ALL-TWENTY TUESDAY: WESTERN MICHIGAN WR, COREY DAVIS

We’ve all been there. If I asked you to recall a moment like this, I bet you all could in great detail. It could come from being at a game live, being surrounded by thousand of people all screaming their heads off for one team or the other. It could be at a party. You and some friends getting together to watch a big game, enjoying some wings and beer. Hell, it could even be on a random weekend afternoon where it was just you and TV. A little house cleaning here and there to make you feel like you’re responsible, but with the main focus being on not being focused on anything but the football game.

It doesn’t matter where we are when we see it, because when we witness an unbelievably talented player do something unbelievable right before our very eyes and act like it was just another day at the office, we all utter the same words.

“Damn, he made that look easy.”

That’s Corey Davis, who happens to be Tampa Bay’s projected first-round pick in PewterReport.com’s initial 2017 Bucs’ 7-Round Mock Draft.

Despite being graded among the top 10 wide receivers in college football in both 2014 and 2015 from Pro Football Focus, Corey Davis was as under-the-radar as you could be for a first-round caliber prospect heading into 2016.

In 2013, Davis was named the MAC Freshman of the Year in 2014 as he set Western Michigan records for receptions (67) and receiving yards (947) while scoring six touchdowns. But nobody really cared.

In 2014, Davis earned first-team all-conference honors with 78 catches for 1,408 yards and 15 touchdowns, which led the MAC and ranked third in the country overall. But nobody really cared.

In 2015, Davis scored another 12 touchdowns as a junior, catching 90 passes for 1,436 yards. But nobody really cared.

However, in 2016 when Davis went off for 1,500 yards, 97 catches and 19 touchdowns all while leading his Western Michigan Broncos to an undefeated 13-0 record prior to their bowl loss to Wisconsin, people started to care. How could they not?

It seems as though Davis, who became the all-time leading receiver in FBS history this year, is finally getting the national recognition his talent and production deserve. As the country has finally been exposed to him on a larger scale, they’ve fallen for him harder than you fell for your middle school crush after she came up to you during home room and told you she liked your backpack. Some NFL draft analysts have Davis as their No. 2 or No. 3 receiver in the class behind Clemson’s Mike Williams and Washington’s John Ross, while others say there’s not a pass catcher in the country better than him, and have him at No. 1 on their rankings.

So how does Davis make it look so easy? How is it that people can say just from watching his games against MAC-level competition that they can already envision him playing on Sundays? Let’s take a look.

When I’m scouting wide receivers, the first the first area of their game I measure is how well they can separate. It doesn’t matter if you’re a possession red zone threat, a down-the-field burner or a quick-hit slot player, separation is mandatory for all first-round wide receivers (though some more than others).

When we’re talking about outside receivers specifically, separation has to be evident in a few areas. The first is being in and out of routes. The play above is a good example of how explosive Davis can be when making cut and staying true to his route. We often see receivers with less athletic ability and body control either round off routes without making sudden cuts or take too many steps to gather when changing direction that either tip off a defender in zone coverage or allow a defender playing man coverage to catch back up to the play. Davis doesn’t do either of those things.

When you hear or read scouts say a guy need to be a precise route runner, this is what they mean. A receiver’s ability to change direction on a sharp turn or cut allows for them to have maximum separation because it is both deceptive and does not allow any time for a defender to react before the ball would arrive. Davis has the mental awareness and athletic ability to make those quick cuts, even on longer routes.

The second area an outside receiver must be able to separate with is with their breakaway speed.

In the play above, Davis gets good separation on his quick slant to the middle. If the play would have simply ended with him making there catch there and being tackled, it would have been a positive. However, the play continuing the way it does is what makes Davis a special player. Davis slips as he tries to change direction up the sideline, but even after a bad start, had the acceleration and straight line speed to get by and beyond the defensive back, which is incredibly impressive.

The final clip on separation is essentially an add-on to the play before it, this time from 75 yards out. In the play directly above, Davis was suppose to just be running a quick comeback as a bail out play for the quarterback to use to get the ball back to the line of scrimmage. However, once the ball hit Davis’ hands, he quickly made a defender miss with a smooth spin move, and within three or four steps was at top speed and off to the races – no one will catch him them, you’ll learn that at the Combine. I’ve read that his expected 40-yard dash time is a 4.48, but I think it’ll be faster.

If this was where our scouting report of Davis ended, it would have been enough evidence to take him as a round 2 or 3 deep threat. Davis’ separation both in short and long areas is rare.

But, this isn’t where our review of him ends.

The next important aspect of being a true outside receiver is the ability to high point a ball and dominate at the catch point.

I’m sure you hear that phrase, “dominate at the catch point” all the time during draft season. For those of you who don’t exactly know what that means, it’s simple. As the ball travels from the quarterback to a receiver, there comes a point in its trajectory to where a receiver will first be able to catch it if he maximizes both his wingspan and his jump. This is call the high point of a catch.

If high-point catches like the one above aren’t done in the end zone, they’re usually done right at the sideline. The reason you want your sideline receivers (usually 6-foot-2 or taller) to be good at high pointing the ball is because it gives them an evergreen advantage over smaller defensive backs. If a tall receiver can’t high point a ball, it’s a waste of their height – picking tall receivers only matter if they can get something out of their length advantage, like Tampa Bay’s Mike Evans does quite often.

So dominating at the catch point is when a tall receiver maximizes his height and reach advantage on a consistent bases, and can be strong when grabbing the ball up high, not letting it be batted away or knocked out of their hands. This is something a player like Dallas wide receiver Dez Bryant takes great pride in.

In the play above, Davis does a fantastic job of dominating the catch point. Not only does he grab the ball from over and behind the defender, but he is also able to keep his balance, ensuring he gets his foot in for the score. Again, Davis makes those little things all too easy. Not many players in college football can catch that ball, let alone stay balanced.

An elite wide receiver has to be precise. They have to be explosive in their movements and at top speed. They have to be coordinated and balanced, and they need to be strong when the football gets anywhere near them. If they’re all that, there’s only one more box to check off, the ability to perform the spectacular.

These are plays that make you go, “there’s no freakin’ way he just caught that.”

Here’s another angle of that play above.

When I watch Davis’ film, there’s one word that constantly comes to mind: Mine.

I’ve watched film of Davis run slant routes, go routes, post routes, curl routes, dig routes, out routes, and one theme lies in all of them, and that is that Davis believes that any ball thrown his way is his for the taking.

The play above is just one example in Davis’ career tape from Western Michigan where a defender is nothing more than in his way from making the play of the game. When we talk about an outside receiver in the NFL, they need to have some potential to make the spectacular.

Davis has it, and the potential for it is high.

Davis isn’t a perfect prospect. He’s not a 4.3 burner like Ross is, and he still need work as a blocker. But the good thing is he shows the effort to be involved in blocking already – that’s a molding tool. He has some drops in his tape here and there, but I honestly think the only reason we – myself included – remember them is because we expect him to make every single play because he’s just that good.

In the stat of the week we broke down earlier about how Evans was at his best, efficiency-wise, when he was paired with an true starting-caliber outside receiver opposite him in Vincent Jackson. Corey Davis has the potential to be everything Jackson was and more.

If Tampa is drafting for a receiver in round one, Davis should be their No. 1 choice.