LA Rams meet with giant Jacob Harris, and Stafford loves big targets

The LA Rams are not exactly running low on targets for incoming quarterback Matthew Stafford, but when has that ever compelled the LA Rams to look the other way if a solid prospect bubbles up in an NFL Draft? Well, certainly not this year.  After all, despite the fact that practice squad WR J.J. Koski will join a team that red-shirted both WR Trishton Jackson and TE Brycen Hopkins, the team is still shopping for receiver weapons for the offense.

And why not?  The consense is that the class of 2021 will be neck-deep in receivers, perhaps an even more talented group than 2020’s class. But the 2022 receiver group with be shallow and far less talented. Better to sign ’em up and stash ’em now, than scramble to draft one of the few worthwhile receivers next year.

Of course, this is a crazy year, and sleepers are rapid-climbers as well as early favorites are fast-fallers. One such sleeper who is suddenly getting a lot of chatter and buzz is University of Central Florida’s wide receiver / tight end Jacob Harris who stands 6-foot-5 and weighs 219-pounds. His size is such that many analysts struggle to categorize him as either a wide receiver or a tight end.

The LA Rams have met with him. Why?

Stafford loves big targets

Well, for starters, one of the first wide receivers to work well with current quarterback Matthew Stafford was the 6-foot-5 237-pound skyscraper Calvin Johnson, a.k.a. Megatron. Johnson was impossible to thwart, stymie, stop, or neutralize. In fact, Johnson was so potent of an offensive weapon, that whenever a defender called him out before the game, Johnson made it a point to unleash on that defense. Johnson once put up 329 yards single-handedly on the Dallas Cowboys.

Stafford loves to throw to big targets. And Jacob Harris is one huge receiving target. So how does he look?

A guy who is 6-foot-5 yet can run a 4.4-second 40-yard dash? Well, he won’t be a secret for long. His production never seemed to match his potential. Jacob Harris played the equivalent of 21 games in college football and caught 49 passes for 987 yards and nine touchdowns. The truth is that he’d played just one year of high school football, and two years of college ball. Not much experience to draw upon.

He was such a long shot that few of the normal scouting websites have anything on him. But Daniel Kitchen over at the Brawl Network wrote a great profile for the young man, and this was long before his eyebrow-raising Pro Day performance.

Hey, we’ll talk more about who the LA Rams are meeting with, and why, in these pre-draft virtual meetings. But keep this one on your radar. This guy is fast and huge.  His 40-time is just 0.05 measured seconds slower than DeSean Jackson’s prime. And at 6-foot-5? Well, that’s a target most quarterbacks can’t miss.