As wide receivers take the field for testing and drills on Thursday, it’s time for the 2020 NFL Combine preview. Shawn Siegele uses the RotoViz tools to help you locate the top comps, Dominator Ratings, and Freak Scores for a loaded rookie class.
We’ll be awash in information over the next several days. To help make sense of the beautiful madness, I’ve put together a combine preview that provides:
- A range of Freak Score results.
- Career Dominator Ratings.
- The top player comp from the Box Score Scout.
Freak Score
You’ll be inundated with metrics this weekend, but the Freak Score is specifically targeted at a position where height matters. Our scaled height/weight/speed metric helps you understand how a receiver’s physicality translates to the NFL, especially as it relates to touchdown production.
Recent Freak Score stars have outperformed draft position for their owners. D.K. Metcalf’s 92 was one of the best scores ever for anyone not named Calvin Johnson, and he went on to a WR29 finish as a rookie. Marquez Valdes-Scantling, D.J. Chark, and Allen Lazard posted the three best scores in 2018. Chark emerged as a lethal threat in 2019, while Lazard climbed back from UDFA obscurity. Even the disappointing MVS provided dynasty owners with an opportunity to flip at a serious profit.
In this exercise, I’ve provided the Freak Score results for each receiver at three different 40-yard-dash times: 4.3, 4.45, and 4.6. Once the results are in, you can use the Freak Score tool to generate the official result.
Dominator Rating
The Dominator Rating is the average of a receiver’s yardage share and TD share. It’s one of several stats that help predict NFL performance, and market share numbers are especially valuable in finding players who will outperform draft slot. As a quick snapshot, I’ve provided the career DR, but the Box Score Scout breaks down a player’s yardage and receiving share for each individual season.
To highlight the star producers, I’ve sorted the players by Dominator Rating.
For a deep dive on WR production, our Dynasty Command Center Rookie Guide has Travis May’s Adjusted Production Index, my look at the value of Breakout Age, and BOA info for all of the rookies. You can also find breakout ages in the Box Score Scout.
Top Comps
Mike Beers continues to upgrade the BSS. We’ll have the official numbers after the Combine, but Mike has added the ability to input your own numbers for size and speed. You can also experiment with different draft positions.
Want to know the WR with the most similar collegiate production at a given size and draft slot? In this experiment, I’ve used the official combine weights along with projected draft position and our advanced stats to generate comps for each player. The top comp is listed in the table below.
In such a loaded class, it’s no surprise that it includes WRs with comps like Odell Beckham, Sammy Watkins, and DeAndre Hopkins. But it’s not all roses, a few red flags appear as well.
