And NFL.com, and pretty much every scouting report you can find brings it up. It was absolutely a knock on Jefferson. ESPN, PFF, nfl.com, all over the place. Here’s more:
Weaknesses: While Jefferson projects to come off the board as early as the first round, he does enter the NFL with some questions. The biggest of which might be tied to his release off the line of scrimmage: Jefferson rarely faced press-man coverage in 2019, and oftentimes won by exploiting holes in defensive zone concepts. He will need to adjust to this at the next level and become more effective with his steps when going against defensive backs who try to get grabby with him early in his routes.
In general, he has shown that he can get re-routed too easily at times when challenged on his patterns and needs to use his outside arm to disengage. He may have to add more mass to his frame to help in this regard. Jefferson also offers only limited deep-threat abilities at this point in his career. While he tested well at the combine by running a 4.43 40-yard-dash, his production beyond the 20-yard range was limited in part due to his inability to shake free on 9-routes and similar assignments.
What would be his role? Jefferson spent most of his time at LSU in the slot and proved to be a hyper-productive player from this alignment as well as the top target for expected number one overall draft pick Joe Burrow. Looking at the next level, he is therefore expected to play a similar role: Jefferson could see some snaps as a perimeter receiver due to his size and physicality, but will probably primarily work as a big slot in the mold of Mohamed Sanu — and potentially serve as an upgrade over last year’s trade acquisition further down the line. After all, Jefferson combines some crafty route running with one of the best pairs of hands in the class.
Even the guys who loved him hedged their bets on slot vs. outside.
"I’d like to see him keep his role as a slot-hybrid who earns a heavy target volume and gets plum matchups in the vertical game. Jefferson has the Football IQ to produce in this role.
We’ll see if he earns the system fit and the quarterback to maximize this potential. If not, he still has the goods to produce as strictly a perimeter option, but the upside might take longer to reach and the target volume will be lower."
That is literally me going down the list of scouting reports from a google search. The truth is everyone thought Jefferson had question marks outside, might be slot only, and they were all wrong. That doesn’t mean the same thing will happen with JSN (though I personally would bet on it), but it explains why the comp is relevant.
