College All-22 Film: 2020 New York Jets Draft Picks | WR Denzel Mims

Does Denzel Mims have the potential to be a long-term WR1 for the Jets? Sam Crnic breaks down Mims' NCAA All-22 film at Baylor. 2020 Jets draft class film breakdowns: Mekhi Becton and Cameron Clark James Morgan La'Mical Perine While the New York Jets feel like they found their franchise quarterback in Sam Darnold, they haven't put much around him to facilitate development. The days of having LaDainian Tomlinson, Braylon Edwards and Santonio Holmes are long gone, with nothing comparable since besides the trio of Chris Ivory, Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker in 2015. Outside of Le'Veon Bell, Darnold's supporting cast has been subpar at best throughout his first two years. With Robby Anderson heading to the Panthers, the Jets decided to pick up Breshad Perriman as a short-term replacement, but they eventually need to find the "true No. 1 WR" that every team so desperately covets. Joe Douglas had to address this in the draft. With the 59th overall pick, he found his high-upside WR prospect in Texas native Denzel Mims. Hometown: Daingerfield, TX High School: Daingerfield High School (TX) Position: WR School: Baylor Height: 6-foot-3 Weight: 207 pounds An extraordinary pass-catcher from an athletic and physical standpoint, Denzel Mims looks to improve the Jets' wide receiver room immediately. Along with being an all-state receiver at Daingerfield High School, Mims was a state-champion sprinter, something that is evidently exhibited on the football field as well. A member of the 2019 First Team All Big-12, Denzel ranks fifth in Baylor history with 186 career receptions. In addition, Mims ranks third in school history with 28 receiving touchdowns throughout his career. Asked about his skillset in relation to the other WRs in his draft class, Mims confidently responded: "I’m a team player, I really know every position on the field... I know what to expect, I know what I want to do and I have a game plan of each route. They just love that about me and I pretty much interview well and I know my game, I know my stuff." Film Off the ball, Mims (far left) notices his defender's stance: close feet with the intention to play outside leverage. He attacks with this the shuffling of his feet, seamlessly getting his defender off-balance in the process. He stems inside, eventually stopping near the first-down marker to create separation. Mims achieves this through the lowering of his hips and dipping his shoulder lower than the DB's. Denzel forcibly plants his lead foot into the ground, giving him balance to run after the catch. With the defender already off-balance, he misses the initial tackle on Mims, allowing a nice run after the catch. Even with pretty good coverage off the stem and break, I really liked QB Charlie Brewer's ability to lead the pass to the sideline for Mims (far left). With just enough room to reel in the pass with his chest, Mims once again breaks the initial tackle and works his way up the field. Instead of going out of bounds to avoid contact, Denzel does the opposite. He welcomes the physicality, earning a couple of extra yards as a result. With a shifted Tampa 2 look to the right side, Mims (far left) takes notice of the deep safety on his side of the field backpedaling, which gives him ample room to the inside. Brewer makes the correct decision and hits Denzel in stride with space. After the catch, Mims lets the blocks develop in front of him, which gives him room to the right side of the field. A DB takes a perfect swipe at the ball, forcing it loose from Mim's arms. Luckily for the star WR, the ball drifts out of bounds. With a clear off-sides from the defense, Brewer takes a shot to Mims (far right) towards the sideline. In an attempt to put it where only Mims can get it, he underthrows the pass to the outside where the Baylor WR makes an outstanding acrobatic catch. He keeps one of his feet on the ground as he extends his arms for the grab. Denzel does a beautiful job of contorting his hips back to the pass, essentially boxing out his defender for the nice gain. Alone on the left side, his defender gives him space off the line of scrimmage to easily beat with a simple slant route. Not the sharpest break off the stem, but with 0 defenders back and an open middle field, the defense is making it too easy for Baylor. With a high throw, Mims displays his outstanding catch radius once again, extending his arms for the TD. He pulls the ball back to his chest, maintaining the catch to the ground. Off the ball, Mims starts outside