Ryan Coleman-Williams

[Twopointtry]

Vanilla Cokes

I'm not a fan of social media, especially as it has influenced young people. What is real, what is fake? Is life just a dream? Are eyes open or closed? Can you relate to other people or is the online image just a facade to gain likes and build a brand? The real world doesn't all exist inside of smart phones.

Ryan Coleman-Williams is one of the megastars of college football. He and Jeremiah Smith were featured on the cover of the EA sports college football video game. His high school stats don't seem real; they might as well have been created in a video game. RCW created 70 total TDs his final 2 years in HS. He was the first player to ever be named Mr. Football for the state of Alabama multiple times. When he was a recruit, the experts said he was going to be the next DeVonta Smith, who was the 10th overall pick in the 2021 by the Eagles.

RCW's star power has made him a social media sensation. Puka Nacua has 557 thousand followers on Instagram. RCW eclipses him with 731 thousand followers. Puka has 118 thousand followers on TikTok. RCW has 528 thousand followers. He's been anointed "the next big thing" in football from a very young age and the hype only built after he had a strong true freshman season at Alabama. RCW reclassified and enrolled early, so his FR year really should have been his SR season in HS.

The football dream became a nightmare in 2025. He led the nation in dropped passes. He struggled with injuries. Despite playing with Ty Simpson, a 1st round pick QB, his receiving stats declined. Instead of taking a step forward towards cementing a place as a future top 10 overall draft pick, RCW has become a fringe 1st round to early 2nd round prospect. Unless he has a bounce back 2026 campaign, his draft stock could continue to slide even more.

What happened? This wasn't part of the script. For the player nicknamed "Hollywood", why hasn't his Bama career continued to play out like a blockbuster movie?

Ty Simpson and RCW are good friends. In multiple interviews, Simpson refers to RCW as being like his "little brother". Could a reunion of the 2 with the Rams be in the works? Is RCW the missing speed element that could add the final piece to an already loaded Rams offense?

 

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Part 1: Background

Name, Age: Ryan Coleman-Williams. Changed his last name and jersey number prior to 2026 season, adding his mother's last name. Currently 19 years old, turns 20 in February of 2027. True junior. Reclassified from the 2025 recruiting class to 2024, enrolled early in college and was a game 1 starter for Bama at the age of 17.

Size, estimated speed: Listed 6 feet tall, 182 pounds. DraftBuzz 4.28 seconds in the 40. Draftscout 4.37 seconds in the 40, 5'11 3/4'' tall.

Unanimous 5-star recruit from Mobile, AL. The first ever 2-time winner of Mr. Football award for state of Alabama. His final 2 seasons in HS, had a combined total of nearly 3,000 receiving yards and 43 receiving TDs, plus almost 1,000 rushing yards. He also had multiple return TDs in HS returning punts and kickoffs. Ran 10.49 seconds in the 100 meters.

2024 (13 games): 48-865-8 receiving, 4-48-2 rushing, 2 fumbles, 12-120 (10 yard ave) punt returns, 2-14 kick returns
2025 (14 games): 49-689-4 receiving, 2-21 rushing, 1 fumble, 2-25 punt returns

Per PFF had 16.9% drop rate in 2025 with 13 dropped passes. Has 17 total drops in career. Fumbled a punt return vs OU in 2025. Used as PR in 2024 partly due to injury to a different teammate, then in one game in 2025 he was deployed as a 2nd punt returner on the field for tactical reasons.

Concussion in first game of 2025 season, also lower body injury early in 2025.

Drafttek 34 overall
NFLMDD 31 overall
PFF big board 15 overall. Has 17 drops on 114 career catchable targets.
PFSN simulator 66 overall. (+) Speed, explosiveness, short area quickness, hip fluidity, body control, dices up defenders, weaves around tackles, clutch, special RAC. (-) Drops
DraftBuzz 45 overall, 2nd round. (+) Elite acceleration and long speed, wins at LOS, natural deep ball tacking, creator after catch. (-) Drops, slight frame.
Ian Cummings 3-round mock draft in June: Late 3rd round, 92 overall to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Sam Teets's preliminary top 200 big board (he hasn't evaluated about half the pool): 4th round tier, 108 overall. Teets acknowledges this year that his board is the most different from the consensus board that it has been over the last 5 years. He says he feels like he's on an island with some of his evaluations. I don't always agree with Teets, but a respect his opinions, because he studies each player in detail and I question whether all the other draft media types put in the same level of work.

