Draft Profile: Wake Forest Demon Deacons WR A.T. Perry

Number: 9

Position: WR

Background: Perry is a redshirt junior who has played in 43 career games with Wake Forest. Perry has had 12 (27 percent) 100-yard receiving games in his career, all of which he accumulated after his snap percentage significantly increased after his 2020 season. He was a 2021 All-ACC first team receiver, 2021 Biletnikoff Award Semifinalist, and a 2022 Phil Steele All-America Honorable Mention. Perry has no known injury history.

Strengths

A.T. Perry shows good initial quickness in his single and double-move release packages, with good acceleration getting into his stem. Perry shows a good ability to fight through pressure at the line of scrimmage and good football instincts and anticipation against Jam defenders. Going further, I think his best asset as a route runner is his play strength and use of hands throughout his routes.

Perry has subtle stiff-arms, swipes, and good overall hand speed to combat defenders at the line and through his route. As a separator at the top of his routes, he uses his frame and good upper-body play strength to get the necessary separation at the breakpoint. At the catch point, Perry does a good job taking advantage of his arm length to create last-second separation and distance from the defender to haul in passes.

Perry also displays good mental processing as a separator through his ability to recognize and create a plan to defeat leverage. He shows a change-up in his stems with pressure steps and jerk stems to keep defensive backs guessing. Perry also shows good change of direction and solid route tempo, which is an essential aspect of his route plans to help him win at the breakpoint.

Perry also shows good processing through his ability to diagnose zone coverage and find voids to settle in for his quarterback, which he does well on the first and second levels of the defense. He also is active on scramble drills, using his physicality to disengage from defenders to create opportunities for his quarterback or using his athletic ability to break off routes and work back toward the football.

At the catch point, Perry has good hands overall. He does well with stationary targets and on the move. In addition, Perry has shown a good ability to adjust around his frame to reel in passes.

Perry is naturally willing to extend beyond his frame and high point. In addition, he shows very good tracking when the ball is in the air to find the pass and get under the football. Perry has the necessary physical toughness and grip strength to be a reliable target on contested catches, with a very good ability in over-the-shoulder situations.

Weaknesses

At times Perry shows inconsistencies in his competitive toughness as a route runner. It can come across as lacking urgency or a nonchalant approach to the game situation. In addition, while Perry has good foot speed (shown through his 40-time), he displays below-average play speed, most noticeably shown on change-of-direction routes.

He also shows a below-average ability to close cushion against off-coverage, which will create challenges for him on the next level trying to separate on vertical stems.

At the catch point, while Perry shows good tracking ability, he shows below-average body control when adjusting to the football. In addition, he has below-average concentration at the catch point, leading to bad drops. Perry will also need to improve his body control near the sidelines.

After the catch, Perry shows some elusive traits but does not create a significant threat with speed or power to create YAC consistently.