The 2024 NFL Draft is here, making it an excellent time to highlight some of the class' best players with scouting reports. Each report will include strengths, weaknesses and background information.
Here's our report on Jamari Thrash.
Jamari Thrash's 2024 NFL COMBINE RESULTS
- Height: 5-foot-11
- Weight: 188
- 40-yard dash: 4.46
- 10-yard dash: 1.54
- Vertical jump: 34"
- Broad jump: 10"
- Arm: 31"
- Wingspan: 74 1/2"
Jamari Thrash 2024 NFL DRAFT SCOUTING REPORT
STRENGTHS
- He was a smooth, fluid wide receiver who, at times, showed he could be a route technician attacking leverage of corners.
- He showed a sense of route running, understanding how to defeat press coverage, and how to use his vertical stem.
- Lower-body strength to stop on a dime on hitch routes (three-step drop timing) and nine-stop routes (five-step timing).
- Showed contact balance and elusiveness run after the catch. Natural quickness to his movement with the ball in his hands.
- Flashes of quickness off the ball and as a short to intermediate route runner. Some strong releases vs. press.
WEAKNESSES
- Small hands often made him a bent arm catcher rather than a hands catcher. Did not snatch the ball.
- Not comfortable as a hands catcher. Struggled to catch the ball away from his frame. Caught the ball past his eyes.
- Tendency to hesitate in his release off the LOS when he has free access. Dropped hips, which added an extra beat.
- Did not show an extra gear as a vertical receiver or run-after catch. More smooth and more fluid than explosive.
- Not a vertical dimension. Did not show a second gear on vertical routes. Predominantly a one-speed receiver.
- Not a contested catch WR. Did not show body control or hands to make tough catches or highpoint the ball.
NFL TRANSITION
Thrash will be a difficult projection, given that he does not have great size and lacks any kind of vertical dimension (play speed does not match his good 40 time). He does not have reliable hands, too often gathering to catch the ball or letting the ball get past his eyes on in-breaking routes.
Thrash has a marginal traits profile and looks small on tape. It is hard to see how he will transition to the NFL in any meaningful way since he struggled to win 1-on-1 at Louisville in 2023. Thrash looked like a different receiver at Georgia State in 2022, with more natural quickness to his movement, including catching some balls with his hands away from his frame, better vertical speed and overall route running.
He tracked the deep ball with excellent hand-eye coordination. Thrash has few snaps in the slot, so it is a significant projection to say he will best transition to the NFL as a slot receiver. Yet, he lacks unique quickness, high-level spatial awareness, natural toughness and play strength as a receiver, given the number of collision catches that happen working out of the slot.
The bottom line is that Thrash still lacks the higher-level traits to be a top-three wide receiver in 11 personnel packages. With his lack of size and play strength, it would be hard to envision him as an outside receiver in the NFL. His less-than-reliable hands will likely be an issue whether you see him as an outside or slot receiver.
OTHER NOTES
Thrash finished his college career with one season at Louisville after four seasons at Georgia State. Thrash originally came out of Georgia as a three-star recruit.
Thrash almost exclusively lined up on the right side of the offensive formation and was almost exclusively an outside receiver with only a low percentage of his snaps coming in the slot. The high percentage of his big plays in 2023 came on schemed concepts that broke down the defense as opposed to individual route running beating corners.
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