Draft Analysis: Zay Flowers

January 30, 2023 /
  • Height: 5’9″
  • Weight: 182 lb
  • College: Boston College
  • Tape watched: Rutgers, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Louisville 2021, Clemson 2021
  • College Comparison: Santana Moss

Pros

  • Route Running
    Flowers is as special as they come in terms of route running. The effort and burst he displays in and out of every cut is high-level stuff. Flowers’ explosion testing numbers will likely be near-elite, and can be seen on just about every play. Flowers does a great job of staying square and patient to the top of his stems. It is impossible to tell which way his cut is leading, leaving defenders a step or two late on every route.
Being the fastest player on the field makes it difficult to contain that ability on every play. Flowers does an excellent job of reading the defense and play flow to find himself massive space on his route. Let the play develop, then go to work.
  • RAC
    Agility and speed are both high level traits for Flowers. He might be the best receiver with the ball in his hands of the draft class. Flowers sees the field extremely well, and bursts through gaps making defenders miss along the way. With rumors of a 4.3s number in the 40 yard dash, Flowers’ first round hype may pick up greatly through the coming months.
  • Release
    Quick feet, shoulder dips, and active hands are all ways to elaborate on Flowers’ release abilities. He did not struggle with press coverage. His size and quickness will be a great advantage if teams decide to play him on the perimeter.
  • Blocking
    While he is not overly powerful, Flowers’ gives maximum effort on every play. His attention to find anyone to put hands on in the run game is fun to watch. He was also asked to, and successfully blocked down on linebackers in condensed formations.
#4 closest to the camera

Cons

  • Hands
    Flowers struggles often to keep footballs off his chest and pads. Drops were more common than you would like, but he does have nice hand catches on tape that show he is capable. His frame and arm length will always hinder some catch situations.
An example of Flowers not finishing his route, and not using his hands to catch the football.
  • Size
    Simply put, being a smaller receiver will always be limiting in opportunities. Catch radius, 50/50 situations, and red zone opportunities are all affected by Flowers’ size. There are perks to his size on the other hand, but not nearly as many pros as cons in my opinion.

Overview

Will teams overlook hand and size concerns to draft the highly dynamic receiver early? The list of players at or below Flowers’ reported size that have been truly game changing is a short one. I am not sure Flowers has a top tier trait that will send him into that list. However, I do think Flowers is one of the most complete receivers of his stature that the NFL has seen in a while. He is a better route runner than Jaylen Waddle was, and is more dynamic with the football than Kadarius Toney. Placing him around that kind of expectation in the NFL is more than fair.