The Broncos chose Penn State wide receiver DaeSean Hamilton with the 112th overall pick, in the fourth round of the draft. He’s widely considered one of the best wide receivers in the draft and should compete for the third receiver job this summer.
Here are five things you don’t know about DaeSean Hamilton:
HE’S PENN STATE’S ALL-TIME LEADING RECEIVER
As a four-star recruit out of Mountain View high school in Stafford, Virginia, Hamilton received offers from most of the ACC before signing with Penn State.
He redshirted his freshman season at Penn State due to a wrist injury, but burst onto the scene the next year, leading the Big Ten with 82 receptions for 899 yards with two touchdowns.
His production dropped off over the next two years—he picked up 580 yards and 506 yards—but his senior-year efforts were good enough for a second-team All-Big Ten nod.
Hamilton’s 214 career receptions are the most ever by a Penn State receiver and his 2842 receiving yards rank second.
HE’S AN ADVOCATE FOR AUTISM AWARENESS
Hamilton was born in Okinawa, Japan to a pair of 20-plus year Marine veterans. His family moved around the country throughout his childhood before settling in Virginia.
Hamilton’s older brother, Darius, has non-verbal autism and when his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, Hamilton had to take on a bigger role in Darius’ development. He taught him how to tie his shoes, take a bath and get dressed by himself.
“It really was incredible to see how strong he was with everything going on in his life at that point,” DaeSean’s mother Madeline said of him, according to the Big Ten Network. “He didn’t get down; he didn’t change who he was. If anything, he really stepped it up during that time.”
HE WAS IMPRESSED BY WAKE FOREST’S PITCH
After signing with Penn State five years ago, Hamilton filled out RecruitingNation’s questionnaire about the best parts of their recruiting process, including the best facilities, best food and most creative pitch.
When asked about the best recruiter he met with, Hamilton said this:
“I’d say it would be Coach [Lonnie] Galloway from Wake Forest. He’s not at Wake Forest anymore, but I could just relate to him a lot more. He was really familiar with the things the young kids did, and he liked a lot of the same things recruits liked. He was really close to my family, and I was really close to his family somewhat. He was just someone I could to talk to about everything.”
HE STUFFED HIS HIGHLIGHT REEL AGAINST INDIANA
Hamilton had one of the best games of his career early in his senior season against the Indiana Hoosiers.
He caught nine passes for 122 yards and three touchdowns and the performance was good enough for a rare “Triple-Moss” award from Hall-of-Fame receiver turned ESPN analyst Randy Moss.
HE ISN’T A FAN OF KEYBOARD WARRIORS
During Hamilton’s freshman season at Penn State, quarterback Christian Hackenberg’s level of play dropped dramatically from the year before, and his passer rating took a nearly 25-point hit. This led Nittany Lions fans and commentators to shred the quarterback on Twitter.
Hamilton took exception to what they were staying and voiced his frustrations to Sports Illustrated prior to the Pinstripe Bowl—which happened to be Hackenberg’s best game of the season.
”It bothers me because a lot of fans don’t know what they’re talking about,” Hamilton told Sports Illustrated. ”They can say whatever they want because they’re behind a computer screen. We go out to prove everybody wrong and are not really playing to necessarily please fans. We’re playing to win games and do our jobs right and get W’s on Saturdays.”
