STRENGTHS
Josh is a productive, cunning like a fox, sure-handed receiver. He reminds me a lot of former Panthers WR Steve Smith Sr and like Steve, is more quick than fast although Josh is pretty fast. Josh has a large catch radius because of his ability to adjust to the ball in the air and catch anything that might be near him. He can make the acrobatic catch as well as the contested catch giving his quarterback the confidence to throw to him in any situation. He has quick feet and has good strength to run his routes but what truly makes him productive is his remarkable hand/eye coordination to catch the ball, and his competitiveness to find a way to be productive when he is challenged. Josh has the catch radius of a 6’ 0” receiver in a 5’ 9” body.
CONCERNS
Josh is vertically challenged and this is THE reason he will be downgraded by every team in this draft. They believe this lack of height will limit his ability to be as productive as he was for his college team. The truth is, the only thing that will affect Josh’s ability to be productive will be coaching. The question is, will coaches understand why Josh runs his routes the way he runs his routes or try to make him run routes the way every other receiver runs the routes?
BOTTOM LINE: 2.14
Josh is a very cunning type of route runner. At first, I thought he was lazy and didn’t finish routes when the ball wasn’t coming to him. Then after continuing to look at films from both years I realized he is very smart. He can run all the routes inside or on the outside. Josh runs his routes to purposely fool defensive players into thinking they can cover him and then when he is needed he turns on the speed and quickness, shocking his defender, and allowing Josh to be open and separate. Because of Josh’s remarkable eye/hand coordination, big catch radius, and acrobatic skills to catch contested passes, quarterbacks will learn to throw the ball to him even if he looks like he is not open. Josh just has to know the ball is coming to him so he can change the way he runs his route. If you put Josh in the slot in the middle of the field he will make the tough catch to move the chains and make impact plays. The closer you get to the red zone is when he should line up on the outside so that he can use his quickness in the open field and quarterbacks can see him better. I wonder if coaches will figure this out or insist on Josh just being a slot receiver and running routes that will NOT make him a mismatch. One can only wonder?
