Top 10 wide receivers in the 2021 NFL Draft

#10 2021 NFL Draft Prospect: Tylan Wallace (Oklahoma State)

5’ 11”, 195 pounds; SR

Tylan Wallace

A former high four-star recruit in 2017, Wallace barely saw the field as a freshman, but then exploded onto the scene in year two, with just under 1500 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns on 86 grabs, earning himself first-team All-American notice. He tore his ACL fairly late in 2019 and started last season a little slow, but over these last 19 combined games, he has recorded 1825 yards 14 TDs through the air. That made him a second- and first-team All-Big 12 selection respectively.

In 2018 as a true sophomore, Wallace led all returning FBS receivers with 67 combined first downs and 20 receptions of 20+ yards, quietly breaking Dez Bryant’s Cowboy receiving recording, while going off in the team’s two biggest rivalry games in 2018 against Texas and Oklahoma, catching ten passes for 220 yards and a couple of scores each.

While he hasn’t quite reached those height the following two seasons, he has always stepped up in the Oklahoma State’s biggest games. Wallace presents a big body with plenty of vertical speed through those long strides. He may not be able to sink his hips like some of these shifty slot receivers, but he does a really good job of stemming his routes a certain way and winning with the intricacies of the position.

He is a sideline specialist, he consistently wins on speed outs and quick in-breakers, where he utilizes hesitation releases, to be able to create that space underneath, especially from two-by-two sets, to take away ancillary coverage. Wallace excelled on post routes, where depending on defensive alignment, he can take those tight inside releases or create a lot of space, by widening the corner initially.

Wallace shows no hesitation going up for the ball with the safety coming over. He also does a really good job of pushing vertically on curl or comebacks routes and then coming back to the ball. Wallace quickly swipes down the hands of the corner and immediately turns his head, to take advantage of the hole at the sideline in cover-two.

He excels downfield, illustrated by the fact the passer rating when targeted increased by depth of target (110.7 on passes of 20+ yards). At the Senior Bowl, he moved around very well for a big body, winning the majority of reps with efficient route-running and dependable hands.

Wallace is fearless with going up and attacking the ball, making those 50-50 balls a very one-sided affair, with outstanding ability to adjust mid-air and increase the window for his quarterback. Even when it isn’t contested, he is a consistent high-point catcher. He has made so many big catches downhill, where it felt like he was hanging in the air forever.

I could have sworn this guy was like 6’ 5” at times because of how big he plays. Other than maybe Seth Williams, I’m not sure if there is any receiver in this class, I’d rather throw a goal-line fade up for – and that guy has about five inches on him. However, Wallace also shows the strong hands and concentration to secure grabs while having a defender on his back.

His tally of 43 contested catches over the past three years are most in college football. There is no pause after catching the ball and Wallace gets what is there with the ball in his hands. You see that a lot on hitch and curl routes, where he dips that near shoulder to the defender and pulls his legs through contact, breaking quite a few of those.

He does not shy away from any contact, running through awaiting defenders to cross the first down marker and dragging guys for extra yardage. Oklahoma State threw him a lot of slip screens on third downs and let him fight for the conversion. Wallace also shows a lot of physicality as a blocker, consistently getting his hands inside the frame of DBs and routinely knocking them backwards, He does a really good job of establishing position with his approach off the snap and cutting off cornerbacks trying to shoot inside against the run.

However, Wallace doesn’t really make the sharpest cuts, to create separation, and often times needs to take that extra step when trying to gear down. He doesn’t offer much variety in terms of releases, with how little press-coverage he faced, and he struggles to create a lot separation downfield, winning mostly through contact, rather than getting a step on his man.

Even though Oklahoma State had him run plenty of double-moves, he didn’t create a lot of separation on those, because he isn’t super-deceptive on those or has that explosiveness out of the secondary break. While the coaches had a lot to do with it, putting him that far out wide, Wallace often times limits the space to the sideline even more with the way he widens his routes.

He shows a little bit on an issue dealing with passes right on him as he comes out of his back and his eyes have to re-locate the ball. And while 92.2 yards per game is still pretty darn good, we have to acknowledge that Wallace’s per-game numbers have decreased in each of the last three years by 14.4 and 8.1 yards per contest respectively.

Even though he doesn’t quite reach the 6' 0" mark, I would evaluate Wallace as a big-bodied X receiver, because that’s really what he played and even though he doesn’t have the prototype height, he plays that role better than most guys do who have that size.

Wallace lined up on the perimeter for 88.4% of snaps in his career and often times they put him right between the sideline and the numbers. He has recorded over 100 yards per game the past three seasons. The fact his numbers decreased annually is somewhat concerning, but we saw him beat NFL corners every day of Senior Bowl week.

I think his skillset could translate very well to the next level, even though he won’t blow teams away with the separation he can create as a route-runner.