With Keenan Allen’s recent injury, Dontrelle Inman has been one of the ‘next man up’ options in the San Diego passing game to get extended playing time. With a limited NFL body of work, I default to his prospect profile in the projection model to craft his fantasy outlook.
Athleticism
Dontrelle Inman is tall at nearly 6’3″, which is alluring for folks glancing at his measurements coming into the NFL. One thing I have mentioned multiple times in these profiles as well as on the podcast is that raw height is not in and of itself a huge positive for wide receivers. Those extra inches need to come with bulk and in general, the thicker the better. Inman’s height is not followed with thickness. He weighed in at 198 pounds in the pre-draft process and, at most, I have seen him listed at 205 pounds of late. Either way, Inman is really thin. That thickness is in the bottom-15% for all receiver prospects of the last 15 years.
He ran a 4.47 40-time, but again, based on his weight, is only an average mark. Inman’s 10-yard split was again woeful for his weight. Amidst all the tepid for worse drill times, Inman’s sole highlight is his 6.53 three-cone time, ranking in the top-1% of receiver prospects. The three-cone time is not as important as most of the other drills, giving Dontrelle Inman an overall athleticism score of 39 in the model. Here are his closest peers on athletic traits alone:
- Kevin Norwood
- Devin Street
- Corey Washington
- Marvin Jones
- Rod Streater
- Derek Moye
- Andre Holmes
- Ashley Lelie
- Trevor Gaylor
Ashley Lelie is only one to emerge as a fantasy starter in a season and that was a flash in the pan. Marvin Jones and Rod Streater hit 11-12 points-per-game in their second NFL seasons. Corey Washington and Andre Holmes have some stash appeal for dynasty owners. All of these players are tall, thin options without difference-making athleticism. All but Lelie were drafted outside of the top-100 by the NFL, if at all. This points to a limited ceiling if a greater opportunity presented itself to Dontrelle Inman.
Production
Dontrelle Inman’s production score in the model is abysmal. He was invisible his first three seasons at Virginia and was still well below-average in his final season at 21 years old. To pile on, Inman’s 10.4 career yards-per-catch is one of the worst in the nearly 750 wide receivers in the model. Inman has a bare-bones overall production score of 0. Yes, you read that correctly, Inman is one of the least productive receiver prospects on record. Here are the other receivers with production scores of 0 or 1 in the model:
- Rashad Lawrence
- Brandon Kinnie
- LaRon Byrd
- Steve Breaston
- Willie Reid
- Adam Jennings
Pretty rough list that including a bunch of undrafted players and Wiile Reid as the only top-100 pick (95 overall). Steve Breaston did well as the third receiver among all-timers Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin in the Kurt Warner era in Arizona, but did nothing outside of that flash in the pan.
Going Forward
Dontrelle Inman is a fool’s gold type of stash player. He looks attractive and shiny on the surface with his height and a raw drill time or two, but when put into context, that appeal fades. In college, he did not translate any aspect of that physical potential to the field and anemic production is a huge red flag for a receiver prospect. No track record of production makes an early draft pick a bust candidate, a mid-round pick an avoid player, and an undrafted player a needle in a haystack probability. I can see stashing Inman if the league has at least 30 offensive roster spots as he will see Week 17 playing time and can be an attractive #PackageUp player in January to get a bigger trade done.
