WR Prospect NFL Comps: Adonai Mitchell
Yahoo Sports fantasy analyst Matt Harmon breaks down which NFL players Texas WR Adonai Mitchell most compares to leading into the 2024 NFL Draft.
Video Transcript
MATT HARMON: We're talking prospect comparisons for this year's wide receiver class. Let's take a look at AD Mitchell, the wide receiver out of Texas. My aggressive comparison for Mitchell is DeAndre Hopkins in his peak years. Now, no question, Mitchell is more athletically gifted than DeAndre Hopkins was coming out of school, but they are similar in terms of size and builds, as pure X receivers, and neither of these guys are going to be big time YAC threats. But to me, they have a very similar way of lulling you to sleep as smooth route runners.
They're able to vary their speed and separate late in routes. I think Mitchell is going to reach his peak if he kind of tightens up the fundamentals to the tier one technician level that we've seen DeAndre Hopkins live in his entire career, especially as just a pure catcher of the football, one of the best hands. We've seen over the last 15 years of the position. Now, my cautious comparison for AD Mitchell is George Pickens, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver. We're squarely still in that X receiver archetype, but I think this is where Mitchell's career is going to fall if he remains as a volatile player that we've seen at Texas.
Pickens has kind of been in that guy in the NFL, too, where there's games where he absolutely takes over. Then there's games, he gets to targets, and you're kind of wondering, what happened? These guys are limited vertical route tree players, inconsistent against zone coverage, but do know how to get off the line of scrimmage and dominate press coverage situations.
Now, Mitchell doesn't have those same kind of otherworldly, wild highlight plays in contested situations, but he's a ball winner in his own right as that pure perimeter receiver. I think there's a wide range of outcomes for AD Mitchell as an NFL player. I think there's probably going to be a wide range in terms of where he ranks on different teams' boards. But regardless, I think teams that are looking for that pure perimeter X receiver, are going to covet him around the first round, late first round range, early second round range in this year's draft.