Prospect Profile: Ricky Pearsall, WR, Florida

Context

Plays all over the formation, most of the time in the slot, but lined up everywhere.

Before the Catch

Has excellent footwork to release from press coverage without a jam. He has a varied release package with a plan and the patience to execute it. He can win early in many different ways but his explosion and change of direction, as well as his acceleration and speed are the main reasons he is able to beat DBs off the line of scrimmage when they don’t lay a hand on him, but he’s also a master of attacking leverage. When he is jammed, he can get pushed around and doesn’t make much of an effort either with technique or with physicality and aggression to clear the Defensive Back. When he is jammed he releases around the defender and the timing of his route is severely disrupted. He has some play strength and plenty of competitiveness that suggests he could do better in this regard.

Attacks leverage and stems into the DB when facing off or bail coverage and uses his speed to eat up the cushion quickly. He separates with processing, technique and athleticism. Firstly, when facing Zone coverage, he quickly processes what the defense is trying to do, quickly locates and gets into the soft spot in the coverage. He’s particularly adept at doing this against heavy underneath zones, getting in front of the safeties and making a play in the intermediate area of the field. He looks technically good on the approach to 2 step breaks, can snap off his acceleration and get into the break well, but his drive step on most angles lets him down and means he gets a little stuck at the top of his routes. Once he unsticks, he is able to use his excellent speed and explosion to get out into the route but athletic, good processing DBs will be able to compete with him at the next level on these routes.

On vertical cuts, he demonstrates excellent technique, with a smooth and fluid transition, and explosion out of the break with no mis-steps. When executing a bam step he uses an elbow jam to turn his hips and has a good head fake. He sets defenders up for these breaks very effectively and can end up with big separation downfield. He does need to exhibit more play strength at the break point, as he can struggle to clear his hands against defenders with better play strength. He doesn’t sell nod and go or out and up routes particularly well and good processing DBs can stay with him.

The Catch and after the Catch

His hands are technically excellent. He will catch everything in sight, including really high degree of difficulty catches – from diving forwards and below his knees with a contest from an in-phase DB to up high on the sideline needing to get down in bounds. He has outstanding hands on the run, and he attacks targets thrown outside his frame with the proper technique. He has excellent ball tracking downfield and over his shoulder. He has ridiculous body control and adjust to different types of thrown ball; he contorts himself into the optimum position to put away the catch and there were plenty of examples of this on film at Florida this year. He is not a proficient YAC-getter but when he does, he wins with mostly speed.

SUMMARY
Athlete, good separator on slants, posts, corners and an excellent processor to get open vs Zone coverage. Needs more play strength in release, technical fix on other routes. Elite hands.

PRODUCTION
SR: 87 Tgts, 65 Recs, 963 Rec Yards (14.8 Ave), 4 Rec TDs
JR: 59 Tgts, 34 Recs, 669 Rec Yards (19.7 Ave), 5 Rec TDs
INJURY: None

RAVENS FIT
Athleticism 5
Intelligence 5
Versatility 5
Grit 4
Scheme 5