Scouting Bucs’ Formal Visits: WR

With the NFL Combine in the rearview mirror, we at Pewter Report have you covered on which prospects the Bucs have spoken to. Over the next two weeks, I am going to provide you, the reader, with brief scouting reports on the players the team had formal visits with. Today, we will start with wide receivers.

Jack Bech – TCU

Height – 6’1.5

Weight – 214

Arm Length – 31.5″

40 – N/A

Vert – 34.5″

Broad – 10’05

3-cone – 6.84

Short shuttle – 4.21

Career Stats (via PFF) – 200 targets, 133 catches, 66.5% catch rate, 1,869 yards, 14.1 yds/rec, 13 TD, 5.5 YAC/rec, 1.86 yds/rr

Watching Bech, I could not help but get Chris Godwin vibes. The two have similar body builds. Both players clock in at just an inch over 6 feet, and Bech weighs just five more pounds than Godwin did at his combine. But it goes beyond the body type. Bech’s best traits are his hands and ability to make difficult catches in traffic.

Strong hands and plays well through contact. Finds holes in zones. Strong character. Almost identical builds.

I’m going to lose it if Bech tests similarly to CG. pic.twitter.com/BSTPPBS4rv

— Joshua Queipo (@josh_queipo) March 1, 2025

His career contested catch rate is an impressive 61.8%, with some of his most impressive catches happening over the middle through contact. Bech’s 1.6% drop rate in 2024 was third-best among all qualifying receivers in this draft class. Bech’s speed isn’t special, but he is a nuanced route runner who creates separation across two planes and has a knack for finding the holes in zone coverage and presenting himself to his quarterback.

Bech pairs his strong hands with good body control, allowing him to create yards after catch by reducing the quality of contact from defenders. This has led to a career 30% missed tackle forced rate. Bech has inside/outside versatility, spending most of his college career in the slot. But this past year, Bech moved outside over 70% of the time and had his best season.

Bech has a pro-ready play style that would elevate the Bucs’ receiver room and provide a long-term replacement for how Godwin wins and elevates the Bucs’ offense. One of the most important parts of how Tampa Bay scouts players is scouting the person. Bech has shown incredible fortitude, dealing with the death of his brother earlier this year and has received renowned praise for his character. Bech is currently listed as a top-70 player according to public consensus boards, meaning if the Bucs were interested in him, they would likely have to take him in the second round.

Matthew Golden – Texas

Height – 5’11

Weight – 191

Arm Length – 30.625″

40 – 4.30

Vert – N/A

Broad – N/A

3-cone – N/A

Short shuttle – N/A

Career Stats – 202 targets, 135 catches, 66.8% catch rate, 1,990 yards, 14.7 yds/rec, 22 TD, 5.6 YAC/rec, 1.85 yds/rr

Golden is productive at all levels of the field, working well at the stem of his route to create enough space to give him a good opportunity to make a catch. He does his best work as a deep threat down the field. Over 26% of his targets last year were of 20+ air yards and he had a 59% catch rate, 33.7 yards per catch and four touchdowns on those targets.

Golden’s calling card is his ability to move into any role that an offense would ask of him. He’s strong enough, with above-average body contortion, to play the X, has enough wiggle to play the Z and his nuanced route running make him a good option for two-way go’s out of the slot.

Golden’s best game in 2024 was against the highest level of competition, securing eight of 12 targets for 162 yards against Georgia in the SEC Championship Game.

Matthew Golden #texaslonghorns

– Detailed double-move
– Weight drop into 3-step break
– Takes one step back to QB to complete set up of double move
– High point with DB at chest
– Embraces the fall#NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/dsdvK31eXe

— Matt Waldman (@MattWaldman) January 16, 2025

Golden is currently seen as one of the best receiver prospects in this year’s draft, widely considered as a possible late-first round pick.

Tez Johnson – Oregon

Height – 5’9.875

Weight – 154

Arm Length – 29.375″

40 – 4.51

Vert – 37″

Broad – 10’11

3-cone – 6.65

Short shuttle -4.15

Career Stats – 402 targets, 307 catches, 76.4% catch rate, 3,859 yards, 12.6 yds/rec, 28 TD, 7.9 YAC/rec, 2.85 yds/rr

Watch Johnson play and you would swear he is much bigger than his 5-foot-9, 154-pound frame. His movements are more explosive than smooth. He is strong in and out of his cuts and at the catchpoint. His lack of size and mass works against him, but he makes up for it with tenacity working through contact. Johnson’s speed sneaks up on safeties and allows him to get behind the defense.

