Rashee Rice

Pos: WR

School: SMU

Ht. 6’2″ 

Wt. 188

Games Watched: Tulane, Houston, Memphis

One Liner: Physical wide receiver who wins with blocking, contested catches, 

Strengths: 

  • Very good blocking. Rice is one of the better blocking receivers in this year’s draft, and could be a really useful weapon in the run game if he is able to seal off the boundaries the way he did in college.
  • Very good functional strength. Rice is a strong receiver, and it can be seen when he is blocking or at the catch point, where he wins with physicality and strong powerful arms that allow him to outmuscle defenders in 50/50 situations.
  • Good long speed. Rice flashes solid long speed, and has the capability to win downfield with his speed. However, this speed isn’t seen when running routes, rather more linear speed than route running speed, which limits his separation ability. 

Weaknesses:

  • Marginal route running. Rice lacks twitch and suddenness as a route runner. He doesn’t sell fakes off his stems, and doesn’t have the footwork to make consistently sharp cuts at the top of his route. 
  • Marginal consistency. Rice lacks reassuring consistency on tape. He has some bad drops which makes it hard to give him credit for some of the spectacular catches he is capable of making. Sometimes, he is able to win and separate with athleticism, but with these flashes I am not sure if those skills are translatable to the next level. 

Overall Assessment: Rashee Rice projects to be a physical WR2 at the best in the pros. He has positive functional strength which shows up consistently on tape, and flashes the ability to win with long speed on deep routes. However, Rice lacks technical nuance at this point, and is neither a natural separator or a technically refined route runner. He flashes some great contested catches and good ball skills, but unfortunately these are just flashes, and Rice has a lot of inconsistencies. He has good size, good physicality and upside to fix drop issues at the next level, which still causes Rice to be an intriguing prospect. 

Scheme Fit: Z receiver that needs to shore up route running against press looks to get consistent starter reps

Pick Projection: Round 4

Grade: 6.18