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 Ricky Pearsall.
Ricky Pearsall 2024 NFL COMBINE RESULTS
- Height: 6'1"
- Weight: 189 lbs
- 40-Time: 4.41 seconds
- 10-Yard Split: 1.57
- Vertical: 42"
- Broad Jump: 10'9"
- 3-Cone: 6.64
- Shuttle: 4.05
Ricky Pearsall 2024 NFL DRAFT SCOUTING REPORT
STRENGTHS:
- Good-sized wide receiver with extensive experience outside and in the slot. He has natural quickness to his movement.
- Extensive experience with multiple splits to the boundary and to the field. A lot of location versatility.
- Short-area quickness and burst to defeat press and get cleanly into routes. He has build-up speed into his vertical stem.
- Loose-hipped with feel for working through traffic on in-breaking routes. Excellent lateral movement-quickness.
- Showed subtle, refined understanding of route running re: vertical stem, feints, head movements and QB indicators.
- Understood coverages and how to attack them. Showed excellent feel for reading zone and settling into voids.
- Outstanding hands catching the ball easily away from his frame. Made tough hands catches with arm extension.
- Caught through contact effectively and attacked the ball vs. good coverage. More than just a finesse receiver.
- Showed high-level ball tracking skills, with the body control to contort his frame and make over-the-shoulder catches.
WEAKNESSES:
- Not truly explosive as a mover, but that is not an overall weakness in his game, given what he is as a receiver.
NFL TRANSITION:
Pearsall turned out to be one of my favorite receivers to watch as I got deeper into his tape and evaluation. He has extensive experience lining up outside and the slot. While many might box him in as a slot prospect, I believe with the expansion of NFL pass game concepts and the increase in multiple formations, Pearsall can be location versatile in addition to being deployed as a motion receiver which he did at Florida in 2023.
Pearsall was one of the better route runners I saw on tape. He has a refined understanding of how to use his vertical stem to attack and break down defensive backs. He used body feints and head movements and was especially effective in giving his quarterback indicators with inside and outside sticks.
Pearsall is a detailed and nuanced separation generator with plus quickness at the top of his route stem and outstanding hands to catch away from his frame and transition seamlessly to run after catch.
Pearsall will not be explosive vertically, but that is not a weakness in his game because that is not what he'll do at the next level. The more tape I watched of Pearsall, the more two receivers came to mind: Adam Theilen in the NFL and Amon-Ra St. Brown coming out of USC.
Pearsall is much like St. Brown at USC, showing high-level receiving traits lacking only vertical speed and explosiveness.
OTHER NOTES:
Pearsall finished his college career with two seasons at Florida after spending his first three seasons at Arizona State.
Pearsall was a three-star recruit out of Arizona but didn’t get an opportunity to play at ASU until his junior season. In two years at Florida, Pearsall caught 95 passes and nine touchdowns.
Pearsall was targeted 90 times in 2023, with 57 targets coming out of the slot. He recorded 41 catches for 552 yards and three touchdowns, averaging 13.5 yards per reception from the slot. Pearsall was deployed at times as the motion receiver in the Florida offense, and he was featured on jet sweeps.
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