2022 NFL Draft Profile: Alabama Wide Receiver Slade Bolden

Top: 5-11
Weight: 193
Hand: 9^3/4
Arm: 29^3/8

40: 4.59
Vertical: 38
Broad: 1011
3 Cone: 6.9
Bench: NA
Shuttle: 4.32

Slade Bolden is a fast slot large receiver that is aware of the way to assault leverage. He understands zone protection and is aware of the way to discover mushy spots in all varieties of zones. Psychological processing is sweet and identifies coverages shortly and makes good changes. He runs good routes on horizontal breaks and 45 diploma breaks. He’s at his finest working off a hop and a skip the place he can explode off that lower. He runs good choice routes and does a pleasant job altering tempo and stride size all through his route stem. He possesses good footwork within the slot. He’s unselfish when operating routes to filter out or take away defensive backs to open up different large receivers. He’s very aggressive and is a really keen blocker. He’s stable after the catch making a man miss along with his quickness. He’s dependable along with his arms and fearless working the center of the sector.

Slade Bolden is undersized and lacks total explosiveness and lengthy velocity. He’s restricted to the slot and received’t have a task on the surface on the subsequent stage. He’ll solely make an affect within the brief to intermediate sport. He must work again on his curl routes and struggles to sink his hips on these routes. He has a restricted catch radius and struggles to regulate in contested conditions. Total he had restricted manufacturing at Alabama. He can wrestle to beat man-to-man protection.

Slade Bolden tasks to be a follow squad participant that should make an affect on particular groups to be on the roster. He is a great route runner and can benefit from mushy spots in zone protection. He lacks the dimensions and explosiveness you search for in a large receiver. He must work on his blocking however provides quite a lot of effort.

If the draft was based mostly on want-to and drive, Bolden can be a first-round choice. Sadly that can solely get one thus far within the NFL as he would not have ultimate measurement, velocity, or explosiveness. The excellent news for Bolden is that it is a good draft class at his place, and quite a lot of groups need to add somebody so which may assist him get drafted. There was quite a lot of speak that Bolden could possibly be a move-the-chains man for the Patriots, who at all times appear to have somebody like that, however John Metchie III was a greater go-to man at Alabama. 

“Sure, I take pleasure in returning the ball. I take pleasure in particular groups. I take pleasure in something that helps and advantages our group, no matter Coach Saban needs me to do I’m keen to do. That’s type of been my position for some time. So I take pleasure in returning the ball and no matter helps me construct my model as a talent participant I’m keen to do.” — Slade Bolden