INDIANAPOLIS – The selection is mostly on potential.
It’s not often you see a wide receiver get drafted with just 12 career starts, no kick or punt return history and coming off a full season in which he finished 4th on his team in receptions.
But that was the case with Washington State’s Dezmon Patmon.
Why?
Because you can’t teach 6-4, 225 pounds and 4.48 40-yard dash speed.
While Patmon has many similarities to Michael Pittman (size, speed, conference, last name), there’s not the same polish.
And it’s up to the Colts to now try and develop that.
Patmon was rotated in and out of the lineup at Washington State, a team that uses numerous wideouts every single game.
In 43 career games, Patmon caught 156 balls for 1,976 yards and 13 touchdowns. He also caught at least one ball in 33 straight games.
As Patmon assess his own game, he lays out a blueprint for new wideout coach Mike Groh to work on.
“I’m just a bigger guy, so maybe getting in and out of breaks faster and just quicker feet. There’s always stuff to work on but probably just polishing up my routes,” the PAC-12 product says.
“My coach would always say, ‘Play big.’ Towards the end of my career I progressively got better and kind of realized my true size and strength. So I think that’s apparent in my tape. Just being able to outmuscle and out-physical guys. As simple as it is, just playing bigger really. So, I definitely think I’ve got better at that over the years. But there’s still room for development. So, I’m ready to develop at the next level.”
A San Diego native, Patmon was used to watching Philip Rivers at a young age.
Now, the hope for Patmon is he will get to catch balls from Rivers this fall.
First though, the Colts will need to mold the clay they selected late in Round Six.
“The one thing in college football, what you’ll see is a majority of teams that run the spread, it’s four wideouts and not every single college football team runs the same routes as NFL teams run,” Colts assistant director of college scouting Matt Terpening says when talking about Patmon. “And that’s something we really look at, the athlete—can the athlete learn the routes that we want our receivers to run?
“So that’s going to be something that a lot of guys that come out of that offense are going to have to learn to do. But we’re excited to get a guy like Dezmon. He’s got the physical traits, production, he’s smart and he’s got size.”
