Now that the scouting combine is right around the corner, it’s time for Doug Farrar and Luke Easterling to put on their imaginary general manager hats and make some personnel decisions with draft prospects. It’s Either/Or time! If you had the entire pool of prospects to choose from, and you needed a top-tier receiver, would you rather have TCU’s Quentin Johnston, or USC’s Jordan Addison?
Doug: When evaluating prospects, I am more prone at certain positions to err on the side of athletic potential over the prospect who is more developed as a player, but who might have a lower ceiling. Receiver is one of those positions, and so I have to go with Johnston here. I get that he’s not a route-complex guy – at TCU, he lived off hitches, slants, and go routes. And I get that he’s a body-catcher who has a fairly big problem with drops. But when you’re 6-foot-4, 215 pounds, and you can do the kind of stuff he can do on the field… well, I’ll deal with the technical issues and the route simplicity, and just spam NFL defenses with the things he can do over and over until somebody stops it.
Addison is a great prospect, and certainly a more nuanced receiver at this point, but like I said, there are positions where you bet on traits, and Johnston can be a nightmare for opposing defenses both in his ability to roll deep with frightening speed, and in his potential to take any short stuff to the house.
Luke: I’ve been high on Johnston for a couple of years now, and was really happy to see his name start to float to the top of this year’s receiver class throughout last offseason and into the 2022 campaign. Addison is the more polished route-runner at this point, and would have the higher floor, but if I’m making picks, I’ll trust my coaching staff to maximize those rare physical traits that Johnston brings to the table, and I’ll find a reliable route-runner elsewhere. It’s easier to find someone who can do what Addison does well. Johnston has some boom/bust risk, but I’m a swing-for-the-fences guy most of the time, and he’s a grand slam waiting to happen.
