Die-hard Canes fan here. First, White wasn't his college teammate, not sure where that came from. But everything else you wrote is an accurate description of Dorsett, at least from his time at UM. He seems to be getting pigeonholed as a pure speed guy, but he actually ran very solid routes in college. He was a pretty well-rounded, explosive receiver that was hamstrung by mediocre QB play and spectacularly poor coaching.Umm, are we sure that Dorsett is going to be strictly a vertical threat?
His 3-cone drill score was 4th among all WRs in 2015. That's ahead of Amari Cooper (drafted 4th) and Kevin White (drafted 7th):
http://www.nfl.com/combine/top-performers#year=2015&workout=THREE_CONE_DRILL&position=WR
Matt Kelley -- a Patriots fan who runs the highly entertaining RotoUnderWorld YouTube channel had this to say in 2016:
So, even though he's been labeled a "bust" by many, Dorsett is explosive off the line of scrimmage, has decent route-running, (according to James White--his college teammate) is "hard working", is a willing (if not always successful) blocker, and by all reports is coachable with no off-field concerns.
What's scary here is that in the Pats system Cooks and Dorsett can both play the slot and outside on any given formation. The safeties have to respect the speed too. If there's any room in the middle because of that, Gronk/Allen/Name-Your-Pass-Catching-RB can eat up the middle.
That's my uneducated take. Thoughts?
I can't speak to how he's looked the last two seasons in Indy, but I was very happy to hear this news. If he picks up the Pats' offense (I have no reason to believe he's not capable of doing so), I think he can provide a lot more value than many in this thread might think.