I see what your saying and where your coming from on waddle. But you also have to look who was ahead of him at the time. He was behind jerry jeudy who was a first round pick, Henry Ruggs who was a first round pick, and devonta smith who went and won the heisman in his senior year( partly due to the fact that most of waddles targets went to smith after the injury). So if your looking at two years ago it was never going to be easy or even possible for him to take reps from those three receivers ahead of him as a sophomore, but nick saban still found ways to fit him in to the offense because of what he brings to the field. Now if your looking at this past year the first few weeks he played he was playing like a number one receiver on the team before the injury.
I completely understand the concern about taking him with the patriots track record at receiver lately. But I don’t think I see the same thing that you may be seeing when it comes to his game. I think he’s a comparable to Henry ruggs (I’m sorry about comparing him to a teammate because it may seem lazy) in the sense that they can win by running past a defender, but where the difference between them is that ruggs is a one cut and he’s gone type of receiver. Ruggs doesn’t make a defender miss nearly as often as waddle does. When looking at waddle he is by far the more sudden player between the two. I also think he can run good routes now but has the potential to improve as well as offering a more complete route tree.
I’m sorry for the long post and it being a late response. But at this point I can see jamar chase, devonta smith, and jaylen waddle being selected in the top 12. So this whole post is probably for nothing lol.
