Jayden Reed

Pos: WR

School: Michigan State

Ht. 5’11″ 

Wt. 187

Games Watched: Illinois, Kentucky, Utah

One Liner: Nuanced wide receiver who wins with route running, quickness, and YAC ability

Strengths: 

  • Very good route running. Reed shows nuanced footwork and cuts in and out of his stem that project him to be a technical and savvy route runner at the next level. He maintains speed throughout his route, and keeps his feet churning throughout the progression of the route, regardless of 1st, 2nd or 3rd level. 
  • Very good quickness. Reed is a quick and twitchy receiver who can separate with shiftiness and make the defenders job much tougher as he is unpredictable pre-throw, especially in short yardage situations where Reed has a free release from the slot.
  • Very good YAC ability. Reed’s short area quickness comes into play here as well, where he demonstrated elite punt and kick returning ability in 2021 with the agility and movement skills to make people miss. With a heavier dosage of targets in the short game, Reed can definitely display his ability to create in space with the ball in his hands.
  • Good footwork. Reed displays technical and well developed footwork, without using many unnecessary steps into his stem and carrying his body weight fluently in and out of his breaks. 

Weaknesses:

  • Adequate hands. Reed has reliable hands for the most part, but he will be limited moving forward as a somewhat of a smaller body receiver who hasn’t developed the best catch radius yet. Reed flashes high level catches in contested and congested situations, but as of right now he doesn’t have the consistency at the catch point to be a dominant 50/50 receiver at the next level. 
  • Adequate athlete. Reed has twitch and quickness to his game, but overall he isn’t the speediest athlete on the field. He has sufficient athleticism to separate against press and beat off man coverages with footwork and route running, but his deep speed is not going to be his winning trait at the next level.

Overall Assessment: Jayden Reed is an extremely underrated receiver who has all the tools to be a dominant slot receiver at the next level. Reed has NFL caliber twitch and movement skills that make him a dangerous return man, while also showing high level YAC ability as a threat with the ball in his hands. Reed has some technical things to clean up but overall he is one of the more nuanced and refined receivers entering this draft, and has good enough hands with sufficient athletic ability to dominate in the NFL. 

Scheme Fit: Slot receiver who can become an outside threat with some development to his 50/50 game

Pick Projection: Day 2

Grade: 6.37