Final Report

Jaren Kanak is incredibly new to offensive football, and he landed at the wrong position. After coming out of high school as a freakshow-athletic linebacker prospect with track bonafides, Kanak never took to the defensive side of the football. He moved to TE and, despite horrendous and inoperable size for the position, was electric as a receiver. His maneuverability, freak athleticism and speed, foot-quickness, and natural route-running all look like a true slot who is 15-20 pounds too heavy. He's taken to this, like Eli Stowers, very naturally. Kanak is a very short-strider, which gives him a lot of the natural foot-fire and quickness you see in traditional slot receivers like Cole Beasley and Wes Welker. He's taller and bigger naturally, but the modern slot archetype is someone 6'2, 215 with similar movement skills to those guys who can also block safeties and linebackers in the run game the way a second TE does. Being 234 pounds does nothing for Kanak, as he will never be even close to credible in-line. With that said, his athletic reputation and known testing (at 234), in addition to his natural skillset as a receiver, can be pieced together to delineate a more proper role. He needs to slim down and move to WR. He's already fast enough to be a true slot at 4.52, but the extra weight hampers his agility and suddenness beyond the level that is needed to play that role. 15 extra pounds does nothing in the blocking because the off-ball move role is mostly about just getting in the way of second level defenders. Where 5 pounds can make all the difference in the trenches with DEs, this job is more about tenacity and positioning. It's going to be his job anyway, he may as well have the athleticism to properly do the receiving part of it. Who knows, we may just reverse engineer the next Cooper Kupp.

Recommended Position

WR

Round Grade

5th

Player Comp

A fat Danny Amendola

Scheme Fits