• Ohio State WR Marvin Harrison Jr.: He. isn’t just the consensus top receiver available in this year’s draft, but he’s regarded as one of the best receiver prospects to enter the league in a long time, perhaps as far back as Calvin Johnson in 2007.
• UCLA EDGE Laiatu Latu: He won’t be the most athletic or physically imposing edge rusher in the draft, but he more than makes up for that with some of the best technique at the position to enter the draft in years.
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The 2024 NFL Draft is just weeks away, and with it comes the biggest area of excitement for fanbases and perhaps even NFL front offices over the offseason. The draft brings with it the chance to transform teams if they find the right players
Often it is about building for the future, but we see each year the capacity for instant impact that some players are able to bring to the table.
So who are the players that are most ready to hit the ground running in the NFL?
WR Marvin Harrison Jr., Ohio State
Marvin Harrison Jr. isn’t just the consensus top receiver available in this year’s draft, but he’s regarded as one of the best receiver prospects to enter the league in a long time, perhaps as far back as Calvin Johnson in 2007.
Obviously, he brings a famous name, but he is so much more than the product of hype coming from the reflected glory of his Hall of Fame father. Harrison Jr. is an elite receiver who has more physical tools than his father. His technique is virtually flawless in all areas.
He can clear defenders at the line effortlessly and has an extremely sophisticated understanding of leverage and how to move coverage defenders while he is running routes. Most receivers just try and get to a spot while separating from defenders, but elite receivers understand how to move the defenders at the same time as they are breaking to that spot. This is what allows a seamless transition to the league and immediate effectiveness.
An elite receiver prospect, Harrison also has the skill set that should allow him to be that guy pretty much right away at the next level.
EDGE Laiatu Latu, UCLA
Latu is going to divide opinion in draft circles. He won’t be the most athletic or physically imposing edge rusher in the draft, but he more than makes up for that with some of the best technique at the position to enter the draft in years.
Latu’s hand use and tool kit of pass-rushing moves is incredible and puts him light years ahead of most of his peers when it comes to his potential to make an instant impact. Other edge rushers will be drafted with a vision of what they could become once they add a couple of moves to their repertoire, but Latu already has an entire suite of pass-rushing moves that give him an incredibly varied list of ways to win right out of the box.
Much of the analysis surrounding Latu will be related to his medicals, but if he clears those from a team perspective, he should be one of the most coveted edge rushers available. His pass-rush win rate last season was an outstanding 26.2% and his PFF pass-rushing grade was 94.3, which stacks him up well with the best edge rushers we have seen enter the league over the last decade.
C Jackson Powers-Johnson, Oregon
At 6-foot-3 and 328 pounds, Jackson Powers-Johnson has the size and strength to handle even the biggest and most powerful defensive linemen in the NFL one-on-one, but he also has speed, athleticism and movement skills that belie that body type.
The phrase “dancing bear” may have never had a better representation than JPJ, and that composite of exceptional movement skills and size and strength means he has very little in the way of flaws to his game regardless of what scheme you put him in.
Centers can take some time to adjust to the NFL, so it’s possible he begins his career at the next level at guard, but he should immediately make an impact whatever position he is playing. He allowed just three total pressures over his last 691 pass-blocking snaps in college over the last two seasons.
T Olumuyiwa Fashanu, Penn State
For some reason, Penn State’s Olumuyiwa Fashanu’s draft stock seems to have been sliding throughout the process, or at least the public perception of it. At the beginning, he was arguably the top tackle, but now that has shifted to a consensus of Notre Dame’s Joe Alt, and Fashanu keeps falling behind more and more alternatives.
To me, that’s crazy, simply because of his pass-protection chops.
Fashanu has the best feet I can remember for a long time of any tackle prospect and demonstrates a clear understanding of independent hand use in his blocking technique. His run blocking is definitely the worst area of his game, but his pass protection ability is going to make the bigger immediate impact for a tackle-needy team. Over the last two seasons, he surrendered just 17 total pressures, only one of which allowed his quarterback to hit the ground.
He is as clean a pass-blocking prospect as we have seen enter the league in a long time, and if he truly does slide on Day 1 he will be a steal for somebody.
WR Ricky Pearsall, Florida
This is becoming an annual declaration, but this year’s receiver draft class is exceptional. Unlike some previous years, it has both star power and depth, and it’s within the depth that I’m digging for my final instant-impact player.
Last season, Puka Nacua had the most instant and sustained impact. Nacua was a productive college player with exceptional athleticism as measured by tracking data (his actual testing numbers were more average). He then sent his production to the stratosphere by living in Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp’s meetings the second he was drafted by the Rams.
Repeating that performance won’t be easy, but Florida’s Ricky Pearsall ticks a lot of those same boxes.
Pearsall wasn’t exceptionally productive in college, but over the last two seasons has posted PFF GAS (Game Athleticism Score) between the 93rd and 99th percentile. He backed that up at the combine with a 42-inch vertical (99th percentile), a 6.40-second three-cone time (100th percentile) and short shuttle and broad jumps both above the 90th percentile. He is an elite athlete and showed at the Senior Bowl he can win consistently against elite competition.
If he can also put the work in right away, Pearsall is the kind of receiver who could put up bigger numbers in the NFL than he did in college with a better passer getting him the football.
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