2015 NFL Draft Scouting Report: Louisville WR DaVante Parker

By Brad Berreman @bradberreman24 on January 22, 2015

This year’s group of NFL draft prospects is again deep with talent at wide receiver, with some early mock drafts featuring as many as six receivers in the first round. Alabama’s Amari Cooper is all but certain to the be the first wide receiver taken, but after that multiple players are considered possibilities to follow him off the board in the first round.

One such receiver is DaVante Parker out of Louisville, who chose not to participate in this week’s Senior Bowl in order to focus on the NFL Combine and his pro day. Leaving that aside, let’s take a closer look at Parker, starting with his measurements.

Height: 6’3″
Weight: 209 lbs.
Class: Senior
Strengths

- Has excellent size and long arms, and uses both effectively to make contested catches

- Lined up outside and in the slot and is highly functional from both spots

- Shows excellent body control; is a smooth athlete

- Has excellent ball skills; is able to high-point the ball

- Is strong after the catch; is fairly elusive and tough to bring down

Weaknesses

- Shows some laziness getting into his routes; seems slow off the line at times

- Does not have great straight-line speed; may struggle to separate vertically at the next level

- Missed the early part of his senior season after suffering a broken fifth metatarsal in his left foot; may require further investigation despite a high level of production after returning to action

- Needs to improve his overall precision (ex: footwork) as a route runner

Overview

The Minnesota Vikings are a popular choice to take Parker at No. 11 overall in mock drafts right now, which would reunite him with college teammate Teddy Bridgewater. In any case, as things are right now, it would be a fairly big surprise to see Parker fall out of the top-20 overall picks.

I don’t quite buy the hype of Parker joining Bridgewater in Minnesota and the two automatically becoming at top QB-WR duo, but Parker can absolutely be an immediate contributor as a rookie wherever he lands.

Brad Berreman is a Columnist/Senior Writer at Rant Sports.com. Connect with him on Twitter or Google +.

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