• Position: Wide Receiver
• College: USC
• Class: Senior
• Number: 2
• Drafted at: Round 7 Pick 5 (225th overall)
• Age when drafted: 22.10

Production:

Games Watched:

• Utah – 10.22.2023
• Washington – 11.04.2023
• Oregon – 11.12.2023
• UCLA – 11.18.2023

Positives:

Fought through four defenders to get the ball back after a fumble and won, showed real tenacity here. Rice has sufficient speed through a clean release out of the slot to keep safeties honest, he clearly knows how to drift his stem to open them up the way he wants too. Knows how to sit between zones as a possession receiver, I think he can see and understand coverages or at least read the apex defenders relationship to the formation. Then we have the play that secured Caleb as the #1 overall pick, Rice’s part in it is underrated as a downfield receiver as he does well to quickly erase the cushion off the line before using accurate hand fighting to give himself space as the corner tries to get into his hip pocket, he then extends away again as he opens up another gear when tracking the ball and then makes a great grab into his chest whilst at full stride yet keeps his balance to go all the way for a score; yes it’s a wild throw but this is great downfield work. Shows a nice understanding of spacing and angles as he runs a crosser between zones meaning his trailing corner was sent right at his free safety. I think Rice has really good hands, he can switch between downfield and possession techniques and always gets the ball back into his body before making a move. So far he has played both inside and outside roles sufficiently, he doesn’t flash on tape in either role but his positional flexibility is a plus. His best asset is his mind, he understands the timing of the offense so well and is always on time with his route tempo, this is a plus especially as this was his only year with Caleb so that trust was built in early. His route running is unimaginative but his breaks are smooth and pretty efficient, he’s not a twitchy athlete but he uses the right techniques at the right time to get to where he needs to be. Brenden gives great effort when blocking, he keeps his hands and feet active and does well to reset and keep fighting even after losing leverage, on one long run play he got beaten inside but he recovered on the turn and walled off the sideline for his back to get another 7 yards to finish the run; great hustle. Beautiful back shoulder timing grab when his Defender was stacked over him, timing and route control on display again. Love that he  went from a slant, turned it into a crosser to help his QB then tried to sit before coming downhill and walling off a pursuing defender to give Caleb a free path to the sideline for a few extra yards on a scramble; great hustle. After a lot of targets I finally see some juice, he reels in yet another USC bubble screen RPO (stop it Lincoln please) but this time he breaks through one defenders grasp whilst stiff arming another into the turf using his 79th percentile long arms before bursting and rolling for a relatively big gain out of nothing. One route I really like from him is his blaze out route from a narrow alignment as the Z; he sets it up very well by getting the corner to open up just enough before snapping off the stem with quick hips, it’s hard for any corner to stay with this with the kind of timing he has with his QB. Against Washington Rice had a iso matchup on the wide side of the field in the redzone and he pulled off a nice slot fade with some quickness in the second phase meaning he got past level then used his inside arm to fend off the defender giving him a path to the ball but the corner made contact early drawing flags, hidden yardage was his reward for a good route. Did well on a scramble drill to reverse back out of a crosser to secure the grab on the sideline on a QB friendly angle. He has an adequate release with good stride length but he’s not sudden. He has a nice transition on double moves and even manages to use his size effectively to frame out trailing corners.

Negatives:

Got the ball punched out of his hands on a simple hitch vs off coverage, needed to go to a five point grip instead of trying to stiff arm through a gang tackle. Doesn’t have the strength to efficiently fight through defenders who are protecting the leverage he wants to win, takes him too long to cross faces of guys who are willing to get in tight and resist. Got absolutely bullied out if a ball that was left too far inside on a fade, the corner didn’t respect his ability at all and sat over the top, Caleb read this wrong to put the ball there but he’s got to be in more control when he is dictating things, this is where a vet like him should outsmart by playing with route detail, fakes or late hands. Corners just do not respect his athletic ability, they’ll happily shut off outside lanes knowing he doesn’t have the route running prowess to open them up or the athleticism to play through them. Whilst he is willing his blocking technique leaves a lot to be desired; he is too narrow and over extends into center mass meaning his opponents can slide to one side and beat him easily, the basics are there so with tweaks he could be fixed within a short time frame. He may have a good understanding of zone coverage and when to break off his routes but he doesn’t do this quickly enough and often ends up drifting out of passing windows, need to see him make these moves more confidently as Caleb trusted him enough to spot them but they didn’t connect because Rice was a beat behind. He’s 6ft 2 /200 lbs but he plays like he’s two inches shorter and 20 lbs lighter, I don’t think he has the mentality to be an aggressive receiver to win route leverage through sheer will despite having average physical tools that mean he should play that way. He doesn’t run clean clearout routes and whilst it’s a good thing that he’s adding detail to keep defenders honest, that’s not his job in that role and it gives safeties over the top time to read the concept instead of being threatened back onto their perch. He got absolutely leveled mid route by a safety trying to cut off his vertical stem, he just doesn’t have that toughness in him. I think Rice needs to focus on one area of his game and try to develop a specialist area because right now his body is tuned to be an all round athlete and that’s just not going to get him taken high enough for his ambitions.

