It might be best to ignore most of what gets said in the offseason, but did you hear what Declan Doyle said at Baltimore’s practice yesterday? He says third-rounder Ja’Kobi Lane has some Michael Thomas in his game. Hmm.
Thomas, recall, still holds the single-season record for catches in a season. And Doyle saw him close up, serving as an assistant in New Orleans from 2019 to 2022.
They have similar body types. Thomas came into the league at 6-foot-3 and 212 pounds. Lane is listed at 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds.
"He's got this huge catch radius; he's got great hands,” says the first-year coach. “He's very sticky. Mike Thomas had these strong hands where he could pull it down in a way (that), if you threw it in the vicinity, you felt like he was going to go get it. He's a very friendly guy to throw to."
Lane wasn’t overly productive at Southern Cal, catching 43 and 49 passes in his last two seasons. He was playing second fiddle last year to Makai Lemon (who caught 30 more passes). But Lane came up with a lot of big catches in contested situations
Considering the highlight reel posted by the school. I see seven instances where he’s pretty well covered by comes up with touchdowns anyway, including a couple of sick one-handed grabs (one with each hand). Louisville (:54 on the video), Wisconsin (2:30, 3:16), Maryland (3:39), Notre Dame (5:00), Georgia Southern (6:20) and Northwestern (8:10).
Lane has less-than-ideal speed. He ran a 4.47 at the combine, but I would have guessed he was a little slower. He won’t be getting behind any defenses, and it’s worth pointing out that the track record of receivers who rely on winning in contested situations in college isn’t very good – think of Keon Coleman and LaQuan Treadwell. Lane’s playing style isn’t similar to the last Southern Cal receiver who came up huge after slipping in the draft (Amon-Ra St. Brown).
But the landing spot of the Ravens is promising. They’ve got Zay Flowers but not much else at wide receiver. Rashod Bateman probably will be their other opening day starter, but he’s had a lackluster career thus far. Devontez Walker, who made a few decent catches as a rookie, is probably their next-most notable player at the position.
Consider also that the Ravens are completely re-working and modernizing their offense. Maybe that causes Lamar Jackson to finally move away some from 30-year-old Mark Andrews.
In a dynasty format, I think it would be reasonable to consider picking the unknown quantity of Ja’Kobi Lane before Bateman. Maybe Lane amount to nothing, but that wouldn’t leave one far behind Bateman.
In the last 10 years, 49 wide receivers have been picked with third-round picks. Seven of those guys have put up top-12 numbers at least once so far in their careers.
| THIRD-ROUND RECEIVERS (best seasons) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Yr | No | Yards | TD | PPR | Rk |
| 2021 | Cooper Kupp, LAR | 5 | 145 | 1,947 | 16 | 439.5 | 1 |
| 2019 | Chris Godwin, T.B. | 3 | 86 | 1,333 | 9 | 276.1 | 2 |
