Scouting Report:

AJ Green is, in my opinion, the best WR prospect since Calvin Johnson.

Positives: Great combination of size, speed and acceleration/burst. He has fantastic hands and has made some incredible catches during his three years at Georgia. He catches the ball with his hands very well, and sometimes with just one hand. He can catch passes that are too far out in front, too far behind him, he adjusts to the ball really well while it is in the air and has great leaping ability to high point the ball in the air above the defender. He attacks the ball in the air as well instead of just letting it come down to him, at least usually. He is much better at catching the ball in traffic than I expected him to be given his slight frame, but I have seen him make some great catches and take huge hits and not let that football go, even if he ended up laying on the field for a while afterwards. He is also effective at running after the catch, and he has a pretty nasty stiff arm to keep defenders at bay. He also has a killer instinct as a receiver which makes him a really dangerous competitor because when he wants to go get the ball he will come down with it as long as it is thrown anywhere near him. He runs good routes for the most part and he has good speed in and out of his breaks to create separation. He definitely has the speed to challenge a defense vertically, in college or the NFL, and should be a very dangerous deep threat once he adjusts to the speed of the NFL game. In addition he offers some effort as a run blocker and has long arms which helps him block defenders that are usually smaller than him pretty effectively. The final thing that I love about AJ Green is that he shows up in critical situations when his team needs a big play. If it is a 3rd down or if his team needs a touchdown he will show up with a great catch for a huge conversion, and you can never have enough guys like that. Showing up in crunch time is something that I love seeing in prospects because it isn’t something that can be taught, it is something within them that can’t be taken away from them. AJ Green has it, and it makes him a really dangerous prospect.

Negatives: One thing you have to watch out for with him is injury. He has dealt with some injuries during his career with the Bulldogs and because he is pretty skinny there is definitely the potential for injury if he goes over the middle and makes a great catch knowing he is going to get lit up after he brings the pass in. Because of his competitive nature sometimes he will play angry and sometimes that means push-offs when the ball is in the air, though they are rarely called, and stiff-arms to the helmet of the defender trying to tackle him. Both of those things could be called more than they were in college, particularly when he is a young player and not a superstar like he was in the SEC whenever he played the last two years. He runs good routes generally and usually comes back to the ball, but like any receiver sometimes he will round off his routes and not come back to the ball. It doesn’t happen a lot but it does happen so it warrants mentioning. Sometimes his effort isn’t what I would like it to be, but I don’t think these lulls in consistent effort will be very detrimental to him. It’s just something to think about. His game is definitely pretty finesse, but like I said he has a lot more toughness than I thought he did.

Overall: AJ Green is without a doubt the best wide receiver in the country and I think he may be my #1 prospect on my big board. Hell, after watching him he probably would have been #1 even if Luck had come out. He is that good. His flaws are relatively minor and he has the ability to dominate any game from the receiver position which is rare, and he has gotten substantially better every year he has been in college, which is hard to believe considering how good he was as a freshman and sophomore. He made Aaron Murray’s transition to the college game as a freshman starter much easier than it could have been once he came back from his suspension, which I don’t think is a red flag personally. He sold his jersey, he knows it was wrong, he has learned from it. That’s all there is to it for me.

Projection: Top 5. The list of things he could do to drop himself out of the top 5 is pretty short, it would have to be something pretty drastic like murder or robbing a bank while wearing his football jersey. He is as close as it gets to a top 5 lock, and I think the Panthers should give him heavy consideration for the #1 pick to give Jimmy Clausen some help as he will likely be the starter going into his second season. Wide receivers like Green can make bad quarterbacks look solid, solid quarterbacks look good and good quarterbacks look great, so no matter what Clausen actually is throwing to Green will help him out.


Speed: 4.0
Hands: 5.0
After Catch: 4.0
Body Control: 5.0
Range: 4.0


Thanks for reading! I’ll have my Justin Houston report up tomorrow.