Bears Blitz

Finally I get to writing a prospect profile on wide receiver Juaquin Iglesias from the Oklahoma Sooners. I didn’t want to do all of the prospects all lumped together.

I wanted to try and spread out their prospect previews over a couple weeks time. So I stalled and stalled on doing this write up.

Then I started to do more research on Iglesias who seems like he is quietly the Matt Forte of this year’s draft class. By that I mean the front office seems to like him a lot.

They have thoroughly scouted him via the combine, private workouts, and the Oklahoma Pro Day. He’s been one of the most talked about possibilities at 49th overall pick in the draft since the combine.

So I began to ask myself why. Why is a receiver from Oklahoma so highly thought of when so many of them have bombed? The more I started to watch Iglesias, the more film I watched, the more of a sinking feeling I got regarding him possibly being in a Chicago Bears uniform.

I’m now officially beginning to wonder if he is so highly rated because he’s from the Sooner nation. I mean his highlight reel isn’t anything spectacular.

His production is nothing world beating. He had one big game against Kansas—12 catches for 191 yards zero TDs. He makes a lot of catches with defenders hanging on him, which is good, but bad at the same time because it shows he’s not getting a lot of separation.

So I’m looking for the one thing that makes Iglesias worthy of the 49th selection and I have yet to find it. He’s not overly tall at 6’1” 210-pounds.

He’s not overly fast with a 4.56 in the 40-yard dash, and his vertical leap isn’t overly special at 34 1/2 inches. So what is it that makes Iglesias an NFL worthy prospect?

He has decent production from 2008—74 catches for 1,150 and 10 touchdowns. His production improved from year to year and he was a three year starter for the Sooners.

He sorta does everything average to good but nothing exceptionally well. He’s a good route runner, has good hands, and is the same size as Hakeem Nicks so you can’t knock one guy and compliment the other for their size.

He is who he is, a prospect that is probably a better value later in the third to fourth round. You wonder if you’re getting a beneficiary of the hype machine that is Oklahoma.

They had a great offense in 2008—arguably the best offense of all time. They went against some pretty mediocre competition and they were completely shut down in the National Championship game by the Florida Gators. So you wonder why do so many players get the level of respect that they do coming out of Norman every year?

Some guys just have the benefit of being a good player on a great team. Therefore that makes them automatically great players compared to the rest of the kids out there.

He has positive attributes that a lot of receivers have, but nothing jaw dropping. He doesn’t seem as tough after the catch or even as fast as Hakeem Nicks.

He’s not as big or as fast or as polished as Brian Robiskie. So while there are things to like about him, I’m just not feeling it regarding Juaquin Iglesias.

If he ends up a Chicago Bear, I’ll support him and hope for the best. If he doesn’t end up sticking around in the league, then I won’t be all that shocked either.