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Inside Rams’ scouting of Jacob Harris: From ‘unicorn’ measurables to an ‘analytics pick’ — how he’ll be molded
By Jourdan Rodrigue Jun 14, 2021
The third day of the draft is usually a big dart-throwing project, as teams try to add players who may — or may not — one day be contributors on their roster. But for the Rams, establishing a rate of success when picking these later-round prospects — and then developing them from fourth-rounder or later to role-player in the lineup — is crucial to their team-building model. How do they identify these prospects — and how do they match their data and analytics team’s findings with what their scouts are watching on film and experiencing when interacting with players in person?
In this three-part series, The Athletic goes behind the scenes of the Rams’ process, focusing on their first three draft picks of Day 3: Defensive tackle Bobby Brown III, cornerback Robert Rochell and tight end Jacob Harris.
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Two years ago, Rams’ Southeastern scout Michael Pierce was on a routine visit to the University of Central Florida and had positioned himself near the corner of the end zone as the Knights worked through their red zone period.
Then-redshirt junior receiver Jacob Harris ran a fade, and the quarterback lofted up a pass — perhaps too high, it first appeared. But suddenly, Harris’ cleats were nearly even with Pierce’s head. He pulled down the catch inbounds, and Pierce tracked him closely from that day until the Rams drafted him at No. 141 in April.
“I’m like, ‘Man, this guy is jumping — his feet are at my head!” Pierce said. “That was a first exposure. Of course, seeing his long frame and seeing him move — that jumped out early. But (that play) was my first exposure.
“Even (the year before he declared for the draft), I can remember thinking, ‘I would love to have this guy on our team.'”
After he was drafted, Harris was described by a source to The Athletic as a “total analytics pick,” a raw prospect offensively who would certainly make the 53-man roster because, outside of his status as a fourth-rounder, he would be expected to activate even to the game day roster each week as a key special-teams contributor. Harris, who is 6-foot-5 and about 215 pounds, technically has just about one full year of relevant live offensive snaps under his belt but was special-teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis’ favorite player in the draft because of his vigor in that phase.
But between then and the Rams’ conclusion of minicamp last week, something notable has been unfolding: Where young players often seem to develop in increments almost too minimal for the untrained eye to track, Harris has seemed to chew off large chunks of the learning curve. In fact, it seems Harris has become a “special project” player for both tight ends coach Wes Phillips — with whom Harris is constantly in orbit receiving instruction — and head coach Sean McVay, who has taken extra time with the rookie during drills on more than one occasion. With veteran No. 1 tight end Tyler Higbee not practicing, McVay also placed Harris into the first-team reps in seven-on-sevens through the entirety of minicamp after building his workload in OTAs the two weeks prior. Seven-on-sevens are run at nearly full speed and built to test mental dexterity in a semi-live situation and stress the mind at a faster rate. To see a rookie not only jump over more veteran players on the roster for those reps — and then thrive in them — is rare air, even without the pads on yet.
“I think he’s just earned it,” said McVay of Harris’ increased role over a rapid period. “I think he’s a guy that has a tremendous amount of upside. Wes Phillips has done a really nice job of getting him up to speed. His natural range, catch radius, body control for a player of his size is pretty rare. I think you guys can see — for NFL guys to stand out the way that he has done, in some of these limited settings, in shorts and in helmets, he’s definitely made a positive impression.”
McVay added that he plans to align Harris in a variety of positions along the line of scrimmage, which means he’ll be in less of the “traditional” tight end role and more of a mismatch option specifically in the passing game. That’s also what Pierce saw in Harris throughout his two years of scouting him.
“If you think that he can be a tight end — which, I think he can be a tight end — then you say, ‘Let him develop, and he’ll win a spot at tight end because he’s so athletic, so fast, he can jump so high and he has that determination that you want out of the position,'” Pierce said. “But then you think, ‘OK, he can be a receiver’ because he’s got that top-shelf speed, he can really get to the top of coverage, he can jump and attack the ball — at the same time, he has some development (needed) … he’s an interesting one.
“I know everyone will (look at) the position and say, ‘What is he?’ but we’ll figure that out.”
In fact, the Rams’ analysts believe that by throwing him in the tight ends room (yet still aligning him virtually everywhere in the passing game) instead of keeping him at strictly wide receiver, Harris’ probability of contributing earlier in his career increases.
“I have done some studies over the past few years, looking at positions where, in those later rounds, what is going to give you the most success?” said Sarah Bailey, who is a manager in the Rams’ football analytics department. “And tight end is one of those positions where the athlete has more probability of actually making it.
