Film room: Ramel Keyton, a big target who can win at the line of scrimmage

Undrafted free agent can win at the line of scrimmage

While the Las Vegas Raiders have their top three wide receivers pretty much set in stone ahead of the regular season, the remaining spots on the depth chart are up for grabs. That gives an undrafted free agent like Ramel Keyton, a wideout from Tennessee, a chance to make the team.

At 6-foot-3 and nearly 200 pounds, Keyton has intriguing size for the position. Also, he put up solid numbers over the last two years, hauling in 66 passes for 1,204 yards and 11 touchdowns while averaging a little more than 18.2 yards per catch.

So, he’s not only big but he can win down the field, and a lot of that has to do with how he can win at the line of scrimmage, as the clips below show.

We’ll get things going with a nice fade route for a touchdown.

Keyton is facing press coverage and uses a foot-fire release off the line of scrimmage to keep the cornerback guessing. He gives the corner a jab step to the inside and uses his inside hand to defeat the jam as the corner bites hard on the fake.

Especially for a bigger receiver, Keyton has solid quickness and burst which helps get some separation on this route. To finish, he goes up and gets the ball, coming down with it in the end zone for six points.

Now, I’d like to see him pluck the ball out of the air with his hands instead of body catching it, but this is a good route nonetheless and he shows some tools to work with.

This next clip is similar, it’s just a go route at midfield instead of a goal line fade.

Keyton stems to the inside on his release and gets the corner to bite. That helps create some space to the outside or toward the sideline, giving the quarterback more real estate to complete the pass.

Again, he shows a nice burst to create some separation and win on the vertical route. Once he clears the corner, the wideout gets back on his initial path and stacks the corner which, combined with his release, helps maximize the throwing lane for the quarterback. Unfortunately, the ball is overthrown though and falls incomplete.

This does highlight one of Keyton’s weaknesses as well. He doesn’t appear to be very fast and it looks like he runs out of gas around the 40-yard line which contributes to the overthrow.

This time, the former Volunteer is going up against first-round pick Terrion Arnold.

Arnold gets him with a good jam at the line of scrimmage, but Keyton keeps fighting and eventually is able to break free. Again, the receiver stacks the cornerback after clearing the corner, giving his quarterback plenty of room to complete the pass.

This time, the ball is more accurate and Keyton goes up and plucks it out of the air for a nice contested catch that results in a 30-yard gain against good competition.

This next clip mixes things up a bit as Keyton jab steps to the outside on the release and runs a slant. He’s able to keep the corner on the corner’s heels and again, gets the defender to bit on the fake. That allows him to create separation and win on the short route. Had this been a better pass, this would have easily been a third down conversion.

Curls are another strong route in Keyton’s repertoire.

He’s going up against Arnold again here and, granted, Arnold is playing off coverage with a lot of cushion. However, the receiver does a good job of selling the vertical route by keeping his shoulders down, which gets the corner to open his hips and start to turn and run.

Then, Keyton hits the breaks and works back to the quarterback to maximize his separation. Now, he isn’t a huge yards after the catch guy, but he puts a nice move on Arnold to make Arnold miss initially and tack on about five extra yards.

We’ll end with another nice win against the first-round pick.

Arnold is playing with less cushion this time, but Keyton does another good job of selling the vertical route and working back to the quarterback. That being said, this is a little excessive as he doesn’t need to work five or six yards back toward the line of scrimmage as he probably just needs about two or three yards to get a chunk gain on first down.

But, Keyton use a hesitation move and finds the optimal lane to pick up the first down after the catch anyway. Another win against the best competition he faced all year.