Zay Flowers vs. Josh Downs is hotly debated and I'm interested to see who ends up with the better NFL career.
Josh Downs film
Josh Downs cut-ups vs. Florida A&M 2022
North Carolina offense vs. Pitt defense 2022
North Carolina offense vs. Notre Dame defense 2022
Zay Flowers film
Flowers cut-ups vs. Louisville 2022
Flowers cut-ups vs. Wake Forest 2022
Offense vs. Clemson 2022
Downs and Flowers have similar builds as smaller guys (5'9") with short arms, small hands and low weight. Downs is a bit concerning at only 171lbs which is well into that "I hope he doesn't break" category each time he gets hit. Flowers is 10lbs bulkier but also a year older. They've both played three years in college so the age isn't important to me. Flowers has better top end speed, Downs has better agility and instincts.
Downs was the better player in 2022. He operated nearly entirely out of the slot, was able to create separation with great route running, and had very good hands with only three drops on the year. He was weirdly good on contested catches but I'm skeptical how well that will translate against NFL corners. The main drawback would be little YAC or dynamism in the open field and minimal threat to break tackles. He's also a weak run blocker as you'd expect.
Flowers played 2/3 of his snaps on the outside despite his size due to his physicality and reminds me in that way of Doug Baldwin once we moved him to flanker. He is a bit more dynamic in space than Downs, but not as much as I've seen a lot of sites suggest. He's a better run blocker than Downs but still not great. He had a really bad case of drops last season but many of them were that correctable mental issue of starting to go for YAC before he had properly secured the ball.
Both probably need to get up to 190lbs and I imagine that's feasible for both, but that's an important question for teams to answer. My guess is that the Seahawks would prefer the home-run threat that Flowers provides with open field running ability over the reliable chain-moving ball skills that Downs brings.
Honorable mention should also go to Tyler Scott from Cincinnati, who profiles very similarly to Flowers and could be a great value if he goes later on in the third round like many mocks are projecting right now. Scott is my small slot WR pick if we're considering value.
