Cedric
Tillman.
Cedric
Tillman.
Tennessee· 6'3"· 213 lb· 4.54s 40
"Throw it up outside the numbers and he comes down with it — the question was never the catch point, it was whether a receiver who separates with leverage instead of speed could stay on the field."Pre-draft read
Big-bodied X receiver who lived on the boundary at Tennessee. At 6-3, 213 he plays with a long, gliding stride rather than a twitchy release, so his answer to press is length and body position: he stabs, swipes and leans, then stacks late on the vertical stem. The ball skills are the calling card — late hands, tracking over either shoulder, catch radius on the back-shoulder fade.
Secondary trait is red-zone conversion; he wins the jump ball by timing the leap and shielding with his frame instead of out-jumping people. He is a willing perimeter blocker too. The limitation is the middle gear: he separates by leverage and size, not burst, with little creation after the catch. What separates him is the reliability of the contested rep.
Play-action heavy West Coast structure off wide zone, with a boundary X spot that lives on the single-side isolation route.
Year 1 as the No. 3 big body who plays the boundary on early downs and becomes the designated red-zone target. Ceiling is a dependable WR2 whose value is measured in contested conversions and touchdowns, not target volume.
A motion-and-option spread that asks the X to win from a two-way go, or a quick-game offense that measures receivers by yards after the catch on screens and slants underneath.
He needs a quarterback who will throw him open into coverage; pair him with a passer who protects the football and his catch radius goes unused.
Cedric Tillman Tennessee Career Highlights
Full career reel: the Alabama 70-yard score, the 200-yard Georgia game and the three-touchdown Music City Bowl.
Cedric Tillman Tennessee WR Full Highlights | 2023 NFL Draft Prospect
Draft-cycle cutup focused on boundary fades, back-shoulder wins and red-zone contested catches.
Tennessee Pro Day: Jalin Hyatt, Cedric Tillman, Hendon Hooker
Pro day workout footage showing his release work and catch radius after the 2022 ankle surgery.
A five-year Tennessee receiver who spent three seasons as a backup before Josh Heupel's arrival turned him into a boundary starter. Tillman is not a route technician; he is a leverage and length player who plays big, plays physical and finishes at the catch point. The tape is full of fades, comebacks and back-shoulder throws from Hendon Hooker, and he converts those at a rate that shows up on the scoreboard.
The production is a one-year spike with an asterisk on both ends. From 2018 to 2020 he caught eight passes total. In 2021 he broke out for 64 catches, 1,081 yards and 12 touchdowns, with signature days against Alabama (7-152-1), Georgia (10-200-1) and Purdue in the Music City Bowl (7-150-3). Then 2022 went sideways: a high-ankle sprain against Akron led to tightrope surgery, cost him roughly six games, and he never got back to full speed, finishing 37-417-3.
Boards had him as a clean Day 2 pick, generally the eighth-to-twelfth receiver off the board, and evaluators split between the 2021 tape and the 2022 health. Cleveland took him at 74 as the developmental big body behind Amari Cooper and Elijah Moore, betting the ankle was noise and the contested-catch profile was signal. At that price the risk was tolerable, but nobody was projecting a separator.
- 01
Contested catch
Times the leap, shields with his frame and finishes through contact; the back-shoulder fade outside the numbers is a genuinely reliable NFL throw with him.
- 02
Catch radius
At 6-3 with long arms he expands the strike zone high and wide, letting a quarterback throw him open on the boundary rather than waiting for separation.
- 03
Red-zone finishing
Twelve touchdowns in 2021 came from leverage and timing inside the 20, where his frame turns a covered receiver into a legal target.
- 04
Ball tracking
Locates and adjusts over either shoulder on the deep ball without breaking stride, which is why the 70-yard score against Alabama looked routine.
- 05
Perimeter blocking
Willing and sustaining in the wide zone run game; he engages, walls off the corner and does not quit on the rep when the ball goes away.
- 01
Separation ceiling
A 4.54 with a 1.53 ten-yard split is functional, not scary; he wins with leverage and size, so pro corners can sit on his stems.
- 02
After the catch
Very little creation once he secures it; he falls forward and gets what the throw gives him rather than turning short targets into chunks.
- 03
Route diversity
The 2021 tree was heavy on go, comeback and fade concepts; the intermediate and option game is largely unproven at speed.
- 04
Injury and sample
One full starting season on tape, and the follow-up was cut short by tightrope ankle surgery that visibly dulled his burst in 2022.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.54sp50
- Vertical
- 37inp50
- Broad jump
- 128inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Tennessee | 4 | 1 | -3 | 0 |
| 2019 | Tennessee | 11 | 4 | 60 | 1 |
| 2020 | Tennessee | 10 | 3 | 67 | 1 |
| 2021 | Tennessee | 13 | 64 | 1081 | 12 |
| 2022 | Tennessee | 6 | 37 | 417 | 3 |
| Career | — | 44 | 109 | 1622 | 17 |
Verified against cfbstats season pages; 2018-2020 backup totals (8-124-2) match the season sum. Rushing, return and drop data were not verified and are omitted rather than zero-filled.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- 2021: 64 receptions, 1,081 yards, 12 TD (3rd in SEC in receiving TDs)
- 2021: 200 receiving yards vs Georgia, first Vol to hit 200 since 2012
- Preseason Phil Steele Third-Team All-American (2022)
Useful complementary outside receiver whose value swings hard with quarterback play and role, never a defined No. 1.
The realistic ceiling: a 6-4 boundary target who turns contested throws into a 100-catch role because the offense feeds him.
Big-frame WR3 who bounces between rosters because the contested catch is the only translating trait.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Three seasons with the Cleveland Browns (2023-2025). Fourth option as a rookie (21-224-0), broke out for a six-week stretch with Jameis Winston in 2024 (29-339-3 in 11 games) before a Week 12 concussion and IR, then fell back to a rotational role in 2025 (21-270-2). Released ahead of the 2026 season.
Cleveland used him as a fourth option as a rookie: 21 catches for 224 yards and no touchdowns while Cooper and Moore ate the targets. The 2024 season is the one that still makes Browns fans wonder. When Deshaun Watson's Achilles ended his year and Jameis Winston took over, Winston threw it at the boundary and Tillman answered — 8-81 against Cincinnati, 7-99 and two scores against Baltimore, 6-75 and a touchdown against the Chargers, a stretch that looked like the 2021 Tennessee tape scaled up. A Thursday-night concussion against Pittsburgh in Week 12 ended it; he landed on IR December 31 and finished 29-339-3 in 11 games. In 2025 the offense turned over again and he slid back to a rotational role, 21-270-2 in 13 games. Cleveland released him on August 27, 2026, ahead of cutdowns.
The honest verdict is that the pre-draft read was right about the player and wrong about the runway. He is what the tape said: a big, dependable boundary target who converts contested throws and does little else. That archetype needs a quarterback willing to throw him open and a role that keeps him on the field, and he got both for about six weeks in 2024 — long enough to prove the skill translates, not long enough to lock in a job. Three seasons, 71 catches, 833 yards, five touchdowns.
Data note: Verified against cfbstats season pages; 2018-2020 backup totals (8-124-2) match the season sum. Rushing, return and drop data were not verified and are omitted rather than zero-filled.