2025 NFL Draft Scouting Report: Stanford WR Elic Ayomanor

From now until the 2025 NFL Draft, we will scout and create profiles for as many prospects as possible, examining their strengths, weaknesses, and what they can bring to an NFL franchise. These players could be potential top-10 picks, down to Day 3 selections, and priority undrafted free agents. Today, a scouting report on Stanford WR Elic Ayomanor.

#13 ELIC AYOMANOR/WR STANFORD – 6-2, 210 POUNDS. (RS SOPHOMORE)

MEASUREMENTS

THE GOOD

– Has a well-built frame that allows him to play on the outside or in the slot
– Opens his body up well to have a wide net catch radius for quarterbacks to throw to
– Excellent concentration and hands with high-pointing deep balls
– Strong hands to hold onto the football
– Adjusts his body well on go and post routes to make catches over the shoulder
– Physical at the catch point when he’s running slants and hitches
– Knows how to create separation on deep balls with accelerating and decelerating awareness in routes
– Has good straight-line speed
– Body contortion and control are phenomenal when adjusting to the ball in mid-air
– Able to turn his head and body to come back to the ball when thrown off-target
– Tries to create YAC out of nothing on slants and in-breaking routes
– Good size and effort in run-blocking
– Coaches rave about his unselfish nature and work ethic

THE BAD

– Didn’t have a robust route tree in college
– Shows difficulty with beating aggressive press coverage at times
– Needs to have a more varied release package
– Doesn’t show great run-after-catch ability yet
– Improving separation in the short and intermediate routes by exploding better out of his breaks
– Not being too eager or overaggressive as a run blocker to deter from his assignment
– Knee injury history that caused him to miss significant time in HS and college

BIO

– 22 years old and born in Medicine Hat, Alberta (Canada)
– 950 total snaps (820 snaps out wide, 130 slot)
– 43 special teams snaps (35 kick return, 7 punt coverage, 1 kick coverage)
– 23 starts in 24 total games at Stanford University in 2 years
– Career: 125 catches, 1,844 yds., 58.3 comp-percent, 14.8 y/rec., 12 TD’s, 14.1 ADOT, 12 drops, 28/58 contested catches (48-percent), 17 missed tackles forced, 4.5 YAC
– 2024-25 season: 63 catches, 831 yds., 57.8 comp-percent, 13.2 y/rec., 6 TD’s, 14.2 ADOT, 6 drops, 14/29 contested catches (48-percent), 10 missed tackles forced, 3.9 YAC
– 2024 2nd-Team All-ACC
– 2023 Honorable-Mention All-Pac 12
– 2023 Unavailable in the spring due to an abdominal injury
– 2022 Missed his entire freshman season due to a torn ACL and MCL
– Majoring in biology or management science and engineering and wants to get his degree
– Three-star HS recruit, according to 247 Sports
– Led Deerfield Academy to a MPAL title
– 2018 Canada West National champions for Team Alberta
– Lettered in track and football (ranked 8^th nationally in 200m event)
– In his second game of his senior year, he tore his PCL, ending his high school season

TAPE BREAKDOWN

Elic Ayomanor already looks and plays like a professional over the past two years at Stanford University. Still, his journey to this point was filled with significant hurdles and victories. Hailing from Canada, Ayomanor grew up watching football in the United States and eventually became inspired to pursue his own career, earning a chance to play once he got to high school. He left Canada and attended Deerfield Academy HS in Massachusetts during his sophomore year in high school. While at Deerfield, Ayomanor’s junior campaign was canceled due to COVID-19, and he suffered a knee injury, forcing him to miss most of his senior year. He still excelled at both football and track while he was there. Ayomanor was actually ranked eighth nationally in track and field for the 200-meter event. He tore his ACL during his freshman year, which caused him to miss the entire season, but then came in with a vengeance to have the seventh-most yards in college football in his first year of playing.

He’s a well-built guy and doesn’t have the greatest long speed by any means, but he is so clean in and out of his breaks when he runs his routes. His deceleration has little wasted movement, and he knows when to accelerate back to the ball. He has fast feet out of his release, and he can turn on the speed in a hurry if he’s not immediately, and then he becomes a load to take down.

Ayomanor is a technician who is skilled in the finer points of creating separation. This kid has fantastic body control working at the intermediate and deep sections of the field. Ayomanor consistently knows how to work the sideline at a high level and elevates well to attack the football with his hands.

This guy is not a body catcher at all. He really knows how to separate and work himself open to snag balls that make it look easy. He’s also shown a willingness to go over the middle of the field and isn’t afraid to put his body on the line for a big shot. This kid is quite the safety valve for a quarterback.

Speaking of which, his quarterback was, to be kind, subpar the past two years in throwing him catchable balls. He struggled with accuracy and driving the ball downfield. There were an alarming number of times that he would miss or not see Ayomanor wide open and wouldn’t get him the ball. This will hopefully not be a major issue in the NFL.

It can be befuddling at times with him because although he has the physical tools, he doesn’t always play like it. Ayomanor doesn’t always match the aggressiveness of bigger, more feisty defensive backs.

There are also plenty of times on film when he doesn’t play through contact consistently when he’s hit. He’s a guy who needs a runway to find his long speed and won’t burn people off the line of scrimmage. He wins with awareness, separation ability, and winning at the catch point. There are games where he looks like the best player on the field and one of the best receivers in the nation, much like the game he had in 2023 against Colorado, where he almost single-handedly brought them back to win the game with 294 receiving yards.

There are also other games where he almost disappears or doesn’t get the ball thrown to him enough. I would also like to see a more diversified route tree for him. He appears to run a lot of slants, hitches, and go routes, but that really underutilizes a guy who can win at multiple points of the field.

Ayomanor gives good effort in run and pass blocking. He doesn’t always take the best angles and has difficulty staying latched for prolonged periods to let runs manifest, but he’s a guy who tries hard. There are moments on film where he will truly move safeties and linebackers, but then others where a smaller cornerback will outrun him to get to the ball carrier. He can be an average to above-average blocker in the NFL with his physical traits and desire to put a body on someone.

CONCLUSION

From a production and projection standpoint, there is so much to like for a player like Elic Ayomanor. His best football is definitely ahead of him, and he’ll develop a lot in the NFL. Still, he already brings a high level of ability to win contested catches, high-point the football, separate away from defensive backs when he needs to, and field awareness of where he can go. He could be utilized as a slot receiver, but his body type and skillset merit his best optimization as an outside receiver to win. Ayomanor could turn into a No. 1 receiver if he works on varied releases, expands his route tree, and consistently plays through contact.

It’s difficult to compare him to other players because of his lack of playing experience in high school and college due to various injuries, but from the sample size of two full seasons of him at Stanford, he has some shades of Keenan Allen and Puka Nacua in his game. He can beat you with route running, positioning, and body control to win in the intermediate portion of the field, but he can also make some of the most absurd high-point catches down the field you’ll see.

The sky is the limit for him, and he could become a Pro Bowl-type player with the right development and continued strengthening of his skillset. He could also be a nice high-floor receiver that can give you good production and the occasional flash-in-the-pan highlight-reel grab. I definitely think that Pittsburgh would be very interested in him for the draft because of their need for the position. He’s very young and a very competitive player with a lot of potential.

Projection: Early Day 2
Depot Draft Grade: 8.3 (MED) – 2nd Round (Future Quality Starter)
Games Watched: at Syracuse (2024), vs Louisville (2024), at Colorado (2023), vs. Notre Dame (2023)