NFL Draft Prospects 2019: Wide Receiver - J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, Stanford

The son of two professional basketball players, Arcega-Whiteside moved from Spain to South Carolina when he was six years old. He went on to win the state’s Gatorade National Player of the Year, while also being an all-state selection in basketball.

However, Arcega-Whiteside decided to go with football and after a redshirt freshman year, he scored five touchdowns as a reserve for the Cardinal. In his second season, he was an honorable mention All-Pac 12 selection, leading his team with 48 catches, 781 yards and nine TDs.

Arcega-Whiteside was a team captain in 2018 and improved to second-team all-conference with 63 receptions for over 1000 yards and 14 trips to the end-zone.

Arcega-Whiteside is a big-bodied target in the passing game at more than 6’2”, 225 pounds. He excels in 50-50 situations, as he fights his way back towards the ball and even beats two defenders to the spot on some occasions with perfect high-point timing and basketball tricks like putting one hand on the hip of the defender.

Arcega-Whiteside led all college receivers with 18 contested catches last season. He clearly has enough speed to stress defenses over the top as well though, showcased by 16 catches of 20+ yards and an average of 16.8 yards per catch.

The former Stanford receiver was guarded almost like Gronk at times, when it felt like defenders panicked and grabbed whatever they could. Arcega-Whiteside does an excellent job shielding defenders from the ball with his large frame on inside-breaking routes and will grab the ball with his long arms stretched all the way out with tremendous body-control, while displaying strong hands.

He earned PFF’s third-highest grade among all receivers last season, as his quarterback had a passer rating of 134.9 when targeting the former Cardinal wideout.

Arcega-Whiteside pushes his routes vertical and makes defenders lean backwards in order to open up room to come back towards the ball on curl routes.

He stutters more than you would want to see in his releases, but is surprisingly quick when getting into his routes, especially when incorporating jab steps.

He put on a ridiculous performance in the 2018 season-opener versus San Diego State when Bryce Love and the Stanford rushing attack couldn’t get going and K.J. Costello just chucked the ball up for his big wideout, who caught six passes for 226 yards and three touchdowns.

I’m pretty sure Oregon DBs now call him daddy after what he did to them these last two years, going for about 200 combined yards and four TDs despite heavy attention.

Arcega-Whiteside has experience lining up wide on either side, in the slot and even at wing-man in some instances. He has some nice peel-back blocks on tape and obviously is hard to get around when he puts his hands on you.

I felt like Arcega-Whiteside didn’t run any routes developing at beyond five yards outside of those curls and he even showed some deceleration on those. His large body doesn’t seem to have the ability to drop the hips and make those sharp cuts at full speed.

Even though he primarily ran vertical routes and was highly successful at it, it was more due to his ability to win the battle for the ball downfield than an extra gear to create separation. You won’t see Arcega-Whiteside just take a slant or make people miss in tight quarters very often.

He could be labelled a possession receiver and jump-ball specialist more than a dynamic playmaker by some people.

Arcega-Whiteside has some very surprising tape. Obviously, you see the ability to just moss defenders with incredible box-out abilities, but he is a much more nuanced route-runner than you’d expect.

He comes off the ball with good forward lean, eats up space and uses a wide base to keep his man off balance. It will be interesting to see what he clocks in the 40 at his pro day, because he clearly doesn’t have the burst to simply run by people like some of the others in his draft class.

However, he has shown plenty in that area to make him more than just an underneath receiver, while clearly being a monster at the goal-line.

Grade: Late second