Wide Reciever

Alabama

6-3 220

Draft Board Overall Prospect Rank: #4

Draft Board Overall Wide Reciever Rank: #2

Rating: 96 (elite)

40 time: 4.39

2/19/11: Julio Jones has been much hyped since he was the #2 overall high school prospect in 2008, behind Da’Quan Bowers, a projected top 5 pick in the 2011 NFL Draft. He has the combination of size and speed that hasn’t been seen since Calvin Johnson, with sub 4.4 speed at 6-4 220. He’s not quite as physically imposing as the 6-5 Johnson (and unbelievably massive hands), but he’s close.

His one glaring flaw is that he will drop some passes, but he’s the type of player who is so physically imposing that you deal with the drops. He was extremely productive at Alabama, in a run heavy offense. He caught 78 passes for 1133 yards and 7 touchdowns on a team that only had 253 catches for 3395 yards and 24 touchdowns this year. As a mere freshman, he caught 58 passes for 924 yards and 4 touchdowns on a team that only caught 195 passes for 2396 yards and 11 touchdowns all year. He struggles statistically as a sophmore, but what he did as a freshman and as a junior more than make up for it.

His junior year stats are even more impressive when you consider he played through a broken left hand and a bad knee for most of the season. He showed amazing toughness in doing so and from all accounts he’s a high character hard working kid. In addition to what he does as a receiver, he is also an above average run blocker. He was well coached at Alabama and has Pro Style experience in Nick Saban’s offense, running the type of routes that he’ll have to run in the NFL.

NFL Comparison: Slightly less athletic Calvin Johnson