Darnell Full Mooney Scouting Report

Darnell Mooney probably isn't the best prospect that the Bears acquired in the 2020 NFL Draft, but he might be the most exciting. During his junior season, he ended up with 993 yards on just 48 catches, averaging 20.7 yards per catch. For his career at Tulane, he was still at an incredibly impressive 16.7 yards per catch. That speed is for real as he showed at the combine.

That 4.38 time is very nice and he did very well in the vertical and broad jump as well. He's not a big guy at just 5'10" and 176 pounds, but he does have large hands to help him make catches in traffic. So let's see how that translated to the field by looking at his game against Florida International last season.

I love the footwork at the beginning of this play to immediately make the corner play catch up in his coverage.

The cornerback never has a chance to make any sort of play on the ball after getting turned around at the line of scrimmage. Mooney then makes a good adjustment on the ball and uses good technique to complete the catch.

Adjustments on the ball were not an area where I expected a small speedster to shine, but he does a great job of tracking the ball on this touchdown catch.

He has the defender beat deep, but the ball is underthrown, and he not only adjusts to the ball, but attacks the ball out of the air at the high point to make the catch. Even if the defender had better coverage, it is going to be very tough to stop a receiver who can do that down the field. I'm not saying he's Steve Smith, but the above catch is a very Steve Smith looking play.

He needs to do a bit of refinement on his route running, but he does have some fancy footwork off the line of scrimmage to help him with that. He also was at least a willing blocker, even if it wasn't a strength of his.

For a late fifth round pick, this is tremendous value. He's fast, and he can catch; that already makes him more appealing to me than KJ Hamler who was a second rounder. He can stretch defenses and can at least fill part of the role that Taylor Gabriel has had the last few years. I am very excited to see him in a Bears uniform this season.

Previous Chicago Bears 2020 Draft Profiles
2nd Round - Cole Kmet - Tight End - Notre Dame
Undrafted - Ahmad Wagner - Tight End / Power Forward - Kentucky / Iowa
2nd Round - Jaylon Johnson - Cornerback - Utah
5th Round - Trevis Gipson - Edge Rusher - Tulsa
5th Round - Kindle Vildor - Cornerback - Georgia Southern
5th Round - Darnell Mooney - Wide Receiver - Tulane