Pat Bryant put himself on the NFL radar with a dominant performance in his senior year at Illinois. He was generally projected to be a Day 3 pick at the start of 2025, but the Broncos did not want to take the chance of missing out on Bryant, and selected him in the middle of Day 2.

Dating back to his time in New Orleans, Sean Payton has a history of making stars out of big-bodied WRs who lack blazing speed. In his first year as the Saints’ head coach, Payton turned Marques Colston into an overnight fantasy star after the wide receiver almost went undrafted that year. With Colston’s reign as the team’s WR1 coming to an end a decade later, Payton was able to turn Michael Thomas into a league winner as a rookie.

Payton’s comments since Denver selected Bryant could lead us to believe that his new rookie WR might just be the next wideout to emerge and help lead fantasy managers to championships. But should we believe him?

Pat Bryant’s NFL Comps

After putting together a solid junior season at Illinois, Bryant truly broke out as a senior. In 2024, Bryant put up an impressive 2.95 yards per team pass attempt and a 43% dominator rating while increasing his yards per reception by more than five full yards.

However, it would have been nice to see Bryant show up in more of the Fighting Illini’s big games, as he averaged three receptions for 30 yards in crucial matchups against Penn State, Michigan, and Oregon.

Diving deeper into Bryant’s advanced stats does give us more reason to be optimistic, as his 3.2 yards per route run in 2024 came in second to only Tre Harris among the 2025 rookie WR class, while his 0.109 points earned per play was second to none. Additionally, Bryant proved to be both a reliable target and difficult to bring down, with his 94.0% on-target catch percentage and 33.3% evasion rate (on perfectly balanced 16.7% broken tackle and forced missed tackle rates) both trailing only Luther Burden III among wideouts selected on the first two days of the draft. Bryant’s 38.6% boom rate also illustrates his penchant for putting up big plays, while his 6.0% bust rate shows that he also has a knack for avoiding costly mistakes.

Bryant’s impressive statistical profile is countered by average (at best) athleticism. Although his 70th percentile explosion score is encouraging, a 15th percentile forty, a 25th percentile speed score, and a 36th percentile freak score quickly put a damper on things.

Still, Bryant’s athletic comps are not altogether damning, with one very intriguing name topping the list.