Draft Analysis: Josh Palmer

Height: 6’1″
Weight: 210lbs
College: Tennessee
Tape watched: Georgia 2020, Senior Bowl 2020
NFL Comparison: Michael Gallup

Pros

Combat Catches
Josh Palmer wins every kind of 50/50 ball there is. He wins contested catches over the middle on crossing routes, on jump balls, and especially on back shoulder and hitch-type routes. He has an innate ability to locate the ball quickly and secure it through contact.

This encompasses Palmer’s short to intermediate game. Doesn’t create a lot of separation from his release or stem, but still catches the ball with a defender draped over him.

Speed
Josh Palmer is more of a strider, but he can really fly when he has open space. Palmer can run with the best of them, it just takes him longer to get to top speed with his long strides.

Here is the good in Palmer’s route running. When allowed a clean release and he can keep defenders off of him, his long speed is deadly. He displays great speed cut and explosion out of the break too.

Hands
Very few balls make their way through Palmer’s hands. He is awesome at attacking the football and coming downhill for contested catches.
Size
At 6’1″ and 210lbs, Josh Palmer is a prototypical NFL boundary receiver. He shows a great ability to win 50/50 balls in the air with a great catch radius as well. He needs to start playing aggressive through his release and route stems, however.

Cons

Route Running
Palmer doesn’t have the greatest deception in his route running. He tends to tip his hat with his head or body before making the cuts. He needs to connect head, body, and feet and stay square in his route stem, instead of leaning right before he cuts. His lateral agility is less than ideal, as his square cuts take too long and are sometimes ineffective at creating separation. Palmer’s weakest trait is his ability to fight through contact within his route. Corners were extremely successful at rerouting Palmer towards help in the defense or towards the sideline.

Josh Palmer is not very aggressive with cornerbacks as shown here. He allows the corner to keep hands on him through the entire route. Once again though, he comes up with a contested catch.

Release
Without great foot quickness and lateral agility, Palmer struggles to create separation from the snap. He isn’t great at using his hands to keep defenders off of him, either.

Overview

Poor quarterback play at Tennessee limited a lot of what Palmer could and should have been. He never had a season of 35 catches or more than 500 yards. Palmer did go to the Senior Bowl and perform well, however, and should have peaked the interest of a lot of scouts. He dominated 1v1 drills and caught a touchdown in the actual game. Palmer should only further drive up his draft stock with a solid 40-yard dash time at his pro day. He needs to create an effective and reliable release against NFL caliber corners. Keeping hands off of him also needs to be a priority to improve upon for the next level.