One of my favorite parts of the year is the NFL Draft.

I love studying the prospects and trying to project who will turn into stars, then following their careers to see how they progress.

During last year's draft, Christian Watson was a player who really stuck out to me. He just looks like a big play waiting to happen. He played in a run-heavy offense, which made him harder to scout, but his athleticism was as obvious on film as it was at the Combine.

He showed flashed of potential from the first play of the season. Yes, he dropped a gimmie touchdown, but he showed that he could absolutely torch opposing defenses. He used his speed and open field awareness to bend the matrix against the Eagles, showed the ability to come down with amazing contested catches against the Titans, and proved he can take over a game against the Cowboys.

Those flashes showed what he's capable of and lead me to believe he can become a top tier receiver in the NFL.

A lot of players show some flashes in their rookie year and end up flaming out. However, I think that won't happen with Christian Watson because of his absolutely insane athletic profile.

To be clear, athletic measureables aren't the end-all be-all, but when a player has them and flashes like that, it's a good clue that they have a lot of potential.

There are tons of intangibles that play into a player's potential, too, but we can't measure them (which is why we call them intangible).

Still, his tangibles are pretty incredible. Let's compare his athletic profile to a familiar face in Davante Adams, a historically insane athlete in Randy Moss, and the reigning most productive wide receiver from each of our division rivals.

Note: All measurements were gathered from Kent Lee Platt's RAS Score Database, to ensure consistency and objectivity (their historic scoring was also used for combined measurements that like the explosiveness rating that comes from combining vertical jump with broad jump).

Height and Weight

1. Christian Watson 6'4, 208
2. Randy Moss 6'3, 194
3. Justin Jefferson 6'1, 202
4. Davante Adams 6'0, 212
5. Amon-Ra St. Brown 5'11, 197
6. Darnell Mooney 5'10, 176

Watson is the biggest guy out of this bunch. His size makes him a big target with a huge catch radius. Randy Moss is the next biggest, and these two have much bigger frames than any of the other guys. It's worth noting that Randy Moss has abnormally long arms, which probably gave him the biggest catch radius of the bunch simply from a target size perspective. Both Watson and Moss have wiry builds that suited their roles as deep threats. Justin Jefferson and Davante Adams are build thicker and more dense, although none of these receivers have a reputation for being maulers. They get a lot of their weight from powerful thighs and glutes - this translates to less quick twitch speed than the rest of bunch, as we see in the next measure. 

40 yard dash (with 10 and 20 yard splits)

1. Christian Watson 4.36 (2.45, 1.45)
2. Darnell Mooney 4.38 (2.55, 1.54)
3. Randy Moss 4.38 (2.66, 1.52)
4. Justin Jefferson 4.43 (2.53, 1.57)
5. Davante Adams 4.56 (2.68, 1.64)
6. Amon-Ra St. Brown 4.61 (2.64, 1.63)

Christian Watson is also the fastest of this group and has the quickest acceleration. Darnell Mooney and Randy Moss are definitely in the same class, though. This is where you see body type translate to play type. The more svelte guys are faster and get off the line quicker. Guys like Justin Jefferson and Davante Adams win with precision route-running and depend on it to get the separation they can't get from raw speed. It's clear to see how this translates on the field.

Bench Press

1. Amon-Ra St. Brown 20 reps
2. Christian Watson 18 reps
3. Davante Adams 14 reps
4. Darnell Mooney 9 reps

Did not participate: Justin Jefferson, Randy Moss

Aman-Ra St. Brown managed the most bench press reps out of this group... at least among those who participated (I don't know why Vikings receivers wouldn't want to do the bench press - whatever the reason, I get to brag that I can do more reps than either of them put up at the Combine!). Christian Watson is a couple reps behind St. Brown. Usually, these guys try to win off the line with moves (St. Brown and Adams) or speed (Watson and Mooney), but it's always nice to have a little strength in case a press corner gets their hands dug in.

Vertical and Broad Jump

1. Christian Watson 38.5", 11'4"
2. Amon-Ra St. Brown 38.5", 10'7"
3. Davante Adams 39.5", 10'3"
4. Justin Jefferson 37.5", 10'6"
5. Darnell Mooney 37", 10'4
6. Randy Moss 33", 9'9"

This was a surprising result. Randy Moss made some pretty spectacular jumping catches in his career, but had the lowest recorded vertical in the group according to his RAS score. Maybe (probably) he's capable of jumping higher, but we're going with the consistent RAS score here and not the urban legends of how high he can allegedly jump. In this case, Christian Watson comes out with the highest explosion score (a combination of relative performance on the vertical jump and broad jump). It's interesting that St. Brown and Adams, who had the worst speed ratings of the group, are near the top in explosion scores. This illustrates how different play styles can achieve top results. Of course, Watson is better then all of them in both categories, which shows what a truly unique athlete he is.

Shuttle and 3 cone

1. Christian Watson 4.19, 6.96
2. Randy Moss 4.17, 7.19
3. Amon-Ra St. Brown 4.26, 6.9
4. Davante Adams 4.3, 6.82

Did not participate: Justin Jefferson, Darnell Mooney

This are drills designed to test agility. Yet again, Watson tops the charts. This is a critical component in open field running, where yards after the catch often depend on cutting ability as much as speed, especially against today's DB-heavy defensive schemes.

Up and down the charts, Christian Watson scores above the best receivers in the division, the league, and in NFL history in terms of athletic profiling.

This is a huge component of how much potential a player has. Whether they reach or not depends on a ton of factors, but when it comes to Christian Watson, the sky is the limit.