BRENNAN EAGLES

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 

POSITION: WIDE RECEIVER

RECRUIT RATING: 4-STAR

SIZE: 6’4″ 229LBs

BMI: 28

BIRTHDATE: October 1st, 2000

YEAR: Junior

CAREER STATS: 61 REC / 1,026 / 11 TDs / 16.8 AVG

2020 DOMINATOR RATING: 17.98%

2020 YARDS PER TEAM PASS ATTEMPT: 1.36

DROP %: 9.68% (3)

 

BACKGROUND 

Rated as a 4-star and the 10th best receiver in the 2018 recruiting class, Brennan Eagles was a big-time prospect coming out of Houston, Texas.

He attended Alief Taylor High School, where he posted 55 receptions for 1,069 yards and 15 touchdowns as a junior. He was unable to play his senior year due to injury. He also participated in the high jump, long jump and competed in the 100m and 200m in track, according to texassports.com.

Eagles held 28 offers that included Alabama, Clemson, and LSU. He decided to stay in the state of Texas and enrolled with the Longhorns in February of 2018.

With only one start his true freshman season, Eagles made one catch for 35 yards against Tulsa. However, he did play some special teams that season, allowing Texas to get him some exposure to the college atmosphere on the field.

Before his sophomore season, Eagles underwent arthroscopic elbow surgery to clean up a previous injury he sustained in high school. As a sophomore, Eagles started in seven games, and all looked good as he had a big game against LSU in week two with 116 yards and a touchdown. That was the only 100 yard game of his season.

Unfortunately, he trended down from there and allowed drops to plague him, totaling nine on the 2019 season. He was suspended for the game against TCU for missing practice and team activities without notifying the coaching staff.

In 2020, Eagles was primed to take over the vacated production from Collin Johnson but didn’t see his target share rise much with just a 1% increase from 2019. Texas did play only nine games, but Joshua Moore saw more targets to the outside than Eagles and had four more touchdowns as well. The year for Eagles to finally breakout never manifested, unfortunately. He decided to declare for the 2021 NFL Draft, ending his collegiate career with just over 1,000 total reviving yards and 11 total touchdowns.

STAR-RATING SCOUTING KEY

Lacks the ability to beat NFL competition with a backup talent and skillset

Below-average ability to beat NFL competition with backup talent and skillset

Average ability to compete against most NFL competition with a starter talent and skillset

Above-average ability to compete and win against most NFL competition with starter talent and skillset 

Rare ability to compete and win consistently against all NFL competition with starter talent and skillset 

 

IMPORTANT POSITIONAL FACTORS

ATHLETICISM

The context that needs to be addressed is Brennan Eagles’ traits as an athlete to the mass he carries on his frame. Right from the snap in off coverage, Eagles displays good acceleration to eat up space quickly. He’s not explosive off the snap but generates a good amount of power off his front foot and keeps his torso low. He shows good lateral quickness to shift his weight and displays relaxed ankle flexion to evade tackle attempts, break in his route or adjust to passes. His balance is good at the snap, but he does tend to lose balance when attempting the second-level evasive moments in stride. His high school SPARQ numbers recorded him at a 3.99 20-yard short shuttle and a 37 inch vertical. His overall SPARQ score was 132.24 compared to Rondale Moore, who had the highest SPARQ with 133.62. Moore was 174lbs coming out of high school for additional context.

MENTAL PROCESSING

There tends to be a lack of read and react with Eagles. Throughout the 2020 season, his timing was off with his quarterback Sam Ehlinger, and though not always his fault, Eagles would turn his head in the wrong direction to track the ball or breaking the wrong direction in his route, not meeting the ball at the catch point. His ability to work back to his QB seemed a bit lazy and without urgency on comeback and hitch routes. Eagles did, however, attack the voids in zone coverage and position himself to meet the ball either stationary or in stride. His awareness to know where he is on the field in conjunction with the trajectory of the ball was inconsistent. In some plays, he knew exactly where he was and needed to be. On other plays, he looked dazed and confused. There could be an issue with mental toughness if Eagles displays the inability to move on from his mistakes or his quarterbacks.

There is also an issue when Eagles is transitioning out of his break. He takes on too much contact with the defender, thus not maintaining the route’s structure, making him late or out of position to receive the ball. He relies on his strength to get separation in situations where he should be avoiding contact to stay on time. Eagles could have difficulty identifying NFL defensive coverages and defensive back assignments, forcing him to struggle to separate at the next level.

