Prospect Profile: Roman Wilson, WR, Michigan

Context

Plays mostly the Z and some slot in the run-heavy Michigan offense. They used him in motion a lot, including pre-snap and at the snap.

Before the Catch

When he is jammed at the line of scrimmage, he has trouble clearing his hands. He has poor technique and does not have a lot of moves to use with his hands. His hands are not well timed or accurate to fight through the jam and he can get stuck on the defender or allow the defender to get multiple shots at him near the line of scrimmage. When he’s pressed without a jam, he can close the space to the defender effectively, most often with a foot fire, but his speed release or single move is not as explosive as other parts of his game are. His feet can get a little stuck in the release and his first step is not as quick as his second, which is not as quick as his third. Against off or bail, he eats up the cushion quickly but he doesn’t routinely attack leverage and set up his breaks well. He doesn’t see quick jams coming and doesn’t use good technique to defeat them.

His stem is inconsistent depending on which route he’s running. If he’s running a route that calls for a speed cut on a quick out for instance, he doesn’t attack the route full speed to give more suddenness to his break. Savvy DBs can read this and break with him, keeping him in phase. He does this on hitch routes too. On his vertical cuts, he executes a technically proficient break. He has great posture, executes an elbow jam to make the turn and snaps his head around for the football. He also showcases his best attribute for separation: acceleration out of the break. You can see this too on nod and go routes, where he has another gear to blow past defenders who have even shown the slightest interest in biting on the double move. His explosion is evident when he executes a 2-step break, decelerating from high speed on deep comebacks as he can sink his weight and stops instantaneously. Could have a better feel when attacking Zone coverage, especially when trying to find the soft spots behind a heavy underneath zone. He will do better in intermediate areas of the field with this but he doesn’t process types of coverage quickly. He does not separate with play strength but he can subtly lean into an in-phase defender at the break and create some separation to allow for a target just after the top of his route.

The Catch and after the Catch

He has good hands, making excellent adjustments with them as he runs across the field on crossing routes. He brings his hands together early on all types of catch and catches the ball outside his frame. He can also adjust his body well to underthrown balls and those balls thrown above his head. He can adjust on the sideline to get feet in bounds but it isn’t consistent. Excellent speed for YAC but he isn’t prolific, will win with speed and angles but little else.

SUMMARY
Played in a very run-heavy offense, has a competitive yards per route run stat line. Great athleticism, good with potential to be great separator, good hands. Lots of technical elements to work on.

PRODUCTION
SR: 67 Tgts, 48 Recs, 789 Rec Yards (16.4 Ave), 12 Rec TDs
JR: 37 Tgts, 25 Recs, 376 Rec Yards (15.0 Ave), 4 Rec TDs
INJURY: Broken Hand (’21) Concussion (22)

RAVENS FIT
Athleticism 5
Intelligence 2
Versatility 3
Grit 4
Scheme 3