Denzel Boston Prospect Profile

Background

Denzel Boston was born in Boise, Idaho, before his family moved to South Hill, Washington. He attended Emerald Ridge High School in Puyallup, where he played football alongside his older brother, Andrew. He earned local recognitions (All-South Puget Sound League, etc.) but failed to gain much national notoriety. By the end of his high school career, Boston was a three star recruit, ranked as the 134th WR in the 2022 class, and decided to commit to stay close to home and play for the Washington Huskies. He barely played his first two years, where he sat behind the trio of Ja'Lynn Polk, Jalen McMillan, and Rome Odunze; in fact, he only had seven catches combined in those seasons. He finally broke out in his third year on campus and had eerily similar seasons of 62 and 63 receptions, 834 and 881 yards, and 9 and 11 TDs, respectively. At the end of the season, Boston decided to forego his final year of eligibility and enter the NFL draft.

Physical Attributes

Denzel Boston is a physical freak. I do not know what his 40 time will be at the combine, but there are very few people who can keep up with him on the field. He blows past defenders and leaves them hoping a bad throw will slow him down. Oh, did I mention he is also 6'4" and 210 lbs? Yeah, he is huge. He uses that frame very effectively and has great play strength, enforcing his will on defenders and making them regret trying to push him off his route or tackle him. While not exactly sprightly, his agility is still very solid for someone of his stature. His deceleration also earns size adjusted praise.

Data and Tape Analysis

If you are unfamiliar with my WR radar charts, you can find more information here

In my opinion (I am declaring my bias and making it well known here), there are few things better than watching a big WR who just smashes people with his athleticism and strength. Denzel Boston is exactly that, for better and worse.

Let's start positively today. Good luck keeping up with him. Any defender who has a one on one assignment against him is going to find it difficult. Boston knows that in a battle of physicality, there is almost no DB out there who can match him. He uses his body at the catch point to box out and make sure he wins the ball. And really win the ball with his strong and near certain hands. His physicality makes press coverage look so much easier than it is for most WRs. I cannot emphasize enough how much fun it is to watch him beat up on smaller DBs.

In tight coverage, he also has enough wiggle to win on route technique. He is not a master technician by any means, but there is enough there to get open. Again, for a big guy, he moves in tight spaces really well. He did not get a ton of screen work in the film I watched, but in it, he found good paths and made defenders miss. In a route tree that rarely allowed those abilities to be showcased, I am very intrigued to see how they project to the next level.

Now the negative. Trying to play him one on one is a fool's errand, and that is why the NFL pretty much never bothers to do that with anyone anymore, and man, does he struggle against zone. I am hoping that, for some reason, his WR coaches never bothered to tell him to settle in zone (which, looking at past Washington WRs who went to the NFL, maybe there's something there??) because he never did. That lack of awareness also showed in his ability to help the QB, often failing to get open during scramble drills. Boston, being a primarily outside receiver, should help mitigate this, but he will need significant improvement to reach his ceiling.

Grade and Outlook

Physical monsters are always the most challenging WR prospects because people want to fall in love with them. Often, it is taken to its logical conclusion of "Well, maybe we can teach this track star how to play football!" And the answer to that thought is almost always, you can't. Boston is different in my eyes. He shows an ability to play the position, married with his physical traits. Some of the top WRs in the game over the past 20 years have that profile, and while I won't go all in on that bet on Boston, I am aggressively hedging for that scenario.

Grade: 6.2 (Late 1st / Early 2nd)