Biggest risers from the 2022 college all-star events:

UCLA wide receiver Kyle Philips

WR Kyle Philips, UCLA

After a redshirt year, this former four-star recruit set a freshman school record with 60 catches, and after an honorable mention All-Pac 12 selection in a shortened 2020 season, he put up career-highs last year, catching 59 balls for 739 yards and a Pac-12-leading ten touchdowns. Phillips also averaged 21.0 yards per punt return for the Bruins and reached the end-zone two additional times.

Despite a pretty productive career for one of the more well-recognized programs on the West Coast, Philips was looked at as a day-three prospect and did not receive a Senior Bowl invite. Instead, he made his way to Las Vegas and went on to look borderline uncoverable throughout four practice sessions. What was apparent from the start was his understanding of how to set up defenders as a route-runner, with the way he stemmed them initially and then varied his pacing, such as hitting sudden bursts, to make it hard to anticipate which directions he might take them. A lot of times, he almost literally stepped on the toes of the DB, got them to freeze those, deceived with his body-language and then created separation out of his breaks.

Having primarily lined up inside for the Bruins during his collegiate career, getting off press-coverage was something Philips didn’t get to show a whole lot of, but he seemed to have no issues with it in Vegas. We saw him vary those releases, whether it was just some rapid feet off the line and then a well-timed slap away of the defender’s hands or shuffle-steps to force his man to lean the wrong way, again paired with active hands. He also displayed the long-speed to not allow that guy to re-enter the picture when going downfield, and then, once the ball was in his hands, you saw guys lose ground on him, while trying to chase him down. Just to add that cherry on top, he added in some beautiful diving grabs in the end-zone during red-zone drills, displaying great concentration.

Philips ended up missing the actual game, but with the work he put in throughout practices, that’s not really a big deal to me. He really turned some heads over the course of the week, thanks to his quickness of foot and ability to release cleanly. He even drew comparisons to a local Raiders receiver, who is known for his savviness as a route-runner, in Hunter Renfrow. The former UCLA standout probably still projects best in the slot, but he can definitely play some Z and win down the field as well.