NFL Draft Film Study: Arizona State WR Jaelen Strong

Merry Christmas, NFL Draft fanatics. Today we’re going to take another look at Arizona State wide receiver Jaelen Strong, who recently made known his intentions to enter this coming year’s NFL Draft and play on Sundays instead of Saturdays.

Strong is a big receiver with a good, NFL-ready frame. At 6-foot-3, 215 pounds, Strong caught 75 passes for 1,062 yards and 10 touchdowns in the regular season, and had no game bigger than his monster performance in a shocking win against the USC Trojans.

What you like from Strong is that as a bigger receiver, he is not just winning jump balls down the field. He is making defensive backs look bad with awesome quickness in and out of his breaks, good awareness of the sideline to make tough catches, and strong hands to make plays away from his body and use his size to shield defenders.

Strong does a really good job of tracking the ball in the air, making sure he goes up to get it at its highest point. He has been targeted a lot in Arizona State’s offense, so he’s been the focal point for defenses but he’s still managed to have a great junior season, and has legitimate first round aspirations.

I’ll be intrigued to see how he times out in the 40-yard dash, because there are times when he just blazes past people on deeper routes, and there are times when he feels like more of a guy who is quicker than fast with the ability to dominate on short and intermediate routes.

If you’re looking for a pro comparison, I would say that Strong reminds me a bit of Keenan Allen when he was at California. Big receiver with long arms, strong hands, and the ability to make plays after the catch as well as deep downfield using his size. He doesn’t appear to be a burner in terms of speed, but he looks like he can make guys miss and use his quickness to get defensive backs off balance.

I’d say he’s worth a late first round or second round pick at this point. There’s nothing that stands out as an incredible trait, but you can see from watching him play, he’s going to be a pretty good pro. He has a lot of tools that NFL scouts can’t wait to work with.