New Cowboys' draft pick poses more questions than answers
As we get further and further into day three of the NFL Draft, the names become less and less recognizable.There might be the occasional five-star who never reached his potential in college, like Xavier Thomas; who the Arizona Cardinals took in the fifth round. But more often than not, it is a player that not […]
As we get further and further into day three of the NFL Draft, the names become less and less recognizable.
There might be the occasional five-star who never reached his potential in college, like Xavier Thomas; who the Arizona Cardinals took in the fifth round. But more often than not, it is a player that not many people are familiar with, and they are left scrambling to find information on the player.
That is what we're here to help fans with today.
To give you information on the new Cowboys receiver, Ryan Flournoy.
The first to discuss is the pronunciation of his name. It may be spelled FLOUR-noy, but it is pronounced FLOOR-noy.
Flournoy would be a zero-star recruit, due to him being a late bloomer and not really emerging as a football player until his senior year of high-school. He would enroll at Central Missouri, a division two university.
He would spend his redshirt season there, spending the year on scout team, and he would earn the award of scout team player of the year in 2018. In 2019, injury would strike and we would battle a partially torn ACL. The pandemic would come in 2020, so no football would be played at his level, so for his final two years, Flournoy would transfer out.
He would transfer up to the FCS level at Southeast Missouri State, where he would earn a Senior Bowl invite in his final season of play.
Without further ado, let's get into his film.
Pros
Functional size coming in at just over six feet, 202 pounds.
He has some wiggle to his game after the catch. While he isn't an explosive mover, Southeast Missouri got him the ball quickly on numerous occasions Flournoy was able to get out of a couple of should-be tackles (especially against Kansas State).
Can effortlessly pluck the ball out of the air when it is away from his frame.
Exceptional body control and ball tracking when it comes to contested catches.
He was only credited with one drop on 61 catches.
Moves better with the ball in his hands, than he does without it.
Cons
Flournoy isn't an exceptionally explosive player, he lacks elite acceleration, which is odd when you compare the tape to his RAS Score.
He has some tightness in his hips when he is running his routes.
Was on the receiving end of a lot of manufactured touches, so his route tree isn't developed.
He doesn't separate from FCS-level corners, which leads me to believe he won't do it at the NFL level. His calling card seems to be winning in contested catches, which he can do at the FCS level, but the NFL is quite a few steps up from that level of play.
In Conclusion
Flournoy can be a confusing watch. If you look at his testing numbers first, you would expect an explosive player. However, that is not what you get in the first game. He did look better in the following games, so it might have been a lingering injury, but it still would not match up with his testing numbers. He appears to move better with the ball in his hands as opposed to without.
As of right now, Flournoy is a very limited player. His route tree is not diverse, and his calling card is winning in contested catches. He doesn't separate from FCS-level defenders, so there is no reason to believe that will change in the NFL, and this goes without saying the level of competition in the NFL is much tougher than the FCS, so you can't be sure the contested catch ability will translate. His average depth of target was 11.7 yards, which was surprisingly higher than I anticipated due to him only being targeted on screens, manufactured touches near the line of scrimmage, or 9 routes.
He is a project receiver, and albeit is one that has shown flashes, but leaves a lot of question marks on whether his game will translate.
To me, it is a weird player to convince you to go away from your philosophy of only drafting big school players.
Here is the Dallas Cowboys’ 2024 NFL Draft Class
Eight new players.
