De'Zhaun Stribling

The Player

Stribling is a big, strong, and explosive straight-line athlete who displayed impressive testing numbers at the combine. His production matches his traits, as he amassed 2.15 yards per route run at Ole Miss in 2025 and 2.44 in 2024, when he was at Oklahoma State. Stribling’s best trait is his vertical burst. He eats up the opposing defender’s cushion in a flash against off coverage and has enough speed to threaten vertically versus man. He’s strong after the catch—not an ankle-breaker, but good at accelerating and building momentum. His sturdy build and contact balance allow him to break tackles. His physicality, strength, and competitiveness show up in other areas as well, especially in his willingness to make plays over the middle of the field. He’s one of the better run blocking receivers in the class and displays a flat-out mean streak at times, which is refreshing to see from a highly productive receiver. 

Stribling has outstanding ball skills for the most part. He has big hands, attacks the ball away from his frame, and tracks it seamlessly down the field. He exhibits special awareness along the sideline and had just one drop in 2025 and a drop rate of 3.8 percent during his five-year college career. However, we can’t consider his ball skills to be elite given his below-average contested-catch rate of 46.2 percent last season. He never surpassed 50 percent during a season in which he was fully healthy, which is surprising for such a strong and physical receiver. 

The biggest knock on Stribling’s game is that he’s a linear athlete who lacks precision and change-of-direction efficiency as a route runner. He really gears down before his breaks and doesn’t have sharp cutting skills at the top of his stem, nor does he explode out of breaks. Ole Miss did a great job of manufacturing separation for Stribling with pre-snap motions, rub routes, etc., and he’ll need the same help in the NFL.

The Draft

In last year’s wide receiver class, Stribling would have garnered Round 2 consideration. In this class, he’s solidly stacked in the cluster of Round 3 prospects and is expected to be a top-100 pick.

The Projection

Stribling shares a lot of similarities with Romeo Doubs, who has comparable size and speed and has served as a versatile Z/slot receiver with a nice blend of vertical ability, YAC strength, and overall physicality. Like Doubs, Stribling is a great competitor but a bit linear, and he lacks ideal contested-catch efficiency. Stribling should enter the league as a no. 3 or no. 4 receiver as a rookie but is capable of growing into the same type of starting role that Doubs carved out with the Packers and now the Patriots.