Top 10 wide receivers in the 2021 NFL Draft

#6 2021 NFL Draft Prospect: Terrace Marshall (LSU)

6’ 3”, 200 pounds; JR

Terrance Marshall

Terrance Marshall has ideal size and great play strength for the receiver position. He went from 73.7% of snaps lined up out wide in 2019 to basically the same percentage out of the slot this past season, in that Justin Jefferson-like role. While he isn’t a finished product, Marshall presents several tools and signs of techniques to win as a route-runner.

He eats up a lot of ground with those strides and does a nice job getting onto the toes of defensive backs, before bending off that outside foot for deeper in-breaking routes, where those defenders can’t really get around him, while he sucks the ball into his belly. He gets pretty physical with pushing off at the top of curl routes, to create that separation, and then aggressively works back to the ball.

Marshall fights himself free downfield with arm chops and subtle push-offs. He has some double-moves on tape, where he puts DBs on their butts. At 6’3”, Marshall actually ran some whip routes, where he utilized hop steps and didn’t look uncomfortable dropping his weight to come back out towards the sideline.

Because he has a thick frame and height, you don’t expect that necessarily, but Marshall can absolutely win vertically, especially on post routes, where that big frame helps him protect the ball from any swipes. On passes of 10+ yards downfield last season, he had a passer rating North of 150 when targeted. And LSU asked him a lot to run off the defense, in order to open up space for mesh concepts/crossers underneath.

To go with that, Marshall presents a large area to get his hands on the ball on and can stretch out for some tough grabs. When the ball is slightly underthrown, as he has sat down or curled up on his route, he does a good job of just coming back to the ball a little bit by falling forward and securing the grab.

Even with the defender in range, Marshall wins with late hands and quickly pulls the ball into his frame after the catch. And with his large catch-radius and the ability to play above the rim, he hauls in a bunch of jump-balls. Overall, Marshall has come up with 25 catches on 41 contested targets these past two years. That is one of the highest numbers and best rates in all of college football.

While he may not be super shifty, he can make plenty happen after the catch. When he really opens up, he can accelerate and swerve around defenders with great speed, plus he is like a wild horse to bring down, breaking through and pulling his legs out of tackles.

What really impresses me about Marshall’s production in 2020 is that he was right on par with Justin Jefferson’ per-game production in that same role, despite the level of play from the quarterback position dropping off dramatically and the offense scoring over 16 points less per contest (even if he didn’t have another star receiver to share targets with). As a blocker, his frame and length can be tough to deal with for smaller defenders.

Yet, while Marshall can push some DBs around as a blocker purely based on strength, he needs to learn how to break down in space and he tends to stop his feet too much, as well as needing to do a better job of anticipating the movement of defenders depending on plays. He is pretty lethargic coming off the ball and runs a lot of flat routes and stuff like that in the LSU offense, where he is basically jogging.

You see him run himself into being covered at times, by trying to work through how defenders are leveraged. With seven drops on 55 catchable balls last season, there is a lack of concentration and not “taking a picture” of the ball.

On passes over the middle, Marshall needs to extend his hands more back towards his quarterback rather than up high, where defenders can come over his back and knock the ball down. You can tell he is aware of linebackers and is a little hesitant with putting his arms out going over the middle. And the ball-security once he has the catch secured is also a little worrisome, not tucking it in properly as he tries to get around defenders.

While Marshall obviously isn’t on par with former teammate Ja’Marr Chase, despite actually being a slightly higher-graded recruit that year for the Tigers, there’s a lot to like with this guy­. He can win on all three levels, plays big off the line and when the ball is in the air, while having shown a lot of improvement coming in 2020, despite the offense not even looking comparable.

There are some concerning things when it comes to “ball-handling” overall I would say, to where won’t just pluck it and go full speed, as that instant threat Chase or some other guys in this class are, but at his measurements, the jump-ball ability will likely transfer very well and he presents inside-out versatility.