Transcription
This is Georgia State wide receiver Ted Hurst. He passes the immediately standout test against non-NFL competition. He's 6'4, 206 pounds, 4.42 speed. He was on Bruce Feldman's freaks list like, before the year. So, this is not just like some random guy showing up. I'm not sure why he was a zero-star recruit coming out of high school. I'm not sure why he didn't transfer up. He did average 80 and then 83 yards per game. He showed up to the Senior Bowl. There's a lot going on here. The flashes are high. The downside is real.
On top of the 4.43 and the 155 10-yard split, he also has 82nd percentile hand size. A cool 11-foot-3 ball jump, 99th percentile, 66th percentile vert. Uh, he actually led the FBS in over the last two seasons with 27 receptions of 20-plus air yards. That checks.
And it makes sense. I mean, when given free releases and, by the way, felt like Georgia State had another towering wide receiver out there, a monster out there. Yeah, their like trio of wide receivers are huge. So, he actually was allowed to play in the slot and kind of given these runways and really, really fluidly get down the field.
I bring up 6'4 and often times you think, well, those guys are just going to be ball winners and all that type of stuff. Don't get me wrong, there's definitely occasions and examples that you can throw out there, especially in the end zone with him coming down with, you know, back-shoulder and contested grabs.
Hayden, this might be a controversial statement based on public opinion out there. I am questioning if he plays big often enough. Yes, I, I think it's the same exact thing. I wrote down more times that he can like sink his hips a little bit more and get to full speed more so than he was just like dunking on everybody. So, the size, the size does stand out. I do think he's still trying to figure out what exactly to do with it. And I just think there was like more concerns like even getting to the catch point part, which I'm sure we'll get to, but there was never like so many times where I'm like, "Oh my god, he's just dunking on everybody." It really was not that much of a scam.
I mean, he has real control of his limbs for his size. I felt like, like you see it on quick transitions on screens, which you got tunnel screens. It's all in rhythm again. The big vertical routes oftentimes versus off-coverage. Like, I mean, go and watch his game against Murray State. He posts 10 catches for 172 yards in.
That's a good Murray State team, too.
It's ridiculous. Now, on the opposite end of that, he had one catch for six yards against Miss. I understand the Vanderbilt game was seven for 71. Uh, didn't look as good, I thought, as the box score might show against Vanderbilt. He has great control of his body. He glides. He has easy speed down the field. I also think that has kept him maybe from developing some ability to use his frame on these releases. It's all his lower half. It's all footwork. He doesn't get his hands involved to win in the dark arts, as I always say, or create and push off at the line of scrimmage and then get down the field. And so, he has right now this huge target area, 6'4. And if he's not getting his hands involved, to me, these better corners, like you saw during his time with Georgia State, especially this season, uh, they have an easier job to stick with him because he just hasn't been able to learn how to utilize his strength right now.
Yeah, I saw, I was watching an Iowa State kind of wide receiver clinic and they talk about windshield wipers like this. And if you're throwing your hands too far and you're turning your shoulders and stuff, you're just not going to win initially. And I think I saw that way too much from Ted Hurst. You just talked about getting jammed a little bit and some of these big receivers kind of struggle with that. I do think that was absolutely it. I agree that he has the ability to sink his hips. You talked about like he has control over his limbs. He just does not sell the routes. He's a little bit choppy at the break point. On top of that, there were other times where he was like lined up like four or five yards off the line of scrimmage. I could not, like, believe like some of the screenshots I was taking. I was like, "What? Where is he?" He has no idea where the line of scrimmage is. So, there's there's some oddities here. here. I thought he can get off of his landmarks at times. The Old Miss game was definitely a bad one. He played a little bit better against Vanderbilt, but also that was like garbage time to kind of throw the ball uh underneath a couple times there. So, in his two biggest games of the year, not a whole lot separating there. Uh, he did go crazy against Murray State and those type of guys, which you have to appreciate.
Georgia Southern.
Yeah, those those big powerhouses. Um, but there's definitely a real rawness with Ted Hurst. And if he did not have these crazy athletic measurables, then I do think he would just like not be on anyone's radar.
And I wasn't in the Senior Bowl, so I can't speak on that, but reports stated that he did do well down there. Um, my controversial statement is that he doesn't play big enough. He doesn't play to his size enough. And he takes like multiple choppy steps and like multiple releases at the line of scrimmage to get off the line versus press instead of again, just utilize your strength, utilize your size and uh force your way down the field. The wasted movement is going to get even more detrimental to his game once he gets to the league. Uh, unfortunately, his quarterback was also off-target a lot. He would have had even more production than what he posted this past season. These balls were late. Uh, and they minimized the windows that he created with the separation because again, a tick or two or three or four seconds late.
