Choose Your WR for 2023: Boutte vs. Smith-Njigba
Over the last decade or so, the wide receiver position in the NFL has become flooded with talent from the college ranks. The influx of talent isn’t just coming from the first or second round of the NFL Draft but from all rounds. The emergence of seven-on-seven leagues at young ages allows children to learn the nuances of playing the wide receiver position early on and come into college with a better understanding of how to manipulate defenses. Even in a supposed “down year” of top-end talent in the 2022 NFL Draft, a record six wide receivers were selected in the top-20 picks in round one. It’s become clear with the big-money deals, the draft capital, and the swagger of the position, that it’s become one of the most important and most profitable positions in the NFL. As we turn our attention to the 2023 NFL Draft, the debate has already begun as to who will be the best receiver in the class. Let’s dive into a few of the names that have been slated at the top of the discussion.
Kayshon Boutte, a wide receiver playing at LSU, put his name on the map as a freshman in 2020 when he set the LSU and SEC records for receiving yards in a game with 308 yards on 14 catches against Ole Miss. His name has been at the forefront of conversations as one to watch as he makes his path in college football. Unfortunately, he suffered an ankle injury in 2021 that cut his sophomore season to only six games. He’s had two ankle surgeries since the injury and it’s unclear when he will be back on the field, but make no mistake, he will be.
LSU lists Boutte at 6’0, 205 pounds which would be a great body comparison to another LSU receiver from a few years ago (Ja’Maar Chase), we’ll see what it is at the combine. When you turn on the tape for Boutte one thing is absolutely clear, he looks the part. He has the frame, speed, hands, and natural understanding of the game that leads to a 308-yard type of performance. What we really want to know is what is he good at already that he could be better at in the 2022 season and what areas he needs to focus on improving. Let’s dive in.
Boutte is a smart player with a lot of different strengths at his disposal, but one area that will continue to pay dividends all the way to the NFL is speed variance releases. A receiver can come out of his stance with burst and try to fly past everyone or he can use intention and make the corner think. When you change up the speed you use in your route stem, it forces a corner to think more. Boutte is faced with an outside corner that has outside leverage, which typically means there will be help to the deep middle of the field for that corner. Instead, he slows his stem speed which lures the corner into a false sense of security and draws him closer to playing straight up on Boutte. He was angling for the middle of the field and then puts his foot in the ground, cuts outside, and runs by the corner creating downfield separation. Getting him a QB that can deliver the ball downfield should be foremost on Brian Kelly’s list at LSU.
When it comes to speed, Boutte doesn’t JUMP off the screen as a burner, but he has wheels. It’s more of a build-up speed than pure, unadulterated burst and speed. He takes advantage of the blitzing corner and gets behind the over-pursuing defenders tracking the running back to the flat and from there it’s all the legs. He gets into open space and it’s over for the defense.
One of the biggest areas for improvement I saw in Boutte’s tape was the way he handles physicality at the line of scrimmage and throughout his routes. He does have some understanding of how to use his hands against man coverage, but consistency is the biggest problem for him. We can see that Boutte allows the corner to get a hand on his chest and the other just outside of his left shoulder pad and take control. He tries at first to get back outside, but the corner has hold and control of the situation and Boutte eventually lets him have it. He stops trying to get open after an attempt and jogs it out. Boutte has the hands, play strength, and short-area quickness to get open at every level of the field, but needs to do a better job expecting the jam and working off of it with different release packages, hand usage, and manipulation tactics. Hoping to see that area of his game grow in 2022.
This is one of the areas that make him a truly special player and for a player his size, it’s apparent on his tape that this is what he was meant to do. His ball skills, while it’s in the air, are pretty good, but the reason they are is because of his body control. He does an excellent job of knowing how to use his own weight and bending in all the right places to stay in bounds and to make adjustments on the move and in the air. Boutte makes the catch and immediately begins to attack (catch to attack) the defense. He angles inside, attacking a gap in between two defenders, and then flips his hips, displaying incredible footwork. Goes from inside to outside, hurdling one pursuing defender and then stiff-arms the other and nearly goes down and out of bounds at the sideline. He manages to stay in bounds and shows some great contact balance to stay upright and then accelerate into the endzone. When Boutte gets the ball in his hands, he’s special. It’s one of the reasons he’s in discussion as the best wide receiver in the 2023 NFL draft.
I’d be willing to bet that if we measured today, Jaxon Smith-Njigba (JSN) isn’t as close to Boutte in the height and weight as their bios suggest, coming in at six-foot and 197 pounds their body types on paper are nearly identical. When you watch him play, that doesn’t match up. He’s a smaller player that runs primarily out of the slot and I hope Ohio State gets him on the outside a bit more in 2022. On a team with two first-round draft picks in Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave, it was JSN that led the team in yards in 2021 with 1606 throwing in nine touchdowns in the process. In 2022, he’s not going to have that type of gravity taking the attention away from him, so how is he going to adjust and continue to dominate? I hoped you’d ask.
Entering 2022, I’m hoping to see the Buckeyes use JSN more on the outside to see the full extent of his repertoire, but after seeing a rep like this it’s hard to imagine they won’t. With a wide array of manipulation tactics (the skip hesitation) and varied releases off the line of scrimmage, he can get open against press coverage. He does a great job of adjusting his plan as the corner comes in late to press. He leads the corner upfield, feels him in the hip pocket, turns on a dime on the curl to locate the football, and then flips back around before the corner can close where the ball was caught. He accelerates into the open field but is caught from behind because he doesn’t have true breakaway speed. He’s quicker than fast and shows it on every rep.
When you don’t have the breakaway speed to destroy angles from opposing defenses, you need to learn to be creative. JSN is a very creative mover and space creator even with the ball in his hands. On the drag route, he gets the ball and notices he has two defenders in his way of a first down. He hesitates slightly which gives him enough time to re-accelerate while the defense slows to read what he is doing. He creates an angle that moves past the first defender and then has enough space to loop around the second one for a first down. The quick footwork he shows in the previous clip combines with his vision and creativity in space and gives you a guy that is very difficult to track down in the open field.
Ohio State was creative in the different ways they used JSN and running a wheel route from the slot is a good way to allow him to gain speed and not have to deal with a jam. On the turn upfield the corner does come in and attempt to get hands on JSN, but he swipes them away with quick, precise hands. He has a good feel for the position and is extremely comfortable with defenders closing in on him. Tracks the ball extremely well and makes this over-the-shoulder catch look seamless.
A couple of things I want to see more from JSN include facing a true jam from the defense, playing more against man coverage on the outside, and some mental focus in the game. He has lapses of confounding drops with no one around that can only be explained by concentration lapses. Clean up the little mental mistakes and he could be primed to see not only the highest volume in the country but finish with the best season as well. How will he deal with being the main focus of the defense? I can’t wait to find out.
Both of these players are growing into their offenses and broke out at young ages. The attention on the other weapons in the Ohio State offense raises more questions about the success JSN could have in 2022 for me, personally, but the tape is a lot of fun for both of these players. I’d say Boutte is the more “explosive” player on the field and with the ball in his hands, but JSN is a technician with his footwork at all levels of the field and can get open on command. Whoever ends up as the WR1 of the class will have earned it. Who do you think it will be, JSN, Boutte, or someone else?