Overall Grade:

WR20 / Tier 7 / Round 5

Summary:

Rice may look like he’s got the size to play multiple roles in a modern offense and you see flashes of that ability very sparsely but overall he just does not have many components to his game that attract you as an evaluator. You can execute an offense with Rice as a major component but that is about it; he is not going to win games on his own. He isn’t technically complete, he isn’t strong and he isn’t explosive. The attraction of Rice is that he is clean, smart and efficient with an industrious approach to route running. He is barely scratching the surface of what his body is capable of but I feel he has taken the wrong path as a receiver and his mentality needs to shift from a version of his dad to a modern X receiver that can bully lighter cornerbacks. I see some potential in him as he plays team football and plays well both inside and outside the scheme but there isn’t enough to project him as a contributor anytime soon. All of this considered means he is a Day 3 guy for me, he could grow into a support role that could fill in at multiple spots as a sub 500 yard guy, his best abilities right now will be availability and flexibility but eventually with some adjustments he could push into a role a lot of teams are looking for.

System fit:

To be honest Rice could fit just about any system but the big question is whether Greg Roman, Joe Hortiz and Jim Harbaugh have targeted a particular skill to develop, or perhaps it could be they see him as a stop-gap swing type player at all three spots. From looking at Greg Roman’s history of developing Day 3 draftees at the WR spot I think he will start by aiming for a specialism whilst his role expands as he gets more years under his belt in the same system. Both James Proche and Tylan Wallace joined as late round draft picks and they started off learning Roman’s pro system as slot receivers before expanding their role whilst reducing their overall snap count as other players passed them by on the depth chart. This is essentially the path I see for Brenden but the difference he has over those two is size, he might not play like it but is actually a pretty big receiver (he is somehow bigger than Xavier Legette which blows my mind) so whilst I think he will slowly expand his role it will from the outside in instead of the inside out like his Day 3 predecessors. If Ben Herbert and his new personal coach, his dad (who just happens to be the best receiver of all time), can get him to a point where he can use that natural size then he can have an edge that the Chargers could use. 

System Player Comparison:

People often confuse the ‘jack of all trades’ analogy, the actual full expression is “Jack of all trades, master of none, is still the best person to get the job done” so whilst it’s often used as a negative label in draft profiles, it is always one I have upheld as a positive one. Rice fits the bill of a guy who can do a bit of everything for an offense just like his system player comparison has done across his 8 years in the league; Demarcus Robinson. Rice was primarily a boundary player occupying the Z role in USC’s offense during his Senior year but he did a lot more than that; he also went in motion including into the backfield and he was in the slot on 13% of his snaps. Demarcus similarly averaged 12% of his reps in the slot during his time in Greg Roman’s offense in Baltimore during the 2022 season. Additionally they both had an ability to add value above expectations within their respective systems, Rice thrived in his senior year hauling in 12 touchdown passes and Robinson managed to convert 50% of his catches into first downs so you can see that they both represent flexibility and importance to their team despite being below average athletes. Another element of synergy between the two is represented in their availability, since starting Brenden has only missed one game in three years due to injury and Demarcus has played in every game other than one across the same time span. Their athletic profiles are similar too as you can see below with Rice being slightly bigger and Robinson having a slight dynamic movement edge. To me, if Rice can carve out a career similar to Demarcus he should consider himself a success given his lack of explosive traits and whilst this may seem like I am putting a ceiling on his abilities, it should be seen as an asset to be as well rounded as his system predecessor in the jack of all trades role. You need guys who can help keep your offense moving, both Rice and Robinson provide that kind of reliable service.

Pick Assessment:

In a similar manner to Cam Hart the Chargers got a consensus rated steal at pick at 225 overall as the WR32. Brenden was ranked as the consensus pick WR20 and the 106th overall player so on face value it seems like a great coup. Now I am fairly convinced that the Rice family name plus the fact he played for a prestigious school and the fact that he was the unanimous QB1’s favorite target, meant that his tape was watched by every member of the draft community, somewhat skewed his ranking amongst his positional peers. To my eyes he was always a late Day 3 pick and whilst I appreciate the value if you consider his production and the upper reaches of his potential, there is very little about his tape that excites me so for me this pick isn’t quite the triumph it was being heralded as post draft. At pick 225, you can do a lot of things and even if he turned into a serviceable backup it should be considered a win but I think that we shouldn’t expect a lot of early returns on investment from Rice despite his heritage.