Taking a closer look at Hurd

All my dreams were coming true. There the 49ers were, picking 67th in the Draft, with Jachai Polite sitting there, just waiting to be rescued from his precipitous drop from first round stud to third round flyer.

“With the 67th pick, in the 2019 NFL Draft, the San Francisco 49ers select… J-[YYYYYEEEEEEEEEESSSSSS]-alen Hurd, wide receiver, Baylor.”

What?! Jalen Hurd?!! The big bodied, RB-cum-WR?!!! Who ran a 4.6?!!!! At receiver?!!!!! In the third round?!!!!!! The 49ers just selected DK Metcalf lite, 3 picks after the actual DK Metcalf was available through a trade up?!!!!!!!! Cue Cameron Magruder style outrage. I was not happy.

That was premature.

Jalen Hurd is not DK Metcalf lite. He’s intriguing. First and foremost, his movement skills are superb. We know that Kyle Shanahan values this natural gift in the wide receivers he desires and he’s capable of identifying that trait in unusual ways. Back when discussing Dante Pettis and the process by which the 49ers evaluated him and his outstanding movement skills, Kyle Shanahan said:

“Sometimes you’ve got to watch a guy like Pettis on a punt return, and be like, ‘He doesn’t do this move on any of his routes, but look what he does when a guy’s right in front of him and he has the ball in his hand and he can double a guy up and make him miss.

“And that’s exactly what he should do on his routes.’ So, you know his body is capable of doing it. Can you coach him? Will it transfer over? Then you look at all of the other stuff, coachability, test scores, how great they want to be.”

Movement skills

With Jalen Hurd, I imagine the 49ers have had to be similarly cognisant of the transferability of his movement skills from ball carrying to route running. On Hurd’s film, his fluidity as a ball carrier is obvious.

There are, nevertheless, plenty of examples of Hurd’s movement skills translating to his route running ability. He can make breaks without having to decelerate significantly, planting one foot in the ground and exploding off. There are few few wasted steps.

Route running

Given he only played one full season at wide receiver, his polish as a route runner is also eye opening, as he combines his fluid movement skills with surprising route running savvy.

His understanding of how to attack a defender’s leverage, honed through years as a running back, has translated extremely well to his route running. Utilising his explosive ability to quickly pick up speed off the snap to eat up defenders’ cushions, he can get them to shift in the direction he wants them to move in with subtle changes in his stem direction, speed and body language, before he breaks off in the opposite direction with that aforementioned explosive ability and fluidity creating separation.

In addition to contributing to his impressive ability as a route runner (albeit on a limited route tree), Hurd’s movement skills transfer to him being a really dangerous run-after-catch weapon. Kyle Shanahan knows that throwing the ball closer to the line of scrimmage and allowing your carefully selected receivers to gain yards after the catch is more efficient than trying to generate large chunks of yardage through the air with go routes and jump balls. Those are the hardest throws for most quarterbacks. Hurd’s field vision and elusiveness with the ball in hand ensures he’s a dangerous YAC weapon.

Even if he is corralled by opposition players, he’s an absolute nightmare to bring down. If the 49ers get him closer to the weight he was at Tennessee, NFL players are going to find it just as hard to drag Hurd down as their college counterparts before them.

Ball Skills

Furthermore, Hurd has very natural hands. This is very important for a player with limited experience at receiver and undoubtedly eases his transition into the NFL. He is extremely comfortable catching balls away from his frame, ensuring he has a sizable catch radius and suggesting he has further development as a receiver who can win in more contested catch situations than he had to face in the Big 12. In college, he did struggle somewhat in those situations, but he was undoubtedly impacted by bad ball placement at times.

Chess piece

Versatility is probably the other key area that drew Shanahan to Hurd. Capable of lining up in the slot, outside or in the backfield, Hurd is the sort of chess piece Shanahan will relish moving around to generate matchup problems for defenses. As a running back, he shows vision, decisiveness and explosiveness that suggests he can be used sporadically in that role.

Room for improvement

Of course, Hurd is nowhere near a finished product. His route tree was limited in college so he will have to work hard when he enters the NFL. Nevertheless, his rapid progress to this point suggests he’s a swift learner and has the mentality to continue his development in the NFL.

Another potential issue is that Hurd has probably only dealt with press coverage a handful of times in his entire career, meaning he’ll have to start his NFL career inside or being given free releases on the outside through scheme. He certainly has the length, strength and co-ordination to develop his releases however.

As previously mentioned, he also did not face many contested catch situations in the Big 12. But he has traits that suggest that is the something that can improve as well, helped by the improvements in quarterbacking he’ll get in the NFL.

Finally, Hurd is not the fastest player, so he won’t be taking the top off NFL defenses with regularity. He looks slightly quicker than his timed speed though and as previously mentioned he gets to top speed in a hurry. His length, movement skills and nuanced route running will help him separate at the next level.

The bottom line on Hurd is fairly simple though. He’s an ideal Shanahan receiver. He’s a wonderful mover, with a surprisingly nuanced understanding of route running and the natural hands to ensure he can pluck balls away from his frame and any trailing defenders. He’s also a weapon after the catch, capable of dancing away from or running over defenders in the open field and he can line up at multiple spots. I’m excited to see him in red & gold.