PFF scouting report: River Cracraft, WR, Washington State

Name: River Cracraft

School: Washington State

Position fit: Slot wide receiver

Stats to know: Cracraft ran 97.1 percent of his routes from the slot in 2016 and averaged 1.80 yards per route run.

What he does best:

Smart receiver, knows how to read coverages and find holes in zones.
His 69.0 catch rate in the slot ranked No. 15 in the draft class.
Shifty, quick on his breaks and doesn’t lose a lot of speed when changing direction.
Tough, not afraid to go over the middle for catches, even if it meant taking a big hit. Would pop right up after hits.
Would often try to get the most out of catches by trying to fight through contact. Didn’t force a ton of missed tackles but would pick up an extra yard or two.
Good field awareness, would know where the chains were and run his routes accordingly.
Highly effective at getting open in the middle of the field in the 0- to 9-yards distance.
Consistent performer with positive receiving grades for the last three-straight seasons.
Exceptional body control to make twisting catches or toe-tapping sideline grabs look easy.
Makes linebackers who try to cover him inside look silly.

Biggest concern:

Not overly fast, may not be able to separate at the next level.
A lot of dropped passes or double catches which did or would have led to a defender being able to make a play on the ball.
Really didn’t run a lot of routes besides crossing routes and hooks into holes in zones.
Not a very big catch radius and not a strong receiver. Was not very effective in contested catch situations.
Not strong enough to fight off press coverage.

Bottom line: Cracraft had a lot of production at Washington State, but a large part of that was due to the scheme they ran. He had free releases out of the slot and because of how far spread out the defenses were, he had a lot of space to find holes in zone defenses. His season was cut short by a torn ACL, which could prevent him from being drafted. While Cracraft doesn’t have ideal size or speed for an NFL wide receiver he has the ability to end up in an NFL training camp when he’s fully recovered from his injury.

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