off his stem to attack the inside leverage shown from the DB's stance. Using his inside arm to keep the defender's arm off his shoulder, he creates enough separation at the top of his route to warrant a throw. Although he does a good job at stacking the vertical, the deep middle safety is quick to give Denzel's defender help towards the inside. Brewer takes notice of this, leading the pass to the sideline or to Mim's back shoulder. Denzel seamlessly pivots and swivels his hips in the direction of the pass while not losing balance, extends his arms, and comes down with the grab. Whether it be his superb arm extension, beautiful hip turn, or strong hands, this play is one of my favorites. Attacking the inside leverage, Mims stems to the outside on the vertical. With the utilization of rapid one-direction speed to stack on top of his defender, the struggling DB grabs his inside arm, leading to an incomplete pass but an easy DPI call. Another beauty from the QB with a led pass towards the sideline. Even though Mims stems to the inside off the snap, he leans into his defender to make him indecisive to where Denzel plans to break. At the same time, this gives him leverage to essentially push off his man for the inside break, granting him ample separation. Brewer puts a beautiful ball in between the two zone LBs to a spot where Mims can only catch it. While he extends his arms and dives to make the catch, Denzel cradles the ball to his chest before hitting the ground, guaranteeing the catch. This is a perfect example of an advantage to Matt Rhule's heavy run scheme. The play-action makes almost every defender bite, singling out Mims (far left) on the vertical. With Mim's bursting agility and top speed, this is an easy large gain. Denzel does a great job of noticing the outside leverage based on the DB's initial steps. From there, Denzel shuffles his feet to stem back inside, making his defender stumble. When Mims gets the advantage off press coverage with no help over the top, it's usually game over. Stemming outside off the snap, Mims showcases his red zone physicality, pushing his man back with his inside arm up until reaching the endzone. From there, he reverts his hips back to the direction of the pass, boxing out his man in the process. With an outside pass towards his head, it's worth mentioning how strong yet quick Mim's hands are. He gets them in the correct position with rapid speed, while also hanging on to the ball despite the DB's best efforts. Bottom Line A constant threat down the field and in the red zone due to his unique combination of size and speed, Denzel Mims brings excitement to this New York Jets team in a variety of ways. Standing at 6'3, Mims showcases swift agility and one-direction speed for a player of his stature. He often uses this to his advantage, either commonly stacking and beating his defender down the field, or is given enough space at the line of scrimmage to create inside separation. In terms of pass-catching, Mims regularly displays his length to widen his catch radius. With the usage of strong hands and long arm extension, it's rare to see the star WR fail to come down with the catch. Mims does need to continue improving the versatility of his route tree to translate his game to the NFL. In addition, he needs to become more consistent at staying physical with his DB, as NFL CBs are often much more punishing in press coverage than in zone. In 2020, Mims should arguably enter Week 1 as WR1. While it wouldn't be ideal to have a rookie receiver at this spot, this is the Jets' reality. Mims will compete fiercely with Perriman for the top spot on the outside. Despite being the most talented WR on the Jets in Year 1, it's imperative that Mims forms a bond with Darnold early on. With a stable offensive line, the Darnold-Mims connection could be a heavy sleeper in 2020. Adam Gase needs to find a solid balance between the run game and play-action to give Mims a shot at bringing Jets fans the same excitement he brought Baylor fans. At the end of the day, the success of a WR depends on how the coach uses him. Beyond 2020, Mims has rather unlimited potential based on physical traits and overall skillset. Even if he doesn't produce in Year 1 as much as Jets fans may hope, that isn't the end of the world. With a young QB who's only improving and an offensive line slowly turning competent, Joe Douglas is cleaning up the mess he inherited to ensure success for the guys he brings in. With only more WR talent on the way to compliment Denzel's game, there looks to be hope surrounding this rebuilt offense.