School: Boston College

Position: WR

Year: Senior

The Good: No other receiver in this class gets open like Flowers. He wins at all levels of the field and can beat any coverage look. Flowers is natural lined up both outside and in the slot. He absorbs contact much better than his 175lb weight would indicate, and he has a good sense of leverage when lined up outside. Flowers excels at physical separation without getting flagged for it, and he knows how to sell routes using his body and shoulders to get wide open. Flowers is just a natural on the football field; he has feel for the sticks and soft spots of zones, and he’s great at ball tracking too. Athletically, Flowers is fast off the line of scrimmage and has absurd change of direction ability. He plays much bigger than his size and is a phenomenal blocker.

The Bad: Flowers’ hands are overall solid but he can have a case of the bobbles. Though he plays with physicality and can go up to catch balls, that still doesn’t make Flowers a bankable contested catch winner. On tape, he looks like a one-gear runner without much deep acceleration. I’ll be closely monitoring how he performs at the Combine.

The Bottom Line: I freaking love Zay Flowers. He is a nuanced wide receiver who plays the game with extreme toughness, and he has more than enough shift and speed to win with his tools too at the next level. It’s hard not to reminisce on peak Antonio Brown when you watch Zay Flowers play football. Flowers was uber productive in college with over 700 receiving yards each season from his sophomore to senior year, including a 78 receptions/1,077 yards/12 TDs line to cap off his career at Boston College. His numbers could have been far better too; BC’s quarterback play in 2021 was genuinely hard to watch, and Flowers faced a lot of double coverage as a senior. This era of player empowerment in college football is mostly a good thing, but I can still love and appreciate that Flowers turned down NIL transfer deals to return to college for personal and team betterment. Everything you watch and read about Flowers indicates that he’s an ultimate buy-in guy, and I think he’ll pay immediate dividends for whatever team drafts him. He’s probably my WR1 in this class, and if he outperforms expectations at the Combine – which is possible – then he’s a lock for that spot.

Grade: Mid First Round

Pro Comp: Emmanuel Sanders

Games Watched:

• North Carolina 2020
• Clemson 2021
• Louisville 2021
• Rutgers 2022
• Wake Forest 2022
• Syracuse 2022

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