Pat
Bryant.
Pat
Bryant.
Illinois· 6'2"· 204 lb· 4.61s 40
"Pat Bryant is a reliable red-zone threat and contested-catch artist whose NFL future hinges on his ability to consistently win without elite quickness or top-end speed."Pre-draft read
Bryant is a build-up X receiver who lives on the boundary and plays at one speed: deliberate off the line, patient through the stem, violent at the top. He stacks corners with body lean and length rather than sudden footwork, releasing with a shoulder-and-swipe instead of a burst. Separation arrives late and small, but it arrives at the catch point, where he plays through contact.
The second trait is ball tracking on the sideline and in the red zone, timing the leap and shielding with his frame. He is a willing, physical perimeter blocker. Long speed is functional rather than scary, so vertical wins come from stacking and back-shoulder timing, not from running away. The signature is reliability: one drop on 78 senior targets.
Play-action, condensed-formation offense that isolates an X receiver on the boundary and throws him the back-shoulder and red-zone fade.
Year 1: WR3 who starts on early downs and owns the red-zone fade. Ceiling: physical WR2 on the boundary in a play-action offense.
A wide-split, motion-heavy spread that asks him to win from the slot with quickness and create yards after the catch on option routes.
He is a target you scheme to, not one who uncovers on his own.
Pat Bryant (Illinois) — Full 2024 Highlights
Senior season tape: contested catches, back-shoulder wins and red-zone finishes.
Pat Bryant Illinois Highlights — Welcome to Denver
Draft-day reel covering his boundary release work and catch-point strength.
Pat Bryant Rookie Highlights | 2025 NFL Season (Every Catch)
All 31 rookie receptions with Denver, including his first NFL touchdown.
A four-year Illinois receiver who arrived as a raw body and left as the offense's most trusted target, Bryant is the rare boundary prospect whose evaluation rests almost entirely on hands, timing and contested-catch temperament rather than juice. He plays big, plays through contact and never blinked at the tough part of the route tree.
The production curve is honest: 6 catches as a freshman, 34 as a sophomore, 43 as a junior, then a senior year of 54 catches for 984 yards and 10 touchdowns at 18.2 per catch, tying an Illinois single-season record for scores and drawing second-team All-Big Ten honors. Roughly three-quarters of his receptions moved the chains or found the end zone, and he closed multiple games with late touchdowns. The flag was athletic: a 4.61 forty at 204 pounds, with the vertical wins coming on timing rather than true separation.
The board had him as a Day 3 possession piece with a defined ceiling. Denver, needing a boundary body next to Courtland Sutton and a red-zone answer for Bo Nix, took him at 74 — earlier than the consensus, and openly a scheme-fit selection rather than a best-available one.
- 01
Contested-catch hands
plays the ball at its highest point, adjusts late and finishes through contact; one drop on a career-high 78 targets as a senior.
- 02
Red-zone weapon
10 touchdowns as a senior tied an Illinois single-season record, with a real feel for fades, back-shoulder timing and shielding in tight space.
- 03
Frame and play strength
6-2, 204 with the density to absorb press, ride through jams and finish routes without getting rerouted off his landmark.
- 04
Vertical stacking
wins the boundary by leaning into and stacking corners rather than juking them, then tracking the deep ball cleanly over either shoulder.
- 05
Willing blocker
attacks perimeter run fits with clear effort and finish, which is why he stayed on the field on early downs at both levels.
- 01
Separation quickness
a 4.61 forty and stiff, upright change of direction leave him crowded on breaking routes against NFL press-man corners.
- 02
Release variety
his escape package is limited to a couple of moves, so patient corners can stall the stem and squeeze his window at the top.
- 03
Route nuance
sells stems with speed changes rather than head-and-shoulder deception, which caps his usable route tree in the intermediate area.
- 04
Yards after catch
a straight-line runner who wins before the ball arrives, not after; little creativity or wiggle once he secures the reception.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.61sp50
- Vertical
- 37.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 124inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Illinois | 10 | 6 | 98 | 0 |
| 2022 | Illinois | 12 | 34 | 453 | 2 |
| 2023 | Illinois | 12 | 43 | 560 | 7 |
| 2024 | Illinois | 12 | 54 | 984 | 10 |
| Career | — | 46 | 137 | 2095 | 19 |
Second-team All-Big Ten in 2024; his 10 receiving touchdowns tied the Illinois single-season record. Source: Sports-Reference CFB.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Physical WR3 whose value is red-zone scoring and blocking, not target share.
Big-bodied boundary receiver who lives on contested balls and volume rather than separation.
Frame-and-hands profile whose lack of separation keeps him at the back of a depth chart.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Denver used Bryant almost exactly as advertised. He opened his rookie year behind Sutton, Marvin Mims Jr. and Troy Franklin, then worked into a real role: 15 games with seven starts, 49 targets, 31 catches for 378 yards and a touchdown, playing roughly half the offensive snaps as the boundary body who could block and win the sideline throw. He was never a volume target, but he was a trusted one, and Denver's run to the AFC Championship Game included him starting both playoff games he played, adding four catches for 34 yards while working through a concussion in the divisional round.
The pick still reads early relative to the board, and nothing in year one changed that math — 12.2 yards per catch and a single score is a possession line, not the vertical finisher the tape suggested. What the Broncos got was exactly the floor they paid for: a dependable, physical WR3 who blocks, catches the tough ball and lets the offense keep its personnel package intact. Whether he becomes more depends on whether the red-zone touchdown production he lived on in Champaign ever translates.
Data note: Second-team All-Big Ten in 2024; his 10 receiving touchdowns tied the Illinois single-season record. Source: Sports-Reference CFB.