Film Review: Dolphins wide receiver Jakeem Grant

Wow is truly the only word that can describe Grant's play at Texas Tech. I cannot remember the last Dolphins player that had his shifty ability, or his ability to stop and start. Not to mention Grant was hand clocked at his pro day at 4.1 seconds for his 40 yard dash, he was upset when others clocked him at 4.3.

There are people who think Grant will not see much playing time, but my theory is he is not going to be an average NFL player. That doesn’t mean I think he will be an NFL Top 100 player. That means he will either be too good to not manufacture touches, or he just will not be able to cut it in the NFL.

Maybe the need for wide receiver wasn’t there when the Dolphins picked Grant but I do think his special skill is too good to pass up.

Some may ask, “If he is so special why was he available in the 6th round?”

Grant is only 5’6" and couldn’t weigh more than 170 lbs. Grant also drops way too many passes, this could be because of his presumably small hand size, or because he may hear footsteps. I don’t know why he drops balls but he doesn’t seem to play scared. Most kickoff returners are not scared of contact.

Oh boy, I am going to get a ton of Ted Ginn comments for that one.

Trusted draft writer, Dane Brugler says about having to tackle Grant: “It’s like tackling smoke.” Grant’s low center of gravity and elusive quickness makes him a squirrel. On this play Grant catches the ball and is dodging and juking defenders all the way to the ten yard line.

It was such a long play with so many jukes I had to make it into a two part clip. He is a threat to take it to the house whenever he has the ball in his hands. The Dolphins have not had an elusive squirrely threat with his ball-in-hand ability in quite a long time.  

Grant is a superb special teams return man. Maybe his height works in his favor with this because defenders can lose track of him. On this play Grant shows how special a special teams contributor he can be. He runs 101 yards without being touched. There is no one that has the speed to catch up either.
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Grant will likely be mostly used on bubble screens. Grant’s stop-start ability and lateral athleticism is what makes him so effective in the bubble screen game. On this play Grant “shake and bakes” to gain  yards that were not there. Grant is such a creator with the ball in his hand, he may be a top five athlete with the ball in his hands in this draft class.
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Blocking can be a problem for small receivers, and Grant isn’t the greatest blocker but he is a pitbull when it comes to effort with blocking. On this play the defender avoids Grant’s first block attempt, but Grant does not give up, he stays with his blocking assignment and actually pushes the much bigger defender out of the way.
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Even though Grant is small, he is pretty tough and breaks a bunch of tackles. I think his lack of height plays a part in this; Grant has a very low center of gravity which helps his balance. Plus he is a smaller target for a defender to tackle.

On this play Grant catches a bubble screen and a defender is nearby to tackle him. Grant breaks the first tackle attempt then spin moves out of the second tackle, then falls forward after the third hit.
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Grant is a legit low 4.3  40-yard dash guy. There are guys in the NFL who ran a 4.3 or a 4.4 in their 40s but that speed doesn’t translate to the film. Grant’s speed translates really well. On this play Grant is in the slot and runs a wheel route. The defender is burnt within five yards.
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Grant has great speed which defenders have to respect. One effect of his speed is a cushion on intermediate routes. Grant will be able to feast on comeback routes and intermediate wheel routes like this one. On this play Grant catches an intermediate route and turns it up field for a huge gain.
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One of the things that may prevent Grant from having success is his drops. I saw a number of drops that should have been caught. He needs to really work on this if he wants to see the field. On this play I think Grant tried to run up field without securing the ball first.
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This film review was done by Matthew Knowles. Follow him on Twitter: @blueflamespcl