Film Room: WR Braden Lenzy

Lead photo courtesy of Dan Brood, Portland Tribute

Notre Dame continued its strong 2018 recruiting with the commitment of Portland (Ore.) Tigard athlete Braden Lenzy. The Irish beat out USC, Oregon, Stanford, Utah, UCLA, Michigan State, California and Washington State for Lenzy’s services.

Notre Dame’s coaching staff made clear on National Signing Day that adding more speed and playmaking ability to its offense was of the utmost importance in this recruiting cycle. Adding Lenzy to the class gives Notre Dame just that, because he is one of the most explosive players in the entire country.

Lenzy is a big-play wide receiver that can stretch the field just as effectively as he can make plays after the catch. He’s also a dynamic return man and a pretty darn good cornerback as well, so much so that should he decide to play that position at the next level his upside and grade would remain unchanged.

Should he end up signing with Notre Dame, Lenzy would become the first Oregon native to head to Notre Dame since Ethan Johnson did so in 2008.

If there is a knock on Lenzy, it’s his lack of ideal size. He’s around 6-0 — maybe slightly taller — and he’s pretty thin. Lenzy will never be a thick player and his thin frame will always keep him on the smaller side, much like former Notre Dame standout Will Fuller.

What I like about Lenzy is he doesn’t play small; he’s a physical kid that can break tackles and is a willing hitter on defense. He’s strong for his size, although continuing to add more strength is important, as it is for all high school players who transition to the college game.

Of course, the name of Lenzy’s game is speed. He is without question one of the fastest players in the country. He was timed at a Nike Football The Opening Regional at a 4.47 in the 40-yard dash prior to his junior season. He shows elite testing speed and his track times are impressive, but more important is the fact that Lenzy plays fast on the football field. His speed is going to continue improving as he physically matures and adds more strength.

There are some technical issues that will be addressed below that keep Lenzy from getting a great burst off the line as a route runner, but once he gets going he is special. His second gear is truly elite; he can run away from defenders with ease whether he has the ball in his hands or when running a vertical route. His long speed is further evidenced by the fact he won the Oregon 6A state championship in the 400-meter dash (48.38).

The Tigard star can run just as fast with the ball as he does without it, which isn’t a given. The reason is he’s a smooth athlete and is an efficient runner. He’s not a high exertion runner, which is why his track speed translates so well to the football field.

His burst off the snap isn’t great — yet — but he really knows how to turn on the jets once he gets the ball in his hands. Lenzy smashes teams with his ability to beat the defense to the perimeter on jet sweeps and in the screen game, which is perfect for what Notre Dame wants and needs in its offense.

Lenzy isn’t an overly sudden player and he could certainly work to improve his agility, but he does a good job using his speed to set up defenders for secondary moves. He’s so fast that opponents often overrun him, which allows him to easily cut inside for extra yards.

Lenzy shows good balance, which combined with his strength and toughness allows him to bounce off arm tackles and quickly accelerate. Combined with his other athletic traits, it makes him a dynamic after the catch player.

Lenzy is impossible to defend at the high school level thanks to his speed and quickness, and he’s almost impossible to press without immediate deep help. He’s not a refined right runner at this point, but the scary thing for defenders is he has the tools to become an exceptional route runner.

To begin with, Lenzy needs to improve his pre-snap stance. Right now his stance is quite balanced, which forces him to reset his feet and then put weight on his lead foot in order to drive off the line. That keeps him from really exploding off the line. What he needs to do is adapt his track stance a bit. If he had the inefficiency out of the blocks that he has at the snap on the football field he’s had noticeably slower times.

If he can learn to put more weight on his lead foot and get in a runner’s stance with his chest over his knees and his knees over his toes, Lenzy will start exploding off the line. At that point, he would be a complete nightmare at the line no matter who he is matched up against. It would allow him to better use his speed to set up all his routes, which would make him just a major pain to defend.

Right now, Lenzy is too inconsistent with his release speed. It doesn’t impact him at the prep level because he is so fast, but in order to beat the best of the best — something he’s more than capable of doing — learning to really explode off the line and get defenders into an immediate stress mode would allow him to create major separation, much like Fuller did at Notre Dame.

Once he gets going though, Lenzy is special. His acceleration allows him to quickly eat up the defender’s cushion and he quickly gets on top of and past cornerbacks. Once he gets on top, he does a good job closing cornerbacks off, which gives the quarterback an outside window to drop the ball. He also shows elite acceleration out of his breaks, especially on vertical routes.

Lenzy needs work on other parts of his route technique. He must learn to do a better job attacking the leverage of defenders, which puts him in position to either square them up or get them to flip their hips, and either works to his benefit. He is too choppy on his stop routes because he uses his feet too much to break; he must learn to slam his hips when he gets to his top end, which would allow him to be more efficient with his feet on his top ends.

