Xavier Legette 2024 Dynasty Rookie Profile
Xavier Legette 2024 Dynasty Rookie Draft Profile
Position: WR
School: South Carolina
Class: Fifth-Year Senior
Date of Birth: January 29, 2001
Height: 6-1 Weight: 221 lbs
Athletic Testing
40-Time: 4.39
Speed Score: 119.0
Vertical: 40”
Broad: 10’6
Shuttle:
3-Cone:
Bio
Xavier Legette was a multi-sport athlete at Mullins High School in South Carolina, where he played basketball, baseball, and football. On the football side, he played wide receiver in his early years—catching 44 passes for 733 yards and eight touchdowns as a sophomore, before taking over as the team’s starting quarterback in his senior season. That year, he showed off his dual-threat ability by throwing for 887 yards and 14 touchdowns while rushing for 1,826 yards and another 19 touchdowns. He was recruited as a wide receiver with a three-star grade in the class of 2019. Legette received six offers and chose to commit to South Carolina.
Legette didn’t make much of an impact as a true freshman, catching just nine passes and scoring one touchdown. In fact, he didn’t have much of an impact in any of his first four seasons. Despite seeing action in 41 games (17 starts) over four years, Legette came out of his senior season with a four-year total of 42 receptions, 423 yards, and five touchdowns. Luckily, because of the COVID rules from 2020, Legette had one more year of eligibility. And boy, did he take advantage.
Legette became the team’s top wide receiver in 2023. He led the Gamecocks with 71 receptions for 1,255 yards and seven touchdowns. It was enough to earn second-team all-SEC.
College Stats
Xavier Legette College Stats Courtesy of sports-reference
Positives
+Size
+Speed
+Athleticism
+Body Control
+Contested Catches
+YAC
+Vertical Threat
+5.9 receptions per game (2023)
+30 career kick/punt returns (1 KR TD)
+3.05 yards per team pass attempt (2023)
+33.3% Receiving Touchdown Share (2023)
+35.5% Dominator Rating (2023)
Negatives
-Limited Route Tree
-Release needs work
-Unrefined route runner
-Takes a minute to get up to speed
-Not an early declare
-One year of significant college production; Almost no production until his fifth year
-Age 22 breakout (5th-year senior)
Highlight Reel
Archetype: Red Zone Threat
NFL Comp: Jonathan Mingo
Draft Projection: Second Round
Bottom Line:
If we only looked at Xavier Legette’s 2023 season statistics and his athletic traits, it would be hard to not rank him as one of the top wide receivers in the 2024 class. But that’s not the reality. It took Legette until his fifth year in college to put up any sort of meaningful production. At that point, he was 22 years old and leaning on pure raw athletic talent.
Let’s give him some credit, though, his athleticism is off the charts. At 6-1, 223 lbs, he should not be able to run as fast as he does. In fact, Legette reached a top speed of 22.3 MPH in 2023. Only three NFL players reached 22 MPH last year. But he’s not just a speed guy. Legette does not shy away from contact. He will happily run through you after the catch, an area where he thrives. He will also use his size and strength to dominate in contested catch situations, both vertically and in the red zone.
And even looking at just the final season, Legette looks great on paper. His 3.05 yards per team pass attempt is elite. He averaged six receptions per game which is among the best in the class. He accounted for a third of his team’s receiving touchdowns and had a dominator rating over 35%.
Where he struggles, though, is in the more technical areas of playing wide receiver. He is not great off the line of scrimmage, and his routes—the few that he runs—are far from refined. He will need to continue to develop the details of route running and expand his route tree if he is to become a more well-rounded wide receiver that commands volume at the NFL level.
As it stands now, Legette projects as a situational vertical and red zone threat early in his career with the hopes he can develop into more. He may be able to work his way into a big slot role—he took about a third of his snaps in 2023 from the slot—as a complimentary receiver. His raw physical traits scream outside X, but I’m not sure he will ever get there, given how long it took him to develop at the college level and his struggles to create consistent separation.
Still, some NFL team is going to get excited about this guy and draft him in the second round. That draft capital plus the intriguing traits and final season will make him a tempting pick in the second round of our dynasty rookie drafts as well. As things stand now, though, there are several other players in that ADP range that I am far more confident in their ability to become fantasy relevant assets that I will be targeting instead.
NEXT: Ja’Lynn Polk 2024 Dynasty Rookie Profile
Resources: DLF, PlayerProfiler, PFN, PFF, TDN
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