Denzel Boston - 2026 NFL Draft Profile & Comparisons

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1:00This is Washington wide receiver Denzel Boston. It's always a red flag to choose to skip the 40 yard dash, but Denzel Boston does a lot of things well. He dunks on corners at the catch point. I think you can see his hips on curls and dig routes. He can fight off press coverage as an X receiver. And to me, there's a reason why Washington moved him around the formation as a focal point. To me, he was by far the best player. 22 years of age, just shy of six foot four, 212 pounds, 80 second percent tall hand size, and it definitely shows up when he is dunking on these undersized cornerbacks in the in zone. Average jumps below average shuttle. I am not saying at all that he is Drake London, but Washington, like you said, used him almost exactly how Atlanta and even USC utilized Drake London. He motioned him into stacks. They lined him up in close to the line of scrimmage and the formation, condensed splits, crossers, curls and zone,

2:04all that type of stuff. But then we go back to the point saying, well, he can do all that, but he doesn't move like Drake London. So can that translate to the lead? Yeah, he's a diminished version of Drake London. Another one of my comps is like Michael Pittman, who I think is a better chance of turning into that style player where he's not explosive. His initial burst is not there, but it's just weird that he did do the Drake London stuff where there's some like whip routes and like they would get him on the motions and stuff. And I think that his quick out game is like pretty decent and stuff. So I do think ultimately he's going to be this kind of like short to intermediate player. And then on occasion we'll win on a big back shoulder. They ran a lot of like vertical routes at Washington. I don't think he's able to get away with that in the pros. I do think he's going to be a very much lesser version of some of the guys that we're talking about. And I think it's like that eight to 15 yard window that's going to be the range he belongs in. We've already talked about 10 wider receivers are going to do another 10 after this. By the way, if you're new around here,

3:05hit that subscribe button about 45% of you who watch these videos are not subscribed. Change that right now. Compared to all those other guys, let's say most of them, his movement seems really stiff. However, I think his strength shows up way more than maybe any other wider receiver that we've talked about so far. Like when defensive backs try to reroute him or hold on to him. They bounce off or on a diving tackle. They simply fall off of him and he stays up. There's his play versus Colorado state. But again, he motions into this bunch set, a linebacker actually tries to grab him at the second level and tackle him in the route. He just shrugs it off over the middle for a 35 yard gain versus zone coverage. But again, I go back to the point that that can work at the college level and it did to a massive degree. He was very productive over these last few seasons just without this athletic testing and maybe without these, just get out of your seat aesthetically pleasing athletic moments. I just wonder if he can win in the NFL in the exact same way that he won in college

4:06because that is the name of the game when it comes to NFL draft prospects and evaluation overall. Yeah, I think like for an ex-receiver, for the most part lined up at ex-receiver at Washington, I'm not sure you're gonna get that vertical element out of that position. I do wonder if they're gonna have to get a little bit more creative with how he's gonna use or he's gonna be playing ex-receiver and it's gonna be a lot more slants and in cuts and that type of stuff. So I do think that some of the catchpoint stuff is gonna translate just because he's so massive. So like everything is anticipation for that, his ball tracking and again, just hand size. And he's a real competitor. You can see that on the field. Like he wants to win. He wants to be the dominant figure out there. And that mindset translates in that moment too. Yeah, whenever you face a team we're in a red uniform and I was Washington State Ruckers, washed Wisconsin, just dunked on all of them. So if you see a red jersey, you just know a big dunk is coming. And then very balanced production just looking at it, 2.6 yards per man route, 2.5 yards per zone route. Those were both removing screens. Those aren't off the charts. I was like, for example,

5:06like McCuylemns at 3.5 against zone coverage. This is a tear down. I think that he can get into blind spots pretty effectively in general, but not like the craziest zone guy because he's not gonna explode after the catch. So yeah, I think he's fine. I think like in the 30s is kind of where this type of profile typically gets drafted maybe in this class. He goes up a couple spots from there. I can also see him sliding into the second round here. I think a lot of my comps here, it's the type of players we're talking about just more the lesser versions of that. Like Jaden Higgins was in the 30s. I think a very similar player to Juan Jennings is kind of that big bad ass type. That's not necessarily winning with speed. Michael Wilson came up in my profile. He had an awesome season and a kind of a weird role. And then Michael Pittman I think is like the ideal version of this. I think that Michael Pittman had a little bit more gear to him. We don't share notes ahead of this. The name that I had written down was Michael Pittman. Like can he be the primary read on RPOs like Michael Pittman has been with Shane Sikin, will he be super tough

6:07over in the middle of the field and catch these passes with bodies all around him and trash? I think the answer is yes. But Michael Pittman also had a bit more juice down the field during his time at USC as well. I am not a college basketball person, just a basketball person in general. It's because I'm watching prospects from Georgia State, New York State instead. But I feel like the conversation online about Cam Booser is that he's not aesthetically pleasing and like people can't tell if his game's gonna translate to the league because of that. But despite that concern, he's just a dominant force out there and you look in the box board. He's just posting numbers across the board. Is this that version of that where it just doesn't look right? It doesn't look amazing it or super fluid and all that type of stuff. Then the day you just see him like why that's open and just running over defenders and finding himself in the in zone with the corner back on the ground and him standing over top. Yeah, there's definitely an element too that he's not creating a ton of like just separation like early in the route against like man coverage.

