2022 NFL Draft Prospect Profile: Drake London, WR, USC
Drake London is a physical wide receiver coming out of USC. He can create mismatches all day with his size and speed, making him a big problem for defenses. He is a potential first-round talent and will be a big possession receiver in the NFL.
Drake London Profile
Drake London Combine Results
Drake London Scouting Report
Drake London was a four-star wide receiver coming out of California before signing with USC. He was briefly a two-sport athlete at USC, playing football and basketball, but decided to focus just on his football career.
London is a tall and robust wide receiver with elite route-running abilities. In his freshman season as a Trojan, he made an immediate impact for USC and ended up starting nine games that year.
London took over the starting position in his second year and had a solid six-game season, earning Second-Team All-Pac 12 honors. His final season is where he finally set himself apart from the rest of the competition by ending with over 1,000 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns before missing the end of the season due to an ankle fracture.
Despite his injury, London's impact on the Trojans earned him Associated Press Third-Team All-American accolades.
Strengths
Drake London is a great wide receiver who is tall and strong with great route-running ability. His size, combined with his speed, can make mismatches with whatever corner is covering him.
He is faster than larger defensive backs and more physical than smaller defensive backs. He also has an insane catch radius, impressive hang-time, and a vice-like grip that gives him the ability to rip the ball away from any defender in 50-50 situations. He can track the ball very well and work back to the ball if necessary.
London has impressive route-running skills in the slot and as a wideout for a bigger wide receiver. He has loose hips that give him the ability to make sharp cuts in his routes and the body control to make tough catches and keep his feet in bounds.
Lastly, Drake has a great work mentality and takes his preparation very seriously.
Weaknesses
Drake London is not the fastest wide receiver in the draft. He does not possess the speed to run past corners on vertical routes. He only has average quickness off the line of scrimmage.
Although he is one of the larger and stronger wide receivers in the draft, he is not as aggressive of a blocker as he should be in the run game. Against better corners, he can not create separation with his speed and has to fight for the ball more often than not. He also does not make much happen after the catch and will likely not be a significant threat in yards after the catch in the NFL.
Lastly, he suffered a fractured ankle this past season and has not played since, so it is unknown how his game has been impacted.
Trait-Based Projection
Drake London is a physically dominant and large receiver who can make all the tough catches. He can develop into a starting wideout for whatever NFL team that drafts him.
In his first few years in the league, he will likely be a go-to option on third-down plays due to his possession-type receiver traits. He played both the slot and wideout positions at USC, so he can fit into any role as a receiver.
Analytics Corner
London comes in at #5 in Football Outsiders/ESPN’s “Playmaker Score”. If you are not familiar, the Playmaker Score is a Football Outsiders original metric that uses regression within particular statistical attributes and calibrates them appropriately to correlate to longterm NFL Success.
According to Sports Info Solutions (SIS), Olave’s resume includes some interesting stat splits. One of the best ways to judge how good a WR’s hands actually are is by teasing out “uncatchable passes” and check his rate of catching “catchable” footballs. And London performed very well in this statistic, coming in at 92% or 7th best among his draftable peers.
Additionally, per SIS, London comes with some significant splits between his positioning. That is, London is clearly a split WR, not a slot WR. London produced only .7 total points per game in the slot (23rd rank) yet produced 2.4 total points per game out wide (3rd rank).
Finally, one of the most predictive stats that translates from college to the NFL is how often a WR runs a deep route. You can inspect this attribute with “Deep Route Percentage” or simply the average depth of target (ADOT). And according to PFF London’s ADOT of 9.2 was the 373rd highest in the NCAA, meaning he will unlikely be a deep target type WR.
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