Early on, where does Oklahoma WR Nic Anderson file in alongside his 2025 NFL Draft counterparts with his scouting report? Can the Sooners’ breakout star of the 2023 season compound his momentum and become an early-round draft pick?
Nic Anderson’s Draft Profile and Measurements
- Height: 6’4″
- Weight: 213 pounds
- Position: Wide Receiver
- School: Oklahoma
- Current Year: Junior
In its heyday, the Big 12 was the haven of the explosive offense — and Oklahoma was one of its crown jewels. The Sooners produced NFL weapons regularly. Most recently, CeeDee Lamb has morphed into an NFL star, and Marvin Mims Jr. is on the way up in Denver.
Now moving to the SEC, the Sooners will still be pressured to compete as an offensive firepower, and they have players to rely on in 2024. Chief among them is Anderson — a former four-star recruit from Katy High School in Texas.
Anderson is a big-play threat — that’s never been a secret. As a senior at Katy, he caught 29 passes for 529 yards and five touchdowns and commanded interest from a host of Power Five conference schools. He originally committed to Oregon but later shifted his commitment to Oklahoma.
Anderson maintained his redshirt in 2022, only touching the ball once on a carry for five yards. But in 2023, he emerged as a rare kind of dynamic weapon. A three-catch, three-touchdown, 120-yard outing against Tulsa emphasized his arrival, and by season’s end, he’d amassed 38 catches for 798 yards and 10 TDs.
Through his breakout campaign as a mere redshirt freshman, Anderson averaged a whopping 21 yards per catch, and he found the end zone on over one-fourth of his receptions. Anderson’s statistical breakout in 2023 was just as explosive as how he appears on the field, and there’s still more to come.
Anderson’s Scouting Report
Strengths
- Tall, wiry receiver with great lean mass and proportional length.
- Explosive long-strider with unique stride quickness and accelerative capacity for his size.
- Can chew up space with his long strides and take the top off of unsuspecting defenses.
- Flashes the necessary twitch and foot speed to offset defenders at the line then stack.
- Can manipulate defenders by rapidly adjusting tracking angle while working vertically.
- Can use intentional head fakes and quick redirections on double moves, baiting DBs.
- Has the bend to sear around defensive blind spots and find soft spots in zone coverage.
- Has flashed the ability to use stride variations and throttle control as a separator.
- Possesses the necessary sink and flexibility to further refine and expand his route tree.
- Tracks the ball well on the vertical plane and can secure passes with diamond technique.
- Natural hands-catcher who can snare tough passes while carrying momentum upfield.
- Has shown he can make high-difficulty catch adjustments in-stride out of breaks.
- Is proactive in positioning himself so that the ball is in his wheelhouse as he attacks.
- Tough runner after the catch who can churn through arm tackles and grate out yards.
- Physical, tenacious blocker who can reach his landmarks and proactively use his length.
Weaknesses
- Doesn’t have elite lateral agility or movement freedom and is more vertically oriented.
- Initial explosiveness, while exceptional, might be a notch below the elite mark.
- Long speed, while very good, is visibly non-elite, at times impacting drag separation.
- With his height, naturally plays with his pads too tall heading into stems at times.
- Upright route-running nature can expose his frame to jams and slow hip transitions.
- Has room to be more consistent with plant-and-drive footwork and burst channeling.
- Visibly lacks elite hinge and hip flexibility when undergoing sharp route transitions.
- Can be prone to wasted, inefficient motion on releases, delaying off-set maneuvers.
- Split and diamond release footwork can be disjointed, nullifying hips on redirections.
- At times, can improve his angle discipline and pressing form ahead of route breaks.
- Can be prone to occasional focus drops, with at-times unstable gather technique.
- Still has room to improve his play strength and leverage control as a run blocker.
Current Draft Projection and Summary
Entering the 2025 NFL Draft cycle, Anderson grades out as an early Day 3 prospect. That said, he has the upside to potentially enter the early-round conversation with more technical development throughout the 2024 season.
At 6’4″, 213 pounds, Anderson towers over the competition, and he catches defenders off guard with his speed and explosiveness on the vertical plane. Specifically when he can open his strides, Anderson can be difficult to stay with, but he flashes exciting stride freedom and quickness in short areas as well.
At his size, Anderson brings plenty of other intriguing qualities as well. Though his route running is still a work in progress, he’s shown he can employ stride variations, throttle control, flexibility, and intentional movements at stems, and he’s an instinctive tracker with good hands and physicality after the catch.
Currently, route running is where Anderson stands to improve the most. While he has great speed and explosiveness, he might not be fast enough to rely on those traits alone at the NFL level, and his execution as a separator can be inconsistent.
Up at the line, Anderson’s release footwork can be streaky and disjointed, and while he flashes good route nuance for his size, he understandably has trouble managing his pad level and route running leverage at his height.
As it stands, Anderson profiles as a solid rotational-X and movement-Z WR at the NFL level. But if he can level up as an independent separator in 2024 and cull occasional focus drops, he could take on appeal as a developmental starter with strong WR2 potential.