Browns Ja’Marcus Bradley may already be special wide receiver prospect

Every year, fans hope for their team to bring a wide receiver with breakaway speed on board. Do the Browns already have a player like that in Ja’Marcus Bradley? 

Every year, Cleveland Browns fans hope and implore the front office to draft a kick-butt wide receiver like Ja’Marr Chase. The key attribute is that he has to be one of the fastest receivers in the draft, and by the way, we don’t like any of these shortie guys, either. Okay? So, let’s just have Browns general manager Andrew Berry trade up and go get us one of those dudes from a name-brand school in the SEC or Big 10.

But maybe the Browns already have a player like that and don’t realize it. What’s wrong with Ja’Marcus Bradley? Here is a kid that supposedly ran a 4.48 40-yard dash at a Pro Day. It might even be true, though not all 40-yard dash times are born equal. We’d like to see some verification because the trial occurred during Covid, and Pro Days are generally not as consistent as the Combine.

Like, what kind of track was it, what kind of shoes did he have on, how was the time measured, and that sort of thing. But in any case, he is fast enough to compete in the NFL. He is mobile and he has a few moves. We also know he stands six feet tall and weighs in at 198 pounds, so he’s solid, not frail.

In college, at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Bradley spent five seasons as a Ragin’ Cajun (Sun Belt Conference, which is FBS) including a redshirt freshman year, and improved each year. Just looking at his highlight films, it is rather clear that he could max out the arm range of his quarterback, so you never see him run at full throttle on film.

In his senior year, he had 60 catches for 906 yards and 15.1 yards per reception. The second-best receiver had only 445 yards, indicating that Bradley was by far the top dawg among wide receivers at his school. Still, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette is not a name-brand school. The scouts probably held that against him. Are we going to hold that grudge forever and assume he can’t play?

At the pro level, Cleveland signed him to the practice squad, and his break came when all of the regular wide receivers were shut down due to Covid in the 2020 season. That got Bradley a start against the Jets, and he started out well, but tapered off when the Jets figured out that he only knew a few patterns in the Browns playbook.

Cleveland was not prepared to throw to anyone else. In that game, he had five catches in 11 targets for 60 yards. The other wide receivers combined for two targets and only one reception. Still, the general view after that game was that Bradley at least looked like a credible NFL receiver. Very, very raw, to be sure, but he had some talent.

In 2021, he was targeted four times and caught the ball four times for 64 yards. Overall, for his career, he has been targeted 15 times with nine catches and 124 yards. It’s a very limited data sample, but he passes the eyeball test and he has had done anything that would make the Browns want to cut him. In 2020 he didn’t know anything. Now, however, he has had two full years with the playbook. That’s a major difference. Maybe now he is ready to play.

124 NFL yards are not enough to prevent the Browns from drafting someone that they believe in high in the draft but might cause them to not draft a wide receiver in the late rounds. Overall, the Browns have Donovan Peoples-Jones and Anthony Schwartz as the only wide receivers certain to occupy roster spots.

That’s a bit short, even for a two-tight-end team like the Browns. Demetric Felton is listed as a running back but also lines up in the slot. After that, a lot depends on whether they re-sign Rashard Higgins as a free agent and whether Jarvis Landry is willing to restructure his contract to stay in Cleveland. The Browns are likely to add one wideout at the top of the draft, but Bradley seems like a better option than a generic Day 3 draft option that might be available.

Bradley is not going to be given a starting job, but he might have the opportunity to take a job from someone else. Who is this guy? It’s time to find out.