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Kadarius Toney - The Second Best Receiver in the Draft
By Cian Fahey
@QBDataMine
There are three types of disrespectful wide receivers.
There's Jevon Wims, a Chicago Bears receiver who randomly punched an opposition defender during a game last year. That's the bad kind. There's Chad Ochcinco, a former Cincinnati Bengals receiver who went as far as legally changing his name to garner attention for himself. That's the neutral kind.
And then there's Kadarius Toney.
Toney comes from the Stevie Johnson school of disrespect. He'll not only beat you on the field, he'll repeatedly do so in a fashion that embarrasses you. Johnson ran the most spectacular, inexplicable routes of any receiver that has played in the NFL over the last 20 years. He did so with purpose too.
But Johnson was never a great receiver because he never had a great physical profile. He never had long speed, he wasn't particularly big and his ball skills were just adequate.
While playing at Florida, Toney showed off the kind of routes that would make Johnson proud.
On this play against Ole Miss, he cuts off his outside foot as you'd expect him to running a sharp in-breaking route. He sets up through his stem to purposely widen the defender before baiting him forward with that sharp cut on the outside. But when he pushes off his left foot he sends his back forward instead of trying to turn forward.
By letting his back carry forward, he's working with the momentum of his movement and speeding up his process of getting open. This isn't a flashy spin move, it's a purposeful spin move. It makes the defender look terrible by sending him the wrong way. It makes the quarterback's job easy because his receiver is now wide open.
That functional creativity can be seen here again. You can see that Toney wants to immediately turn inside but the defender jumps into his vicinity. He phases upfield rather than presses, changing the momentum of his feet to maintain the same posture moving forward.
In doing so, he makes it so that he doesn't waste any time accelerating. He essentially paused mid-break to change the position that he was in and pull the defender out of the way of the route.
His route is very creative and again sends the defender the wrong way.
After catching the ball wide open over the middle, Toney shows off his speed to get upfield. You assume, considering his size, that he will go down at the first contact but the speed with which he runs puts two of the defenders off balance and allows him to run through the defender who contacts him.
The speed that Toney generates is vital to offset his size but the mindset that he runs with allows him to attack contact. This is something that permeates through his tape from college.
On this play, you can see him run right through the defensive back in the hole before retaining his balance to then reaccelerate downfield. He gets caught from behind but considering he had to reaccelerate after breaking a tackle and maintain his balance, that's hardly a negative worth remarking on.
Toney will break tackles in the NFL. The only problem he has is a tendency to throw himself off balance trying to make defenders miss in the open field. It wasn't a chronic problem but it happened enough times for it to be a theme of his play.
Whatever team drafts Toney will likely keep him in the slot but use him on end-arounds, as a running back and on screens.
He's essentially Curits Samuel - but good.
Working the middle of the field shouldn't be a challenge for Toney. He is intelligent and tough against contact. Defenders who hit him won't put him out of the game and sticking to his body in tight coverage won't prevent him from catching the ball.
In the above play, we see how Toney resets into the soft spot in the zone. His quarterback never looks for him but that ability to get open in the second phase of the play is valuable. Understanding zone coverages will make his transition to the NFL much easier.
On this play, we again see Toney run a great route to create an opening against a defender who had leverage against the route he was trying to run. That space over the middle of the field shouldn't have been open to him but he chopped his feet to move the defender out of his way.
That hesitation move can be dangerous in the NFL because some receivers who try it aren't fast enough to make it work. Toney shouldn't have that problem. His speed and route running puts him in a position to make a play but he has a defender on his back when the ball arrives.
Despite playing in the slot almost exclusively, Toney consistently made plays against tight coverage.
He's a hands catcher who shows off great concentration and an understanding of how to position his body relative to the ball in the air. He didn't have drop problems and he showed off how to adjust to the ball while understanding the space around him. Everything Toney did suggested he was a natural receiver rather than an athlete trying to remember the specifics of what he was supposed to do.
Slot receivers are starting receivers which means being able to work every level of the field. Toney's straight-line speed is excellent and he understands how to set up vertical routes. He combines his speed and his ball skills on this play to catch the ball between two defenders.
It's important that he drifts towards the ball and catches it with his hands away from his body to protect it from the defender recovering behind.
That's a routine play but it shows a rounded skill set.
This vertical route against LSU is beautiful. He seamlessly transitions from freezing the defender to accelerating past his inside shoulder. As soon as Toney gets the defender level, he's gone. The ball slows him down, which prevents him from continuing on towards the endzone.
After Ja'Marr Chase, there isn't a receiver projected to go in the first round who is as intriguing as Toney.
In fact, an offence with Chase outside and Toney inside would be exceptional. His electrifying athleticism and big-play ability should help him shoot up draft boards. And in truth, it would be hard to be angry about taking him at any point. Unless you desperately need a quarterback and pass on one, then who is going to help you more than a consistent, big-play receiver who can also move the chains.
