Draft Profile: Jalin Hyatt
Rocky Top's top receiver
Photo: Twitter/@Vol_Football
Grade at the bottom, analysis in the middle.
Details:
2022 Biletnikoff Award Winner, 2022 First team All-American (mult.), 2022 First team All-SEC
Listed at 6’ 175 lbs with a long, lanky frame
Born 9/25/2001 (22 in rookie season)
Career Stats: 108 CTH - 1769 YDS - 16.4 YPC - 19 TD
2022 Stats: 67 CTH - 1267 YDS - 18.9 YPC - 15 TD
Jalin Hyatt is about to be one of the most interesting draft discussions we’ve had in some time. Hyatt received a considerable amount of postseason attention and awards, yet most of his wins felt fairly controversial. Personally, I think that his winning of the Biletnikoff award over Marvin Harrison Jr. is a travesty (but I also recognize how those awards are decided so, eh).
Athletically, Hyatt is pretty much the exact opposite of Jaxon Smith-Njigba, which I detailed in that post. Hyatt is all straight line speed, as he ran a 10.46 100m as a senior in HS, roughly a 4.36 40.
Given all this information, I don’t think his RAS score is going to be anything particularly crazy. I don’t believe that he shows top-end change of direction ability on film and he also doesn’t show that he’s very explosive in his jumps. His top end speed will carry it a bit but if he scores anything higher than a 7.2 I would be pretty shocked.
Hyatt’s lack of short area explosiveness means rarely shows any ‘wiggle’ that slot receivers should have. It’s very interesting to watch these two in a row - JSN is all technical skill and attention to detail to make up for his lack of speed; Hyatt is all point-and-shoot speed to make up for his lack of technical skill. Two ways to skin a cat.
Oh - also he’s a pure slot receiver, two write-ups in a row. Woohoo.
I also have questions about his volume. Averaging nearly 19 YPC in a season is insane, but he only recorded more than 7 catches once (11 CTH 73 YDS vs Pitt). I don’t love that, it bugs me that he’s a high profile player who doesn’t have a high target volume.
There’s also a pretty massive elephant in the room when the discussion turns to Hyatt. Where the fuck was this version of him in 2020 and 2021? In 2020, Hyatt put up 276 yards on 20 catches and in 2021 he put up just 226 yards on 21 catches. That’s a serious eyebrow raiser for me. Yes, I know that 2020 was the end of the Pruitt era and that in 2021 they had both Cedric Tillman and Velus Jones Jr. on the roster. But there’s better talent at other schools where underclassmen still see time and significant targets on the field (Like JSN). Why was a speed threat like Jalin Hyatt unable to get on the field? That’s a red flag.
So, let’s dive in.
There are flashes from Hyatt that really do show that he can be a legitimate player in the NFL.
This is a great rep from Hyatt on a speed cut dig. He takes a little off his top speed but keeps his body language akin to a track star and threatens the outside shoulder of the safety, flipping the safety’s hips. Then does a nice job with his first break step and an even better job ‘pulling’ his inside foot through his break and avoiding dragging his toes. This is a really well executed route. Flash of greatness.
Similar ability on display here - he has a DB inside shade on his curl so he takes a pressure step to make his route look like the world’s skinniest post and then snaps it off almost literally on the DB’s toes. That’s a great rep - again forcing the DB to open up and respect his speed.
This is sort of a mixed rep for me - he gets a lot of these free releases and gets to show off the speed frequently. This is one of those instances. I would say most of his snaps come with coverage that looks like this, which again raises questions as to why he didn’t have an even better season statistically. Way too many free releases to not record more than 7 catches in a game just once. But, you can definitely tell that he’s fast as all get out. So pick your poison.
You may be wondering when I’m going to start shitting on him as I have been known to do.
Wonder no more.
This rep sucks so much on so many levels. The first thing I notice is that there’s a clear lack of effort on what is one of the first plays of the game. He runs the route with no integrity to his spacing or his ‘lane’ and completely fails to threaten the defender - a linebacker - down the field or on any sort of horizontal plane.
A better way to think about that verbiage is that he’s defeating himself in the route. They use a short motion to get him back inside so that his MOR curl route (mandatory outside release) has some space to operate. But by running to the sideline immediately, what he does is choke out his own space. Then, to make matters worse, he just gives us a really sloppy break on his curl. Feet are all over the place, it takes 4/5 steps to get out of his break and it just looks lazy. Not loving that.
Also - your 10.4 receiver should not be getting locked up by a linebacker - ever.
This is more of a coaching gripe that unfortunately is going to get placed on Hyatt. He runs this speed out at a really weird tempo (raising his hips, chest and head before his break trying to be Stefon Diggs) and then proceeds to break to this on his outside foot when it should be his inside foot. That’s not an opinion, that’s a fact. I think the reasoning for this is in his little skip release on air he leaves his back/inside foot in the ground too long and then when he gets to depth he tries to break it on his other foot. He then takes some really weird and super wide steps at the top of his break and they don’t work and he gets stuck and allows the DB to jump the route. Really bad stuff here but I blame the coach.
I only clipped this one but I could have clipped a lot more of this type of play. He ends up getting some pretty minor contact on this play and it seems like he gets sniped. Hyatt ends a LOT of plays with him being on the ground. Like, a concerning amount of them. I don’t have a problem with receivers who have a slight frame as long as they can play through contact (like Devonta Smith). Hyatt cannot do that.
Last clip, but this is a pretty rare instance so it’s important to talk about. He actually gets pressed here and just gets his lunch money shaken out of him. It’s not a particularly aggressive press coverage either, but still he ends up with hands on him the whole time. He wasn’t supposed to get the ball on this play but I’d just like to see some more technical skill here.
The last thing I’ll say is that for his frame and contact weakness, Hyatt is actually a pretty great blocker for the most part. Several instances of him moving corners off the spot and even really trying to block linebackers. It’s one of the strengths of his game and I appreciate that.
The Grade
So, Jalin Hyatt is the anti-JSN Where does that leave him?
His strengths are that he has legitimate, verified top end speed and he doesn’t seem to have any issues catching the ball that I have seen (6.7% drop rate which is like, acceptable but not outstanding). He also demonstrates that he knows how to run routes and use the appropriate leverage/speed at times and when he does, it looks really good. He’s also an above average blocker at the position who shows legitimate effort.
His weaknesses worry me: Hyatt lacks change of direction ability and doesn’t show a ton of YAC ability. He pretty frequently avoids contact at all costs - causing him to come way off his landmark which will throw off spacing in the NFL. When he does meet mid-route contact, he loses that rep 80% of the time. Inexperienced route runner who suffered at the hands of the Tennessee scheme and looks very under-coached. Technically unsound, lack of twitch, lack of experience - probably three of the biggest knocks you can have.
For these reasons, I’m going to grade Jalin Hyatt out at a 5.7
His Best Fit: Any team that needs someone who can take the top off of an NFL defense tomorrow; but does not need him to be a standalone threat. He can be good but he just isn’t ready to be someone’s go-to receiver.
Player Comparison: I guess Anthony Schwartz? I think Hyatt has better hands but Schwartz is a little more twitchy, so we’ll call that even. Both stand at 6’ and are relatively skinny + low 4.3 speed that translates in game.