Yeah, some dreadful drops. I mean, one against Vanderbilt, he just, like I said, didn't look good against Miss and Vandy in that same sample. Um, I am nervous because he has this X wide receiver frame that an NFL team is going to utilize him as an X and like as a stationary player. Uh, and I think the development might stall because of that.
Right? Like if a team thinks they're getting an Alec Pierce, Nico Collins here, those guys just had a lot better paths and they were a lot more ready for development than what Ted Hurst is.
You know who he reminds me of? And this just hit me a little bit of like Trey Harris stuff.
Okay.
From last year. Now, Trey Harris obviously, uh, moved up from Louisiana Tech, uh, and then transferred up to freaking Miss and, uh, played really well. Had good reps against good competition. But we even saw Trey Harris's first year in the league, uh, be up and down, a bit of a roller coaster. And that development, I think, will only be even more accentuated here for Ted Hurst.
And Trey Harris was being subbed in by the Chargers to block and stuff. So, there's like that physicality component that we'll see about Ted Hurst. I, I think it's fair to say there were some bad throws to him, but also why didn't he transfer? Like, this is NIL era.
Well, he did. He did transfer. So, he he was a zero-star.
Recruited 2025.
Correct. He, so he was a zero-star recruit and went to Valdosta State, played there and then transferred up to Georgia State.
And nothing from Georgia State then?
But that's what my point is. You average 80 yards at Georgia State. Typically, every other university is like, we'll take some of that and they, something happened. I don't know the backstory, just that's a red flag in this era. Everybody transfers up. When players aren't transferring up, alarm bells.
Yeah, it was a small transfer up. But to your point, like the Rams, whenever you watch these behind-the-scenes draft videos, they always love players who have transferred up, a few that have done it for them. Jared Verse went from Albany to FSU, Braden Fisk transferred up, Josiah Stewart transferred up. Uh, they like that. They want you to go and reach your potential against, you know, the best competition out there and and really strive to do that. But yeah, Valdosta State to Georgia State. Uh, when you can face off against Georgia Southern and Murray State and uh, just different, Old Dominion, all these guys. Uh, not, not quite the same level as playing for FSU.
I got some comps. Uh, I got five of them. These are just kind of size, weight, speed, development comps. Deontay Thornton from last year. Javon Baker, I think, had some of the same issues going on at UCF. Uh, Denzel Mims was like the earliest draft pick. DJ Chark was like probably the guy that we're hoping Ted Hurst can be. Now, I think Chark showed a little bit more speed than Ted Hurst did and then like Justin Hunter and stuff. Like there's there's a lot of these guys that are like, in theory, intriguing and then they get drafted in the third round and we just don't really hear from him. So I would feel a lot more comfortable in the fourth round than the third round. I think he's going to go earlier than that.
We haven't used the word, but he's a project. Would you agree?
Big time. Oh yeah. Big time. Big time.
Yeah. I mean, even when he's making his breaks, his arms kind of get like helicoptery, like he makes his frame even bigger. Again, though, I, I am intrigued by just the movement for his size, how he can sink his weight and get out of breaks and he did run a good amount of routes, um, inside, outside breakers, deep post, all this type of stuff. But it's just like the total inability, other than some high point when he knows he has to, you know, box out and rebound in the end zone for him to even maximize his 6'4 size. Um, that again, development can happen in the NFL, but uh, you might not get enough reps for it, you know, and uh, if you're already after year one into your NFL contract, then hopefully they don't replace you after that, you know, in year two or year three and year four once you're a third or fourth round pick. I think Chris Bell is also viewed as a project player.
We'll talk about this when we talk about, you know, wide receiver rankings. I will have Chris Bell ahead of Ted Hurst in my wide receiver rank.
Yeah, I think there's more proof of concept with the athleticism like fully translating onto the field with Chris Bell. So, yep. I think third, fourth round, we'll see if he can stick on to special teams. Like typically fourth round wide receiver, you make the roster by being a special teamer. We'll see if he can do all that type of stuff because I think he, he needs to hit on those things in order to earn some playing time as a number three wide receiver on a rotation. I think that's going to take some time.
That's going to do it. As you can tell, hey, and I don't share notes ahead of this. That's what makes it so much fun. If you did have fun, go and watch another one of these prospect profiles. And before you do that, definitely, definitely hit that subscribe button. About 45% of you have been watching over the last four weeks have not hit subscribe. So, change that. Be kind. Join us here. We'll see you in the next video.