Marvin
Mims Jr..
Marvin
Mims Jr..
Oklahoma· 5'11"· 183 lb· 4.38s 40
"The tape sells one elite thing, and it sells it loudly: nobody in this class tracked a deep ball better, and almost nobody had less proof they could win any other way."Pre-draft read
Mims was Oklahoma's designated field-stretcher, a slot-and-boundary Z whose route tree ran almost entirely off vertical stems. He tracked the deep ball as well as anyone in the 2023 class, adjusting late without decelerating and finishing through contact at 5-11, 182. His release package leaned on pure speed rather than hand usage.
The secondary trait was return value: a decisive, one-cut punt and kick returner who hit top gear immediately and rarely bounced plays sideways. He offered little as a blocker, so his snaps were pass-tilted by design. The signature was the 19.5-yard career average — an explosive-play merchant whose case rested on turning one touch into a chunk.
Vertical play-action offense that pairs deep shots with a full-time return role, letting him win off single-high looks instead of grinding a full route tree.
Year 1: return specialist plus 15-20 pass-game snaps as the take-the-top-off X. Ceiling: WR2 in a play-action heavy attack that hides his short-area limits.
Condensed 12-personnel run-first offense that asks receivers to crack-block on the perimeter and win with hands against press.
His value scales with how many vertical shots the play-caller is willing to call.
Marvin Mims Jr. Highlights || Full Career Highlights || Oklahoma Sooners || WR || 2020 - 2022
Three-year career reel showing the vertical stems and deep-ball tracking.
Marvin Mims Jr.| Oklahoma Career Highlights (2020-2022)
Career cut-up with the punt and kick return work included.
Marvin Mims Jr. Junior Season Highlights-Oklahoma WR-2022-2023 CFB Season
1,083-yard All-Big 12 junior season, his most complete tape.
A three-year contributor at Oklahoma who arrived as a national recruit and immediately took the vertical role, Mims is a speed-first receiver whose football identity was never in doubt: get on top of a defense, win the 50-50 deep shot, and take a return the distance. He confirmed the timed speed at the Combine with a 4.38 forty at 182 pounds.
The production came in bursts rather than volume. He caught 37 balls for 610 yards and nine scores as a true freshman in 2020, then averaged a staggering 22.0 yards per catch on only 32 receptions in 2021 before his 54-catch, 1,083-yard first-team All-Big 12 junior season. The flags were the ones you would expect: a thin frame, a route tree that never asked him to win short or intermediate, and questions about whether a defense could take away his one elite trait by playing over the top.
Boards had him as a clean early-Day-3-to-late-Day-2 evaluation — a specialist-plus rather than a projected primary target. Denver disagreed enough to trade up from 68, sending pick 138 to Detroit for 63 and 183, betting that speed and return value would pay off immediately even if the route tree never expanded.
- 01
Deep-ball tracking
Locates the ball over either shoulder without breaking stride and adjusts to underthrows late, which is why he averaged 19.5 yards a catch across three seasons.
- 02
Long speed
A 4.38 forty that shows up on tape as instant stacking; corners in off coverage lost leverage inside of ten yards on vertical stems.
- 03
Return value
Decisive, one-cut punt and kick returner who reaches top gear on the second step and rarely wastes motion behind the line of scrimmage.
- 04
Contested finishing
Plays bigger than 182 pounds at the catch point downfield, timing his leap and holding on through late safety contact.
- 05
Play-speed consistency
The timed speed and the game speed match; there is no gear-down between the release and the top of the route on his vertical work.
- 01
Route tree
Almost his entire college production came off vertical and post stems, with little evidence of winning on option, dig or comeback routes.
- 02
Frame and play strength
At 5-11, 182 he can be rerouted by physical press corners, and his release package leans on speed instead of hand technique.
- 03
Blocking effort
Offers almost nothing in the run game, which caps his snap share on early downs in a heavy-personnel offense.
- 04
Contested volume
The catch radius shows up on deep balls but not in the short and intermediate traffic where NFL slot receivers earn targets.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.38sp50
- Vertical
- 39.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 129inp50
- Three-cone
- 6.90sp50
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Oklahoma | 11 | 37 | 610 | 9 |
| 2021 | Oklahoma | 13 | 32 | 705 | 5 |
| 2022 | Oklahoma | 13 | 54 | 1083 | 6 |
| Career | — | 37 | 123 | 2398 | 20 |
Verified against cfbstats (Oklahoma) and the official Sooners bio: 37 games, 24 starts, 19.5 yards per catch. Season totals sum exactly to the career line. Rushing (5-35-0) and return work are omitted from the receiving table.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Field-stretcher and return weapon whose target share stays modest but whose per-catch number stays elite.
Same undersized vertical archetype who eventually earned a 1,000-yard season once the tree expanded.
Timed speed that never translated to a route tree, leaving nothing but special-teams value.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Mims played in 16 games for the Denver Broncos in his rookie season, contributing as a receiver and a kick/punt returner. He caught 22 passes for 377 yards and 1 touchdown, and returned a punt for a touchdown.
Denver got the return specialist immediately: Mims was named an AFC Pro Bowl starter as a rookie returner in 2023 while catching just 22 passes for 377 yards on a 17.1-yard average. Year two was the flash — 39 receptions, 503 yards, six touchdowns and a 93-yard score, the closest he has come to a real offensive role. Then 2025 pulled the other direction: 37 catches for 322 yards and one touchdown across 15 games, an 8.7-yard average that says he was being used underneath rather than as a vertical threat, plus 25 kick returns for 658 yards. He enters 2026 in the last year of his rookie deal, with Denver's 2027 cap picture making an extension unlikely.
In hindsight the pre-draft read was right and the price was the argument. Mims is exactly what the tape said — a legitimate NFL return weapon and a situational vertical receiver whose value collapses the moment an offense asks him to run a full tree. Trading up to 63 for that profile was aggressive; the Pro Bowl and the 93-yard touchdown justify the roster spot, but three years in he has never cleared 40 catches or 510 yards. Not a miss, not a hit — a specialist paid like a second-rounder.
Data note: Verified against cfbstats (Oklahoma) and the official Sooners bio: 37 games, 24 starts, 19.5 yards per catch. Season totals sum exactly to the career line. Rushing (5-35-0) and return work are omitted from the receiving table.