Film Profile | Analytical ProfileProspect InformationCollege: IndianaHeight/Weight: 6'2"/206Hands: 9 7/8"Age: 23 (at the time of the 2026 season opener)Important NFL Combine/Pro Day Numbers40-Yard Dash: 4.53Vertical Jump: 33.5"Broad Jump: 10'4"20-Yard Shuttle: 4.383-Cone: 7.01College Production (Stats)Profiles similar to: Juwann WinfreePlays similar to: Xavier HutchisonPosition-Specific Attributes and GradesAttributeGradeBall Tracking8.5 (10)Contested Catch/Body Control9.0 (10)Hands8.5 (10)Release9.5 (10)Route-Running8.0 (10)Run After Catch7.5 (10)Physicality/Competitiveness7.0 (8)Separation3.0 (6)Speed2.0 (4)Blocking1.0 (2)Film Grade64.0 (80)Note: my usual format (citing examples for each attribute) does not display well on the site. Please click this link to access them.PositivesTrusted time after time when his team needed someone to make a play; 76% of his catches resulted in either a first down or touchdown in 2025, while his 44 career receiving scores lead all active FBS receivers.Excellent body control and field awareness.Extremely comfortable with a defender in his hip pocket; 22.5% of his 240 career catches and 28.1% of his 334 career targets were contested.Seems to embrace (and maybe even encourage) physical coverage and draws his fair share of defensive pass interference penalties as a result.Varied release package and surprising footwork at the line of scrimmage help him to avoid the jam consistently.Boasts a career drop rate of 3.6%.NegativesOnly one catch of 30-plus yards in 2025 (a 49-yard catch-and-run on a quick slant against Iowa) speaks to his relative lack of explosiveness and does not bode well for his ability to stretch the field in the NFL.Average athlete across the board; ranks below the 50th percentile in all of his Combine measurements outside of the broad jump.Rarely creates much separation; an inordinate amount of his production came on back-shoulder throws and slot fades.Reasonable to assume pro cornerbacks will have much more success getting their hands on him at the line of scrimmage, minimizing one of the few areas he had an edge on college corners.Very pedestrian after the catch; were it not for the aforementioned 49-yard catch-and-run, his yards after catch average last season would have been considerably worse than his already low number (4.8).Tends to be a bit passive as a blocker and is not strong enough to anchor or move his defender off his spot very far.Bottom LineThere may not be a nickname that is more unfit for a prospect this year than the one Sarratt goes by: "Waffle House."

The moniker was given to him because he is "always open," which suggests he is one of the best separators in this class. In reality, he is a below-average separator who entered the 2025 season as one of the better contested-catch players in the country. Oddly enough, his success rate on contested catches dropped significantly in each of his last three seasons, going from 78.9% in 2023 at James Madison to 59.3 (2024) and 40 (2025) in his two seasons at Indiana. (This does not necessarily mean he is no longer good at it, as Fernando Mendoza does not appear to be particularly good at putting air under his throws so someone like Sarratt can make a play on the ball.) Unfortunately, he is not a great athlete, making it unlikely he can become something more in the pros than he was in college.That does not make him a bad prospect, however.

Size, ball skills and body control will likely always be three qualities that are useful for receivers in the NFL, especially when their game is "above the rim." Sarratt has them all. There is also something to be said about Sarratt's ability to come through in the biggest moments.

Not only did he lead FBS in receiving touchdowns in 2025 with 15, but two of them also turned out to be game-winning catches to keep Indiana undefeated and on track for a national title. That means something. In theory, he plays with enough physicality and has the size to be an X receiver, but the lack of separation skills and run-after-catch upside figure to make him more of a part-time player who could excel in the red zone - at least early in his career.

At this point, it seems much more likely that Sarratt will need to land with a team whose quarterback lives for identifying one-on-one matchups and trusts his receivers to win in contested-catch situations much more often than not. The concern here is that he will prove to be the kind of receiver who is no more than just a good college player.This article originally appeared on The Huddle: Elijah Sarratt NFL Draft Profile - Rookie Film Analysis