Amba Etta-Tawo, WR Syracuse
Height: 6’1 1/4″
Weight: 198
Arm: 32″
Hand: 9 1/4″
Wing: 75″
40-time: 4.49
NFL Comparison: Rashard Higgins, Tavarres King

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background

– First name pronounced like “Mamba” (Om-buh Etta Tah-Whoa)

– Was a graduate transfer to Syracuse from Maryland who came out of the blue to have the most successful receiving season in program history; was named ACC player of the week three times in 2016 and was first-team all ACC as voted by the coaches; set records for single-season receptions, yards and touchdowns.

– Older brother (Etta) played football at Clemson.

– Both parents are Nigerian.

– While always looking like a great prospect athletically at Maryland, his numbers dwindled as his career there went on and when former HC Randy Edsall was fired, per the Washington Post, his brother said of Etta-Tawo, “In terms of opportunity . . .with a new coaching staff coming in, it would all depend on how he does at camp. He might get stuck behind a lot of people and not get noticed and his career would be done. Or, he could go look for a new place and try to be the No. 1 guy.”

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scouting notes

– not a player who’s moved all around the formation to different places, but a player who the Syracuse staff would get the ball in the hands of in all sorts of ways — everything from screens to quick hitches and bubbles to vertical and crossing patterns

– sits into zone-shells underneath safety-help effectively and naturally; makes himself an easy target for the QB more often than not

– not a polished route-runner, but a smooth one

– excellent body control and upper-body flexibility on tape

– has every appearance of a true No. 1 X-receiver and target monster at the collegiate level on tape at Syracuse, but failed to separate from the other WRs at Senior Bowl practices

– was one of a few players during the week who removed their GPS device to (presumably) avoid being monitored for some reason; we know as we were the ones putting them in and taking them out of the sweaty ass shoulder pads each day; could be a sign that he’s scared of competition; when coupled with the fact that he left Maryland to go to a more open depth chart at Syracuse, this could make you raise an eyebrow from a personality standpoint

– as for ball-skills, a true “snatcher of the football” a la Alshon Jeffery, excellent hands that are soft but not overly large; he attacks the football with soft hands on tape and lays adamant claim to it on tape – again, something not seen with much frequency during Senior Bowl practices

– some ability to box out and create separation with physicality, but not with consistency

– very strong and physical after-catch with the ball in his hands

– doesn’t have elite speed, quickness or acceleration but is more than fast enough in a long-speed, straight-line fashion to get by most DBs and separate vertically

– makes a concerted effort to frame the football technically, see it in and catch it with his hands

– all-in-all, a player who was very disappointing during the week of Senior Bowl practices (but this was likely due somewhat to how high we were on his tape coming in)

– instead of an Alshon Jeffery-like performance, Etta-Tawo came out of Senior Bowl week as a relative afterthought; the combine will be big for him as well as his team landing spot in assimilating exactly where we’ll slot him for dynasty purposes; for now, we’re not exactly jumping out of our seats to make sure he’s a player everyone in RosterWatch Nation knows about and has on their radars like Cooper Kupp or Zay Jones