He does his best work after the catch, where his movements are sudden, violent and slippery. His 604 yards after the catch were third in this draft class, and his 7.4 YAC/catch ranked fourth. Johnson is incredibly dangerous in space and as such, he is at his best when an offense can design manufactured touches for him. Applying this to the Bucs makes for some interesting hypotheticals where the team builds off of its excellent screen game last year with him in mind.

He is role-limited though as a slot or snap-move receiver. He struggles to beat press coverage and will struggle in any type of outside role. And his drop rate of 6.7% is higher than you would like for a receiver with a career 7.1 adot (average depth of target).

Johnson requires a defined role within a creative offense, but the Bucs should feature such a system, making for an enticing hypothetical addition in Tampa Bay to a receiver room that does not have a proven option with that skillset.

Every year, I remind myself not to fall for receivers in Tez Johnson’s mold, but I can’t help it. I’m intrigued. Speed kills. pic.twitter.com/tUhHmy6uaF

— Evan Lazar (@ezlazar) February 14, 2025

Johnson is currently seen as a late day two pick.

Tai Felton – Maryland

Height – 6’1.125

Weight – 183

Arm Length – 30″

40 – 4.38

Vert – 39.5″

Broad – 10’10

3-cone – N/A

Short shuttle – N/A

Career Stats – 264 targets, 172 catches, 65.1% catch rate, 2,211 yards, 11.7 yds/rec, 17 TD, 6.2 YAC/rec, 1.86 yds/rr

Felton is an interesting prospect who would probably be getting more buzz if not for a Week 5 injury that he played through for the rest of the season. He was one of the most productive receivers in all of college football through the first four weeks of the season, averaging 10.25 catches, 150 yards, 1.25 touchdowns and 4.31 yards per route run.

After that point, Felton’s catch rate dropped 14%, his yards per catch dropped by 5.2 and his yards per route run dropped by 2.8. But scouting the pre-injury Felton makes me think there is an opportunity to find a receiver with higher upside than his draft stock would have you believe. That’s not dissimilar to how the Bucs were able to draft Jalen McMillan in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft.

He has more burst than long speed, creating room early in the route. This is evidenced by the tracking data gleaned from the Senior Bowl, where he led all receivers in attendance in acceleration. He pairs that explosive lower half power with spectacular contact balance to make defenders miss after the catch while creating additional yards.

Felton is more of a linear athlete and struggles running routes that ask him to win after the route stem. He adds too many steps to comebacks and rounds his routes on digs, but is at his best on slants, curls, posts and go/fades. This makes him less than ideal for a slot role, but he should work well as a perimeter threat. His ball tracking is average-at-best, and he struggles to play through contact, which limits his upside. But he can develop into a solid WR3 if he can regain his pre-injury explosiveness.

Maryland’s Tai Felton is the definition of a chain mover. His stop-start ability shows up as both a route runner and with his YAC.

Felton was third in the country in first down receptions last season (57). pic.twitter.com/OSajf26Psy

— Bobby Football (@Rob__Paul) February 5, 2025

Felton is currently seen as a late 3rd/early 4th round talent.

Jaylin Lane – Virginia Tech

Height – 5’10.5

Weight – 194

Arm Length – 29.5″

40 – 4.39

Vert – 41.5″

Broad – 11’02

3-cone – N/A

Short shuttle – N/A 

Career Stats – 294 targets, 203 catches, 69.0% catch rate, 2,540 yards, 12.5 yds/rec, 18 TD, 8.1 YAC/rec, 2.01 yds/rr

Lane is an after-catch creator in the same vein as Tez Johnson, with considerably less production. He is more of a slot-only option, as he lacks strength and size necessary to win against big and strong corners on the perimeter. He is a quick-twitch athlete with impressive footspeed that spins him up quickly.

He works best when he is getting quick touches that let him accelerate quickly to create yards after the catch. But his YAC-ability is more concentrated on his impressive wind up and less due to his lateral cuts/moves. Lane is a limited route runner who exaggerates his false moves. But one area where he can fit into the Bucs offense well is as a defense-stretcher who can get on top of safeties quickly. That was a quality lacking from the Bucs’ offense last year.

Lane also provides special teams value as a returner. He has a career 10.6 yards per punt return average along with two career punt return touchdowns.

#Hokies #NFLDraft

Jaylin Lane in the open field. pic.twitter.com/9OlAkskxl8

— Matt Waldman (@MattWaldman) December 23, 2024

Lane is currently projected to be a late day-three pick.

My current draft board features these receivers in the following tiers:

Tier 2 – Jack Bech

Tier 3 – Matthew Golden

Tier 6 – Tai Felton

Tier 7 – Tez Johnson, Jaylin Lane

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