Arkansas' Treylon Burks has established himself as one of the most dynamic talents available in the 2022 NFL Draft. With an eye on the NFL combine (March 1-7 in Indianapolis), he joined the Pick Six podcast to break down his closest NFL comparisons and much more as he prepares with Exos in Frisco, Texas.
In 2021, Burks had 49 touches out of the slot as well as 19 wide, nine out of the backfield and five tight. The Razorbacks were using him all over the formation and despite the majority of his touches coming out of the slot, he is comfortable playing on the boundary if that is what his future team asks of him.
"I am a player that can play anywhere. I will go play anywhere. It doesn't matter to me," he said. "I am just the type of player, I do everything that I can to get the ball in my hands and make something happen. Playing out wide is really no different than playing inside. You are just split out wide and you are out there by yourself, which is better in my opinion. You are out there on an island and you just go out there and make plays."
NFL teams execute multiple schemes out of a variety of formations. Burks' skill set essentially makes him a match for any team in need of a wide receiver. If he is drafted by a team that wants to use him in space as a blocker, then his background suggests he will handle that assignment with grace.
"Blocking is the main thing as a receiver," he said. "You have to know how you can block before you get the ball; that is one thing that we stressed at Arkansas. If you didn't block, you wasn't getting the ball and you really wasn't touching the field honestly. We stressed that big. Blocking is not an issue for me. I will do anything just to help the team win. I am just a team player."
Earlier in the week, Auburn cornerback Roger McCreary joined the Pick Six podcast and explained why Burks is so challenging to defend. McCreary explained what he is looking at before the snap.
"Pre-snap, the first thing I look at is my triangle, who is inside, who is over the top and who is outside of me," McCreary said. "Then, I will figure out what type of coverage they are in and then after that it is go time. You tell yourself that you are fixing to go make a play and you just go do it. There is really nothing to it. The more you think about things while you are out there playing is when you make mistakes. You just go out there level-headed knowing that you are going to go play your game and you are going to do everything just to help your team win."
McCreary was one of two players Burks isolated as being a challenge to face in the SEC. There were some tips that he could pick up through film study and even some self-awareness that allowed him to approach a second meeting with those players more well-prepared.
"When I got ready to play teams like that, I would go back and watch film from the years past when I played them just to see things that I could correct and things that they were looking at on me that I could fix or manipulate to mess them up on whatever they were trying to stop me at," he said.
The Arkansas native addressed comparisons to A.J. Brown and D.K. Metcalf while adding that he presents similar challenges as the San Francisco 49ers' Deebo Samuel. Burks also discussed his expectations for his rookie season, a background playing three sports and more.
Burks is rated the No. 14 prospect overall, which equates to the third-best wide receiver, in CBSSports.com's latest rankings. There have been mock drafts (which are posted weekly) where he was taken inside the top 10.
