Casey
Washington.
Casey
Washington.
Illinois· 6'0"· 201 lb· 4.46s 40
"Five years of steady, unspectacular work at Illinois turned into one real season, and one real season at wide receiver is exactly what a sixth-round pick is supposed to buy."Pre-draft read
A big-slot possession receiver who made his living on third down at Illinois, splitting time between the inside alignment and the boundary and winning with timing, spacing and hands rather than burst. He tracks the ball beautifully over either shoulder, plays through contact at the catch point and shows late hand quickness to pluck away from his frame in traffic.
The separation is manufactured, not natural: he stems, leans and uses tempo changes to build a throwing window instead of running away from coverage. He is a willing, physical stalk blocker on the perimeter and a plus special-teams cover man, and a 4.46 pro-day forty with a 39.5-inch vertical hints at more juice than the tape consistently shows.
Timing-based West Coast / wide-zone offense that lives on rhythm throws and asks receivers to block on the perimeter
Year 1: WR5 who earns the helmet on all four core special teams and gives the offense a reliable third-down chain-mover. Ceiling: WR3/big-slot possession target on 350-450 snaps.
A vertical, isolation-heavy offense that asks its outside receivers to beat press-man on go and back-shoulder digs without motion or bunch help — he needs free releases to function.
Best used inside off motion and stacks, where his frame and hands matter more than his release.
Casey Washington | Wide Receiver | Illinois | 2023 Highlights
Senior-year reel: contested catches, third-down conversions and the 80-yard reception.
2024 Senior Highlights: WR Casey Washington | Illinois Football
Big Ten Network cut of his 2023 season at Illinois.
Casey Washington Highlights | Welcome to the Panthers
Mix of college and Falcons snaps put together after his 2026 signing in Carolina.
Washington is a five-year Illini who profiles as a chain-mover: build-up strider with a wide catch radius, dependable hands and the football maturity to sit down in zone windows and work back to the quarterback. He is a route technician by necessity, not a burner, and his best football came when Bret Bielema's offense let him operate as the primary target on standard-down and third-down concepts.
Production came late. He caught 11 balls as a true freshman in 2019, faded to 10 in 2020, briefly transferred to Wake Forest before returning on an NCAA waiver, then broke out as a senior in 2023 with 49 receptions for 670 yards and four scores. The 2021 Illinois-Penn State nine-overtime game is his signature moment — his game-winning two-point conversion catch sits in the College Football Hall of Fame. The flags were obvious: four total college touchdowns and almost no vertical volume before his final year.
The board pegged him as a late Day 3 special-teams-first flier with a possession-receiver floor. Atlanta taking him at 187 was a sensible use of a sixth-round pick — a big-bodied depth receiver with pro-day athleticism, kick coverage value and no realistic pressure to start.
- 01
Catch radius
long-armed target who extends outside his frame and finishes contested throws over either shoulder without breaking stride.
- 02
Hands and ball tracking
pure plucker with very few drops on record; adjusts late to back-shoulder and off-platform throws in traffic.
- 03
Zone feel
settles into soft spots, throttles down between defenders and works back to the quarterback on scramble drills.
- 04
Perimeter blocking
willing, physical stalk blocker who sustains on the edge and finishes his blocks, real value to a wide-zone run game.
- 05
Special teams value
logged real cover-unit snaps at Illinois and carried that role straight into an NFL roster spot.
- 01
Separation quickness
builds speed slowly and rarely uncovers against press-man corners with tight change-of-direction skills.
- 02
Late production curve
four college touchdowns total and only one season above 320 receiving yards in five years on campus.
- 03
Release package
limited counters against physical jams; can be rerouted early and thrown off the route timing.
- 04
Yards after catch
a straight-line finisher who goes down on first contact rather than creating on his own after the grab.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.46sp50
- Vertical
- 39.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 127inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.39sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.43sp50
- Bench
- 13repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Illinois | 10 | 11 | 132 | 0 |
| 2020 | Illinois | 8 | 10 | 106 | 0 |
| 2021 | Illinois | 12 | 21 | 294 | 0 |
| 2022 | Illinois | 13 | 31 | 306 | 0 |
| 2023 | Illinois | 12 | 49 | 670 | 4 |
| Career | — | 55 | 122 | 1508 | 4 |
Verified against cfbstats.com season pages and CFBD; season totals sum exactly to the 55-game, 122-1,508-4 career line. 2022 yardage includes the ReliaQuest Bowl.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Reliable hands, no separation juice, survives as a WR5 who plays teams and fills in when injuries hit.
Same big-bodied possession archetype who turned catch radius and blocking into a long starter-adjacent career.
Pro-day athlete whose offensive role never materialized and whose NFL value stayed on the coverage units.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Atlanta kept him as a developmental depth piece behind Drake London, Darnell Mooney and Ray-Ray McCloud. His rookie year was eight games with zero starts and a single 14-yard catch from Michael Penix Jr. against Seattle in October 2024. In 2025 he carved out a slightly larger role — seven games, two starts, six receptions for 94 yards — but never cracked the top three in the receiver room, and the Falcons released him on June 17, 2026. Carolina signed him on July 29, 2026, where he is again competing for the back end of a receiver depth chart on special teams merit.
In hindsight the pick reads exactly as it was priced. A sixth-round possession receiver who had one productive college season is a lottery ticket, and the ticket has paid out in the modest way it should: two NFL seasons, seven catches, no wasted capital. What has not shown up is the trait that would have changed the outcome — he never found a way to separate against NFL corners, and without that, the strong hands and blocking ceiling only get him to the last roster spot. He is a professional, and the profile still fits a team that wants a big body who can cover kicks.
Data note: Verified against cfbstats.com season pages and CFBD; season totals sum exactly to the 55-game, 122-1,508-4 career line. 2022 yardage includes the ReliaQuest Bowl.