STRENGTHS
Nico is a tall, physical receiver with excellent speed and skills to become dominating receiver for the team that selects him. He can make the tough catch going over the middle and move the chains but what will make him dominating in the future is his acrobatic ability to catch the contested pass. Nico is an excellent blocker. He is smart and understands zone coverages. He has good speed, and with his longs legs and longs arms, Nico has the ability to be open when he is not open. Nico is the definition of a sleeper in this draft, a player hiding in plain sight who is playing for a big program, who no one seems to notice until he is off the field and the player replacing him misses a block, or screws up his route getting the QB sacked, or better yet, doesn’t catch that contested pass in the red zone. Nico can go long and move the chains and that’s why he could become a dominating receiver at the next level for the team that selects him.
CONCERNS
Nico will have to learn better route-running skills against man-to-man coverage. Because he is a long strider, coming off the line is difficult for him to stay on balance when corners or safety’s get physical with him. He will struggle until he learns to anticipate and use strong strides against his opponent and run through the coverage with confidence, getting into his routes quickly instead of trying to finesse his way off the line of scrimmage.
BOTTOM LINE 2.06
For Nico developing better route-running skills off the line of scrimmage will be a process. So many big receivers in college use a lot of finesse and think like a smaller receiver because that’s what coaches teach them to do. They teach, not running through your opponent off the line but faking him out. Nico needs to get into his routes quicker and he needs to use those long strides off the line to his advantage and not allow his chest to be so open by finessing his opponent. When a receiver gives his opponent an open shot at his chest, he can be moved off the timing of his routes. Even when running routes, a receiver still has to protect against a defender getting a shot at his chest. When Nico learns the tricks of the trade, he will become a dominating receiver, he just has to believe that he can.
