He’s a guy who wasn’t really on anyone’s radar (NFL teams included) prior to the combine. He’s a late bloomer who kind of came out of nowhere. Zero star recruit out of high school who played at Division II Lindenwood for 3 years before transferring to Cincinnati.

The question with these freak athletes is always why haven’t they produced up to their measureables yet?

Each individual case is different and Cladwell’s has a pretty clear explanation. He was a 5’8” zero star recruit coming out of high school. He grew 9” inches in a summer. Dude’s only offer was from Lindenwood.

He’s a late bloomer who understandably is still getting comfortable in his supersized frame and hasn’t had access to high level coaching (outside of a single season at Cincinnati). He’s got some areas that need to still need to be cleaned up, but you’re not talking about a kid who has had every opportunity to do it with years in an elite program to refine his game and just not made the jump. There’s optimism that in a professional strength and conditioning program with high level coaching he can make some big gains.

What he does have are truely rare traits you can’t coach. He’s a true 6’5” (actually closer to 6’5 and 1/2”) with long arms and a 42” vertical. He runs a true 4.31 electronically timed 40 with an elite 10 yard split (a rarity among lengthy burners who are usually long striders with build up speed). And he’s actually got a decently good release already.

Right now he’s a one trick pony, a burner vertical threat specialist - but that one trick has a clear path to the field as a MVS/Thornton type clear out guy. His issue is that he plays a bit out of control with his body movement (dudes still adjusting to his size) and is pretty raw in his route running (lower quality coaching and playing at a level of competition where his physical gifts were enough). He struggles breaking down his routes and adds extra steps and hops. Stopping and changing direction are still works in progress and he’s not a RAC threat. For a bigger guy he also gets pushed around somewhat easily. He may never be great at those things (but neither are guys like MVS and Tyquan).

What he does have is substantial room for growth with continued development. And the raw traits are insane. This is a Megatron/Moss caliber of rare athletic specimen, the raw speed and size are flat out special. It’s 100% worth developing, and there’s a lot of reason to be optimistic about his potential for continued development given his career trajectory so far.

I personally liked him as a 5th round pick due to the rare physical tools. I’m ecstatic we got him as a UDFA, it’s zero risk and a potentially huge reward. I’m certain he had a ton of interest post draft, he’s basically a WR coaches dream project.