RP Summer Lookback: Elijah Sarratt Goes to the Ravens

**Matt Harmon** (0:00)
This is Reception Perception The Show. Now, James Koh and Matt Harmon.

**James Koh** (0:06)
Elijah Sarratt had 65 receptions, 830 yards, and he had 15 freaking touchdowns. Not only was that the team lead, he led the FBS in touchdowns right there with 15 touchdowns, man. That was impressive. Obviously, the Indiana offense, like I said, was a well-oiled machine. Elijah Sarratt was a big, big part of that. 6'2, 210 pounds.
You hear this term a lot, but quicker, he's quicker, more quick than he is fast. And I think that is for sure. The guy didn't run the 40, most likely because I don't think he was gonna have a very good 40 time.
So yeah, it didn't run the 40 there. We don't know what it is. It's estimates in the four fives, but man, I tell you what, man, some people feel like it might have been in the four sixes, which is not good. That being said, this was a very productive player, third year player, third year playing under Kurt Cignetti, followed him from James Madison where he was a leading receiver for James Madison as a sophomore with 1100 receiving yards. Matt, this is a player that's, it's interesting to me, I think he's got easy separation on underneath routes and from a technique standpoint, man, I just love how late his hands are. His hands come up so dang late on these receptions. He masks a lot of that for sure. He doesn't allow DBs to get into his body, which I really, really like. Okay, now that being said, man, his RP scores are an absolute mess.
Only two green routes on his tree, the slant and the out. Talk to me about Elijah Sarratt.

**Matt Harmon** (1:45)
Yeah, I mean, there's definitely some pretty negative marks, particularly, by the way, you said this, I mean, he probably would have run a 4-6-40. It would have been my guess. I don't think there's a lot of straight line speed from this player. Somebody should have advised Malachi Fields, by the way, the same thing. Fields goes out there and runs the 4-6 at the combine and all that like buzz that he had built is completely gone, seemingly, and Sarratt, though. Yeah, he definitely got some good advice there because nobody's holding 4-6 against him. You look at him on tape, and I definitely agree with you that, there's a lack of speed, lack of juice, and he is one of these players that I do think his game grows on you the more you watch as well because I think he comes crystal clear the picture of what he is overall. And to me, I just think like, look, I know I've got one of these guys in every class, and I'm going to do it again here with Sarratt. I think he's a guy that needs to go from the outside and convert into a power slot receiver in the pros. And if we view him in that way, I think actually his profile, when we start adjusting to that, does look pretty good to be one of those candidates, because there's no question, we're talking about a 17th percentile success rate versus man coverage and 14th percentile success rate versus press.
I'm going to re-up the video, actually, that I did on YouTube a couple of years ago. I'm going to update this study for some of the newer players, but I did a video segment on YouTube for Keon Coleman in the 2024 draft, essentially, looking at the history of the sub 35th percentile success rate versus man and press players. Almost all the guys that have been successful in the NFL that had that as their college profiles, they kicked into the slot, they became these power slot receivers, especially if they're going to be good early in their NFL career.
They were one of those converts. Obviously, that's continued to hold up over the course of the last couple of years since that 2024 class. I think Sarratt is probably the poster child of the guy that should do it this year. Because to me, yeah, there's a lot of problems if we're thinking about him being a consistent high-volume perimeter player, which is what he was at Indiana last year. At 6'2, 210 pounds, he took a whopping 88.2 percent sample snaps outside. He was on the line of scrimmage for 70.3 percent, so primarily outside X receiver, although he did play a little bit of Z as well.

**James Koh** (4:14)
Again, he's a player that when I watch him run underneath and intermediate routes, I liked him. I did. I thought he was able to create late separation, and maybe that doesn't translate to the pros. But it is something that I really liked about him from a technique standpoint.