{"id":47143,"date":"2025-04-06T20:52:33","date_gmt":"2025-04-06T20:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=47143"},"modified":"2025-04-06T20:52:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T20:52:33","slug":"daquan-felton-could-give-the-chiefs-an-outside-vertical-presence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=47143","title":{"rendered":"Da\u2019Quan Felton could give the Chiefs an outside vertical presence"},"content":{"rendered":"

While wide receiver has been among the Kansas City Chiefs\u2019 significant needs in recent seasons, the emergence of Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy as young building blocks has reduced this need for 2025.<\/p>\n

But in the coming NFL Draft, the Chiefs should be looking for skillsets that fill the gaps within their wide receiver group. Rice and Worthy are slot-oriented players who can use underneath targets to create explosive plays; they\u2019re primarily going to win on horizontal routes instead of downfield routes.<\/p>\n

To complement them, the team needs an outside receiver who can stretch the field vertically \u2014 and win \u2014 on the sidelines. This is the role Marquez Valdes-Scantling filled for the Chiefs, so it won\u2019t necessarily be a player available in the draft\u2019s early rounds.<\/p>\n

A Day 3 wide receiver who has this kind of skillset is Virginia Tech\u2019s Da\u2019Quan Felton. Here\u2019s what you need to know about him.<\/p>\n

Background<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Coming out of Churchland High School in Portsmouth, Virginia in 2019, Felton was a zero-star recruit with just one Power-5 offer: Indiana. He committed to Norfolk State, where he was redshirted \u2014 and when COVID hit in 2020, his season was canceled. When Felton finally started playing in 2021, he recorded 492 yards \u2014 and then 573 yards in 2022, when he was second-team All-MEAC.<\/p>\n

Moving on to Virginia Tech, he caught 38 passes for 667 yards and eight touchdowns. But in his final season, he collected just 32 catches, 360 yards and two touchdowns.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old Felton checked into the NFL Scouting Combine at 6 feet 4 and 213 pounds, with 32 1\/4-inch arms and 9-inch hands. He ran a respectable 4.5-second 40-yard dash \u2014 with a 1.57-second 10-yard split \u2014 and at his Pro Day, he improved his vertical jump to 35 inches.<\/p>\n

Film evaluation<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In Virginia Tech\u2019s offense \u2014 a very limited passing scheme with a relatively untalented quarterback \u2014 Felton mostly ran downfield routes like Go<\/em> or Post<\/em>. And since he was often used as a decoy to clear space, he didn\u2019t get many targets.<\/p>\n

On film \u2014 where he\u2019s generally isolated as the X receiver, tasked with stretching the field \u2014 he shows some ability to separate from defenders. He uses his long legs to build speed, get on top of cornerbacks and give the quarterback a throwing window.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, his quarterback just couldn\u2019t hit that window very often.<\/p>\n

While Felton didn\u2019t play underneath very much, he did show some ability to win against zone coverage on quick outs, stop routes or digs over the middle of the field.<\/p>\n

Since I\u2019d estimate well over half his routes went downfield, Felton\u2019s biggest weakness is a very limited route tree. While I think some of this can be attributed to the Hokies\u2019 quarterback, he\u2019s still a limited route runner. As a long-legged athlete with stiffness concerns while trying to throttle down, he\u2019s not likely to have an outsized role in the NFL.<\/p>\n

How he fits with the Chiefs<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If Kansas City acquires Felton, his role would be to stretch the field on vertical routes. The Chiefs would put him on the back side of plays and let him win on the sideline \u2014 and with Patrick Mahomes throwing him the ball, I believe he would pop<\/em> more often. He does have legitimate speed \u2014 and he does get open downfield. This would free the team to leave the traditional routes to Rice, Worthy and tight end Travis Kelce \u2014 while Felton replaces Valdes-Scantling (or Justin Watson) as a downfield route-runner.<\/p>\n

The bottom line<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong: Felton is a limited player. The proof comes from his lack of production. In the NFL, he\u2019ll have one role: as an outside vertical route-runner \u2014 where I think he\u2019s underrated. He\u2019s demonstrated he can get open. In a scaled-down role \u2014 with a real quarterback throwing to him \u2014 I think he could be a useful depth piece who can also play on special teams.<\/p>\n

Grade: Round 4<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Virginia Tech wideout could shine while being targeted by Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":47144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"\nDa\u2019Quan Felton could give the Chiefs an outside vertical presence - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=47143\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Da\u2019Quan Felton could give the Chiefs an outside vertical presence - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Virginia Tech wideout could shine while being targeted by Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=47143\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-06T20:52:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/avtvip-86-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MrThanh\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MrThanh\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=47143\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=47143\",\"name\":\"Da\u2019Quan Felton could give the Chiefs an outside vertical presence - 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