Alarming Game Film Surfaces on NFL Draft Prospect Rashee Rice

The percentage of passes caught by Rashee Rice fell off a cliff from 2021 to 2022.

In 2021, the SMU receiver successfully posted an 81% catch rate (64/79). However, this past season that plummeted down to 61% (96/157).

That’s just the tip of the football.

A number of concerns resurfaced on Rice’s 2022 game film that had also been issues in 2021, “SMU Receiver Rashee Rice Doesn’t Have Any Dominant Traits.”

Two-straight seasons is a pattern.

It’s more than a “one-off.” It’s more of a comprehensive representation of his full-body of work that he has put out there and NFL teams need to be paying attention.

If anything, he looked worse in 2022 than 2021.

First-round grade?

Even more alarming than the game film Rice has produced, is the number of major NFL Draft platforms who have tagged Rice with a first-round grade.

Within the past calendar month, CBS, Draftwire, The Draft Network, Pro Football Network, Sports Illustrated, and NBC Sports Chicago all had him mocked going in the opening round.

How’s that possible?

That’s a great question – – because there is nothing – – and I mean absolutely nothing anybody in the country can find on the embedded game film below that shows Rice has what it takes to go in the first-round.

How did Rice look on game film?

To begin – – he didn’t catch any of the first seven passes he was targeted on, against Cincinnati.

He was best at catching wide receiver bubble screens overall, but he couldn’t pick up much yardage after the catch either.

The real problems started for Rice at the intermediate to deep route levels

Watching him on his release, it didn’t look explosive and he did a poor job of achieving route leverage against corners. His running looked labored and it looked like he wasn’t even running his routes at full speed. Bottom line, it looked plain lazy.

While his best routes at the intermediate level were outs and comebacks, he tended to have a whale of a time creating a lot of separation (no burst) and he showed no fight on contested passes.

High-pointing the ball was another issue.

His jumps and attempts to high point deep passes looked mistimed.

Undraftable free agent

Because there’s a mainstream narrative out there that’s pushing Rice first-round, it may sound wild to project him as an undraftable free agent, but that’s the grade the game film is dictating.

All I did was write down what he did.

Rice looks raw – – really raw – – on game film

He didn’t show any dominant traits, and I counted six passes that he flat-out dropped in three games.

Awkward.

That is the one word I would use if I was sitting in a NFL team pre-draft meeting and we were going around the room and it was my turn to talk.

His route running looked downright awkward.

#11 Rashee Rice 6-foot-2, 203 pounds

Daniel Kelly’s Final 2023 NFL Draft Grade: Undraftable Free Agent (I would not select him)

First Round Mock Big Board: TBD

Bust Probability: High

Projected by 17.9% (up from 6.5% on November 3) of the NFL Draft Community to be a first-round pick as of January 5, 2023 (nflmockdraftdatabase.com)

2022 game film reviewed: Cincinnati, UCF and Tulane (click to view games watched to form this evaluation)

Level of competition: Moderate

2021 stats: 64 receptions (79 targets and a 81% catch rate), 670 yards (10.5 avg.), 9 TD, 62-long

2022 stats: 96 receptions (157 targets and a 61% catch rate), 1,355 yards (14.1 avg.), 10 TD, 75-long

2023 NFL Draft Scouting Report

Short-range receiver with good size, but lacks in every other area of his game. Flashed some initial quickness on a route by the end zone, but otherwise his release looked mediocre. Methodical average one-gear building speed. Route running looked sloppy and undisciplined. Had a hard time getting open and created little to no separation. No second-gear or short-area burst. Looked unmotivated. Tendency to drop passes that hit him in the hands. Lacked focus and concentration. Best catching were short bubble screens, but had minimal yardage-after-the catch (YAC). Not good deep. Didn’t catch one deep attempt in these three games. Mistimed jumps and did not look natural whatsoever. Poor catch radius. Fringe camp prospect who didn’t look like his heart was into it.

Final words

If I was an NFL General Manager, I wouldn’t even bring him to camp as an undrafted free agent. His film was that bad.

Daniel Kelly is a former NFL Scout with the New York Jets. He was hired on the regime which featured Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, Scott Pioli, Mike Tannenbaum, and Dick Haley. He currently writes for Sports Illustrated New York Jets and he is the Editor-in-Chief for First Round Mock. For more information about him visit his website at whateverittakesbook.com. He can be followed on Twitter @firstroundmock.