Former Alabama Crimson Tide wide receiver remains shockingly underrated among 2025 NFL Draft prospects following NFL Combine
The Alabama Crimson Tide have been far more than just a college football dynasty over the last several years. They've also become one of the premier schools that sends top skill position talent to the NFL.Perhaps most notably Alabama has sent more wide receivers on to be selected in the NFL Draft than almost any […]
The Alabama Crimson Tide have been far more than just a college football dynasty over the last several years. They've also become one of the premier schools that sends top skill position talent to the NFL.
Perhaps most notably Alabama has sent more wide receivers on to be selected in the NFL Draft than almost any other college football program. In fact, the Crimson Tide has seen seven wide receivers selected in the last five years alone.
The 2025 NFL Draft may be a bit of a down class by Alabama standards, but one former Crimson Tide talent could surprise when he gets to the next level, despite consistently being underrated this spring. And although Alabama won't get official credit for him since he transferred to Louisville prior to his final season, Tide fans certainly remember how special Ja'Corey Brooks could be at his best.
So why is he being completely overlooked this draft season? And how early could the former five star stud go in the 2025 NFL Draft?
Ja'Corey Brooks is shockingly underrated
For those who may not be privy to large sample mock draft data trends, Ja'Corey Brooks has been one of the most up-and-down wide receiver projections in the 2025 NFL Draft community for months now.
Early last fall when Brooks was breaking out for Louisville, on his way to 1,013 yards and nine touchdowns, the first handful of 2025 mock drafts had him as a possible day two draft pick. But then the hype faded as Louisville's College Football Playoff chances dissipated, rendering his projected draft stock as low as pick 190.
Then as the NFL Draft community collectively realized he was obviously going to be one of the best wide receivers at the Shrine Bowl (one of the premier college football all star games) his average draft projection leaped up near pick 100 again. However, following the NFL Combine his stock has inexplicably and indefensibly fallen all the way back down to pick 236 overall.
Our internal A to Z Sports NFL Draft projections are much more bullish on Ja'Corey Brooks, expecting him still to go as early as late round three and no later than round five. There are exactly zero reasons that such a high upside, high pedigree player coming off a 1000+ yard season should be projected to go outside the first five rounds in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Ja'Corey Brooks is humble and ready
I had the chance to speak with Ja'Corey Brooks at the NFL Combine here recently and came away thoroughly impressed. For a former five star talent who featured as the lead target for Bryce Young just a few short seasons ago he was an incredibly humble guy.
I asked him about his journey start to finish. From his hyped up start as a five star recruit since early high school, to Alabama, to the strong finale with Louisville. His answer was a bit surprising.
"To be honest I wasn't really fazed by all of it. I just know that hard work always pays off. I wasn't always the best guy. I wasn't always the biggest, the fastest, but I worked on everything. So, with time I got better, and I'm still becoming better."
When Ja'Corey Brooks was still with Alabama there were rumors during his third season that he might have some off-field or attitude issues that led to his diminished role. After speaking with him extensively at the NFL Combine it's clear that wasn't really the case. His shoulder injury however did have a huge impact on limiting what should have been his most important breakout year back in 2023 with the Crimson Tide.
Of course, following that disappointing season he elected to transfer to Louisville and that ended up being the fresh start he needed. Brooks accounted for 30% of Louisville's receiving yards last fall and 35% of the team's touchdowns through the air as he dominated week in and week out. Through Brooks' first 11 games with the Cardinals he racked up at least 83 receiving yards or a receiving touchdown in every single game.
Every week Brooks was making some wildly impressive highlight catch as he destroyed ACC competition. I asked him about my personal favorite play of his from last fall that led to a 57-yard touchdown against Georgia Tech (as you can see in the post below) and he lit up, happy to talk through one of his highlight moments from 2024.
"Yeah, that was the Georgia Tech game. To be honest, when the ball's in the air I just know it's mine. Whether the [defensive back] is holding or not, it's like basketball, you always want to get that 'and one' play. So, I was still tracking the ball, just spun around and caught it. I wouldn't say it was–I don't know. We kind of worked on that at Louisville in practice. We used to do our ball tracking skills. DBs would be on us and we'd have to run all the way down the field and try to track the ball."
Brooks made crazy play after crazy play all last season, but that catch might have been the best one of them all. Even though he was egregiously interfered with deep down field Brooks was able to spin out of the illegal contact, relocate the ball, make the catch outside of his frame, somehow stay in bounds, and finish for the score.
Regardless of the fact that he dominated college football last season and embarrassed the competition at Shrine Bowl practices in January, Brooks still remains grounded and humble. When I asked him about who he credits for his success and growth as both a player and a person he couldn't help but mention so many people. First and foremost his father, but also Nick Saban, Jeff Brohm, and many more.
Ja'Corey Brooks has clearly grown from his time at both Alabama and Louisville. He was one of the most efficient and explosive receiving threats in all of college football in 2024. It's wild that much of the NFL Draft community still doesn't see his upside and talent. If he does indeed end up falling as late as some believe he might on draft day then some lucky NFL team is going to get an impressive playmaker, ready to prove he's got what it takes to make it.
We'll be back with more Alabama Crimson Tide coverage here at A to Z Sports soon! Follow me (@FF_TravisM) and A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) on X for all the latest football news!
And if you want to look back on some of Ja'Corey Brooks' most special plays from his time with Alabama you can check out his highlights in the video below!