Kevin White was a three star recruit from Emmaus High School in Pennsylvania who went to Lackawanna College before transferring to West Virginia in 2013. He didn’t make a huge splash in his first year with the Mountaineers but in his second year he took his game to another level and now enters the NFL draft as one of the top Wide Receivers in the class.

College Career Overview

In his first year with the Mountaineers Kevin White started 9 out of 11 games and totaled 35 receptions for 407 yards with 5 touchdowns. With another year under his belt, his game transformed and he became one of the hardest receivers to cover in college football as his combination of size, speed, and length made him a nightmare to deal with for college Defensive Backs. His highlight reel catches would skyrocket his stock and make many salivate over his perceived skills but there’s plenty of room for him to grow.

Measureables

Stats and Awards

Scouting Report

• The physical prototype for possession receivers.
• Incredible ability to consistently win at catch point using precisely timed leaps and having perfected the art of showing his hands late.
• Has the speed to run away from defenders.
• Follows and adjusts to the trajectory of the ball very well.
• Consistently returns to QB on routes that break towards the line of scrimmage.
• Huge catch radius. Willing to go up and get the ball and dive down for it too.
• Very good at using hands to get off press and for swiping away further down the field. Uses arms well to create space for himself to make catches.
• Consistently catches the ball with his hands away from his body.
• Great balance with functional power when running with the ball.
• Doesn’t have great open field skills, tends to try and make players miss instead of outrunning or powering through them. Might not fully understand himself as a runner.
• Doesn’t have many moves in the open field, his best potential weapon is the Stiff Arm and he is not good at using it. Gets yards through effort, not through abilities.
• Doesn’t release off the line of scrimmage effectively using his feet. Will regularly jog in place with no outside steps or vertical movement.
• An inconsistent route runner, regularly lifts back from drive phase too early and won’t always take routes to the right depth. Very straight forward in many of his routes. Flashes potential for improvement.
• Not much for short area speed, burst regularly missing when changing direction.
• Breaks take too many steps and require some work. Gets a good depth in his hips when breaking.
• A willing run blocker who needs work on engaging and driving blocks. Walls off more than drives.

Film Study

Kevin White looked to be nearly unstoppable in the college setting where corners regularly played off of him and were burned by his long strides and physical play. However, beyond the spectacular catch rating of 99 there’s a lot of consistency issues within White’s game that will put a learning curve on his transition into the NFL.

Contested Catches

If there’s any skill that White will immediately bring along with him into the NFL, it’s his ability to make a contested catch nearly automatically. Despite being often placed in situations where a defender was right up against him White showed an advanced understanding of how to use his size advantage to it’s limits.

White’s leap and extension for the ball come as late as possible in order to not give away the trajectory to the DB covering him. As a result, a contested catch is made right over the head of the DB with the DB being completely unaware of what’s going on.

White regularly displays this kind of prowess for his hands and leaps. He’ll also show the ability to make good swipes at the defenders arms as he goes down the field and even create space for himself by extending his arms out wide before his leaps. Notice in the second view how he brings his arms all the way out in order to move the DB and begin slowing himself down to catch this underthrown ball.

White just has a very intuitive and fluid understanding of how to track a ball downfield and make a catch. He has a very “ball is mine” mentality and will attack and box out defenders very easily with his frame. In the above play, White slows himself down to bump the DB off before falling back for the ball. This skill will make him incredibly valuable to a QB who doesn’t show any fear in throwing to a covered target.

Release and Route Running

This is something i’m very critical about with White, as he doesn’t show a lot of prowess in either skill. White has some flashes of route running but for the majority of his games it doesn’t look like he does a good job with many of his breaks, his depths, or the way he sells his routes.

One of my most critical points on White is his jogging stutter step movement which he uses constantly as a release and as a route running tool. In many cases, it does nothing to help his routes and for White, who doesn’t have a blazing short area burst, it regularly ruins any steam he’s built up. In the play above, White not only fails to make any move on the DB but also doesn’t get enough depth on him and gives the DB the chance to recover and eventually knock the ball out of White’s hands. If White closes the gap between them before breaking outside or even shows a strong inside step before breaking outside this play likely gets him another touchdown.

Against press coverage, White regularly releases by stomping his feet and beating his chest but it doesn’t actually help him with gaining separation, turning the defender or giving him a clean release. It’s at it’s most exaggerated when he’s on screens, which is something I don’t expect he’ll be doing in the NFL that often.

White regularly didn’t put any emphasis into selling the vertical stem before turning back into a screen, usually just opting to jog his feet and turn around. Very often defenders would be at the line of scrimmage by the time he caught the ball.

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