7:08He can kind of fling guys off and then get back in this pocket and then he ends up kind of dunking on him. So it's not like the most aesthetically pleasing game. I will say this about the Washington offense. They did a lot of weird stuff with Denzel Boston. Like a lot of their like double moves and when somebody was like coming like through motion and like at a weird angle, it was always him. Like sometimes there'd be like a whip route. Like sometimes they'd get involved in the screen game. And I think that's usually a good thing when like a humongous wide receiver is also like the kind of gadget guy that they're trying to spring open. I've just noticed that like while just studying prospects over the years, like that does translate. That's what made Drake London like the most unique prospect ever because he was a giant in USC like thought he was like Zachariah Branch while also throwing the ball down the field. I think that is like a good indicator. There's something about him. So I do think that's a big win for him just some of the manufacturers stuff that Washington was throwing on display. You talked about him dominating teams that were red jerseys. Then I watched his game against Ohio State that was loaded with NFL talents out there.

8:09And I thought he kind of got bullied in some of those situations. Like if he doesn't create that separation with the dark arts, which I always talk about with like Johan Jennings, for example, of like pushing off the hand fighting all that stuff, then the window was just gonna be kind of like non-existent and it felt kind of non-existent against this Ohio State team. Yeah, I mean, we no shocker have a lot of the same notes somehow that like the slot work for Express, he has the releases than the animated head nod to create that sliver of separation. I didn't see it as much when he was working outside. I also think it's interesting that he did face press so much at the college level when other college writers, receivers don't face a lot of press stuff. You know, long time viewers of this channel might say, well, this sounds like the key on Coleman conversation you guys had a couple of years ago coming out of Florida State. Personally, hey, and I liked, it ends up awesome a lot more than I liked key on Coleman dude, it's kind of like glued to the sideline. That was work like a vertical plane.

9:09He had some weird contested catch moments. He had some screen moments too. I'm not saying that Denzel Boston played a ton of the slot just 65 and 58 slots, that's over the last few years. But at least I have like a bigger, fulfilled picture of what Denzel Boston can be versus what key on Coleman was. Key on Coleman was way more animated and just lack the consistency that I do think Denzel Boston plays with, he's just not, he's just a tear below that. Now, like there is like a lot of, you know, and the key all the reason stuff you want to rewind the clock even further, like it's a red flag. Like what I feel comfortable drafting a player in the first round that did not run the 40 yard dash because he knew he'd be slow like that is, you know, that could be a problem. The other part of this, I mean, it kind of gets to the question is we're saying all these names that he's similar to. Does that mean there's a Denzel Boston never single draft class? Yeah, yeah, but at the same time, like he is an X receiver and like there's not like 32 guys that you can just like think they're going to be able to survive against press coverage and we saw a lot of the press coverage stuff.

10:09So like to me, if the Chiefs at 29th, where we're like, all right, he's the exact opposite of our guys. He's not car and L Tate. He's a step below that athletically, but he's there at 29. I don't think that's that outrageous. There's some teams, you know, like Tennessee Titans at 35, you know, that that's to me kind of the sweet spot around the round one to border. And that's where Michael Pittman and Jaden Higgins and some of the guys we talked about today with. I was surprised he was only charred with 13 contested targets. It felt like a lot more for some of the good and bad reasons that we're bringing up here. He did win 10 of them according to PFF. Yeah, I mean, he is on that spectrum of player that that we are thinking about here where you hope exactly how we want the college level wins in the NFL and even versus some corners when he's covered. Sometimes he really isn't covered unless he's against a solid defender and the separation simply just isn't there. My last note, 60th percentile in terms of adjusted production according to my metrics and ends up being 84th percentile

11:10overall once you factor in the draft cup little. So like once again, like that's a solid player. I think he's like a average NFL starter. Average NFL starters get paid a lot of money at wide receiver. So that's where I'm out with them. That does it. As you can tell, we're watching a ton of these players. They're all different flavors despite being listed on the same position in your draft manual. So hit that subscribe button. Watch another one of these videos and we'll see you over there. Monster Energy. Everybody knows white monster, zero ultra. That's the OG. It kicked off this whole zero sugar energy drink thing. But ultra is a whole lineup now. You've got strawberry dreams, blue Hawaiian, sunrise, and vice guava. And they all bring the monster energy punch. So if you've been living in the white can, branch out. Ultra's got a flavor for every vibe. And every single one is zero sugar. Tap the banner to learn more. President Barack Obama. Virginia, we are counting on you. Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress

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