People keep telling me that this is a deep wide receiver class. People keep telling me to watch the movie Elf too. Yep, people tell me a lot of things. But for now, I am inclined to listen to the people telling me about the WRs. While this class doesn’t seem to have a Julio Jones or an Amari Cooper, there does seem to be no end of playmakers. One of these is a player I am very high on. He’s someone that coaches should look to find ways to get the ball to, whether it’s from a pass, a rush attempt, or even a kick return — a player like Deebo Samuel, for instance. Samuel chipped in with 802 receiving yards as a rookie and added a further 159 on the ground. That was just in the regular season, too. Samuel also had 127 receiving yards and 102 rushing yards in the postseason. Creative coaches want players that can perform in different ways on their offenses.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Brandon Aiyuk, late of Arizona State.
BACKGROUND
Aiyuk hails from Reno, Nevada, and attended Robert McQueen High School. He played wide receiver and defensive back for the Lancers and also returned kicks. He was not heavily recruited out of high school and found himself at Sierra College, a Junior College in Rocklin, California. In two seasons with the Wolverines, Aiyuk reeled in 89 receptions for 1,533 yards and 19 touchdowns. He also added 581 yards and two touchdowns returning kickoffs, with another 327 yards and a touchdown on 17 punt returns. Oh, and don’t forget 58 rushing yards and another score. All told, Aiyuk finished his time in JuCo with 2499 all-purpose yards and 23 touchdowns. Not too shabby.
With two years of eligibility remaining to him, Aiyuk looked to transfer out of the JuCo ranks. This time around, Aiyuk was rated as the No.11 WR in the 2018 class by 247Sports. He received offers from 11 schools and had visits lined up at Colorado State, Kansas, and Tennessee. However, he would end up at none of these schools but instead joined Arizona State. Why? They were willing to give him a shot at WR before turning him into the defensive back coach Herm Edwards wanted him to be.