As you can see, there's a substantial range. On the top end, if PFF is right, RCW could go in the top half of the 1st round. If NFL teams agree more with Teets, he's a Day 3 prospect. In that scenario, he probably would just stay in college another year and not even enter the 2027 draft.

 

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Part 2: Strengths

Age. Extraordinarily young. Since he jumped to college early, RCW as an early entrant would be one of the youngest NFL draft picks of all time. There have been a few players who were still 19 when they were drafted, so he wouldn't break the record, but he'd be about 2 years younger than a normal draft prospect. Cam Akers was just shy of 21 years old when he was drafted by the Rams. Akers is currently out of the NFL at the still relatively young age of 27. You could draft RCW not expecting much immediate impact, knowing he needed more development and essentially redshirt him most of his rookie season and he still would be very young entering his 2nd pro season. Many of the weaknesses I'll discuss with RCW maybe don't matter if his team believes they can coach him up. IMO, Puka Nacua is a way better route runner today than when he entered the NFL. He didn't stay the same. Player development after the draft is critical. If you believe in RCW's upside potential, all that really matters is he has elite speed and he's very young. If he doesn't yet grasp the nuances of route running, that's okay, the coaches can teach him that part. The cream will eventually rise to the top.

Physically developing. Still maturing and adding weight. He was listed at 175 pounds as a freshman, then 178 pounds as a sophomore, now at 182. He's always going to be undersized and small, but eventually he won't be quite as small and weak as he was when he entered college.

Deep ball demon. Threatening vertical route speed that will scare DBs. Can smoke CBs and get past them, creating big separation. Should have a bunch more yards on his stats from deep bombs, but a variety of things happened, such as QBs missing the throw, a penalty or RCW dropping the ball.

Elite athlete. Big play threat. Small size can sometimes help him. He can run through narrow lanes and take it to the house. Nimble feet for step back moves. Super light on his feet, like a tap dancer or Michael Jackson. Spins to evade tackles. Turbo boost to win races. Made multiple spectacular acrobatic catches at the sideline that didn't count on his stats. I don't think the estimated 40 times are wrong. He'd be one of the fastest players in the 2027 draft if he declared.

When the CB gets caught leaning the wrong way in press, RCW can punish them with pure speed. Once he gets ahead, how is the CB supposed to make up the gap? There isn't a CB out there who runs 4.1 seconds in the 40.

Improved. Stats don't always tell the whole story. IMO, he was actually a better player in 2025 than his freshman season in 2024. I felt that he was more fluid with his YAC moves and didn't have as much wasted movement in his releases and routes. As noted above, he also added weight. In sports, the results on the field don't always reflect the work the athlete puts in. People might say that RCW regressed and assume that he got lazy. I'm not convinced that's what happened. Whether injury, OL issues, an injured QB, the new OC, or other factors, sometimes things just don't come together. I don't think that Patrick Mahomes is a lazy person, so why are his stats the last 3 seasons so much worse than earlier in his career? When Carson Wentz had his first "bad" NFL season, I thought he was actually a better QB that year than the season when he was considered an MVP candidate. When it comes to the NFL draft, I feel that the tape is more important than stats.

Big Brother. I felt sorry for Ty Simpson. He got beaten to a pulp in 2025. His team let him down. The blocking was terrible. Not just the pass blocking. When I was watching their WRs, their WRs were bad at run blocking. Alabama as a team dropped a ridiculous number of passes in 2025. Some of them were comical, keystone cops drops where the pass hit them right in the chest. RCW has terrible hands and was guilty of some of the worst. That said, not every single drop on his stat sheet was 100% his fault. Simpson doesn't always throw with touch and help the WR out with a more catchable football. He'll overcook the pass, throwing it with a flat trajectory and high velocity. Especially as the season went on and he got banged up, Simpson had some accuracy issues as well. While RCW has a huge drop issue, I don't think it is fair to put all of the blame on him. Once in a while, Simpson could have helped him out a little more.

Alignment versatility. Wasn't always in the same spot. Sometimes he's been the speed outside WR, other times in the slot, used in orbit motion or sift action, sometimes close to the OL in a tight split.

