• Be mindful of one-dimensional receivers: Hakeem Butler and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside both struggled in the NFL because they lacked well-rounded skill sets.
• Why Kaiir Elam failed in Buffalo: The former Buffalo Bills cornerback’s instincts in space hindered his overall effectiveness in the NFL, leading to Buffalo trading him to the Dallas Cowboys.
• 2025 NFL Draft season is here: Try PFF’s best-in-class Mock Draft Simulator and learn about 2025’s top prospects while trading and drafting for your favorite NFL team.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

One of the most important things you can do as a scout is to look back to self-scout. Every year, we love to talk about our scouting report wins, but understanding why we missed on players is just as important. 

Here are a few draft busts I missed on over the years and what I learned from them. 

WR J.J. ARCEGA-WHITESIDE: SEPARATION MATTERS

I loved Stanford wide receiver J.J. Arcega-Whiteside in the 2019 NFL Draft. The Cardinals’ big man earned 86.5 and 89.2 receiving grades in his final two years of college ball. He was contested catch stud. His parents were both former basketball players, which gave him not only the height at 6-foot-2 and 225 pounds but also that “box out” style of receiver work. Whether it was in the red zone, at the sideline or anything else on third downs, the idea was to just throw it up to this guy and he’ll come down with it.

He was selected No. 57 overall by the Philadelphia Eagles, but he barely played throughout his rookie season and was out of the NFL by 2023. I loved his contested catch ability, but Arcega-Whiteside’s story taught me a lesson that while a receiver can have a certain style of play, he has to meet certain thresholds in other areas to round out his profile in the NFL. In this instance, that is separation ability. Arcega-Whitesaide caught 20-plus contested catches in both of his final years at Stanford on 43 and 41 contested catch opportunities. I told myself that was just due to his style, but in reality, he could not separate the way he needed to. His 30.8% separation percentage against single coverage ranked in the first percentile for the receiver position. That was exposed in the NFL and even led to him being moved to tight end before exiting the league shortly after.

A receiver can be a big contested catch guy and have success, but if he doesn’t consistently separate, “above the rim” success alone isn’t enough to win in the NFL.

WR HAKEEM BUTLER: PLAY STRENGTH VS. PRESS

I am not scared to admit it, I was a Hakeem Butler fan. The 6-foot-5 and 227-pound receiver who could run a 4.48-second 40-yard dash with over 33-inch arms was high on my 2019 wide receiver rankings. However, after being drafted in the fourth round, breaking his hand his rookie year and bouncing around practice squads for the next five seasons, his NFL career didn’t turn out to be what his 1,300-yard 2018 season at Iowa State hinted it could be (shoutout a good XFL career, though).

Butler’s production was good in a lot of ways – deep catches, contested grabs, explosive plays, etc. He was also a prototypical “big slot” receiver whose best work came when aligned inside. At the time, I saw that as cutting edge, but in reality, it was hiding what would be his Achilles heel in the NFL: play strength, specifically versus press coverage.

In the slot, Butler didn’t have to face a ton of press coverage in college. Yet, when he got to the NFL, he was asked to play on the line of scrimmage due to his size. The problem is he didn’t have the release packages or the strength to really get off press and run routes effectively. Defensive coordinators realized once they got their hands on him, his effectiveness waned. This is why we take a much closer look at press coverage work. If a receiver can’t be strong and effective with his releases, NFL cornerbacks will bully him regardless of his size. 

CB KAIIR ELAM: SPACING INSTINCTS 

Elam was a long, athletic press-man coverage cornerback who struggled as a sophomore and junior at Florida after a stellar freshman season, but he was generally regarded as a player who had what it took to win in man coverage situations at the NFL level.

Elam, now on his second team with the Dallas Cowboys, has been exposed to this point in his career for his inability to play any sort of off-coverage role. When in press man, he uses his physical play to mask his slow hips while not playing with good spacing instincts. Both of those weaknesses got exposed at the NFL level and are a reason why he was recently traded.

The lesson to learn with Elam is even though you see a cornerback who likes to play in press-man coverage situations, if you have any questions about the hip fluidity, don’t just write those off due to physical play. Also, even for press man coverage cornerback, make sure you watch the off-zone coverage reps. If you are drafting them to be a starting cornerback, they will be asked to perform those coverage roles, and as we saw with Elam, he could not execute them.

DT NATHAN SHEPHERD: WEIGHING ALL-STAR BOWL PERFORMANCES

First of all, I would not consider Nathan Shepherd a bust. He has been fine in his NFL career, and he is still playing, going into his seventh season. However, he is a good scouting lesson. I didn’t know much about Shepherd before seeing him at the 2018 Senior Bowl. The 6-foot-3 and 315-pound defensive tackle from Ajax, Ontario played most of his college ball at Fort Hays State, a D-II school in Hays, Kansas. So any college tape he had out there wasn’t exactly a good measuring stick of him going against NFL-level competition.

Yet, at the Senior Bowl, he absolutely dominated two days of practice before missing the rest of the week due to a hand injury. I was smitten with his strength and explosiveness, so I ranked him as a top 20 player in the 2018 draft class. He was selected in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft by the New York Jets, and though he is still in the league, he has never finished with a season grade above 71.3 – he has two years where he finished in the 70s, two in the 50s and two in the 40s.

My lesson with Shepherd was that I can’t put so much weight into an All-Star Week performance, even if the rest of their tape isn’t a good judge of ability versus NFL-level competition. I got too ahead of my skis with what I saw in just those two days, and it taught me how to properly use the tool that is extra All-Star tape.