Joe DeLeone and Ryan Roberts provide an in-depth scouting report on Miami Hurricanes wide receiver Xavier Restrepo, a top 2025 NFL Draft prospect. They analyze his strengths, weaknesses, draft stock, and pro comparisons while discussing how he fits into the NFL landscape.
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00:00Xavier Restrepo's 40-yard dash at his pro day is a huge red flag.
00:04Here's why.
00:09Xavier Restrepo ran a very concerningly slow 40-time at his pro day.
00:14Ryan, why do we need to be worried about this?
00:17I mean, history is not on his side, Joseph.
00:19Like, we're talking about kids that ran over 4.75 in the 40-yard dash since 1999.
00:24It is a very small and brief list, and there's just no...
00:28There's no true producers in the group.
00:31We're talking about, like, maximum of a couple role players.
00:33We're not talking about 1,000-yard receivers.
00:35If we move the threshold down to 4.7 flat, then you can start finding a couple guys like
00:40Keenan Allen, like Jarvis Landry, like some good players there.
00:43But 4.76 to 4.83, like somewhere in that ballpark of what Restrepo ran at the Miami pro day,
00:49that is overly concerning because we are talking now about a historical outlier.
00:54It doesn't mean that he can't be successful, but it does mean that the deck is firmly stacked
00:59against him being that type of athlete in that small of a frame.
01:04Right.
01:04The one thing, and when we talked about Tez Johnson and why his 40-time was concerning,
01:10I think one thing that was just generally missed is why we were saying it was an issue.
01:15It's not, oh, we have this number now.
01:17It doesn't completely correlate with what's on film.
01:20We have to completely change our full evaluation on him.
01:23That's not what this is.
01:24We have an evaluation.
01:25We have concerns of him not separating consistently and not having great acceleration going up
01:31against mostly guys that are not going to play in the NFL.
01:34So when he's on film, or sorry, when he had his pro day, runs a 4.8 to give us this indication
01:39of he's much slower than the average wide receiver in the league, he may find success,
01:45but it's really not a good case for believing that he could find success because there's
01:51just no receivers in the league that have been able to produce at this slow and also
01:56at 209 pounds, which is a bit of a, on the heavier side for a five foot 10 guy.
02:03Well, and I would say this, there's going to be two camps for a Xavier Restrepo now.
02:08One is going to be the camp of, I had athleticism concerns.
02:12I have even more athleticism concerns after the 40 yard dash and the, just the overall
02:16testing and his pro day.
02:18It was also a little bit weird that he didn't do any of the explosives either.
02:21He didn't vertical.
02:22He didn't broad jump.
02:23Like it was just very interesting.
02:24Right.
02:25But then the other camp is going to be here, Joe.
02:27And I think there's some validity here.
02:29Some people are going to say, I love his film.
02:31I don't care what he ran.
02:32Like, I'm just going to trust the film and you can be that way on either side, but here's
02:37the PR here's the process, right?
02:38The process is the film is most important.
02:41But after that, the rest of the draft process matters.
02:44Like if we're just going to throw out these numbers that have historically told us that
02:48these numbers threshold wise succeed on the NFL level, I think we're missing the boat
02:53there.
02:54If we don't use every part of the data point and all the information that we are given
02:58the opportunity to have.
03:00So you could believe a Xavier Restrepo is going to be a good football player.
03:03I still think that he has a role potentially on the NFL level, but you can't sit there
03:08and say, this is a clean evaluation.
03:10There is some muddiness to this evaluation now, and you have to be able to understand
03:14what the positives, what the strengths, and ultimately what the negatives are that you
03:18have to consider when evaluating him and projecting him to the next level.
03:23Now he was super productive at Miami.
03:25He had a lot of great production this past year for the hurricanes.
03:30He had Cam Ward throwing him the football.
03:32So he had lots of opportunities to make highlights the way that he's going to succeed in the
03:36NFL that placed his strengths.
03:37He needs to stay in the slot.
03:39I don't want him running super deep route concepts because he's going to get caught
03:43up with by pretty much anybody on the field.
03:45But the way that he's able to win is the fact that he's got really quick feet.
03:50He's a very shifty route runner.
03:53He has the build that is going to help him succeed through contact.
03:57That's part of the reason why I'm not overly like super duper worried.
04:00I didn't have a first round grade on Xavier Restrepo, but I had an early fourth round
04:05grade on him.
