Unveiling the Speed Demons: NFL Draft's Top Wide Receivers Set to Outpace Defenders
7. Luther Burden III, Missouri (58.2%)
What’s Burden doing at the bottom of this list? It’s an interesting question. Ask any college football fan to name the most electric route runners in the sport over the past two years, and Burden’s name will come up quickly. He certainly doesn’t feel like the seventh-best wideout in his draft class at burning defensive backs. But some context about Missouri’s offense can help explain what we’re seeing here.
Mizzou did not like to air the ball out much when targeting Burden. His average depth of target was 8.9 yards, a bit less than the national average for wide receivers of 9.1. For a player of his talent, that’s a bit surprising. But Mizzou had a limited (and sometimes injured) quarterback in Brady Cook, and the Tigers made a determination that they’d like to get the ball into Burden’s hands relatively quickly and let him do his toasting of man coverage after he already caught it.
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