https://www.thefantasyfootballers.c...ind-the-faults-in-equanimeous-st-browns-game/
One of the first positives you’ll notice on Equanimeous St. Brown’s game film is his deployment. Unlike some of his peers in this class who are pigeon-holed into the slot, or fixed on one side of the field as a pure split-end, Notre Dame let St. Brown play every position.
St. Brown split time between each side, taking 42.9 percent of his sampled snaps from outside left and another 39.4 percent on the right. He took reps at both flanker and the X-receiver position throughout those snaps, as well. The coaching staff even made use of his skills in the slot, where he lined up on 17.4 percent of his snaps in this sample.
Coming into the NFL with experience operating at a variety of positions could help lessen St. Brown’s learning curve. If that’s the case, it will only take minutes off the clock until he gets on the field and shows off his wide range of skills.
Success Rate vs. Coverage
After a disappointing final college season that can be entirely attributed to the offense around him and quarterback play, St. Brown reestablished momentum at the NFL Scouting Combine. The 6-foot-5, 214-pound wideout ripped off a 4.48-second 40-yard dash. A player blazing a time like that will always send evaluators into a tizzy, scrambling back to the tape and metrics to see what the player is about. Revisiting St. Brown’s game confirms this player is the real deal.
Even though he’s a big receiver, St. Brown separates with ease. His 73.7 percent success rate vs. man coverage puts that to a fine point. It falls at the 78th percentile among draft prospects charted over the last three years. His success rate vs. zone coverage score (85.2 percent) was even better, clearing the 96th percentile. He wasn’t quite an elite performer when facing press coverage, posting a 70.9 percent success rate across 55 attempts, but he still cleared the prospect average by a comfortable gap. This hulking 6-foot-5 receiver has the basic skills needed to further develop a variety of release moves to elude press coverage at the line. Reception Perception shows he’s already more than halfway there.
St. Brown’s success rate vs. coverage scores confirm the theory that this was a player weighed down by the burden of inferior quarterback play in 2017. The gifted wideout can be observed getting open on a regular basis, defeating a variety of coverage types to create clean separation. The passes will come at the NFL level with a proper quarterback pairing. That theoretical quarterback will be giddy when he discovered this is a player who gets open at all levels of the field.
Route Data
In addition to the insufficient support, St. Brown’s assignment helped to bring down the consistency of his production. He ran vertical, low-percentage routes at a rate that’s abnormally high even by college standards.
