The Buffs are down another receiver.
K.D. Nixon announced his decision to forego his final year of college eligibility in a tweet, Tuesday morning. He hopes to be selected in the 2020 NFL Draft.
https://twitter.com/Superstarnixon/status/1204446257910931463?s=20
Nixon is one of three receivers leading the program, joining Tony Brown, who graduated, and Laviska Shenault, who also declared for the draft early. Nixon, Brown and Shenault were Colorado’s starting receivers for most of the season, and they contributed over 75 percent of the entire receiving room’s receptions, along with at least 80 percent of the Buffs’ receivers’ receiving yards and touchdowns.
That’s a lot of production to replace.
Luckily, Colorado has plenty of options:
DIMITRI STANLEY
One way or another, Dimitri Stanley is going to be a piece of Colorado’s receiver rotation. He’s probably the only lock at this point.
Stanley is the lone receiver on this list who has already cracked Colorado’s receiver rotation. He caught 29 passes for 302 yards and two touchdowns as a redshirt freshman and his role should only grow as he enters his sophomore year.
The question is how exactly Stanley will be used.
The 5-foot-11, 185-pounder projects as a slot receiver. His feet are incredibly sharp for his age and he has sticky hands, which can help him make tight-window catches in the middle of the field.
The question stems from the personnel around him. For example, if Jaylon Jackson is one of Colorado’s top options at receiver, Jackson may man the slot pushing Stanley outside.
Or if 2020 commit Brendon Lewis takes the starting quarterback job in as a freshman, he way shy away from the middle of the field, as many young quarterbacks do. In that case, throwing his most experienced option out wide and giving him a bigger-bodied target inside may be the better option.
What we know right now is that Dimitri Stanley figures to be a major piece of the 2020 wide receiver rotation due to his polished route-running, incredible hands and pure straight-line speed.
DANIEL ARIAS
The 6-foot-4, 205-pound Daniel Arias has long been the heir apparent to Laviska Shenault. Arias doesn’t project to be the dominant threat that Shenault was, but he fills the same big-bodied role outside.
Arias was a true sophomore in 2019 and didn’t see much run on offense. He caught three passes for 62 yards, including a touchdown, but Buffs fans may not remember his highlights as well as they remember the touchdown he dropped against Arizona.
Plays like that drop have kept Arias from a steady spot in the rotation. He was still raw as a sophomore but his underlying skill was still on display.
Arias was a mainstay on Colorado’s special teams units, as he was as a true freshman in 2018. On punt team, Arias served as a gunner, lining up outside and running downfield to take down the returner. It’s a perfect role to put his size and speed to work. As a freshman, he set a school record in forced fair catches.
If Arias can clean his game up over the offseason, that size and speed should help him land a significant role in the Colorado offense in 2020. Even if he doesn’t refine his game significantly, the Buffs may not be in a position to bench receivers due to minor mistakes due to the inexperience all over the depth chart.
JAYLON JACKSON
It’s been a tough path to this point for Jaylon Jackson, who figures to play a role on offense for Colorado as a redshirt junior in 2020.
In 2015, Jackson tore his ACL in a high school game and he didn’t see the field in game action again until the middle of the 2018 season due to a string of injuries. He caught eight passes for 44 yards in 2018 then four for 77 yards in 2019.
Jackson’s first catch of this season was a 57-yarder against Nebraska. On that play, the 5-foot-10, 180-pound receiver showed the speed that helped him run a 10.55 100 meter sprint in high school.
This may be the best use of Jackson; sending him deep and letting him try to get free in the defensive backfield.
But so far, Jackson has projected primarily as a slot receiver, a job that will be tough to win outright over Dimitri Stanley.
Assuming he’s healthy, Jaylon Jackson is another favorite to see significant playing time in 2020.
MAURICE BELL
Maurice Bell’s name kept popping up last offseason.
Throughout spring ball and fall camp, the coaches couldn’t stop mentioning the talented sophomore wide receiver. They raved about his explosive abilities and production during practices. In the spring game, Bell put up 129 yards and a touchdown on six catches.
But when the season rolled around, Bell didn’t see the field all that much. He caught two passes for six yards.
There should be a role for Bell this time around. He fits best outside where he can be a downfield threat on go and post routes. He also proved to be a threat with the ball in his hands while in high school, and those skills should translate to the next level.
VONTAE SHENAULT
While we saw very little out of Colorado’s young receivers in 2019, we saw next to nothing from La’Vontae Shenault, the younger brother of Laviska.
The most important thing to know about Vontae is that he isn’t his big brother. He doesn’t have the size of Viska—though he isn’t small at 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds—and he doesn’t have the same combination of size and strength.
That said, Vontae was the higher-rated recruit out of high school.
Vontae is more of a true No. 1 receiver, with decent speed and very good leaping ability. He isn’t the hybrid that his older brother was at Colorado.
The biggest question now is whether or not he’ll be ready to play as a true freshman in 2020. There should be room in the rotation for him, which there wasn’t in 2019 for guys like Maurice Bell and Jaylon Jackson.
THE REST OF THE FIELD
There are plenty of others who could see reps for Colorado in 2020.
Curtis Chiaverini, the son of wide receivers coach Darrin Chiaverini, will be a junior and could find a role as a bigger option out of the slot.
Braedin Huffman-Dixon didn’t see any offensive snaps as a true freshman in 2019 but, like Vontae Shenault, could be ready to crack the rotation as a redshirt freshman in 2020.
True freshmen like Brendan Rice, Keith Miller III or Chris Carpenter—who should be the future of this position down the road—could step in and earn time immediately, though that seems unlikely.
TAKEAWAYS
There’s plenty of talent on this depth chart, but there is a serious lack of experience; Only one receiver on the roster has double-digit career catches.
This problem could be exacerbated by the use of a true freshman quarterback, Brendon Lewis, in 2020. The stability provided by the 2019 receiving core of Laviska Shenault, K.D. Nixon and Tony Brown, just won’t be there in 2020.
There will likely be some ugliness out of the wide receivers this season, meaning drops, wrong routes, missed assignments, etc. This group of receivers should be explosive, but expecting no bumps along the way when you’re throwing a bunch of guys with little experience on the field is unrealistic.
Colorado needs at least five of these guys—and hopefully more—to prove themselves worthy of offensive playing time.
To be honest, I don’t think that’s unlikely.
The best part of this group is that it will likely stick together through the 2021 season. Even if it isn’t smooth sailing all the way through 2020, that’ll just be the tip of the iceberg.
