Syracuse Football: Jamal Custis impresses in East West Shrine Game

Former Syracuse football wideout Jamal Custis impressed the right people at the East West Shrine Game on Saturday and made the most of his opportunities.

Former Syracuse football wide receiver Jamal Custis had a rare opportunity on Saturday in the East-West Shrine Game and he took full advantage of it.

The East-West Shrine Game is the longest running college football all-star game in the nation. This is a unique platform for some of the best college football players in the country to strut their stuff.

Although it’s not a normal football game, there are special rules including on offense: the formations must be balanced and there are no motion or shifts allowed. While defensively you can only play cover 1, 2, or 3 and there is no stunts or blitzes allowed.

Harold Richardson, the Executive Director of the East-West Shrine game said on the television broadcast when he was sifting through what players he wanted in this game, he kept his personal feelings out of it. Harold said the deciding factor of whether a player was in this game or not was based on who NFL teams wanted to take a closer look at.

That sounds like great news for the two Syracuse football players, Jamal Custis and Chris Slayton, who were representing in the game.

Jamal Custis was a starting receiver for the East team and really got a ton of snaps in this ball game. But as you see above, when you’re playing with players that you didn’t even know a week before this game, chemistry can be a hard thing to create in such a short amount of time.

Finally though with seven minutes left in the second quarter former Syracuse wide receiver Jamal Custis caught his first pass of the game, where he ran a five yard curl route. That wasn’t the impressive part though, it took five members of the West defense to be able to bring down his 6-foot-5 frame.

But a harsh reality was revealed in this game, Jamal isn’t going to get the ball on every play. So he’s got to show that his 6-foot-5 frame is good for more then just catching touchdowns, he’s got to prove he’s a willing blocker.

Another part of the game that is a given for players who aren’t taken in the first three rounds of the NFL Draft, you’re going to have to play special teams. Jamal spoke about that with football analyst Emory Hunt ahead of the game and the role special teams has had in his career:

https://twitter.com/FBallGameplan/status/1085729679628271616

"Emory Hunt, Owner of Football Gameplan, had this to say about Jamal Custis after the game:“He was able to show both nuance and versatility. Custis, even as a big guy, can definitely play inside or make himself a home on the outside. He did a great job this week showcase his deep speed as well. In my eyes, I thought he definitely raised his stock this week.”"

With less then eight and a half minutes remaining in the third quarter Jamal Custis was targeted on a somewhat deep 15-20 yard route. Based on the film, it didn’t appear as if Custis worked his way back to the football to help his quarterback out and it resulted in an interception.

After a moment of weakness, we then witnessed the best moment of the entire game for Jamal Custis. With four minutes and 30 seconds remaining in the third quarter, Purdue (East) quarterback David Blough connected with Custis on what appeared to be a routine third down three yard in/slant route, but it was anything but.

A lot of positives here for Jamal on this play. He converted on third down, he displayed his physicality that he can bring with his size, and then that juicy YAC (yards after catch/contact) that NFL teams covet. This is a play NFL scouts are going to be talking about for a long time.

After the play NFL Draft Analyst Daniel Jeremiah had this additional commentary as Custis as a prospect:

"“When you have a receiver as big as Jamal Custis, he’s going to be comfortable with everything running away: verticals, slants, posts, and go routes. He’s going to have the challenge of being that big when you have to gear down and work back towards the quarterback, that’s the challenge. Your height certainly benefits you in the red zone, but he’s going to have to continue to work getting out of his breaks.”"

Right after these comments, the East team was lined up in a three wide receiver set at the six-yard line and tried to do exactly that with Custis in a one-on-one matchup running the fade route. That’s really where Jamal can make his bread and butter, by maximizing his size in the red zone.

Perhaps the most underrated play of the day came late in the fourth quarter with the East team driving to tie the game. On a 1st and 20 play, Jamal Custis was lined up at the bottom of the formation and clearly as you’ll see on the tape look back, this play was not designed to go to him, but it didn’t matter.

This is the old scramble drill, a little bit of backyard football here, but I love how Custis fought back towards the football and helped his quarterback out. Especially when you consider earlier in the game where Jamal didn’t come back to the football and it cost his team an interception.

Jamal Custis finished the day with four receptions for 55 yards.

So how impressive was Jamal’s day? Don’t take my word for it, here are several members of The Draft Network giving me their exclusive thoughts via text after the game:

"Kyle Crabbs (@GrindingTheTape) Senior NFL Draft Analyst & co-host of “The Draft Dudes” podcast: “Jamal Custis was impressive with his physical play. I’d like to see him be more comfortable to catch the ball away from his body, but I definitely appreciated his separation skills when stacking defenders.”Trevor Sikkema (@TampaBayTre) NFL Draft for The Draft Network: “Jamal had a great week here at the East-West Shrine Game. Used his big body well and they even got him the ball downfield a good amount. Showed he had more than just size. Combine time in the 40-yard dash could hold the key to him being a top-100 pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.”"

After receiving that text from Trevor, I followed up with what 40-yard dash time would put him in that conversation?

"“4.55 or better.”"

From sources at the East-West Shrine Game, Jamal has been telling scouts his last timed 40 yard dash was a 4.48 and he believes he can get it under 4.45 by the NFL Scouting Combine. If Jamal and Trevor are correct, we could see the highest drafted Syracuse football player since Jay Bromley back in 2014 (third round pick, 74th overall prospect).