NFL Draft preview: Wide receiver pool runs deep

Deep but not elite.

That seems to be the assessment of the wide receiver group.

Former NFL scout and NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah said during the prime-time televised NFL Combine that he listed 27 receivers with a grade in the first three rounds.

Jeremiah said the average number of receivers taken in a seven-round draft is 31.

“So this is a really phenomenal group of wideouts,” he said.

Good, yes; deep, yes, but elite? Pump the brakes.

“There are a lot of receivers, but I don’t see a Calvin Johnson out there. I don’t see a Julio Jones out there. I don’t see guys that’ll go to the Hall of Fame,” a retired long-time NFL scout told the Star-Advertiser on the condition of anonymity.

But sometimes a player who runs a 4.55 40 (Jerry Rice) lands with the right coach (Bill Walsh), in the right system (the 49ers’ West Coast Offense), with the right quarterbacks (Joe Montana, Steve Young) and voila, you have what many consider the greatest receiver of all time.

So don’t be too quick to dismiss the talents of Oklahoma’s CeeDee Lamb, who has jitterbug quickness despite his 4.5 40 at the combine; Alabama’s Jerry Jeudy, a precision route-runner like Rice; and Alabama’s Henry Ruggs III, the second coming of Tyreek Hill.

“For receivers, it’s quickness,” the NFL scout said. “If you can combine speed and quickness like Lamb, then you got something special.”