It has definitely taken a while. Uh, Chris Brazzle is fast on the field. Apparently, he was also fast off of it. I did want to bring up that uh because this is happening with other wide receivers across the league on August 8th this past year. Driving with a suspended license and speeding going just 65 in a 35 mile per hour zone. So, it's not like the 130 that we Well, it's probably a school, something. Um, I get why people are really interested in this and we see this in all different, you know, types of players once they reach the NFL that just have high potential that if you just kind of shoe these away, you're going to miss out on the one that actually hits. Um, I'm okay kind of missing out if Sure. If it happens here with Chris Brazzle because there are so many other wide receivers in this class that I would want to take a chance on. Yeah, these teams, you know, only have seven rounds and maybe seven, eight, nine picks to to make.
That also offers, you know, some vertical ability because it's not just speed with that. As we see across the league, not all the fastest guys are the best down the field and the best guys down the field aren't always the fastest. That to me, this is not a linear skill set per se, even though he was a linear player in college. Uh, I just throw my hands up and say, I don't know. I don't know what it's going to be. It's a total mystery box. Uh, and that's just not really my type of player here.
I'm just looking at the free agency period. Um, Marquise Brown sounds for $5 million. Treylon Thornton $5.5 million. Darnell Mooney $3 million. You know, like if you need a just vertical guy in an offense, like you can get these guys, every single free agency for almost no money. And I just don't think there's a whole lot of value with it. Now, if there was a cut up that I'm missing that that he's showing a lot of dig routes, out routes, you know, he's going to actually kind of threaten the field in in more than just one capacity, I would like to see it. I just didn't find that this time around. So, I just want to put him in that bucket.
Yeah. And maybe before we rank all these wide receivers, which by the way, subscribe to the channel. We're going to post a uh prospect rankings video for all the wide receivers probably next week. I should go back and watch his 2023 stuff at Tulane because that was his other most productive year. You know, 44 catches, 711 yards, five touchdowns. Uh, and then that, you know, this past year, 62 catches, like I said, 100 a thousand yards and nine scores. I am assuming to put myself in other people's shoes that they are just anticipating because you do see the fluidity, you do see kind of stop start, you do see some really wow moments that he can just be a route winner because of his size, his athleticism at all three levels. And right now, other than again maybe one route or one catch out of every two games, that's just not something that I am confident in saying.
And I will just warn I don't think that if you running a vertical route and you kind of do that little drop your pads and then keep running, that's not like route running. Like that doesn't take a whole lot of technique and stuff like there's way more stuff, more important stuff happening at the break point, a little bit of a push off, you know, the releases, that type of stuff. It's not just like a double move where you patter your feet for a second.
All right, that does it. Go and watch other videos that we have on the channel. We've posted Mai Lemon and Casey Concepcion and Chris Bell and even Ted Hurst. I mean, I think the conversation that teams are going to have here with Chris Brazzle versus Ted Hurst versus someone like Bryce Young will be fascinating how they stack those and we'll have again individual videos on each of those. So, hit subscribe and we'll see you over.