4.110: Brenden Rice, WR | USC
I continue to add Brenden Rice in the late third or early fourth round in my mock drafts. It's because I am higher on him than many. I will continue to express how I am all for pairing him with Caleb Williams too. You can see Rice (and even Tahj Washington) has a good rapport with Williams -- especially on unscripted plays. As much as I love DJ Moore and Keenan Allen, none of the other receivers on the roster have proven they can handle making something out of nothing. Rice did this at USC and I'd like to see him given the chance he can do it at the NFL level as well.
Rice is a bigger receiver at 6'3" and 205 pounds. He had 45 catches for 791 and 12 touchdowns last season. In 2022 he had 39 catches for 611 yards but only four touchdowns. He is a true red zone threat and would make a great WR4 in 2024 with the ability to develop into a WR2/3 in 2025. Not to mention he comes from a great pedigree being the son of one of the best wide receivers the NFL has ever seen — Jerry Rice.
I like the upside of Tyler Scott, but I think Brenden Rice, a wide receiver who has better hands than Scott, could push to be the team's third receiver rather quickly.
Strengths
- Ability to scramble on off-scripted plays
- Red zone threat
- Big Body, Awareness
- Football IQ
- Hands
- Pedigree
- Catch-Radius
Weaknesses
- Focus drops
- Struggles to track deep, over-the-shoulder balls
- Stiff, lacks lateral agility
- Physicality