By Cian Fahey
@QBDataMine
There are three types of disrespectful wide receivers.
There's Jevon Wims, a Chicago Bears receiver who randomly punched an opposition defender during a game last year. That's the bad kind. There's Chad Ochcinco, a former Cincinnati Bengals receiver who went as far as legally changing his name to garner attention for himself. That's the neutral kind.
And then there's Kadarius Toney.
Toney comes from the Stevie Johnson school of disrespect. He'll not only beat you on the field, he'll repeatedly do so in a fashion that embarrasses you. Johnson ran the most spectacular, inexplicable routes of any receiver that has played in the NFL over the last 20 years. He did so with purpose too.
But Johnson was never a great receiver because he never had a great physical profile. He never had long speed, he wasn't particularly big and his ball skills were just adequate.
While playing at Florida, Toney showed off the kind of routes that would make Johnson proud.
On this play against Ole Miss, he cuts off his outside foot as you'd expect him to running a sharp in-breaking route. He sets up through his stem to purposely widen the defender before baiting him forward with that sharp cut on the outside. But when he pushes off his left foot he sends his back forward instead of trying to turn forward.
By letting his back carry forward, he's working with the momentum of his movement and speeding up his process of getting open. This isn't a flashy spin move, it's a purposeful spin move. It makes the defender look terrible by sending him the wrong way. It makes the quarterback's job easy because his receiver is now wide open.
That functional creativity can be seen here again. You can see that Toney wants to immediately turn inside but the defender jumps into his vicinity. He phases upfield rather than presses, changing the momentum of his feet to maintain the same posture moving forward.
In doing so, he makes it so that he doesn't waste any time accelerating. He essentially paused mid-break to change the position that he was in and pull the defender out of the way of the route.
His route is very creative and again sends the defender the wrong way.
After catching the ball wide open over the middle, Toney shows off his speed to get upfield. You assume, considering his size, that he will go down at the first contact but the speed with which he runs puts two of the defenders off balance and allows him to run through the defender who contacts him.
The speed that Toney generates is vital to offset his size but the mindset that he runs with allows him to attack contact. This is something that permeates through his tape from college.
On this play, you can see him run right through the defensive back in the hole before retaining his balance to then reaccelerate downfield. He gets caught from behind but considering he had to reaccelerate after breaking a tackle and maintain his balance, that's hardly a negative worth remarking on.
Toney will break tackles in the NFL. The only problem he has is a tendency to throw himself off balance trying to make defenders miss in the open field. It wasn't a chronic problem but it happened enough times for it to be a theme of his play.
Whatever team drafts Toney will likely keep him in the slot but use him on end-arounds, as a running back and on screens.
He's essentially Curits Samuel - but good.
Working the middle of the field shouldn't be a challenge for Toney. He is intelligent and tough against contact. Defenders who hit him won't put him out of the game and sticking to his body in tight coverage won't prevent him from catching the ball.
In the above play, we see how Toney resets into the soft spot in the zone. His quarterback never looks for him but that ability to get open in the second phase of the play is valuable. Understanding zone coverages will make his transition to the NFL much easier.
On this play, we again see Toney run a great route to create an opening against a defender who had leverage against the route he was trying to run. That space over the middle of the field shouldn't have been open to him but he chopped his feet to move the defender out of his way.
That hesitation move can be dangerous in the NFL because some receivers who try it aren't fast enough to make it work. Toney shouldn't have that problem. His speed and route running puts him in a position to make a play but he has a defender on his back when the ball arrives.
Despite playing in the slot almost exclusively, Toney consistently made plays against tight coverage.
He's a hands catcher who shows off great concentration and an understanding of how to position his body relative to the ball in the air. He didn't have drop problems and he showed off how to adjust to the ball while understanding the space around him. Everything Toney did suggested he was a natural receiver rather than an athlete trying to remember the specifics of what he was supposed to do.
Slot receivers are starting receivers which means being able to work every level of the field. Toney's straight-line speed is excellent and he understands how to set up vertical routes. He combines his speed and his ball skills on this play to catch the ball between two defenders.
It's important that he drifts towards the ball and catches it with his hands away from his body to protect it from the defender recovering behind.
That's a routine play but it shows a rounded skill set.
This vertical route against LSU is beautiful. He seamlessly transitions from freezing the defender to accelerating past his inside shoulder. As soon as Toney gets the defender level, he's gone. The ball slows him down, which prevents him from continuing on towards the endzone.
After Ja'Marr Chase, there isn't a receiver projected to go in the first round who is as intriguing as Toney.
In fact, an offence with Chase outside and Toney inside would be exceptional. His electrifying athleticism and big-play ability should help him shoot up draft boards. And in truth, it would be hard to be angry about taking him at any point. Unless you desperately need a quarterback and pass on one, then who is going to help you more than a consistent, big-play receiver who can also move the chains.
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