If Dez and Willie are gone, that leaves us with:
Hollywood
Boykin
Duv
Proche
With that group, we really need 1 big upgrade on the outside and 1 big upgrade in the slot. With regards to the outside, I just don't know who will he that guy in 2021. In terms of the slot, I think there's a chance Duv can he that guy. Maybe also Proche, but it seems less likely. Additionally there are a ton of slot guys in this draft.
So it always comes back to this. Who is going to be what Miles Boykin was supposed to be? Does he even have the chance to be a late bloomer?
no one in that group outside of hollywood has shown the consistent ability to beat man coverage - that's an issue - proche ran some nice routes but only played like 10 snaps all year and some of those were kneel downs
duvernay does not run routes - he just runs right now now - on his college tape you see the ability to run slants and find holes in the zone but he's not winning vs man coverage right now which is what punishes us when teams decide to keep numbers in the box - we have to be able to win those matchups downfield
as you say there's a ton of slot guys in the upcoming draft class - and i think it would behove us to grab one of them - willie snead was a possession receiver out of the slot - if we had an actual threat there it would be massively beneficial
im not so fussed about finding an outside receiver vs slot receiver in that sense - we just need to add weapons (plural)
some good fits who could spend time in the slot might be elijah moore, amari rodgers (who's our new WR coach Tee Martin's son and gets a ton of YAC - which the ravens don't get a ton of), amon-ra st brown, terrace marshall (bigger dude but played mostly in the slot in 2020), rondale moore (one of the twitchiest college athletes i've ever seen)
i guess when i think about boykin and what he was supposed to be - im just not really sure what the vision was in that spot... i think they took him based on the height-weight-speed measurables and i think there's a reason he always looks better in the offseason vs game-time - he's not physical despite his size - he's a good blocker but that physicality does not show up at the catch-point or through his routes
im hoping the lesson learned there by the front office is that the height/length don't matter if you don't play big