Matt Waldman’s RSP Boiler Room examines the pass-catching prowess of Hawaii wide receiver and 2020 NFL Draft prospect Cedric Byrd to offer insights on ways to assess how ingrained a receiver’s hands positions are relative to the target.

Below are two targets intended for Cedric Byrd during last year’s Hawaii-Navy game. Byrd is a slot receiver with enough speed to work the vertical game and the hand-eye coordination and toughness to win plays in the tight windows of zone coverage.

Despite Byrd’s hand-eye coordination, he drops one of these routes shown below. When drilling down on these plays the problem may be classified as hand-eye coordination to some but it’s too vague.

If you label this the issue, those who listen to your analysis will be led to believe that he doesn’t track the ball well and he physically can’t address targets thrown away from his frame in odd positions. This would be incorrect and lead to scouting assessments that will be proved false when greater viewings.

Less careful scouts will wind up overlooking players of value if they’re not specific enough what with the player must address. In this week’s RSP Boiler Room, I examine why Cedric Byrd’s issue is about ingrained muscle memory with a specific hands position relative to a target type that could be tightened up.

With more practice repetitions focused on targets behind his frame at chest level and above, Byrd should enhance his muscle memory and become more consistent at winning catchable passes of this nature—and they are commonplace scenarios that he should expect breaking into open zones in the NFL.

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