PRO 2017 Dynasty Rookie Spotlight: Carlos Henderson, WR Louisiana Tech

Carlos Henderson, WR Louisiana Tech
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 199
Hand: 9 1/8″
Arm: 31 3/8″

40-yard dash: 4.46
NFL Comparison: Emmanuel Sanders, Chris Givens


– polished, swiss-army-knife-type receiver who has the ability to take it to the house anytime he touches the football; not necessarily a common combination of traits to possess; also an electric kick-returner

– 2016 Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year

– terrific “feel” for the opposition and full-field vision gives a unique ability to dash and dart to open space on a dime; gets up to full speed before you know what happened

– left early for the NFL after RS Junior season at Louisiana Tech; had an absolutely monster year leading the FBS in receiving TDs (19), finishing 7th in receiving yards per game (123.5) and 5th in total receiving yards (1535); on top of all that, he also had two rushing TDs and two kick-return TDs

– amazingly, not even the most prolific WR yards or receptions-wise as that was Trent Taylor (136 receptions for 1803 yards); it’s crazy to imagine what Henderson might have been able to do in that offense without Taylor siphoning off all that volume

– must be noted, however, that sometimes defenses would roll coverages over Taylor given how effective he was with volume; this led to at least one TD in the game versus Western Kentucky; in that WKU game, Henderson showed he has the ability to absolutely take over games at the college level; notched two separate five-TD games in 2016

– natural, strong, snatching hands

– electric suddenness in and out of cuts and through levels of the defense with the ball in his hands; excellent functional speed, acceleration, elusiveness and wiggle that reminds you of Emmanuel Sanders

– ability to extend to the football; tracks it well then can contort to extend or go up and fight for it with more vertical explosiveness than you would expect out of a smaller receiver who projects to play in the slot

– has some of that Steve Smith Sr. or Stefon Diggs “dog” in him; a competitor for the football in flight and a receiver seemingly not intimidated to run any route despite not having the size to easily absorb big hits on crossing routes

– when watching back his games, you see that the Lousiana Tech offense actually asked him to run a lot of different routes out of his spot — it wasn’t like some spread systems where you have the “slot guy” (Taylor) run all the hitches, crosses, drags and comebacks while the “deep threat guy” (Henderson) runs the posts, corners and go routes; Henderson leaves Louisiana Tech as a polished route-runner who can do a little bit of everything

– CUSA is one of the best non-P5 conferences, but he’s only played five games in his career versus teams from Power 5 conferences

– overall, a player who will likely rise through the draft process as more analysts catch wind of his tape; prior to knowing his landing spot, it’s hard to project an exact role in the NFL, but the truth is there is a lot he can do to help a host of NFL teams; until we know a landing spot, we can’t be 100% confident in spending a late-second round pick on Henderson in traditional rookie drafts, but we could certainly see that sort of slotting (or even higher) justified post-NFL draft

From the Louisiana Tech athletic department

High School: A three-star athlete that graduated from McDonogh 35 HS in 2013 … Ranked as the No. 28 recruit in Louisiana and the No. 50 Athlete in the nation … Selected to play in the 2013 Lake Pontchartrain All-Star Classic … Received first team All-State and first team all-Parish honors along with all-New Orleans area and all-district honors.

Personal: Carlos Henderson … Has one older brother, Charles, who plays wide receiver for Utah … Chose Louisiana Tech over Utah, Louisiana-Lafayette, Arizona State, Illinois, Memphis and North Texas … Recruited by Jabbar Juluke.

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