Barion Brown’s Draft Profile | Kentucky, WR Scouting Report

Kentucky has a highly-regarded trio of wide receivers ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft, but does Barion Brown have the best chance to be an early-round pick with his scouting report? That’s what we’re here to find out.

Barion Brown’s Draft Profile and Measurements

• Height: 6’1″
• Weight: 174 pounds
• Position: Wide Receiver
• School: Kentucky
• Current Year: Junior

At Pearl-Cohn High School in Nashville, Tenn., the plan was simple: Just get the ball in Brown’s hands and let him work.

At first glance, Brown is somewhat unassuming as a football player. At just 174 pounds, he’s incredibly light and lean, and at times, he looks out of place. But then he gets out of his stance and you see his big-play machine tendencies first-hand.

As a senior at Pearl-Cohn, Brown actually logged more carries than catches. He ran the ball 59 times for 897 yards and 10 touchdowns and also caught 22 passes for 303 yards and three scores. A four-star recruit and Top 75 national talent, he signed with the Kentucky Wildcats, where he’s been a key player since arriving on campus.

As a true freshman in 2022, Brown logged 50 catches for 628 yards and four TDs. In 2023, his receiving production dipped slightly, but he added 147 yards and a score on the ground and was an All-American kick returner with 576 kick return yards and three TDs.

Dynamism is the name of the game for Brown, and that’s a trait that’s always translatable at the NFL level. But how specifically does Brown translate, and what does he need to work on?

Brown’s Scouting Report

Strengths

• Sports a lean, wiry, featherweight frame with solid proportional length.
• Has hyper-elite speed and explosiveness, corroborated by a 10.49 100-meter dash.
• Able to instantly throttle up and explode through defensive levels with breakaway pace.
• Agile, fluid mover who can swim through congestion with his natural evasiveness.
• Able to instantly off-set defenders with wicked split releases, then explode and stack.
• Can use his speed and bend to sear around short route breaks and find open space.
• Able to stem defenders at inside angles, then swerve outside with rapid speed.
• Can use his sink to bend inside on in-breakers and crossers while keeping his pace.
• Has shown he can secure short passes with diamond hand technique and reset for RAC.
• Flashes high-level catching instincts and body control in high-difficulty situations.
• Has shown he can freeze defenders with late hands and then snap into proper positioning.
• Has superb contortion ability and flexibility when reaching for high-difficulty throws.
• Possesses verifiably elite short-area agility and twitch as a RAC and creative threat.
• Has the alignment versatility to be used in the slot, in stacked sets, and off motion.
• Rare natural return threat with four special teams touchdowns across his career.

Weaknesses

• Is very light relative to the average WR, which can impact play strength and sturdiness.
• With lacking play strength, sometimes struggles to regain positioning against physicality.
• Can be re-routed by jams at second-level stems, impacting route leverage and rhythm.
• Struggles greatly against physicality at stems and in press, complicating NFL projection.
• Has legitimate drop issues, with double-digit drops over his first two collegiate seasons.
• Sometimes widens hands too far when attempting to secure passes, losing stability.
• Isn’t always natural securing deep passes in stride, sometimes losing his balance.
• Lacks high-end hand strength and coordination when extending beyond his frame.
• With high-energy motion, can be prone to wasted lower-body motion at route stems.
• Doesn’t have great spatial discipline pressing into stems and can play into contact.
• Can make better use of throttle control and pacing to press into stems and move DBs.
• At times lacks elite stopping ability and sink on comeback and can improve footwork.
• Sometimes attempts to do too much as a creator, putting ball security at risk.
• Doesn’t have much in the way of contact balance and, at times, engages with high pads.
• With lacking play strength and mass, can be easily re-routed as a run blocker.

Current Draft Projection and Summary

Entering the 2025 NFL Draft cycle, Brown grades out as a mid-to-late Day 3 prospect in the class. That said, he has the raw talent to rise after the upcoming season if he can improve his play strength and continue developing his technique.

Brown is a special athlete, and that’s where the root of his appeal as a prospect comes from. He’s a true breakaway threat on the vertical plane with his speed and explosiveness, and he also has the devastating short-area agility and twitch to supplement his speed as a RAC threat.

Brown’s special creative ability and home run speed has translated to all-league return value in college. He has four career kick return TDs in just two seasons, and given the recent league rule changes regarding kickoffs, Brown could be coveted for his ability in that phase alone.

As a pure receiver, Brown still has work to do, but the talent is evident there, too. He can weaponize his burst and twitch to off-set and stack defenders off releases, and he can use his speed and bend to carve across the field on crossers, out routes, and digs.

That said, Brown is still growing with his spatial awareness and angle understanding, as he too often drifts into defender leverage, negating opportunities to manipulate positioning. He also struggles greatly against opposing physicality, both at stems and at the catch, and his hand technique can be very inconsistent, sourcing drops.

Brown’s peak value, at the moment, comes as a creative threat and schemed RAC weapon. To expand beyond that archetype at the NFL level, he’ll need to refine and expand his route tree, improve his play strength, and shore up his hands.

But at the very least, as an explosive spark plug and a high-level return specialist, Brown is well worth mid-round capital.