Malachi Fields Scouting Report

Malachi Fields has all of the physical traits, from height and weight to speed and quickness, to be a dominant X-receiver in the NFL.

Draft Grade: Round 2 - Winning Starter

Strengths:

Versatility: Fields’ size, fluid movements, and power allow him to be an alignment-versatile receiver and be highly productive.

Explosive Plays: Whether it's short catches that he converts into explosive run-after-the-catch situations or deep passes that he hauls in, Fields can create explosive plays for an offense.

Contested Catch/Strong Hands: Fields thrives in high-traffic, contested catch situations where he does a great job of extending his hands for a wide catch radius and body control. He also shows the focus to track the football and haul in the pass with multiple defenders in his area.

RAC: The combination of Fields' overall size with his quickness and power makes him a difficult tackle for defenders in the open field. 

Concerns:

Top-End Speed: What is his top-end speed? Can he consistently separate vertically to be used as a deep threat?

Route Running: Fields can benefit from becoming a more detailed route runner to help him create separation from top NFL defensive backs. 

Malachi Fields Summary/Projection:

Malachi Fields is a redshirt senior wide receiver who began his collegiate career at the University of Virginia. Fields transferred to Notre Dame for the 2025 season. Fields, in his career, has made an impact offensively, becoming a reliable target for the quarterback. Fields possesses elite physical tools—from his height and weight to his overall athleticism—which give him the ceiling to be a physically dominant receiver in the NFL.

Watching Fields, the first thing that stands out is his size and length. Fields is listed at 6’4" and 222 pounds, which puts him as one of the bigger receiver prospects in this 2026 draft class. Fields is often a lot bigger than the defensive backs that line up across from him, which he uses to his advantage in multiple areas of his game.

Fields is an alignment-versatile receiver that can play the big power slot role if needed, but he has the rare combination of size, quickness, and strength to be an X-receiver and handle press man for the full duration of a game. In his releases, Fields has a mixed bag and an array of releases. He can opt to win with quickness and use jab steps or diamond releases to create space, or he can also rip through press-man situations and power through. Into his route stem, Fields is a high-IQ player who understands how to use different tempos to get to his spot and create separation on in-breaking routes when facing man-to-man defense. Against zone, Fields showcases his IQ as a receiver and does a good job of finding the open spaces in zone defense and settling down to be a target for the quarterback. On vertical deep routes, Fields can stack defensive backs and then begin to separate when he opens his stride and starts to put distance between him and the defender—whether it’s go routes, posts, or deep over routes. Although Fields is a big receiver prospect, he can sink his hips and has the hip fluidity to run the entire route tree effectively.

After the catch, with the ball in his hands, is where Fields showcases his unique set of skills. After the catch, Fields showcases his lateral agility and short-area quickness to make defenders miss in space and continue upfield. Fields has the lateral quickness to force arm tackles by defenders, but then, with his size and power, he runs through arm tackles. Fields, with his size, is a tough tackle for defenders one-on-one and often takes multiple players to bring him down. Because of Fields' ability to pick up extra yardage, he can be used as a player in the quick game (such as screens) to get the ball to him quickly and let him then turn into a powerful runner to pick up yardage. Fields’s overall size and power, utilized in run-after-catch ability, can turn him into a dynamic offensive weapon for NFL teams.

Fields' biggest concern as a player would be the question of his top-end speed and whether he can consistently separate from defensive backs with elite speed. Fields can win vertically at the end of routes to create an explosive play, but most of his deep explosive plays come via his ability to make difficult contested catches.