Marvin Mims 2023 NFL Draft profile: Scout report for the Oklahoma WR
Marvin Mims, Oklahoma: 5’11”, 180 pounds.
A top-200 overall recruit in 2020, Marvin Mims is a guy in the mold of another former OU receiver in Marquise Brown at 5’11”, 175 pounds.
Mims came in as a freshman in 2020 and immediately became Spencer Rattler’s favorite target, catching 37 passes for 610 yards and nine touchdowns in 11 games. The following season, he caught five fewer passes and touchdowns, but went for 95 yards more, averaging 22 yards per grab.
Last year, despite a new quarterback under center, he hauled in a career-high 54 passes for 1,083 yards and six TDs, earning himself first-team All-Big 12 accolades.
Marvin Mims scout report: Strengths
+ Marvin Mims has the 4.38 speed to blow by people, illustrated by his insane 16.7-yard average depth of target.
+ Altogether he hauled in 34 out of 66 targets of 20+ air yards for his career, as one of the most feared deep threats in the country.
+ Was routinely used to threaten defenses by zooming up the seams. If your safeties play flat-footed, Mims will quickly punish them on slot fades or corner routes.
+ And if you leave this guy soloed up as the Z towards the field and you don’t put hands on him, Mims will blow by the corner more often than not (your QB better be ready to loft that far-hash fade).
+ Does a great job of using body-leans and micro-movements to avoid being hung up with contact from defenders hanging in zone coverage.
+ Despite his size, Mims is a pretty patient route-runner who understands when to burst past ancillary coverage and when to slow down as he enters throwing windows.
+ Overall he’s one of the most natural receivers you’ll find at alternating and changing up his speed on the fly.
+ You saw him make quite a few catches behind linebackers and approaching safeties trying to take his head off, but he typically managed to haul in those targets.
+ While he may not have the measurables to be known as a jump-ball receiver, Mims does a great job of tracking the ball and working for advantageous positions down the field.
+ You never see him panic or slow down excessively if the arrival of the ball is a little different than expected.
+ Has come up with several incredible acrobatic grabs with a defender on him during his time with the Sooners (hauled in six of 11 contested catch opportunities last season).
+ Made a couple of incredible grabs on third-and-long against Texas in 2021 to put the Sooners in position to ultimately win the game on a huge comeback.
+ On several occasions, you saw this guy’s toughness to hold onto the ball through and pop straight back up from big hits.
+ Smoothly turns upfield after the catch and takes his shoulders down, so defenders converging on him can’t wrap up much of him.
+ May lack the size to be an impactful blocker and gets knocked back at first contact, but he doesn’t shy away from putting hands on linebackers splitting the distance. He also does a nice job of choosing and adjusting his angles on the fly.
+ OU asked him to take care of the safety on crack-downs fairly regularly and he got the job done for the most part.
Marvin Mims scout report: Weaknesses
– Marvin Mims is certainly on the very low end of the spectrum as far as size goes, making him a slot option only for some systems, or at least a Z playing off the line.
– Was allowed to constantly work against off-coverage and was rarely challenged in his route development.
– You don’t see many sharp breaks and him routing guys up one-on-one. He has room to become more effective with the way he sets up that point.
– With the NFL putting safety and bigger players generally in the slot these days, there may be some mismatches with those nickel defenders in the run game.
Marvin Mims scout report: Grade
To me, Marvin Mims has become one of the more underrated receivers in this class. For some reason, he’s often being disregarded because he is small, when really that’s the overarching theme for the majority of guys in this draft.
Similar to North Carolina’s Josh Downs, there are some challenges with projecting his game will translate to the next level, considering how many player profiles like this don’t find a way to stick in the NFL.
However, I believe those two names are a lot closer to each other than consensus boards would indicate. Mims has blazing speed, tracks the deep ball exceptionally well, has better success in contested situations than you’d anticipate. Unlike many guys who played a similar role/at a similar size in college, he takes what is there after the catch and is a willing blocker.
Grade: Late second / early third round.
You might like other 2023 NFL Draft Scouting Reports: Jaxon Smith-Njigba (WR), Ohio; Zay Flowers (WR), Boston; Jordan Addison (WR), USC; Jalin Hyatt (WR), Tennessee; Jordan Addison (WR), USC; Quentin Johnston (WR), TCU; Zach Charbonnet (RB), UCLA; Bijan Robinson (RB), Texas.
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