totally forgot that Tee Martin coached him. Thanks for pointing that out
-
Welcome to PurpleFlock! Be sure to sign up here so that you can chat with your fellow Ravens fans.
2021 WR Thread
- Thread starter JoeyFlex5
- Start date
yeah he coached josh palmer and amari rodgers is his son - if rodgers makes it to R3 (tbh maybe even R2 but definitely R3) look for us to maybe snag him and if palmer's there at 104 or if he makes it to day 3 then look for him
JoeyFlex5
Hall of Famer
im making kadarius toney a pound the table prospect. i think hes special, the way he runs is different, he sets himself apart from other receivers in this class by having the most freakish YAC and change of direction ability which he is already applying well to his route tree, and he has respectable size just shy of 6' and 190ish lbs. i cant watch his tape and fall for the notion that hes just a gadget guy who needs to learn to play wr, his route running is actually pretty exceptional, his release on change of direction routes is going to be a problem in the nfl, his route pacing on vertical routes is pretty advanced for a guy with such limited experience at wr, does pretty well avoiding contact by being slippery and flexible in the stem, like i dont think were appreciating him enough as a potential nfl receiver
you wanna start the pound the table thread?
JoeyFlex5
Hall of Famer
Sure I could at some point when I have the time, unless that’s something you wanted to do?
i'll put it up now
i love it - and there's lots of plays on his tape that are eerily similar - CBs know that he's got a limited route tree and yet he's still able to manipulate them with ease on those vertical routes
he's amazing he truly is - he plays the game like he has a jetpack strapped to his back - his short-area explosion is absurd as is his long-speed
what's scary is that there's some inefficiency still in his route-running and yet im not sure it matters because he's that explosive
he eats up cushion so fast that he'll make defenders 5 yards away from him fall over just because of his route stem
and on top of it all, despite being 5'10 he'll still elevate and go over the top of defenders and isn't scared of contested situations at all
dude obliterates angles with the ball in his hands - and he's got good hands too
stretches the field both vertically and horizontally - demands extra attention everywhere - devonta smith is great but waddle was the guy that defences were keying on before he got injured
my one criticism would be that he can sometimes be lazy when the play's away from him or when he's asked to block... he's my WR 1 as of right now and 4th overall on my big board but it's possible he ends up as high as 2nd on my board...
i do genuinely believe that if he'd played a full season we'd be talking about him as the obvious number 1 non-qb in the class - maybe with kyle pitts as his only competition for that title
limited vertical based route tree but man was he good at it - limited production at tennessee for all sorts of reasons - but he's explosive, has a big wingspan, has great hands and does well in contested situations and shows some nuance to his route-running (which bodes well for the tee martin hire for sure)
and despite the limited production he beat surtain at least twice deep (surtain was able to recover the first time because he didn't stack but he scored a TD on the 2nd one - the only TD surtain gave up all year) when they played Bama - and not many WRs even vaguely troubled surtain in 2020 - and then he did the exact same thing to tyson campbell against georgia
here's the first surtain play btw
and here's the 2nd where he stacks and gets the TD
Dom McRaven
Hall of Famer
Fuck all of that. We rocking with Bateman over here!
RaineV1
Ravens Ring of Honor
I believe some people are. He's a natural hands catcher that reaches out for the ball, has amazing catch radius, enough long speed to get deep, and is surprisingly good after the catch. Also he's played well against some of the best competition college football has to offer. There are downsides. He's not that explosive, and his hands seem to be only okay (he has had some concentration drops, though that could potentially be ironed out).
I can understand liking Rondale Moore, Elijah Moore, and Toney more than him. However, assuming Bateman is gone by our pick, Marshall is one of the best options to immediately plug in on the outside and produce right away.
Last edited:
yes - and i did too early in the process as well - he's clearly not at the level of the top 4 guys - there's a clear gap (to me at least) between him and waddle, chase, smith and bateman
but he's 6'3 has sub 4.4 speed and quick feet (not just build-up speed) and the ability to break flat - on a pure athletic traits level that's very exciting
but then you get to add in the natural hands (there were some concentration drops in 2020 but nowhere near enough to worry me - not like some of the others in the class) and good in contested situations, the abilities in the redzone, and some nuanced route-running elements to his game (not amazing but there's obviously some nice processes going on), he's got slot and outside versatility, and he's very good after the catch
to me the negatives are his physicality through the route and at the release (he's slightly lean - maybe room to add some muscle to his upper body certainly) - he plays physically at the catch-point so there's something to work with there but he's too easily disrupted by physicality during the route
and then the physicality as a blocker where he's rubbish lol
and i think stylistically he makes a ton of sense - we over-drafted boykin in 2019 and higgins was the 2nd player on our board when we took queen in 2020... we've been looking at height-weight-speed guys who can change direction fluidly with good hands
with boykin it's failed because intellectually maybe he just doesn't have the ability to read defences well or adjust at the catch-point - and worryingly because he's not physical through the route or at the catch-point
that lack of physicality is there with marshall which does make that a slight worry but marshall's 2 years younger than boykin was when he was drafted and is physical at the catch-point
there's a risk to marshall but the ravens clearly like that WR profile and have been looking for it for at least a couple of years - and the fit works well with the types of routes we ask our receivers to run - lots of option-slants (marshall ran an absolute ton of those) and a vertical-based route-tree where marshall shows a very strong ability to create separation with a jab step while moving at speed
TL;DR: yes we're over-thinking marshall - there's a bit of risk but he's good and has a chance to be very good and is very probably worth the risk
All_black_everything
Pro Bowler
JoeyFlex5
Hall of Famer
Worth noting that Marshall has done jack shit prior to this season, and being that he’s just had his college breakout, I wouldn’t worry about him getting re routed, there’s not only learning to be done but lots of physical maturation. Being physical, aggressive, and controlled/focused at the catch point is a rare trait, but I feel like some core strengthening is literally all he would need to ease that concern.
but yes, he is a horrible blocker. That jumped off the tape IMMEDIATELY and was the first thing that made me overthink him, but here I sit months later saying to myself... he’s a wide receiver, not a wide blocker, do I really give a shit?
idk that he did jack shit prior to this year - he was pretty impactful in 2019 despite playing 3rd or 4th fiddle in that offence - nearly 700 yds but he had 13 tds in 12 games despite all that...
one of the noted strengths of keith williams has been his ability to draw out the dog in all his guys - gotta think if he can get that out of marshall that the physicality will come
this is why the draft isn't an exact science because so much of it is projection
you and i are projecting that he'll be able to overcome that flaw - and using clues in his game or his profile to make those determinations - but there's no guarantee - i think the only reason we're hesitant as ravens fans is because the record of WR acquisitions by this team has been not great historically... if marshall was an OL with a similar level of tape profile and athletic profile we'd have absolutely no qualms about taking him fairly high because we'd expect him to develop
JoeyFlex5
Hall of Famer
Oh wow I thought he was buried on the depth chart for the big burrow season, I thought a lack of tape prior to 2020 was one of the biggest reasons he wasn’t highly ranked.