Zay Flowers, Boston Faculty: 5’9”, 180 kilos.
A 3-star recruit in 2019, Zay Flowers carried the ball greater than he caught it as a real freshman (22 vs. 27) for simply over 500 yards and 4 touchdowns complete.
Whereas he did nonetheless get entangled on some sweep and end-around performs, he did primarily concentrate on doing harm by means of the air from yr two on. He hauled in 178 passes for two,715 yards and 27 TDs over the three ensuing seasons. Flowers earned first-team All-ACC accolades within the latter and now leaves Boston Faculty as their all-time chief in receiving yards (3056).
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Zay Flowers deserves a ton of credit score for sticking with a BC program that went 3-9 and had extremely inconsistent quarterback play throughout Flowers’ time there.
Zay Flowers scout report: Strengths
+ Exhibits nice acceleration off the road and that further juice to tug away from safeties when matched up with them down the submit. You noticed him run away from top-tier athletes like Clemson’s Andrew Sales space in 2021, even when the ball wasn’t fairly there for him in that matchup.
+ Ran a bunch of submit routes and deep crossers, the place he may run away from whoever ended up being matched up with him. Getting him matched up with a security as #3 in journeys is a recipe for failure, due to the way in which he can put them on their heels with a vertical stem after which hit one other gear as he flattens throughout the sector.
+ You clearly see that defensive coordinators circle this man on the whiteboard, while you watch DBs bracket him vertically with leverage from either side. There are such a lot of performs the place he’s used as a decoy, opening up house beneath – his conditioning/stamina should be off the charts.
+ Additionally has some good moments utilizing head-nods and physique leans to arrange and switch round defenders as a route-technician.
+ Extraordinarily shifty out of his stance to keep away from jams in press and cut back the near-shoulder, to not be impeded in his route stem.
+ Does an amazing job of actually pushing the nook vertically after which creating separation as he sits down to interrupt again on the ladder (deep curls and comebacks), the place he usually makes guys overrun that time.
+ Bends off the both foot with none delay and may eat on these easy-access throws on slants or velocity outs after placing his head down for a few steps, to get corners in back-up mode.
+ Was open consistently, however the quarterback both didn’t have sufficient time or may place the ball the place it wanted to be.
+ Exhibits some fairly spectacular late changes to the ball within the air.
+ Makes quite a lot of difficult catches the place he has to dive for low balls on comebacks and deep outs.
+ For a man of his top, he does an amazing of positioning his physique and attacking the ball within the air, leading to a contested catch fee of 58.3% final yr.
+ Placed on 11 kilos because the finish of the season and appears muscular at 183 lbs.
+ As soon as he catches the ball deep down the sector, he can placed on the breaks and make safeties look silly in the event that they cost in on him.
+ Can stick his foot within the floor and juke round defenders out within the flats off fast completions to show them into lengthy beneficial properties.
+ But additionally swipes down the arms of defenders reaching out for himself and has the power in his decrease physique to bounce off hits, when he’s catching the ball on the run.
+ Doesn’t cheat you with any lack of effort as a blocker, throwing his physique into defenders and discovering methods to wall them off.
+ Solely took half in a single Shrine Bowl follow, nevertheless it simply appeared completely different to the remainder of the group, gliding by and breaking a robust group of DBs.
Zay Flowers scout report: Weaknesses
– Tends of eager to beat his man rapidly on the route and due to that enables defenders to re-enter the image with the way in which he makes the break later down the sector.
– There’s a scarcity of manipulation previous to and a few extreme steps on the break level vs. off-coverage, attempting to arrange routes versus DBs who’re capable of keep sq. to him as he runs himself into contact.
– His restricted catch radius does present up at instances, when it appears to be like like he’ll sky for top passes, however he’s solely simply capable of get his finger-tips on them (solely 29 and ¼-inch arms).
– Had 9 drops and 4 fumbles in 2022.
Zay Flowers scout report: Grade
Zay Flowers has some fairly insane quick-twitch to beat defenders in any course. I actually consider he can play in and out, win on all three ranges and he has the velocity to tug away from anyone earlier than or after the ball will get into his fingers.
Flowers has already flashed some extremely spectacular moments of leaving defenders behind within the mud as a route-runner. If he can do this extra usually, he’s going to be an especially powerful cowl on the subsequent stage.
Now, together with his top and arm size being within the bottom-eighth percentile, there are some limitations by way of catch radius and skill to defend the ball together with his physique. However as he continues to work on his craft, defenders aren’t going to have the ability to put fingers on him and he can strike concern within the hearts of opposing coaches (if he truly has someone that may ship him the ball precisely).
Grade: High-15 general.
You would possibly like different 2023 NFL Draft Scouting Stories: Jaxon Smith-Njigba (WR), Ohio; Noah Sewell (LB), Oregon; Drew Sanders (LB), Arkansas; Zach Charbonnet, RB, UCLA; Bijan Robinson (RB), Texas.
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