Buccaneers Draft Comparative: Corey Davis and John Ross
Speed
40-yd dash times are still to come of course, but we can pretty much call this one. John Ross is obviously the superior prospect when it comes to speed as he gets off the line quickly and gets into his routes before his quarterback finishes his drop.
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While the Buccaneers are clearly looking to add speed, Davis isn’t exactly the tortoise here, and definitely has some deceptive downfield juice himself. The NFL doesn’t always give a young receiver the runway he’ll need to get it going though, and this fact will keep the separation speed we saw so often in college in check a bit at the pro level.
At the end of the regular season, Dirk Koetter made it clear the team needed more speed and the ability to make explosive plays.
He referenced the ability to take a 10-yard pass and turn it into a 30-yard gain.
In this light, it seems the coach’s words would be better suited to Ross out of Washington who can easily turn a 10-yard slant into a 30-yard gain with one juke or missed tackle aiding in his escape from tackle.
Davis has shown the ability in his career to turn a quick screen or a curl route into big chunk plays, but those almost always required a bad tackling effort or bad angle from the defender. Besides, in the NFL, most of the screen plays you see broken for big yards come from players with Ross’ speed.