College All-Star Game 2020 standouts to watch for in the NFL Draft

Van Jefferson

Van Jefferson, WR, Florida

The 2020 Senior Bowl was absolutely loaded with talent at the wide receiver position, but nobody won more of his battles than this kid. Van Jefferson impressed everybody with his sudden moves as a route-runner and the separation he could create that way. He had some perfect reps coming clean out of breaks and working back towards the ball. The former Gator elevates and attacks the ball once it’s in the air and he plucks it out of there instead of letting it get back into his body. I thought he also did a nice job adjusting to balls that were slightly off target and consistently found a way to way to put himself in-between the pass and the defender, before quickly securing the ball. While he put a little too much extra into some of his routes, when the stem was against the DBs leverage, he was very efficient with it overall. Not only did Jefferson dominate pretty much everybody during one-on-ones, but he also made plays all over the field during skelly and team drills, even if he didn’t have a huge game.

Binjimen Victor & K.J. Hill, WRs, Ohio State

This is our first pairing of teammates, even if they had to take a different path with Victor going to the East-West Shrine game and Hill getting the invite to the Senior Bowl. What they had in common was that they both put together highlight reel plays in practice. Victor ran some pretty slick routes during one-on-ones with the DBs in St. Petersburg. Once he put the San Diego State corner on skates, when he gave him a quick burst to the outside to fake the go-route and then broke it off back to the curl. On another one against Minnesota’s Chris Williamson, he basically shoved the defender off as that guy was trying to play stack-technique and then made a phenomenal high-point grab on the comeback route. This young man is a nightmare to cover on pivot routes and other stuff with multiple breaks, because he can also simply speed-release and run right by defenders.

Hill put together a bunch of very impressive reps in one-on-ones himself in Mobile, where he left defenders behind in the dust, got in and out of his breaks with ease and caught pretty much everything coming his way. He is technically sound route-runner, who attacks leverages and uses his hands very well to create separation. While I want to add that on some of those Youtube-worthy routes there is no way he will have that time to set it up in the pros, he should have answered some of those questions about playing on the outside and against press, after lining up almost exclusively in the slot for the Buckeyes. Hill also made an absolutely ridiculous one-handed grab on a crossing route with the ball behind him without even breaking stride during team drills.

Ja’Marcus Bradley, WR, Louisiana Lafayette

Two skill players from the Ragin Cajuns on a list for draft risers? You read this correctly. Bradley was the most dynamic target for ULL in 2019, being used in the screen game as well as downfield option. During East-West Shrine week he proved that he is a complete receiver with the way he ruled his matchups against the DBs. I really like the way he attacks back towards the quarterback on curl routes, as well as how he high-points the ball and turns his body to come down with some tough grabs. I thought Bradley just looked smooth as a route-runner, making corners disappear from the picture when cutting on deep in-breaking routes or completely leaving guys behind in the dust on post-corners. The six-foot, 200 pound receiver also held onto some balls that came out late and he had a defender draped all over him by then. In the actual game Bradley caught two balls for 27 yards, including the first touchdown of the day.