Biggest risers and fallers from the 2023 NFL Combine

Wide receivers

Liberty's DeMario Douglas

Riser: DeMario Douglas, Liberty

This is a guy I’ve shouted out on multiple occasions this offseason already. We already knew he was small, and at 5-8, 179, we needed to see him stand out to some degree athletically – which he did. That 4.44 in the 40 matches his game speed. Douglas was also tied for fifth among WRs with a 39.5-inch vert and was just one inch behind the top mark in the broad jump at 10-8.

He showcased a nice burst out of his breaks, confidently caught the ball during the gauntlet and had a great diving grab on a deep in-cut once. You saw him turning upfield smoothly and rapidly after securing the catch consistently, and he looked like a guy who all of that comes to pretty naturally.

You take that along with how he was cooking DBs throughout East-West Shrine week – which I already outlined him for in my article on the biggest standouts from the college all-star events. And he has probably moved up significantly on a lot of boards around the league during this process, as somebody who because of physical measurements will be available on Day Three, but he may go a lot earlier than expected once the 2022 season ended.

Ohio State’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba didn’t run the 40, but he put up elite agility numbers, which were tops at the entire event, as well as two and three tenths of a second better than anybody else for the WR group respectively. And he just looked so smooth during the on-field portion, with fluid route-running, adjusting to the ball and getting upfield effortlessly.

Two of the bigger receivers in Princeton’s Andre Ioshivas and West Virginia’s Bryce Ford-Wheaton ran better than expected, along with the former finishing behind only JSN in both agility drills, while the latter was tied for the group’s top mark with a 41-inch vert.

Maryland's Dontay Demus

Faller: Dontay Demus, Maryland

Meanwhile, Maryland’s Dontay Demus was pretty far down the list with a 4.57 in the 40, but I just didn’t like the way he moved on the field, to be honest. He lacked juice in his routes and wasn’t crisp at all in his breaks. He struggled to catch the ball cleanly a couple of times early on, even though he was able to get that done as the workout continued. But his play speed is questionable going up against NFL DBs – and that’s what I wasn’t sure about watching his tape as well.

It’s obviously not his role, as he was a pure outside receiver at Maryland, but watching him run the pivot route, it was more so a shuffle into the cut rather than exploding off the inside foot – you’ll see some tight-ends be cleaner in those transitions.

To me, with the athletic profile confirming mostly what I saw on tape, I just look at him as a limited player, who may have his role as a red-zone specialist, where his ability to catch the ball through contact and position his body accordingly is very good. But other than that, he’s a pure outside receiver with a small route tree to work off, and not that much else to offer.

South Carolina’s Jalen Brooks also had some pretty bad testing, including the worst 40-time for the position at 4.69 and the slowest three-cone drill, coming off with just one season of fairly good production. He did at least hit the 6-foot and 200-pound mark in a very small WR class, but a lack of athletic tools will only be more highlighted by who’s up before and after him.