“There he goes. One of God’s own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.” – Hunter S Thompson

In the NFL there is a tendency to compare draft prospects to players already in the league. We all know the meme of the short white slot receiver (looking at you Patriots) but it happens with every position to some degree. It gives some validation to an evaluation, “Well _____ has a similar build and plays kind of like ______ so we can see that they can translate if given the chance”.

So what do you do when a prospect is so unique that there isn’t a comparison in the NFL that does him justice?

Enter Jaylen Samuels , N.C State’s “SuperBack”

Background

As a senior in his North Carolina high school “Mallard Creek” Samuels flat out dominated. He rushed 109 times for 1,404 yards (12.9 ypc) and had 39 TDs. As a receiver he had 49 catches for 932 yards and 16 more scores. 55 touchdowns in 158 touches, which works out as a touchdown every 3 touches. In other words , good things happen when you give Samuels the ball. Despite this production he was a 3 star recruit and went unranked nationally. An old connection between his Mallard Creek coach Michael Palmieri and N.C State’s Dave Doereen eventually led to him committing there and the rest, as they say, is history.

“Good things happen when you give Samuels the ball”

That’s a phrase you’re going to hear a lot from people talking about Samuels and with good reason.

As you can see Samuels kicked on from his high school production and provided great value as both a receiver and a runner for N.C State. His 47 TDs in 383 plays from scrimmage works out at a touchdown every 8 touches, not too shabby if you ask me. Jaylen finished his career with several ACC records and recently passed Jericho Cotchery (and a little known receiver named Torry Holt) as N.C State’s all time leader in receptions.

Samuels has been the key cog for the Wolfpack offense and provided Ryan Finley with an outlet at all levels of the field. He’s played running back, fullback, H-back, tight end, wide receiver and been productive at all of them, even thrown a pass or two!

Jaylen and fellow 2018 draft stud DE Bradley Chubb have been the two main leaders for the WolfPack over the last few years. The coaches faces light up when asked about what they bring to the team. With Jaylen, or JaySam as he’s known, the go to talking points are always about his versatility and willingness to put the team first. He has no preference where he plays or what he does as long as it helps the team win. He might sit in a meeting with the tight ends one day or with the running backs the next.

“As a coach we can sit here in say, ‘We want Jaylen to do this,” Faulkner said. “For some players it would be unheard of, because he can’t remember that or do that. All you have to do is come up with a plan and he’ll learn it.” Eddie Faulkner – N.C State’s TE/FB coach

“Jaylen Samuels is just the epitome of a football player,” Fisher said. “He can play everywhere, do everything. He can catch, run, block, throw — I mean, there’s nothing he can’t do. … To do the things that Samuels does, there’s not only great physical skills, there’s great mental skills; great intelligence to be able to play the different positions, understanding how to play them and play so effectively.” Jimbo Fisher – (Former) FSU coach

In today’s NFL versatility is king and Samuels might be the most versatile player we’ve ever seen come from the college ranks. He’s a legitimate threat from every position on offense bar offensive line and has the athleticism and mental prowess to maximize each and every opportunity he gets. Add all of that to his set of intangibles and you have a pretty special player. Below I’m going to detail his strengths/weaknesses and outline why he can be effective at the next level, all through the magic of gifs…

At 6’0 230lbs its hard to tell what position Samuels plays just by looking at him. Is he a big running back? A small tight end? A chunky wide receiver?

The truth is he’s all of them, and more. He’s athletic, explosive, a home run threat, a sure handed receiver, a goal line back, great with yards after the catch. In other words he’s a perfectly balanced offensive threat with the ability to hurt you all over the field.

As a receiver N.C State used him as slot, out wide , inline as a TE and out of the backfield. They use use various motions to get favorable looks for him and basically ran the offense through him.

Lines up as the H-Back , wheels out of the backfield and boxes out the safety with his frame. Simple route and concept to get Samuels a mismatch. Easy TD.

Samuels runs a slant from the slot against a 5’9 170 slot corner. Comes back to find the ball and again expertly boxes out to make the catch. Cornerback doesn’t have a chance. These are the kind of plays tight ends in the NFL are asked to make on a regular basis. Closer look below

Samuels runs a delayed route out of trips and makes a tough catch across the middle. Does very well to hang on.

Play out wide, finds the soft area of the zone and makes a quality diving catch. He makes these plays look easy. This isn’t a play a regular “H-Back” makes.

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One of the best catches from the 2017 season. Shows great focus and effort to reel in a difficult catch. He’s excellent at tracking a ball in the air.

One of his biggest strengths in his yards after catch ability. He’s dangerous in space and regularly makes big plays as a receiver.

Runs a short curl and turns it into an 80 yard gain before getting knocked out of bounds. Look at how his catch and turn up-field is one fluid motion. Its a small detail but it speaks to Samuels polish as a receiver.

Takes a short screen all the way to the house. Out runs the entire Vandy defense.

Same game similar play. Just too athletic in space. Scored 4 TDs in this game breaking the “Independence Bowl” record.

While he’s clearly a talented receiver with great promise at the next level, its only half of his game. N.C State took full advantage of Samuels as a running back too and he finished his career with 28 rushing touchdowns. They primarily used him as a short yardage+red zone back and used a variety of cross formation motions and shovel passes to get him out in space.

Motions him from out wide , takes the hand-off, beats 4 would be tacklers on his way to an easy TD. (Note: What kind of a tackle is that #7???)

Pulls him across the formation and gets him in space. Works well because of how dangerous he is as a receiver.

The most beautiful play in football, a well executed shovel pass for a TD.

Again!

Big play threat from the ground too.

. I had aimed to provide some negative analysis of Samuels to balance out the good but truthfully speaking there really isn’t much to talk about in terms of what he CAN’T do. He drops some passes here and there but overall has very strong hands.

The biggest negative I found was his blocking, and thats something he needs to work on as a rookie if he wants to earn the trust of his HC/OC and get on the field early. Too passive and his technique can be sloppy. If he can work his ass off at that then there’ll never really be any reason to take him off the field.

Conclusion

As (hopefully) detailed above Samuels is a special talent. There have been multi-dimensional threats in the NFL before but none with the overall skill set he has. He can play WR/TE/RB/H-back all at a pretty high level while also being a leader and beloved locker room member off the field. He’ll need a creative OC to get the absolute most out of him but has the baseline skill set to be effectivr regardless. Think of him as a weird cross between Delanie Walker/Kyle Juszczyk/Jarvis Landry.

He’s performing in the Senior Bowl and I fully expect his stock to fly up after that and then again after the combine. Keep an eye out for him.

Likely a 2nd/3rd round pick.

– Jack

*This is my first draft blog of the year, hoping to do lots more this year but I am extremely lazy. All feedback is welcome whether its positive or negative, particulary the negative shit*