The 2018 NFL Draft Prospect series breaks down draft-eligible players, highlighting their college production as well as their NFL potential. It’s important for daily fantasy players to know about NFL rookies before they’ve played a down of professional football because they are among the most misvalued assets in all of DFS. People who know NFL rookies have a significant DFS edge. The draft will be held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX, from April 26-28.
This piece is on Penn State wide receiver DaeSean Hamilton.
For more on all the other receivers in the class, see our 2018 NFL draft wide receiver rankings.
Updated as of Mar. 8.
Grad Student | 6’1″ and 203 Pounds | Born March 10, 1995 (Age: 22) | Projection: Rounds 4-5
Combine numbers: 40-yard: DNP | bench reps: DNP | 3-cone: 6.84 sec | 20-yard shuttle: 4.15 sec | vertical: 34.5 in | broad: 1118 in
Hamilton seems like the kind of player who would appeal to NFL decision makers. The son of two Marines, Hamilton was a four-star recruit who chose to attend Penn State in the wake of the Sandusky sanctions, and as a redshirt freshman he replaced the graduated Allen Robinson in the Nittany Lions’ offense, leading the Big Ten with 82 receptions and the team with 899 yards. As a sophomore and junior he had middling campaigns, but last year he returned to form with a team-leading 857 yards and nine touchdowns receiving. An academic overachiever, he graduated early and opted to work on a second degree as a grad student with his remaining time.
Although Hamilton never had a truly dominant season — he never had 1,000 yards, double-digit touchdowns, or more than a 30 percent market share of Penn State’s receiving yards or touchdowns — he’s a good route runner, a four-year starter, and former team captain, and he was so impressive at the East-West Shrine Game that he received an invitation to the Senior Bowl, where he reportedly excelled in one-on-one drills. Hamilton will likely be seen as a slot-only receiver, given that he played 98.4 percent of his snaps there last year, but he does have some explosiveness to his game: In 2017 he led the Football Bowl Subdivision with a deep catch rate of 73.3 percent (Pro Football Focus), and at the combine he demonstrated above-average agility. We’re still waiting to see what 40 time he runs at the Penn State pro day, but he could be the 2018 version of a mid-round Nelson Agholor.
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Matthew Freedman is the Editor-in-Chief of FantasyLabs. He has a dog and sometimes a British accent. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he’s known only as The Labyrinthian.
Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