| 2024 | Terry McLaurin, Was. | 6 | 82 | 1,096 | 13 | 269.8 | 7 |
| 2021 | Diontae Johnson, Pitt. | 3 | 107 | 1,161 | 8 | 278.4 | 8 |
| 2020 | Tyler Lockett, Sea. | 6 | 100 | 1,054 | 10 | 265.4 | 8 |
| 2019 | Kenny Golladay, Det. | 3 | 65 | 1,190 | 11 | 250.0 | 9 |
| 2025 | Michael Wilson, Ari. | 3 | 78 | 1,006 | 7 | 220.6 | 10 |
| 2023 | Nico Collins, Hou. | 3 | 80 | 1,297 | 8 | 260.4 | 12 |
| 2019 | Michael Gallup, Dall. | 2 | 66 | 1,107 | 6 | 212.7 | 24 |
| 2024 | Josh Downs, Ind. | 2 | 72 | 803 | 5 | 183.5 | 35 |
| 2022 | Joshua Palmer, LAC | 2 | 72 | 769 | 3 | 169.3 | 37 |
| 2025 | Tre Tucker, L.V. | 3 | 57 | 696 | 5 | 161.7 | 38 |
| 2023 | Tank Dell, Hou. | 1 | 47 | 709 | 7 | 165.0 | 39 |
| 2019 | Chris Conley, Jac. | 5 | 47 | 775 | 5 | 156.5 | 44 |
| 2024 | Jalen Tolbert, Dall. | 3 | 49 | 610 | 7 | 152.0 | 45 |
| 2024 | Jalen McMillan, T.B. | 1 | 37 | 461 | 8 | 135.4 | 55 |
| 2022 | Devin Duvernay, Balt. | 3 | 37 | 407 | 5 | 116.1 | 61 |
| 2021 | Bryan Edwards, L.V. | 2 | 34 | 571 | 3 | 109.1 | 67 |
| 2020 | TreQuan Smith, N.O. | 3 | 34 | 448 | 4 | 103.1 | 72 |
| 2024 | Josh Palmer, LAC | 4 | 39 | 584 | 1 | 107.4 | 74 |
| 2018 | Taywan Taylor, Ten. | 2 | 37 | 466 | 1 | 89.6 | 82 |
| 2025 | Isaac TeSlaa, Det. | 1 | 16 | 239 | 6 | 75.9 | 82 |
| 2025 | Pat Bryant, Den. | 1 | 31 | 378 | 1 | 74.8 | 85 |
| 2024 | Cedric Tillman, Cle. | 2 | 29 | 339 | 3 | 82.4 | 90 |
| 2025 | Jaylin Noel, Hou. | 1 | 26 | 292 | 2 | 68.4 | 92 |
| 2016 | Sammie Coates, Pitt. | 2 | 21 | 435 | 2 | 77.9 | 93 |
| 2024 | Dyami Brown, Was. | 4 | 30 | 308 | 1 | 69.4 | 97 |
| 2020 | Miles Boykin, Balt. | 2 | 19 | 266 | 4 | 69.6 | 100 |
| 2023 | Jalin Hyatt, NYG | 1 | 23 | 373 | 0 | 60.3 | 101 |
| 2025 | Luke McCaffrey, Was. | 2 | 11 | 203 | 3 | 51.3 | 110 |
| 2025 | Kyle Williams, N.E. | 1 | 10 | 209 | 3 | 49.2 | 113 |
| 2023 | David Bell, Cle. | 2 | 14 | 167 | 3 | 48.7 | 114 |
| 2020 | Lynn Bowden, Mia. | 1 | 28 | 211 | 0 | 53.9 | 115 |
| 2017 | Braxton Miller, Hou. | 2 | 19 | 162 | 1 | 41.3 | 119 |
| 2025 | Roman Wilson, Pitt. | 2 | 12 | 166 | 2 | 40.6 | 121 |
| 2022 | Amari Rodgers, 2TM | 2 | 16 | 204 | 1 | 43.1 | 122 |
| 2022 | Velus Jones, Chi. | 1 | 7 | 107 | 2 | 40.0 | 126 |
| 2018 | Chad Williams, Ari. | 2 | 17 | 171 | 1 | 41.0 | 127 |
| 2025 | Malachi Corley, Cle. | 2 | 11 | 79 | 0 | 31.6 | 133 |
| 2021 | Anthony Schwartz, Cle. | 1 | 10 | 135 | 1 | 33.4 | 138 |
| 2025 | Savion Williams, G.B. | 1 | 10 | 78 | 1 | 27.5 | 143 |
| 2017 | ArDarius Stewart, NYJ | 1 | 6 | 82 | 0 | 16.9 | 148 |
| 2017 | Amara Darboh, Sea. | 1 | 8 | 71 | 0 | 15.1 | 154 |
| 2024 | Jermaine Burton, Cin. | 1 | 4 | 107 | 0 | 14.7 | 157 |
| 2018 | Leonte Carroo, Mia. | 3 | 2 | 94 | 1 | 18.8 | 158 |
| 2025 | Tai Felton, Min. | 1 | 3 | 25 | 0 | 5.5 | 195 |
| 2022 | Danny Gray, S.F. | 1 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 2.9 | 206 |
| 2019 | Jalen Hurd, S.F. | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .0 | -- |
| 2017 | Carlos Henderson, Den. | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .0 | -- |
—Ian Allan
