It remains to be seen whether Notre Dame wide receiver Miles Boykin will be a day two or day three guy in the upcoming NFL Draft, but the second round is a definite possibility for him. It may also be his ceiling, given how deep and talented the wide receiver class is this time around.
Having emphatically answered the number one question NFL teams had about him, his speed and ability to separate, there seems to be a strong, perhaps bordering on certain, sentiment that he’ll go within the first four rounds. Wednesday was Notre Dame Pro Day, and Miles Boykin caught passes from from former Fighting Irish QB and current Quarterbacks Coach Tommy Rees:
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The 6-foot-4, 228-pound Boykin skipped a fifth season at Notre Dame in order to enter the draft, and did so despite being a late bloomer. A break out Citrus Bowl performance to end the 2017 season preluded his one season as a full-time starter in 2018.
The upside to being a late bloomer is the stronger potential to have a higher ceiling in the NFL.
“I came in raw, I’m still raw, it’s about where I can see myself, where I can be in the future,” Boykin said at ND Pro Day, where a total of 48 NFL representatives, covering all 32 teams, were on hand, “and that’s a continuous hunger to get better every single day I step out on that football field.”
The official NFL website give him a player comparison of Kenny Golladay, but the ultimate role model goal someday, is to reach the level of being on par with Calvin Johnson.
“100%, it’s always been him since day one,” Boykin said.
“The way he runs his routes, how physical he is, the speed that he comes off the ball with, I want to do every thing just like him, and be half the player that he is,” the Tinley Park, IL native said, realizing what a lofty benchmark being at the level of Megatron truly is.
With a 4.42 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine, and stellar numbers in the speed drills at Pro Day, the Providence Catholic high school graduate surpassed everyone’s expectations for how he was going to test. He didn’t prove anything to himself, because he was well aware of what was inside of him, but he certainly proved a lot to outsiders.
“I’m not really the rah rah guy, you guys have been around me for years,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“I’m not going to go out and tell you what I’m going to do. Just clean cut, do my job to the best of my ability, I think that’s what’s gotten me to where I am today. I don’t need the hype around me, I knew what I was going to do.”
Given how well he tested, many might wonder why Boykin didn’t put larger numbers, and do it more consistently during his time in South Bend. He had a perfect answer for that.
“When you look at our skill positions, I think every one of them is going to play in the league, when it’s all said and done,” he said.
“Chase (Claypool), (Chris) Finke- they’re going to play in the league. We’re playing with three NFL wide receivers, a NFL running back in Dex, we can share that ball around. It’s easier to scheme tings up when you got players like that.”
To see where we have Miles Boykin in our NFL mock draft go here. Go here for the Notre Dame Pro Day numbers, plus the combine results of the ND players who were in Indianapolis.
For his combine results, go to his NFL.com prospect page at this link.
The official NFL page gives him an overall rating of 5.67, projecting him to be in the “chance to become a starter in the NFL” category. For more on Miles Boykin, go to this link
Notre Dame Pro Day Stories/Prospect Profiles
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Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.