This Vikings draft pick has ALL the measurables... can he put together a complete skillset?

AtoZ Sports

Tyler Forness discusses Minnesota Vikings third round draft pick Tai Felton and explains what the former Maryland Terrapin needs to improve on.

Transcript

00:00The Minnesota Vikings drafted a really intriguing player in round three with a skill set that

00:04they don't have, but a major flaw that the rest of them do.

00:08Let's talk about it.

00:12We know how good the Minnesota Vikings wide receivers are.

00:15They've had great wide receivers seemingly my entire life, and I'm 35 years old.

00:19Chris Carter, Randy Moss, the two years of Sidney Rice, Percy Harvin, Stefan Diggs, Adam

00:26Thielen, Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison.

00:31They've been everywhere.

00:32You can go back to Amad Rashad, Sammy White, Gene Washington, Anthony Carter, Jake Reed.

00:39This team has had a lot of great receivers, and another interesting name that they added

00:43to that mix is Ty Felton.

00:45The Vikings picked him at 102nd overall out of Maryland, and he was the engine to that

00:49Maryland Terrapin offense last year, finishing third in receiving yards behind just Jeremiah

00:56Smith, who has a chance to go number one overall in 2027, and Tyler Warren, who went

01:0114th overall to the Indianapolis Colts.

01:04Now, what makes Ty Felton special?

01:06He's a burner.

01:07He is an absolute burner.

01:10He ran a 4-3-7-40, great explosion drills, a 39.5-inch vertical leap, 10-foot, 10-inch

01:16broad jump, both higher than the 90th percentile.

01:19And what makes him really fascinating is he can take the top off the defense, and he can

01:24really threaten you vertically.

01:25He's not just fast.

01:27He also understands how to track the ball.

01:29What do I mean by tracking?

01:30Finding it in the air, locating it, and getting it at its highest point.

01:34Man, being able to make adjustments at the end of the catch, because deep balls are very

01:38hard to be accurate.

01:39There's a reason why the best quarterbacks in the world only hit around 50 percent of

01:44them.

01:45And you know what?

01:45That's just the nature of football, right?

01:47It's a competitive game, but he can do those things, and the Vikings don't currently

01:51have that.

01:52But Jalen Naylor is the closest thing you have to a real speed guy, but even so, he's

01:56not that super vertical threat.

01:58And while Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison are great at going deep, they're not field

02:02stretchers either.

02:03And that's not an insult.

02:05They do a lot of great things in the route running savants.

02:09But Ty Felton is not a route running savant, but he has that field stretching ability, which

02:14is why the Vikings took him.

02:15Now, when you talk about being a route running savant, what's really interesting here is

02:20that Felton, like I said, does not have that.

02:23He can run speed cuts.

02:24He's got some nuance to his game, like with the rocker step.

02:27The rocker step kind of looks like a gyro step in basketball, where you do the fake inside,

02:32outside, and then make your cut back.

02:34So you can do some of that stuff.

02:37And because he does that, it gives him a little bit of an advantage.

02:40So technique-wise, he's got some things already on his plate.

02:44But what he doesn't have is fluidity.

02:47He's a linear athlete.

02:48And what that means is he's a great straight line.

02:50And that comes from his track background.

02:52But here's part of the problem.

02:53In this offense, you need to be able to run those breaking routes.

02:57You need to be able to run those digs, those outs, because that's a lot of what Kevin O'Connell

03:02really likes to do.

03:03He likes to attack the middle of the field.

03:05And then he likes to attack the sidelines.

03:07And he likes to mix it up.

03:08He wants receivers who can run the entire route tree.

03:11Felton doesn't.

03:12It's almost like, you remember watching The Wizard of Oz and the Tin Man and how he moved

03:16before Dorothy put oil on his joints?

03:19It's kind of like how he runs routes.

03:20When he's running straight, he's great.

03:22And he can use his feet really well to stutter, step, and then make a hitch route or a comeback.

03:27But when it comes to in-breaking routes and out-breaking routes, it's a struggle.

03:31He can do slants and glances.

03:32He can do posts.

03:33But that's a 45-degree angle.

03:35That's a lot easier to do within a linear fashion.

03:38So is he going to be able to develop that part of his game?

03:41The good part for him is Keenan McArdle is a great teacher.

03:44And he was a great route-running savant when he was in the National Football League.

03:47Plus, you have two guys to look up to in Jefferson and Addison.

03:50He needs to develop that game and to really become a threat.

03:53Otherwise, he's just going to be a speed threat.

03:56And you know what?

03:56The speed threat is good, but you have to have other elements to your game so people can actually

04:01take you seriously.

04:03He's a third-round pick.

04:04So we can't expect anything out of him right away.

04:06And if we get it, that's great.

04:07But make no mistake about it, it's a reason why he's a third-round pick.

04:13And the Vikings need to find a way to make that part of his game.

04:18Because that's how he's going to become a real difference-maker for the Minnesota Vikings.

04:23I'm Tyler Fornes with ADZ Sports.

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