Tejhaun
Palmer.
Tejhaun
Palmer.
Ala-Birmingham
"A boundary receiver who wins the ball rather than the route: Palmer's tape is one long argument that size, timing and hands can outrun the fact that he never truly separates."Pre-draft read
Palmer was UAB's primary X in 2023, mostly on the boundary with situational slot reps. He is a long-striding 6-2, 210 build-up runner who plays with more physicality at the stem than the frame suggests, using a stutter release and a firm swipe to beat press and stack corners. The tree was narrow — go, dig, stop, crosser — but he times the break and turns his head late, so the back-shoulder ball became UAB's answer for him.
The secondary trait is ball adjustment: he tracks poor throws, extends outside his frame and finishes through contact instead of bracing for it. He is a genuinely willing perimeter blocker. Pro day testing backed the profile (4.45, 35-inch vertical, 10-2 broad), but the play speed reads long rather than sudden.
Play-action-heavy offense with a boundary-isolation passing game that lets him win on timing throws rather than separation windows.
Year 1: sixth receiver and core special teamer. Ceiling: a No. 4 possession X who plays red zone and third-and-short.
A quick-game, option-route offense that asks receivers to win in the first three yards against press man and improvise leverage on the fly.
His value is at the catch point, so he needs a quarterback willing to throw him open outside the numbers.
Tejhaun Palmer Highlights
Career reel showing the boundary vertical stems and contested finishes that defined his UAB tape.
Tejhaun Palmer (UAB WR) vs Memphis 2023
Single-game cutup from his senior season with the ball-tracking and after-catch reps on display.
Tejhuan Palmer Highlights, Arizona Cardinals | 2024 NFL Draft (Round 6, Pick 15)
Pre-draft breakdown of the traits Arizona traded up for at pick 191.
Palmer is a possession-first boundary receiver with a JUCO origin story: two years at Snow College before landing at UAB, then a slow build from rotational piece to featured target. He wins with size, timing and ball skills instead of separation quickness, and his best football came when the offense simply threw it up the boundary and let him go get it.
The production curve is real but late and shallow — six catches in 2021, 30 for 479 in 2022, then a 47-858-7 senior year at 18.3 yards per catch. That last number is the honest headline: he was a big-play finisher on a limited menu rather than a volume separator. The flags travel with the archetype. He is not a snap-your-hips route runner, he can be rerouted by physical corners with an early jam, and the Conference USA cornerback rooms he beat do not project cleanly to Sundays.
Boards had him as a Day 3 developmental flier, with Shrine Bowl and Hula Bowl invitations doing most of the work in raising his floor. Arizona traded up into the sixth round to take him at 191, betting that a 6-2 frame, real hands and legitimate blocking effort could survive the practice-squad years long enough to become a fifth or sixth receiver. At that cost the swing made sense.
- 01
Contested-catch finisher
tracks the ball over his shoulder, extends outside the frame and hangs onto throws through contact rather than bracing for the hit.
- 02
Boundary frame
6-2, 210 with the mass to win at the sideline, box out smaller corners and shield the catch point on back-shoulder and fade concepts.
- 03
Willing perimeter blocker
attacks defensive backs on screens and outside zone, sustains through the whistle and shows the effort staffs use to justify roster spots.
- 04
Pro day athlete
4.45 with a 35-inch vertical and 10-2 broad, athletic testing that confirms he can carry a vertical stem and threaten the top of a defense.
- 05
Yards after catch through contact
turns upfield immediately, falls forward and routinely forces a second defender to finish the tackle on crossers and stops.
- 01
Separation quickness
a build-up strider who does not snap his hips at the break point, so he lives on timing and body position instead of creating true windows.
- 02
Route tree
the UAB menu was mostly go, dig, stop and crosser, leaving him without proven answers on option, whip or man-beating route detail.
- 03
Press vulnerability
physical corners with an early jam can reroute the stem and knock the timing off, and his hand usage is more effort than technique.
- 04
Level of production
one full season as a featured target against Conference USA secondaries, a thin sample to project a real NFL receiving role from.
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | UAB | 4 | 6 | 72 | 0 |
| 2022 | UAB | 10 | 30 | 479 | 2 |
| 2023 | UAB | 12 | 47 | 858 | 7 |
| Career | — | 26 | 83 | 1409 | 9 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Practice-squad-to-gameday depth receiver who sticks on frame, hands and special teams value.
The blocking-first boundary receiver who earned a real role by being trusted on every down.
Camp-body receiver who never converts the developmental years into offensive snaps.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Arizona traded up into the sixth round for him and then never asked him to play. He was waived out of camp in 2024 and spent the season on the practice squad, then repeated the pattern in 2025 — a full year on the practice squad before the Cardinals signed him to the active roster ahead of Week 18. His NFL debut came in that finale against the Rams: four offensive snaps, two on special teams, no targets. The one preseason flash that traveled was a back-shoulder catch on a Desmond Ridder sideline throw, exactly the rep his college tape promised. He is signed through 2026 at $1.005 million and becomes an exclusive rights free agent in 2027.
The honest read is that the pick worked exactly as a sixth-round pick usually works. Arizona bought a developmental frame with real hands and got two years of practice-squad depth out of it, which is roughly break-even at that cost. What did not change is the thing that made him a Day 3 player: he never found the separation gear that turns a big-bodied timing receiver into a rotational NFL target. With the coaching staff that drafted him gone, the patience is likely gone too, and 2026 reads like his last real chance to stick.