The 49ers select WR De’Zhaun Stribling with the 33rd pick of the NFL Draft

Stribling is the subsequent broad receiver on my board. I’m obnoxiously excessive on him. I’ve Bell WR2, Boston WR3, and Stribling WR6 behind KC Concepcion, however forward of Makai Lemon and Omar Cooper Jr., two gamers drafted in the first spherical. To say I’m bullish on Stribling is an understatement. He’s the most Shanahan/McVay kind of receiver on this draft.

Stribling caught 74 p.c of his targets final season for 811 yards and 6 touchdowns. The majority of these had been underneath 10 yards, however you would see NFL expertise at the intermediate vary. Stribling caught 4 of his six contested targets on this space and went on to power a pair of missed tackles.

He turns 24 in December, so being on the older facet is why Stribling would possibly fall to the third spherical. He’s over 6’2″ and 200 pounds. The hands are 10″. Stribling ran to 4.36 with a broad bounce in the 82nd percentile. I’ve performs as I’ve checks.

The athletic testing is not what bought me. It was his utilization as a blocker and the way Stribling imposed his bodily will play after play. However, I used that athletic testing and narrowed the weight to 200 to 210 kilos to keep away from specimens like Julio Jones.

It’s a novel bodily profile, as solely 4 broad receivers test each field throughout NFL IQ’s historic dataset. Two went on to have NFL careers: Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Christian Watson.

MVS was a fifth-round pick who had splashy performs early in his profession, however by no means amounted to greater than a WR3. Watson can not seem to keep wholesome, however you have seen enhancements in his recreation, and his big-play capacity has flipped video games for the Packers.

We’ll ignore Watson being 6’4″ and use him as the closest comp for Stribling. Think of Stribling as if Watson needed to do the soiled work for a group, like being the major blocker on screens.