Ranking the top local Bay Area prospects in the 2019 NFL Draft

There is no question about it. Stanford’s J.J. Arcega-Whiteside is the clear-cut top 2019 NFL Draft prospect out of the Bay Area this year.

This year’s wide receiver class isn’t exactly full of top-tier talents, but there’s a good amount of second and third round prospects who should produce at a high level in the NFL. Arcega-Whiteside is chief among those prospective receivers.

The massive Stanford product is a dominant contested catch behemoth possessing perhaps the largest catch radius in this draft class. Arcega-Whiteside is physically overpowering at the point of attack and uses his basketball background to effectively box-out defenders in traffic.

Simply put, there is no better one-on-one red zone target in the 2019 NFL Draft class than Arcega-Whiteside.

He will never be the most dynamic playmaker as his lack of breakaway speed limits his overall potential, but Arcega-Whiteside should have no issues becoming a high-volume red zone target at the next level.

Players such as Anquan Boldin and Eric Decker have been able to carve out very successful careers for themselves possessing very similar skill sets to Arcega-Whiteside. If history repeats itself and he’s put into a favorable situation, there’s no reason as to why Arcega-Whiteside can’t have just as much success as those two.

Don’t be surprised to hear the second-team All-Pac-12 selection’s name called very early on Day 2, perhaps even as a target of the Bay Area’s local NFL teams in the Oakland Raiders and San Francisco 49ers. There’s even been some chatter that he could sneak into the tail end of the first round, although that seems unlikely.

Either way, Arcega-Whiteside could have one of the more impactful rookie seasons out of any receiver in this class and, when all is set and done, is the most prolific Bay Area prospect in this year’s draft.