Tennessee Vols wide receiver Chris Brazzell is expected to be an early round selection in the 2026 NFL Draft.

How early Brazzell is drafted, however, will largely depend on how he performs at the NFL scouting combine and his pro day at Tennessee.

The Texas native has elite size and speed — 6-foot-5/200 pounds. He looks the part of an NFL wide receiver.

“He has the skill set to be a standout in the pros,” noted ESPN’s Mel Kiper of Brazzell recently. “His 6-foot-5 frame, long arms, sure hands and great concentration make him a big-time target in the end zone and on contested balls. I also see the explosiveness to get out of his breaks and separate. Brazzell tallied 1,017 yards and nine touchdowns this past season.”

Pro Football Focus has Chris Brazzell getting selected in the third round

The latest mock draft from Pro Football Focus has Brazzell going to the New England Patriots in the third round (No. 91 overall).

That seems like the floor for Brazzell in the 2026 NFL Draft. I think he could significantly boost his stock with good team interviews at the combine.

The main thing that will be questioned about Brazzell is his route tree after playing in Tennessee’s offense.

“Brazzell gets to top speed in a hurry, which allows him to stack corners on his hip and keep them there,” wrote The Athletic’s Dane Brugler recently. “He can sink to smoothly get in and out of breaks, although scouts want to see him improve his consistency on intermediate routes and expand his route menu (48.7 percent of his routes in 2025 were either a hitch or a go).”

Longtime NFL draft analyst Todd McShay, however, believes Brazzell showed this season that he’s capable of running routes at a high level.

“The next knock is gonna be, ‘but he only ran nine routes’ (verticals),” said McShay this week. “There’s one — I think it’s against Georgia — there’s an out route that he runs against Georgia, and everyone is like, there’s the two-hand top catches that he takes for touchdowns, and everyone’s going to focus on that in their highlight packages for the NFL Draft.

“The route that he ran, an out route on the right side when he kind of turned the defender around and absolutely obliterated him and ankles’d him, as the kids would say, with his ability to just stop, dime, corner on rail. No wasted motion. No gearing down. You just don’t see many guys do that.”

Brazzell has a chance to be the first wide receiver from Josh Heupel’s offense at Tennessee to make a splash in the NFL.

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