Is Kelvin Benjamin a tight end? A wide receiver? Or both?
As usage expands and athletic feats increase, the stringent position designations of the past are beginning to blur, especially as they pertain to wide receivers and tight ends.
Anywhere Kelvin Benjamin's name appears, the title of "wide receiver" is right alongside it. Their strengths may vary and their use may be diverse, but there's a platonic ideal of what a wide receiver should be: Someone with sufficient speed to create separation, and if he also has enough bulk to toss around defensive backs — as many of today's larger wideouts do — well that's some nice bonus gravy.
Benjamin, a Florida State product, stands 6'5" and weighs 240 pounds. It’s hardly surprising that his size led to a less than stellar 40-yard dash time of 4.61 seconds at the Combine. That time means Benjamin will have to rely more on his ample catch radius to win contested balls, rather than fleetness of foot.
Benjamin’s physical frame would make him a slightly undersized tight end. That’s not altogether uncommon. His size and speed actually compares quite well with Jordan Cameron of the Cleveland Browns.
Watch Benjamin's highlights from 2013 — 1,011 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns for the title-winning Seminoles — and you see a pass catcher who's used as something of a hybrid, though far closer to tight end on the TE-WR spectrum.
In the clips above, Benjamin utilizes his wide frame to box out his defender like one would do playing basketball. He creates space using body position rather than pure speed, and then relies on his ample leaping ability to expand his length even further to reach a jump ball and haul it in while falling.
He’s Jimmy Graham-like with his body usage, similar to Alshon Jeffery (a common comparison) with the leaping and grabbing, and exhibiting some Julius Thomas ability with the broken tackles and yards after the catch. The problem is technique and concentration, fundamental flaws right now that can be ironed out through development.
Benjamin is still raw, and he turfed a lot of potential catches this past season while not looking the ball into his hands before turning upfield. To his dismay, those were caught on video too.
According to data charted by Rotoworld's Greg Peshek, Benjamin dropped nearly 10 percent of what he considered routine catches (not throws requiring leaping acrobatics). That's alarming, and is a higher rate than most tight end or wide receiver prospects. Since "pass catcher" is the umbrella title they fall under, the pass catching part is sort of significant.
The right coaching can rectify the problem of concentration and technique. But since Benjamin's speed will lead to a limited route tree at first, usage is paramount. He needs to be put in situations where his body can be utilized on slant, dig, and curl routes, and avoid being limited by a lack of downfield explosion. The amount of human he's carrying around will make him clunky while trying to run routes that ask for multiple cuts.
Go routes are Benjamin's thing, when he can run in a long, straight line, and then at the end a football is waiting that he can high point and fight for.
In that sense he’s a fast tight end. With a drop off at the position after the top three in this year’s draft (Eric Ebron, Austin Seferian-Jenkins, and Jace Amaro), NFL Network's Daniel Jeremiah said that's how some teams view him.
"He's a wide receiver, but he's enormous. Some teams look at him and say, 'He looks like a tight end, why don't we just play him as a flexed out tight end?'"
A team slotted at the end of the first round on May 8 (Eagles? Chiefs? Seahawks?) could be asking themselves that question. Whether or not their system suits Benjamin and his initially limited skillset will determine if his name is called, and if he's worth a first-round pick.