“I look at probability of playing, and when he switched his position from wideout to tight end, he actually increased his probability of playing by almost 20 percent. From my perspective, that was a huge ‘Whoa.’ Take it with a grain of salt — you’re still that (fourth-rounder) — but to have that big of an increase, and then you look at his play style and his body type and he could actually fit that mold, too, it doesn’t seem like it might just be an outlier.”
The Rams’ data piles for speed testing (including within its various combinations that match speed with weight, speed with wingspan, etc.) are color-coded. Harris’ data was “all blue,” which means his measurables ranked in the top 10 percent of their overall data pool.
“(Our system) puts him into a percentile of where current pro players are,” Bailey said. “So that’s the top of the percentile … What really stood out was not only his long speed, but his short speed … his three-cone immediately and some of his jumping.”
The Rams’ own measurement systems and evaluation programming aren’t public information (for example, while the public has access to things like 40-times and testing numbers filed at pro days or the NFL combine, the Rams also weigh those against privately-obtained measurables such as GPS tracking data, long-term body composition projections and more), but Harris’ public testing numbers also resulted in a RAS (Relative Athletic Score) of 9.88 out of a possible 10.0 as a receiver — No. 31 out of 2,517 receivers publicly tested since 1987. When his position is switched to tight end in the scoring system, Harris’ speed composite is 9.71, his explosiveness composite is 9.945 and his agility composite is 8.84 — all categorized as either “great” or “elite” via the RAS system.
For reference, No. 4 overall pick Kyle Pitts — lauded as one of the best tight end and overall receiving prospects in a draft class in years — had a RAS of 9.66. Pitts, of course, has the added polish of experience and acumen specifically as a pass catcher, while Harris is considered “moldable” because he has only a few years of football experience after switching over from soccer in college.
Harris’ size composite, however, ranks well-under average for the tight end position (“poor” per RAS). But this is where the Rams will try to blend data with coaching and development — because even though Harris is undersized for a tight end, by placing him in that position group they believe they are increasing his contribution probability as long as they are also able to scheme him in accordance with his athletic traits as a receiver. And, it seems, they are less concerned with “traditional” tight end traits (such as blocking) than they are impressed with Harris’ measurables as they translate into specifically the passing game and his special-teams ability.
Jacob Harris. (Jasen Vinlove / USA Today)
“We can be creative with Jacob,” Pierce said. “If you put him at tight end, you could say he’s one of the most athletic tight ends you would look at coming out. He’s as athletic as Pitts if you look at him at tight end. And then at wide receiver, you see maybe one of the most dynamic deep-ball threats as well. My emphasis (in presenting Harris as a prospect) was, ‘He’s moldable.'”
“You say these guys, you have ‘high ceilings and low floors,'” Bailey added, “but he doesn’t have a low floor. His ceiling is high enough to compensate for the risk that you take. … He had the right attributes at that pick. You’re not getting a second-round guy where you’re like, ‘he’s for sure a tight end, he’s for sure this (or that).’ You’re a (fourth-round) guy, you have a really good ceiling.”
Bailey and Pierce also alluded to Harris’ above-average scoring in mental tests and personality evaluations. Pierce said that throughout the evaluation process, Harris was a prospect who, if a coach or scout reached out wanting to have a conversation, he’d call them immediately.
“He’s mature, he has it figured out. He has a why, he’s a genuine person,” Pierce said. “You see all of those things (and) hear all of those things. You get a feel for it when you speak to him. It just really checks the box … (Reports on) him in school, with coaches and all of the staff, it checks off when you talk to him as well. He was an easy interview.”
Harris will still have a long developmental journey ahead and especially so when the pads finally go on in training camp and the real work begins. But Pierce has been scouting and evaluating players for the Rams for over six years, and from that first red zone play over two years ago until the Rams sent in the draft card at about 10:44 a.m. on that Saturday, he has had a feeling in his gut about Harris and his potential.
“You study thousands of players, and you look back 10 years from now and you automatically know those guys,” Pierce said. “In essence, sometimes I call them ‘unicorns.'”
Said Bailey, “I have (drawn) stars on my notes, like, ‘This is the guy you want to bet on.’ It’s really been, the last two years, (about) emphasizing: ‘Hey, if you’re gonna bet on a guy, bet on an athlete.’
“This is what we have with this guy. We have an athlete.”
(Photo: Conor Kvatek / Collegiate Images / Getty Images)
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