When working on out cuts, Lenzy tends to roll his cuts instead of really ripping off the route to the outside. He’ll often take three steps to get to the outside. What he needs to do is explode off the line and then quickly burst outside on whatever foot his position coach teaches him to use. If he can be more efficient with his footwork on out cuts it will give him significant separation.

Lenzy is really good with vertical top ends; he is quick on deep double moves like post-corners or stutter posts, and with his acceleration ability defenders have to just keep pedaling if they want to have a chance to run with him deep. This will allow him to become highly effective at getting open on deep in-breaking routes or level out cuts, much like Fuller did in college. Teams would have to play so far off Fuller on vertical releases that he would often find himself wide open on deep in routes, even in third-and-long situations.

Part of being a good route runner is having a natural feel for the position and how to work against a defense, and Lenzy shows that. He works well against the zone, he can find soft spots and he knows when to throttle down. He also knows how to squeeze defenders down in order to gain separation on vertical routes.

This might seem like a lot of criticism, but it is actually pretty exciting. A good receivers coach is going to see the fact that Lenzy has elite physical tools, but not elite technique. That means once his technique catches up to his raw tools, he will be a major, major force no matter who he is matched up against.

Lenzy’s natural feel for the position is most evident as a pass catcher. He’s a natural with the ball. He has obvious confidence in his pass catching ability. He also shows fast hands and strong hands; he rarely bobbles the ball when it hits his hands.

He is quite impressive when it comes to using his hands to catch the ball, even when he “body catches.” What this means is even when he has to let the ball get into his body — which is appropriate at times — he does so where his hands still absorb the ball, not his chest. This is not only good technique, it shows the confidence he has in his pass catching ability.

What I also really like is the fact Lenzy doesn’t wait on the football; he’ll step to the ball and when he’s working back towards the quarterback he never just sits there. There are multiple clips on his highlight reel where he steps to the football in such a way that he actually beats a defender who was in good position to the football.

Concentration and focus are vital traits for a top-level pass catcher, and Lenzy shows these traits in spades. He is able to drown out what is going on around him when the ball is in the air, even when he’s working in traffic.

Despite his lack of size, the 165-pound Lenzy will work over the middle of the field and shows toughness when catching in traffic. Although he does have a tendency to slow down instead of going up for the ball on under-thrown deep passes, his ability to see the ball and focus on it when defenders are between him and the ball is quite impressive.

Lenzy tracks the deep ball well and does a solid job of adjusting his body to make sure the ball goes over his outside shoulder as much as possible. His ability to shield defenders from the ball makes him effective catching deep balls even when he doesn’t have multiple steps on his defender.

There isn’t much film of Lenzy going up and out-playing defenders for the ball, but his concentration and ability to focus on the ball in traffic makes me think it will be something he can do.

One technical correction Lenzy needs to make is how he catches throws that are away from his body and at chest level or above. Right now his lead arm is low, which creates tension and keeps receivers from really snatching the ball as cleanly. I’d like to see him get his lead arm up top, which not only increases his range, it allows him to attack the ball faster on these types of throws, and gives him a softer catching surface.

A lot of the talk about Lenzy will rightfully be about his speed, but make no mistake, he’s not just a fast athlete. He is a fast football player. He knows how to play the game, and he’s extremely versatile.

If he wanted to play cornerback, he’d grade out as a four-star player. He has the size, speed, route running potential and ball skills to be an every down outside receiver at the X position, which is what Fuller played. His shiftiness and after-the-catch ability combines with his toughness to make him an effective player over the middle, which is perfectly suited for the slot position in Notre Dame’s offense.

That position flexibility means Lenzy can work himself onto the field in a number of ways. No matter where he plays, the key for Notre Dame will be finding ways to get him the ball as often as possible. His ability with the ball in his hands means the staff can even call handoffs or easy screens to get him the ball against defenses that are trying to keep on him.

Lenzy is also a dynamic return man. He is a legitimate home run threat every time the ball is kicked in his direction. Not only does he have game-breaking speed, he has good vision and he has the toughness to make players miss.

He’ll need refinement — which is the case with all high school juniors — but Lenzy has the skills to be a truly special player at the college level if he is willing to put in the work.

GRADES

Size/Frame: 74
Strength: 83
Speed: 96
Athletic Skills: 88
Route Running: 79
Ball Skills: 86
RAC: 92
Intangibles: 90
Overall Grade: 4.0
Upside Grade: 5.0

GRADE KEY

90-100 — Elite
80-89 — Very Good to Outstanding
70-79 — Solid to Above Average
60-69 — Below Average to Average
50-59 — Poor

OVERALL/UPSIDE GRADE KEY

5.0 — Elite (top-25 player)
4.5 — Outstanding (top-50 player)
4.0 — Very Good (top-200 player)
3.5 — Above Average (top-350 player)
3.0 — Solid (top-500 player or lower)
2.5 — Below Average (backup player)

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