04:05I might end up just keeping him there because an NFL team just drafts him and says, you
04:09know what?
04:10Just because you're slow doesn't mean you don't end up being a really good slot receiver
04:15because you have the requisite tools that tend to lead to success at those other or
04:20leads to success as a slot guy.
04:23So Xavier Restrepo was always going to move down the board a little bit.
04:25He was going to fall down the board a little bit because of what you said.
04:28He is very role specific to an offense.
04:31He has to play in the slot.
04:32This is not a slot Z.
04:33This is not a slot X.
04:35He's not going to be able to play on the outside due to his lack of explosiveness and long
04:39speed.
04:39He's just not going to be able to do it.
04:41His home is going to be in the slot, which is fine.
04:43We have seen several cases of players just being pure slots and being very successful
04:48in the next level.
04:49I agree with you.
04:50He understands how to attack defenders as a route runner.
04:53He understands blind spots.
04:54He understands how to get in and out of his breaks.
04:56He creates pretty easy separation and tight windows.
04:59I also, Joe, love one great hand strength.
05:03The kid just doesn't drop much like he just does it.
05:05And then his ability to contort his body and make some incredible catches based upon just
05:11his body control and finishing through contact.
05:14That's pretty special because although Cam Ward was a great player at Miami this past
05:18year, there are a couple ball placement issues at times.
05:21And Xavier Restrepo was able to bail him out a little bit because of the great understanding
05:26of how to place his body and to contort his body into some very awkward positions and
05:30create big plays.
05:31There's a lot of floor to Xavier Restrepo, a lot of things that you like.
05:35The question obviously is of the overall impact and the ceiling that he brings to the table.
05:41Going into his background, former three-star recruit in the 2020 class, pretty lightly
05:47recruited.
05:47The one thing that's actually kind of funny to look at too, he was 186 pounds when he
05:51was coming in as a recruit, so he's packed on a lot of weight that we don't usually
05:55find for receivers.
05:57In the 247 Sports Composite ranking, he was the 623rd rated recruit overall, the 36th
06:05ranked athlete in the class, and was the 84th overall recruit in the state of Florida.
06:12Yep, and he obviously a Florida kid who chose to stay home.
06:16Funny enough, when I was looking at the 247 spot, Joe, I like when they do the crystal
06:20ball predictions.
06:21At one point, he was crystal ball to go to University of Kentucky instead of Miami, which
06:26is very interesting, but lightly recruited kid, like you said, for a lot of the same
06:30reasons.
06:31I mean, he had some Boston College, Air Force, but he had some low-end offers like Brown
06:35and Cornell, obviously, so this is obviously a very intelligent kid because he had some
06:39Ivy League schools coming after him out of the state of Florida, but he ends up staying
06:43at home in the state of Florida and developing into one of the very best we have ever seen
06:50for the Miami Hurricanes.
06:52I mean, he ended his career with 200 receptions and over 2,800 yards, all-time leading receiver
06:56at the University of Miami, so he was able to stay home, showcase his talent, and then
07:00develop into one of the very best that the Hurricanes have ever had at wide receiver.
07:05Our cop for him is Devon Best, the former Miami Dolphins receiver who came out of the
07:10University of Hawaii on the bigger side, ran in the four sixes.
07:14He was listed at 190 pounds, and he had a couple of 70 reception years, one in particular
07:20where he had 79 for 829 yards, so Best, I think, is a pretty steady comparison here
07:26when we're trying to find a guy that is so unique that is a complete, as we've mentioned
07:31multiple times, physical outlier.
07:34Yeah, and Devon Best was pretty a stockier build on the slots, but he was really good
07:41working as a route runner, creating instant separation.
07:44He was kind of a little sneaky after the catch at times, right?
07:47He was a little bit of a slippery runner after the catch.
07:49I think that kind of really shows what Restrepo is.
07:52So it might be a little bit of a weird count for some, but if you go back and watch Devon
07:56Best at Hawaii and then early on in his career with the Miami Dolphins and eventually with
07:59the Cleveland Browns, he was very productive for the role that he had, and if Xavier Restrepo
08:04ends up being a 70 plus catch player multiple times in his career, I think we would ultimately
08:10call that a pretty successful career, especially for a kid that just ran four eight at his
08:13pro day.
08:15Folks, comment below.
08:16Do you think Xavier Restrepo will still have a successful NFL career?
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08:22We'll talk to you later.