PLAY SPEED

Once in his vertical stem, Eagles showed good ability to get downfield with extended strides and pumping arms. His 40 time coming out of college was a 4.51, which is excellent for his size. His overall play speed to have synergy between his eyes and feet lacks a bit. He does a good job selling the vertical route with his eyes and momentum in his route, keeping the defender thinking Eagles is continuing vertically until he finally breaks off his route. As discussed with his mental processing, Eagles lack of nuance to read and react slows him down even though he has the speed to stack and beat defenders. The time it takes him to read the defender’s pursuit angle or identify the safety coming over the top, his reaction time is slow, thus negating his natural good long speed. For Eagles to maximize his athleticism and long speed, his processing speed will need to be tuned and synced to his feet.

COMPETITIVE TOUGHNESS

At the point of attack, Eagles is highly competitive, not allowing the defender to drive him off his initial stem. Leveraging his strength and frame, Eagles clears tight coverage with active hands and play strength. He does a solid job executing his assigned routes but does nothing over and beyond. When getting downfield, Eagles does so with urgency. He is guilty of not playing to the whistle and downshifting his play speed periodically.

PLAY STRENGTH

In contested situations, Eagles has shown to be a dominant receiver above the rim. He can get over his competition and pluck the ball out of the air. In traffic, he uses his large frame to pinball his way through the catch from contact while displaying good body control and balance. He plays with solid strength at the line of scrimmage, not allowing himself to get jammed by lesser competitors. He fights his way through his route, doing a good job of staying on time and not allowing route maulers to invade. As a blocker, he shows solid strength to move defenders out of their path but lacks the proper technique to be consistent.

POSITION SPECIFICS

RELEASE

Eagles possesses solid release moves from a single move to active foot fire into jab steps. He can create space within the first five yards to shift his way into his vertical stem and create a cushion to meet the ball. He struggles to process what the defender’s assignment is, leading to Eagles using the wrong release maneuver, which allows the defender to gain leverage into his route. Regardless of Eagles’ size and strength, he could struggle to get a clean release against NFL completion if he doesn’t diagnose the defensive assignment he is facing.

SEPARATION QUICKNESS

Relying mostly on strength, Eagles can separate with a swim move and eye manipulation at the top of his route. He executed the sluggo a few times this season, showing he can freeze defenders with subtle jab steps and maintain his speed vertically. His breaks aren’t crisp, and he lacks the explosive change of direction, but he wins with strength, active hands, and body mechanics manipulation, which he could find success with at the next level. He was asked to run mostly go and hitch routes in 2020, which makes sense considering he might struggle to separate running routes such as outs and comebacks.

HANDS

The inconsistency of Eagles’ hands is a debate worth having. He only had three drops in 2020 on only 14 fewer targets than he had in 2019 when he had nine drops that season. He has shown to catch tough passes in traffic and in contested situations while also dropping wide-open passes on a simple hitch routes. There are definitely some concentration issues with Eagles, but some passes he saw from Ehlinger did not facilitate a flight path made for framing his hands to the ball. The main problem for Eagles is he needs to be trusted to catch the most erratic passes and prove to make difficult adjustments to the ball if he is going to be an NFL starter. With his size and catch radius, making tough catches will need to be his calling card. He has not shown to be consistent enough to be trusted to be an outside receiver that can catch the ball consistently in hostile situations.

YARDS AFTER THE CATCH (YAC)

Another issue for Eagles is his inability to gain yards after the catch, even with physicality. Too many times where he catches the ball is the number of yards he’s going to achieve. He lacks the twitch to evade with lateral quickness, and regardless of using momentum and lowered pads, he gets tackled relatively quickly from his lower body. Only 25% of his yards came after the catch in 2020, and it’s hard to imagine him getting better at the next level.

STAR PROJECTION 

– Day 1 Projection

– Day 2 Projection

– Early Day 3 Projection 

–  Late Day 3 Projection

– UDFA

BRENNAN EAGLES DRAFT PROJECTION

Overall, Eagles is lacking in many areas in which he should be succeeding. He provides the combination of size, strength, and athleticism but lacks the nuance to maximize his talents. Eagles played evenly outside on both sides of the field and there is some truth to the Ehlinger struggling to throw the ball with accuracy to the outside perimeter. Regardless, Eagles will see tougher competition with what could be inaccurate quarterback play in the NFL and he will need to overcome and step up if he wants to be a next-level caliber receiver.

The analytics are not friendly to Eagles either. He posted a 17.68% dominator rating in 2020, giving him an 18% collegiate career DR. He never recorded a breakout season and is well below average with 1.36 yards per team pass attempt. He also never sniffs the reception threshold with only a season-high of 32 receptions.

Many red flags are leading to the possibility that Eagles could bust before becoming fantasy relevant. He is projected as a late-round to UDFA draft pick and should be considered a taxi squad hold just in case his athletic upside rises with a spot start possibility after his sophomore year in the NFL.