Wide Receiver is one of the most eye-catching positions in the NFL, with many of the game’s most famous players such as Odell Beckham Jr. and Randy Moss playing the position. As draft season rolls around we look into this new class of wide receivers as the NFL combine nears. Some of the interesting prospects in this year’s draft include Ohio States’ star wideout and son of NFL Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison, Marvin Harrison Jr., and LSU standout and record breaker Malik Nabers. One prospect that really stands out to me is Washington’s Rome Odunze. Odunze finished this season with 92 receptions for 1640 receiving yards. While Odunze’s season ended in heartbreak, he still has a very bright future in front of him.
Odunze is a big bodied receiver coming in at 6 ‘3, 215 pounds, putting him close in size to superstar wide receiver Julio Jones, who is 6’ 3, 220 pounds. While watching Odunze’s tape it’s easy to see that with his large size he has a great ability to win contested catches. It seems like whenever you give Odunze a chance to catch the ball, he’s destined to come down with it.
For his size you can tell that Odunze is a very smooth route runner, he has a good ability to change direction and is good at finding openings in the defense. NFL scout Derrik Klassen said “You also see how smart a receiver Odunze is in the way he runs his routes. Odunze does an excellent job manipulating leverage versus man coverage, as well as negotiating space versus zone coverages.” This means that Odunze is good at finding openings that other receivers may struggle to take advantage of. This makes Odunze a very good receiver to pair up with less experienced quarterbacks due to the fact that he is good at finding openings in coverage and his great ability to win contested catches.
Right now, the main argument against Odunze is that he doesn’t have the high burner speeds that elevate some of the game’s best receivers. While Odunze might not be the fastest receiver ever, he definitely isn’t slow, he has the speed to win in most situations, even when he doesn’t out speed the defensive back lined up against him he’s going to outsize and out strength them to win the rep.
Rome Odunze is currently being ranked as many experts wide receiver three, but I believe that with his skill set that Odunze has the potential to end up as the best receiver to come out of this class.
