Kyren Lacy, PhD

Doctor of Getting Open

There were only so many targets to go around last year. With two consensus first-round receivers, including a potential top-5 pick, it’s hard to have a real sense of the quality of next year’s receiver room just by looking at the numbers. A few weeks ago, I decided to go back and take a closer look at the guys behind the guys.

I knew Kyren Lacy was pretty productive, but I didn’t expect to see a technician. As a receiver, the biggest part of your job is to get open. People like to focus on the explosive YAC guys or the highlight-reel ball-winners, but if you can run routes and get open reliably, you’re going to be a good receiver, if you can’t, you’re probably not. Lacy doesn’t win like Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas do. He doesn’t have anywhere near the speed and athleticism that they do. He is, however, the most detailed route runner of the three. He has good size at 6’2, 215, but his game is defined by explosiveness in and out of breaks and a deep arsenal of pitches in every phase of the route. So while he flew under the radar a year ago, the more you look at Lacy, the more he looks like a guy who can step into an expanded role and flourish as one of the better receivers in the SEC.

There are three main phases of a route. First is the release. How you get off the line, whether pressed or not, determines a lot about how well you can get into the rest of your route. Second is the stem. The stem is the main body of your route. Third is the break. The break is when you snap off your route into where it will ultimately end up. The latter two parts go hand in hand a lot, so I’ll be combining them here for brevity.

1: The Release

Releases are like the Desert Walk from Dune, you have to vary up your timing and speeds so that the DB can’t key into any rhythm. While the goal of your release will differ whether you’re being pressed (press release) or not (space release), the overarching aim is to gain proper positioning off the snap to optimally set-up the rest of your route.

One of Lacy’s favorite press-release techniques is the split-release. On a split-release, which has a faster tempo, the WR will sell to one side by jutting out his foot, only to release to the opposite side. The goal is to get the DB to open to the side of the split and get his body out of line to where the WR actually ends up. Off the split, Lacy accelerates into the slot-fade where he gets open. If you watch the DB, he misses his stab after shading inside.

Once again on a fade, the goal is to generate outside leverage. He slows down his speed a bit with a hesitation-step to the inside and accelerates into the fade. Because of the lack of rhythm, the DB is forced to react to Lacy and ends up a step behind.

When on the backside of concepts, Lacy will slow-down his tempo and get a little more creative. Because he is later in the progression, he has more time to get into his break. This hopscotch crossover-release, which is a unique favorite of his, gets the DB off balance. If the DB can’t anticipate, he’s a step behind you when you get into your stem and break. Off the line, Lacy leaves DBs guessing when he’s going to turn on the jets, which helps overcome his lack of overwhelming speed.

Any true outside WR must be able to handle it when the DB does get hands on them. His size and length are a plus here, but his handwork is good as well. Here he disengages a one-handed jam by wrapping over with his inside arm.

2: The Stem and the Break

In the stem and break, same as the release, it’s all about messing with timing and keeping defenders off-balance. A gather-step is a good way to get the defender to throttle down before he’s supposed to, freeing up the break. Additionally, there’s no fat in his corner. He flattens it off at a sharp angle to avoid drifting back into the coverage.

Here, after the speed release gets the DB hard into his pedal to match him deep, the stutter-step gets him flat-footed and takes him out of phase to cover the dig.

Lacy doesn’t have a lot of athletic gifts relative to other receivers of this caliber, but his lateral explosiveness is top-tier. The gather-step in his stem sets up what is known as a rocker-step in his break, an outside jab + inside cut. If he didn’t have so much juice in his cuts and such powerful feet, none of this works.

His Role Going Forward

Next year’s receiver room is interesting, but it shapes out well for Lacy. The one thing that he really struggles with, due to his lack of speed, is vertical separation. With Chris Hilton, CJ Daniels, and hopefully Shelton Sampson in the fold as contributors, they have enough vertical threats to go around. LSU just needs Lacy to run a diverse route tree, eat targets in the intermediate area and be a volume guy, but his 18.6 yards per reception suggest that he won’t be bound to such a designation. Buy stock now.