Donovan Peoples-Jones
We’re big fans of Florida head coach Dan Mullen’s assessment that he made before the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in 2018 in regards to whether a player should leave early or stay in school. He said that if a player gets a third-round grade or better, he should leave. If it’s lower, he should stay for another year.
While that’s not a hard-and-fast rule — we’ve seen Michigan players with high grades in their junior season, like former tight end Jake Butt — fall to lower rounds, due to unforeseen circumstances, such as injury or a mediocre season. Such seems to be the case for Shea Patterson, who might have been a third-round pick a year ago, but is in danger of not being drafted this year.
Donovan Peoples-Jones is an interesting case, as he possesses all the talent in the world. But, inconsistency may doom him to being selected in a later round than previously envisioned.
Jeremiah notes that his talent in usual years would see him as an early day two selection. But with how deep this draft is at wide receiver — with players like Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs, CeeDee Lamb available — Peoples-Jones might not get selected quite as high as he hoped.
Still, a great showing at the NFL Scouting Combine — which is all but assured to happen — could do wonders for Peoples-Jones, the same way it did for former Mississippi State WR DK Metcalf a year ago.
“Donovan Peoples-Jones can play inside/outside,” Jeremiah said. “Really creative route runner. He gets off the line easy. Real efficient in his movement. You see an ability to make plays on the back shoulder balls. He’s just not real dynamic, in my opinion, when I studied him. That’s kind of the knock on him.
“In a normal draft, he’s probably a second-round pick. In this draft, he’s probably a third or fourth-round pick, just because there’s so much depth.
So we’ll see what he runs. He runs well, that could help him and maybe he gets back into the day two conversation and locks himself in there. But he’s a really good player.”
Verdict: It’s quite difficult to tell at this juncture, as he could, as Jeremiah states, be a second-round pick. With a great combine, which we anticipate, teams will be salivating at his speed and athleticism. However, we’ve seen him struggle catching the ball at times, and the film could hurt him there.
His ceiling is in the second-round, and his floor is the fourth-round.