Tennessee wide receiver Chris Brazzell is looking to capitalize on his breakout 2025 season with a spot in this week’s NFL Draft event. The draft will take place this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in Pittsburgh, PA, as more than 250 collegiate hopefuls look to begin their professional careers.
Brazzell’s draft stock has been an interesting offseason study. He’s settled into a second-to-third round prediction, but experts such as ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. had him listed as a first-round projection at one point in time. Teams love his height, size, and big-play ability, and his extremely impressive 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine in March has only added to the hype around him.
According to a report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter, some of those attributes have NFL sources comparing Brazzell to one of the league’s best wide receivers, George Pickens. But the praise doesn’t come without some concern on the back end.
“Many teams say Tennessee’s Chris Brazzell II has elite talents that rival (Jordyn) Tyson — one general manager even compared him with George Pickens — but there are even more questions about his maturity,” Schefter writes.
For context, ESPN’s latest seven-round mock draft has Arizona State wide receiver Jordyn Tyson going 16th overall to the New York Jets. Brazzell, meanwhile, is projected to go 91st overall to the Buffalo Bills.
“The Bills need a receiver who can win down the field, which Brazzell can do,” ESPN’s Jordan Reid writes. “He also has the ability to decelerate and execute multiple routes in a route tree.”
More From RTI: Tennessee Football’s NFL Draft History In The Josh Heupel Era
Brazzell transferred to Tennessee before the 2024 season after two years at Tulane. During his first season in Knoxville, Brazzell caught 29 passes for 333 yards and two touchdowns. Nico Iamaleava was his quarterback at the time. During his breakout 2025 season, though, Brazzell racked up 1,017 yards and nine touchdowns on 62 catches. He had particularly memorable games against Georgia (177 yards, 3 TDs) and Kentucky (138 yards, 1 TD) last season.
While participating in the NFL Combine last month, Brazzell ran a 4.37 40-yard dash. His time ranked as the eighth-fastest run among all wide receiver participants. He didn’t try another attempt during Tennessee’s Pro Day event in March, but he didn’t need to. Brazzell did field passes from quarterback Joey Aguilar in front of the scouts and had a nice day.
There’s been a wide range of projections for Brazzell’s landing spot during the draft. As previously mentioned, Jordan Reid has him going 91st overall. Mel Kiper Jr., meanwhile, tagged Brazzell at 63rd overall in his final mock draft. ESPN’s Jeff Legwold has Brazzell listed as the 38th-best overall player in the draft class, regardless of position.
For context, Tennessee has seen four wide receivers taken in the NFL Draft during the Josh Heupel era on Rocky Top. Velus Jones Jr. went 71st overall to Chicago in 2022, Jalin Hyatt went 73rd overall to the Giants in 2023, Cedric Tillman went 74th overall to the Browns in 2023, and Dont’e Thornton went 108th overall to the Raiders last year.
Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for more Tennessee draft coverage leading into this weekend’s big event.
