‘Scary’ Terry McLaurin has made PFF’s Top 25 players under the age of 25

Talent is good; young talent is great because it offers hope beyond the immediate season. Pro Football Focus has just published their list of the Top 25 players under the age of 25, and the Redskins’ Terry McLaurin is featured on that list.

Here’s what PFF had to say about the 2nd year receiver:

McLaurin entered the NFL landscape last season as an older rookie — a third-round pick with limited expectations. He quickly crushed those expectations, turning into the bona fide top option in the Redskins’ passing attack.

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When you look at the company McLaurin is keeping when it comes to receiving grade as a rookie, it’s hard not to get excited about his prospects in 2020. This is the list of rookies with receiving grades of 80.0 or higher on 250 or more routes over the past 10 years: Odell Beckham Jr., Keenan Allen, Michael Thomas, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Doug Baldwin and the two 2019 rookies A.J. Brown and McLaurin. Expect big things from McLaurin next year.

McLaurin has the look of a star in the making.

Coming off of a 2019 season where their rookie class performed better than any in the NFL, wide receiver Terry McLaurin stood as the poster-boy for the 2019 Redskins draft haul. With an explosion onto the scene in the first three weeks of the season, it became apparent early on that McLaurin was something special, and the rest of the league slowly started to take notice.

The PFF list is meant to recognize the young players who appear set to be the face of the game for years to come. While much of what PFF does heavily factors positional value, this list does not. It’s merely meant to serve as a nod to the league’s best young players across all positions, and it considers PFF grades, signature stats and team impact over the course of the players’ respective NFL careers.

Photo by Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post via Getty Images

For McLaurin, who had to make his mark in just 14 regular season games in which he caught passes from three quarterbacks, each limited in his own way in 2019, the future looks very bright indeed. His teammate from Ohio State, Dwayne Haskins should be throwing the ball to him full-time from now on, in what appears to be a creative offense designed by Scott Turner that will provide plenty of opportunity for Terry to showcase his skills.

The only other NFC East player who made the list was Saquon Barkley of the Giants, though PFF added Chase Young at the bottom of the article, listing him as a “Name to Watch”.

Here’s what they said about Young:

[H]e’s the best edge defender prospect that PFF has scouted since 2014. He is coming off a 2019 season in which he earned a 96.0 overall grade, and he produced two consecutive seasons with an elite pass-rushing grade (90.0-plus) and over 50 quarterback pressures.

PFF’s lead draft analyst ,Mike Renner, said that Young was the second prospect he felt comfortable calling a future Hall of Famer coming out of college, joining only Quenton Nelson.

Young could very well deserve a spot on this list without even playing a down in the NFL.

The future looks bright in DC!