Jalen
Brooks.
Jalen
Brooks.
South Carolina· 6'1"· 201 lb· 4.69s 40
"Thirty-four-inch arms on a wide receiver is a 96th-percentile freak measurement, and a 4.69 forty is the reason the man attached to them lasted until the 244th pick."Pre-draft read
Brooks catches everything inside a huge radius. His arms measure 34 and an eighth inches, which is 96th percentile for the position, and he uses that length the way a big receiver should: extending away from his frame, winning contested balls on the boundary, and shielding defenders on comebacks and back-shoulder throws. He also blocks like he means it, which matters for the job he actually has.
Separation is the whole problem. He ran 4.69, and against NFL corners that number is not a detail, it is the ceiling. He can sink and flatten a route and he is competitive off the line, but he does not run away from anybody, and every completion has to be earned at the catch point rather than created before the ball arrives.
Play-action offense with a defined boundary X role and heavy 12 personnel where a receiver has to block on the edge
Year 1: special teams contributor and fifth receiver; ceiling: WR3 possession target on the boundary
Vertical spread offense that asks outside receivers to win one-on-one down the field with speed
Dallas and Arizona have both used him exactly as the fourth or fifth receiver with blocking value.
The path is unusual. Brooks played two years at Division II Wingate, transferred to Tarleton State during the pandemic without recording a season, then landed at South Carolina, where he needed three years to become a real contributor. His FBS production is modest: 11 catches for 100 yards in 2020, 14 for 181 in 2021, then 33 catches for 504 yards and a touchdown as a senior in 2022, plus four carries for 51 yards and a score.
The testing told the more interesting story. He posted an 8.84 Relative Athletic Score, which for a receiver with a 4.69 forty tells you exactly where the value sits: a 35-inch vertical, a 130-inch broad jump, a 7.15 three-cone and 4.31 shuttle, and those arms. He is explosive and long, not fast.
Scouts wrote him up as a seventh-round or priority free agent target with a defined role. Big body on the outside, physical blocker in the run game, reliable hands on the boundary, and no chance of winning vertically against speed. Dallas took him with the 244th pick as exactly that: a fourth or fifth receiver who has to earn snaps on special teams and third down.
- 01
Elite length
34 and an eighth inch arms rank in the 96th percentile for a receiver and give him a catch radius most corners cannot contest.
- 02
Contested-catch winner
Extends away from his frame and finishes through contact, which is how he earns targets he cannot separate for.
- 03
Physical run blocker
Willing and effective on the perimeter, the trait that keeps a fourth receiver on the field in 12 personnel.
- 04
Explosive lower body
A 35-inch vertical and 130-inch broad jump inside an 8.84 RAS profile mean he is athletic despite the slow forty.
- 05
Route sink at the top
Drops his weight and flattens out of breaks well for a longer receiver, creating a window on comebacks and digs.
- 01
Bottom-tier long speed
A 4.69 forty for a wide receiver caps him as an underneath and boundary target with no vertical threat.
- 02
Cannot separate in man
NFL corners stay attached through his breaks, so almost every completion has to be a contested one.
- 03
Thin FBS production
Fifty-eight career catches at South Carolina across three seasons is not a resume that projects volume.
- 04
Unusual development curve
Two Division II seasons and a lost transfer year meant he arrived in the SEC behind on experience.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.69sp50
- Vertical
- 35inp50
- Broad jump
- 130inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.15sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.31sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | South Carolina | 6 | 11 | 100 | 0 |
| 2021 | South Carolina | 6 | 14 | 181 | 1 |
| 2022 | South Carolina | 12 | 33 | 504 | 1 |
| Career | — | 24 | 58 | 785 | 2 |
Only cfbstats-verified South Carolina seasons are listed. Brooks also played at Division II Wingate in 2018 and 2019 and transferred through Tarleton State in 2020 without recording a season; those lines are not verifiable through cfbstats and are omitted rather than zero-filled.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- Division II transfer (Wingate) who became an SEC starting receiver
- Three-year South Carolina contributor
Big-bodied depth receiver who lives on special teams and occasional boundary snaps.
Long-framed Day 3 receiver who becomes a real rotational contributor on a good offense.
Length without speed that never separates enough to earn a regular game-day role.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Brooks played seven games as a rookie in 2023 with six catches for 64 yards, then appeared in 14 games in 2024 with 12 catches for 177 yards and his first NFL touchdown. He played one game for Dallas in 2025 before being waived; Arizona signed him on December 16 and he caught three passes for 51 yards in five games. He entered 2026 with the Cardinals as a depth receiver and special teamer and made the active roster.
He has outlasted the projection. Brooks played seven games as a rookie in 2023 with six catches for 64 yards, then earned a rotational role in 2024: 14 games, 12 catches, 177 yards and his first NFL touchdown. Those are backup numbers, but backup snaps on an NFL offense are what pick 244 is supposed to produce in the best case, and he produced them for two straight years.
The 2025 season scattered him. He played one game for Dallas before being waived, and Arizona signed him on December 16, where he caught three passes for 51 yards over five late-season games. He entered 2026 training camp with the Cardinals as a core special teamer and depth receiver and made the 53-man roster. Four years in, three of them with real snaps, and still employed: for a receiver taken 244th overall with a 4.69 forty, that is a genuinely good outcome. The length and the blocking bought him the career the speed said he would not have.