Special teams value. While he wasn't the primary punt returner for Bama in 2025, he does have both KR and PR experience. His blazing speed and quick feet could help him become a good returner in the pros. Had a nice punt return in their 2024 bowl game.

 

[Memento]

Big RCW fan, but I feel it's going to be practically impossible for him to fall to our pick in the second unless he has a very, very bad season.

 

[Twopointtry]

Part 3: Weaknesses

Can't catch a cold. His hands are a complete nightmare, where TD passes go to die. Even when he does catch the ball, sometimes they are wild, crazy bobbled catches. Awkward body catches. The timing, placement and spacing of his hands tend to be off, so the ball sometimes nearly slips through his arms. Passes clatter off his loud and noisy hands. Had back-breaking, critical ugly drops that were deflating to his team. So bad that his hands inspire little confidence that they can be substantially improved even with more practice and experience. Might have a high drop rate for his entire football career. He also fumbles the ball, with a poor fumble rate relative to his number of total touches. Ball is not tucked high; the point of the ball is exposed.

Slightly built. He has a small frame with a slender upper and lower body. Even more, one thing I don't like about him is he has a linear build, which I feel limits his lateral elusiveness and agility. He's relatively short, with short arms and small hands. No bulk or run strength to break out of tackles.

His straight-line speed as measured in a Combine setting can be slightly deceptive. Doesn't make violent lateral cuts when running with the ball. If he's running in a curve to get around the corner, he's not able to maintain full speed and momentum all the way through the turn. So, there can be very specific situations on a football field where he doesn't seem to be as fast as you'd expect if you just looked at his timed speed.

Rudimentary route runner. While he has quick feet, he doesn't have good release moves coming off the line. Wasted steps in his release, doesn't always have a good plan in his head based on pre-snap defensive coverage look. Unable to consistently win off the line. Average speed out. Average pivot route for his size and build. Early body lean gives away the direction of the break. Unrefined body positions prevent the route from being deceptive and also hurt him trying to juke defenders after the catch. Doesn't do any early work in the stem to create leverage on his route, helping the CB to shrink the passing window.

Doesn't show natural instincts for how to get open. Contributes little in 3rd down situations. On one key 3rd down, he couldn't even get off the line, he was completely smothered by the CB's jam, unable to get into his route. Ran poor pivot route on another 3rd down. Lazy stick route on another 3rd down. Overly reliant on just speed or the design of the play to scheme him open, not able to consistently create his own separation. Lazy on his route, not always running hard, if he doesn't think he's going to get the pass. Needs to be better playing through contact. Doesn't attack the catch point.

Germie Bernard was the clear WR1 for Bama in 2025. He was drafted in the middle of the 2nd round by the Steelers. Isaiah Horton was another WR for Bama and transferred to Texas A&M for 2026. Horton is projected to be an UDFA by draft boards and that feels about right to me. I studied Horton at the same time I did Williams and Horton isn't impressive overall. Bernard is a much better route runner and better overall football player than RCW and Horton better with his release moves than RCW. The only thing RCW does better than the other 2 is he runs faster. Is that by itself enough to make RCW a 1st round prospect? I don't get it. He's a one-dimensional gadget guy at this point in his career. He isn't a well-rounded WR or a 3-level threat. Ty Simpson wasn't throwing it to the other WRs because he didn't like RCW. He was throwing it to players who were open (or at least trying to when he wasn't getting destroyed by the pass rush), so the 2025 stats weren't a mistake. If we use Bernard as a measuring stick and think about it logically, RCW shouldn't be higher than a 3rd round prospect. No matter how much lipstick you want to put on the pig, he simply didn't perform at a high level in 2025.

Terrible blocker. Soft and timid blocker. Backs down from physical challenges. Unwilling to stick his nose into the action near the OL and do the dirty work. Doesn't hustle to cut off safeties coming down in run support, allows them to arrive completely unblocked. Doesn't find the correct blocking angle. Never sustains his block. Disappointing effort, not 100% committed to blocking duties. Completely whiffs on blocks. Poor size, length, body mass and aggression for blocking. Easily pushed back, pulled down and discarded. Lacks a firm base and contact balance. Unreliable blocking in space on WR screens. Lazy blocking on the backside of run plays. Relaxes and lets the CB go prior to the whistle while the play is still going on. Poor footwork entering the block.

His 2024 stats were inflated by fluky plays that went for long catches.

