Scouting Profile: Tai Felton - WR - Maryland
Sales Pitch: Tall slender receiver with the speed to threaten defenses vertically. Lacks the twitch or size to be a big time perimeter threat but brings value as a WR3.
*Gold Numbers Indicate NCAA T-25 for 2024*
Scouting Report
Tai Felton is a former 3-Star recruit from the state of Virginia. He was a 31 game starter for the Terrapins and didn’t miss a start over the final 25 of his career. Felton was one the best receivers in college football in 2024, the All-American receiver posted the second most catches in football with 96, setting the Maryland season single receptions record.
Felton is a long legged receiver with excellent speed and burst. He primarily worked as an outside receiver at Maryland with a career 75-25 snap split between the perimeter and the slot. Felton does his best work at the 1st and 3rd level as a route runner. His first step burst allows him to quickly get out of his break on slants and crossers, where he shows excellent catch and run skills. He was a major weapon on screens (31 screen receptions was the 11th most in football) and designed touches as well, where his speed makes him a dangerous player with the ball in space. Felton’s long speed also makes him an excellent vertical threat. He has easy acceleration skills with the stride length to open up and push the ceiling of defenses. He is able to use the threat of his speed to create separation working back towards the line as well.
Felton has good height for a receiver but at 183 pounds is very light. He struggles to play through contact as a route runner and pass catcher as a result. Felton doesn’t project well as an X-WR, due to struggles with press coverage. He lacks the strength or twitch to consistently beat aggressive corners and gets easily ridden off his path. Felton’s long frame is very high cut and it creates issues winning on sharp horizontal cuts, particularly over the middle of the field. His leggy frame lacks the fluidity to drop his weight and explode laterally, an issue only made worse but over exaggerated footwork at the top of breaks. Felton was a big time deep threat in 2024 - 20% of his targets were 20+ yards - but struggles to win at the catch point. He doesn’t show aggression to attack the ball in the air and can be out muscled at the catch point. Despite a respectable 7% career drop rate, Felton isn’t a natural hands catcher and often lets the ball get deep into his frame allowing defenders back into plays.
Felton profiles best as a Z-WR in a vertical passing attack. He lacks the size or twitch to be overly optimistic about his upside, but his speed and after the catch ability would be welcome addition to most rooms. Felton projects as an early Day-3 pick for a team looking for a WR3/4 with speed.