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 Southern Methodist wide receiver Trey Quinn, who has declared early for the draft. For the total list of all players leaving school early, see our underclassmen tracker.
For more on all the other receivers in the class, see our 2018 NFL draft wide receiver rankings.
Updated as of Mar. 8.
Redshirt Junior | 5’11″ and 203 Pounds | Born December 7, 1995 (Age: 22) | Projection: Rounds 4-5
Combine numbers: 40-yard: 4.55 sec | bench reps: 17 | 3-cone: 6.91 sec | 20-yard shuttle: 4.19 sec | vertical: 33.5 in | broad: 116 in
As good as wide receiver Courtland Sutton was at SMU, it’s possible that he was the second-best receiver on the Mustangs in 2017: Quinn was that good in his only year of action at SMU. The all-time national leader in high school career receiving yardage with 6,566 and a two-time state finalist in the 100-meter dash, Quinn was a top-three wide receiver recruit who stayed near home and attended Louisiana State for his first two seasons. Although he started seven games at split end for the Fighting Tigers as a true freshman in 2014, Quinn was phased out of the offense in 2015, catching only five passes as he played behind underachievers Malachi Dupre and Travin Dural in head coach Les Miles’ final full season in Baton Rouge. Desirous of more playing time, Quinn transferred to SMU in 2016 and then redshirted the season per NCAA rules.
Quinn was wise to leave LSU. While the Tigers offensively underwhelmed after Quinn’s departure, he was one of the best receivers in the nation last year, as he led the Football Bowl Subdivision with 114 receptions, which converted into 1,236 yards, 13 touchdowns, and 32.6 and 37.1 percent of the team’s receiving yardage and scores. Quinn led all FBS wide receivers with 4.66 yards per route in the slot (PFF), but he’s perhaps not a slot-only pass catcher, as he played just 33.8 percent of his snaps there in 2017.
Quinn’s combine performance wasn’t great — he fell well short of his 4.39-second 40 time from high school — but he displayed enough agility to suggest that he can be a competent NFL receiver, especially in the slot. Given that he’s white, it would be easy (read: lazy) to compare him to other white slot receivers like Julian Edelman, Cooper Kupp, and even SMU forerunner Cole Beasley, but Quinn is a former four-star recruit and might be more comparable to Jarvis Landry in terms of his ability to function as high-volume receiver. His draft stock has dropped since the combine, but even as a likely Day 3 selection he still has the potential to succeed if he’s able to earn playing time.
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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: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