Has an easy going, chill personality. He strikes me as the type of person who likes to be popular and be praised, but I wonder if he is open to tough coaching and being told that he needs to work harder. Yes, he had some injuries, but from his body language and lack of effort on the field in 2025, he didn't compete like a warrior, he was just going through the motions. Football is a tough sport; everyone plays through injuries. Sometimes, even when you aren't 100% healthy, you have to suck it up, give it everything you have and compete, especially on the most critical moments in the game. Ty Simpson was beat up. He was 10 times tougher than RCW. Simpson competed and put it on the line for his team. I don't think that RCW is a diva. I just think that maybe he's very young and is still maturing. He was such a superstar in HS and things were easy. Things aren't as easy anymore. I need him to be more resilient and fight back when the going gets tough. Don't hang your head and feel sorry for yourself.

 

[Twopointtry]

Part 4: Draft Grade and Pro Comp

4th round grade. John Ross (9th overall selection, 2017 Bengals, Washington)

I agree with Ian Cummings and Sam Teets on this one and disagree with the majority of the draft boards. I don't view Ryan Coleman-Williams as a 1st round prospect.

Ross set the Combine record at the time for the fastest 40 at 4.22 seconds. He was just under 5'11'' tall and 188 pounds. His final season at UW, Ross had 81-1,150-17, far more production than RCW. Jake Browning was his QB and Dante Pettis (another draft bust) was the other main WR. Lance Zierlein said that Ross would be an instant starter as a rookie and named DeSean Jackson as Ross's pro comp.

Ross had less than 1,000 career receiving yards in a 6-year NFL career. He had about 500 yards in his best season. He got hurt and finished his rookie season on IR. The Bengals declined his 5th year option, and he was gone at the end of the 2020 season.

Keep in mind, the Rams beat the Bengals in a very close the Super Bowl that capped the 2021 season. If Ross had panned out, the Bengals potentially could have had Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Tyler Boyd and Ross all on their team. Like a butterfly flapping its wings, if we change just this one draft outcome, maybe today we're talking about Sean McVay as a coach who "can't win the big one" and the Rams are still searching for that elusive Super Bowl win.

One of my favorite WRs in the 2024 draft was Roman Wilson. I gave him a 2nd round grade. He ran 4.39 seconds at the Combine and was selected by the Steelers in the middle of the 3rd round. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I think Wilson had some injury flags, maybe concussions, I don't exactly remember. I don't think RCW right now is even remotely close to Wilson, I'd give Wilson a much higher grade.

Wilson missed almost all of his rookie season due to injury. In his 2 NFL seasons, he only has 12 catches for 166 yards and 2 TDs. His role in the offense and perhaps even his roster spot is uncertain entering the 2026 season. His main competition on the depth chart just happens to be Germie Bernard, the Alabama WR who outperformed RCW in 2025.

Just as a thought experiment, let's waive the draft rules and put RCW on the Steelers right now. Let's say he's competing against both Bernard and Wilson in camp. My prediction is that he'd finish 3rd out of those 3 WRs. In other words, he'd be on the bubble to even make the roster. He'd be at risk of getting waived at the end of preseason. Just keeping it real.

Ryan Coleman-Williams is a big name, but he's also very raw. He needs to make a big leap in his development if he wants to be as successful as Devonta Smith (who I thought was a fantastic draft prospect) in the NFL. If he doesn't improve, I'm not convinced he's even good enough for the Rams to target with their 2nd round selection in next year's draft. Stay tuned, a ton can change in only one college season, but for now I have RCW in the "overrated" category.

 

[Twopointtry]

If you've read all of these WR profiles I've been doing, you might have noticed that we've covered 3 pretty similar WRs so far, Ryan Coleman-Williams, Tre Richardson and Devin McCuin. The are in a similar mold but are slightly different.

Richardson is super-fast but he's slightly smaller than RCW.
RCW is also crazy fast, but he drops many passes.
McCuin has the best hands of the 3 but I believe he'll run the slowest. His speed tops out, so I don't think he'll be as effective a deep ball threat in the pros as RCW.

Do you like one much better than the other 2? I have all of them as Day 3 prospects. I gave RCW the highest grade but I don't think there is much to separate them on the whole. If I thought I could get McCuin, for example, as an UDFA, why would I use a 2nd round pick on RCW? The premium you're paying isn't worth it relative to the cost of the fallback alternative.