2015 Draft Profile - DeVante Parker

Check out our current receivers if you aren't familiar with them. Jarius Wright, 5'10 and maybe 185, is a great slot receiver and sometimes deep threat, but he'll never be able to play well on the outside or consistently win one-on-one matchups. Adam Thielen has good size at 6'2 and 200 pounds. He's solid; dependable, works hard, but there isn't any pop to him. Cordarrelle Patterson has plenty of pop, especially for his size, but he hasn't put it all together to become a reliable receiver yet. Charles Johnson came from nowhere to become our number one wide out in the back half of the season, but his upside may be limited. Then there's the new addition of Mike Wallace, the burner, who I truly believe will open up our offense, but is really just a deep threat. It may not be super clear, but we are missing something.

Calvin Johnson: 6'5, 235. Alshon Jeffery: 6'3, 220. Jordy Nelson: 6'3, 217. All big receivers in the NFC North, all consistently able to beat man coverage. Patterson, at 6'2 and 220, may someday be able to play that role, but right now he needs to work on his route running and separation ability. If the Vikings decide we need help now at that position, they'd be smart to take DeVante Parker, wide receiver from Louisville.

from: thecardinalconnection.com

At roughly 210 pounds, he may be a bit light, but he stands 6'3, and he knows how to use it. Even when Parker isn't open, he's open. Throw it his way, and he will leverage his body to put himself in position to make the catch. That means he'll go up top to bring the ball down, too; he climbs the ladder, if you will. He missed the first seven games of the season last year, but in the last six he caught 43 passes for 855 yards and 5 touchdowns. Double those stats and while his touchdown total doesn't reach Amari Cooper's, his yards are close and his yards per reception would be far and above Cooper's. Heck, it currently is: 15 yards per reception. That's the kind of production we need from a wide out, someone who can be a number one option for us.

His 4.45 forty yard dash doesn't show the deep threat speed that Kevin White showed, but it's more than good enough when you look at his other skills. Check out the video below, posted to youtube by nasseh257.

Most of these plays look to be from the 2013 season, but that highlights another positive that I'm sure you're aware of. Louisville just happens to be the same school Teddy played for a year ago, and he had a good connection with Parker. If you watch the video, you can see a lot where Teddy simply throws it up for Parker, who comes down with the catch. Granted, Teddy puts the ball where it needs to be, but they are still tough catches to make. I'm going to highlight some plays that really stood out to me.

At 1:40, Parker makes a leaping catch while double covered in the endzone. We don't have a receiver on the roster who can make that kind of catch. Rudolph can, but I believe it's nice to have a couple options on a fade like that. 

At 1:55, Teddy actually slightly under throws the ball, but Parker stutters a bit and throws his body into the air to make a beautiful catch. Another plus on this play is he comes down with both feet in bounds.

2:35 displays some after the catch ability. Some experts have said he's slowed a bit after his 2014 foot injury, but I'm not worried. At least, I don't think that should change effect our decision to draft him.

3:13 shows how he wins with his body positioning in man coverage. Granted, these are NCAA corners and not NFL corners. A knock on Parker is that he isn't strong enough to make those types of plays against press corners in the NFL. That may be true at this point, but Parker's frame can handle another ten pounds of muscle. His innate ability to know where he needs to position himself to catch the ball is a big plus that should pay dividends right away, but will explode with a bit more weight. Then again, AJ Green plays in the 205 to 210 range and is easily a number one receiver who has great jump ball ability. 

3:56 he makes an over the shoulder grab with his hands. Those long arms extend smoothly and snag the ball. 

from: thecrunchzone.com

Going back to a weakness mentioned, his functional strength against NFL caliber corners, PJ Williams was predominantly lined up opposite him during the Florida State game. Williams is expected to go in the second round at the lowest, while he's been mocked to the bottom of the third in some cases. He's not Marcus Peters or Trae Waynes, but Williams will play well for an NFL team. Parker handled him very well. Most of the passes I noticed that ended up incomplete were on the quarterback. Even though he didn't have Teddy, he was still making plays. That's what you want to see. On the flipside, when Williams met him at the line and got physical right away, Williams won a lot more match ups. If Parker works on his hand skills, and even puts on five to ten pounds, I'm very confident he'll be able to get the initial separation he needs at the line for quick slants and to get running room on go routes.

Let's circle back to the receivers we currently have and compare their skillsets to Parker's. Parker isn't a polished route runner yet. He won't be for a year or two at least. But Charles Johnson runs nice routes, and Wright and Thielen are decent as well. Parker has very good separation skills, though. Locked in coverage, he will create enough space from his defender to make the catch. That was an issue with our receivers last year. They couldn't get open in the first place, so Teddy was throwing into coverage more often than not, and our receivers couldn't make the one or two little moves necessary to make those catches. Finally, Teddy didn't throw many fades into one-on-one coverage. Our receivers couldn't win those match ups regularly. Parker can do that. Parker excels at that. He will adjust to the pass on the fly, and will go up and get the ball at a higher point than his defender can, assuring an uncontested catch, at least while in the air. The only receiver I would feel comfortable throwing a fade to is Kyle Rudolph, and he's a tight end. It's not often that he's lined up out wide. Parker would give us that outside presence.

I really like Parker at the 11th pick. I would even take him over Kevin White if White would happen to fall. Amari Cooper would be hard to pass up, as he is fast, polished, NFL ready from day one, and extremely consistent. Both should be gone by the time the Vikings pick, though, and Parker is far from a consolation prize. He's a pick that would help our offense from the first game throughout his career. I say take him at 11.