Prospect Bio

Drake London was a two-sport athlete at Moorpark High School in Moorpark, California. He committed to play both football (four-star recruit) and basketball (three-star recruit) at USC before his senior year. On the gridiron, London put up 1,089 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns on 62 receptions in his final season. London arrived in Los Angeles facing a stacked depth chart. With Michael Pittman, Tyler Vaughns, and Amon-Ra St. Brown ahead of him, London finished his freshman campaign with 39 receptions for 567 yards while scoring his five touchdowns in consecutive games to end the season. London built on his late season momentum and took advantage of the departure of Michael Pittman to the NFL, leading the team with 502 receiving yards in the COVID-shortened 2020 season. He did it on 33 receptions and found pay dirt on three of those. 

London was the clear guy atop the wide receiver depth chart in 2021. He took full advantage, averaging 11 receptions and 135.5 yards per game. Unfortunately, his dominant season came to an abrupt end when he broke his ankle eight games in. His final line was 88 receptions, 1,084 yards, and seven touchdowns. He was named first-team All-Pac-12 and third-team All-American.

College Stats

Drake London College Stats Courtesy of sports-reference.com

Positives

+Excellent ball skills 

+Strong hands

+Massive Catch radius

+Consistently wins in contested situations 

+Explosive off the line

+Beats press coverage consistently

+Body control

+Excellent agility for a big receiver

+Excellent after the catch

+Has aligned both outside and in the slot

+Big-play threat

+Prototypical alpha size 

+Good route-runner

+A threat on all three levels 

+18.1 Breakout Age (100th-percentile, PlayerProfiler)

+11 receptions per game in 2021

+3.3 yards per team pass attempt in eight healthy games

Negatives

-Isn’t a great separator

-Not a lot of experience playing outside before 2021

-1 career rush attempt; 0 KR/PR

-12.3 YPR

Highlight Reel

Comparable Player: Mike Evans

NFL Draft Projection: Late First Round

Bottom Line:

Drake London was on pace to have one of the most dominant receiving seasons we’ve seen before fracturing his ankle. Luckily, we still got to see enough from him to confidently say he has one of the highest ceilings of any wide receiver in the 2022 rookie class. He’s a big-bodied beast with all of the tools to become an elite dynasty wide receiver. He has the versatility to be a prototypical X-receiver or a big slot. That, paired with his knack for eating up yards after the catch, should steer him clear of comparisons to recent outside clasher types who haven’t translated well to the next level. I’m looking at you, N’Keal Harry. Landing spot will play somewhat of a factor in London’s final ranking, though. Ideally, he will be matched with a quarterback who is comfortable throwing up one-on-one balls and doesn’t always have to see his guy open. That will give London the best chance to unlock his full potential.

Post Draft Analysis: 

The landing spot for Drake London isn’t a home run by any means, but the target share should be high from day one with no other legitimate competition outside of tight end Kyle Pitts. Even with Pitts commanding his share of the passing game, London will be just fine. He proved he can produce at a high level alongside other talented pass-catchers during his early years at USC and that’s unlikely to change in the NFL. After that, it’s a bunch of nobody’s on the depth chart leaving the door open for a big rookie year. The quarterback situation in Atlanta is still a little uncertain but it looks like it will be Marcus Mariota in the short-term with rookie Desmond Ridder having a chance to become the long-term guy. 

Resources: DLF, PlayerProfiler, PFN, PFF, TDN

Yards Per-Formance Prospect Grade