FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — When the Atlanta Falcons selected wide receiver Zachariah Branch with the 79^th pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, they added one of college football's most explosive playmakers who excels at gaining yards after the catch.

Branch has put those qualities on display during the team’s first few weeks of OTA practices as he continues to learn the offense and build chemistry with his new teammates. One such teammate is quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who joined Atlanta this offseason after spending his first six seasons with the Miami Dolphins.

In Miami, Tagovailoa threw passes to two of the league's fastest receivers: Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. Given the speed Branch displayed in college, and confirmed with a 4.35-second 40-yard dash time at the NFL Combine, Tagovailoa was recently asked how the Falcons' rookie receiver compared to his former teammates.

"I mean, dude's fast," Tagovailoa said. "Dude can play very shifty. Kind of reminds me of Waddle."

Nobody in the league directly compares to Hill, a potential future Hall of Famer whose speed broke defenses, but invoking Waddle's name is still a big compliment for Branch. How accurate is that comparison, though, and what does Waddle's NFL trajectory mean for the Falcons' rookie?

In three seasons at Alabama, Waddle caught 106 passes for 1,999 yards and 17 touchdowns. In his three college seasons — two at USC and one at Georgia — Branch caught 159 passes for 1,634 yards and 9 touchdowns. Both made big plays for their respective teams, but the notable difference lies in how they each used their incredible athleticism.

Waddle, who averaged 18.9 yards per reception at Alabama, was a downfield burner for the Crimson Tide. According to Pro Football Focus, 26 of Waddle's 141 targets in college came on plays where he was more than 20 yards downfield, with an average depth of target of 30.2 yards. He caught 21 of those targets for 798 yards and 8 touchdowns. Deep passes accounted for 40% of his yardage and 47% of his touchdowns.

Waddle made a lot happen after the catch, but his speed and agility were best utilized before the ball arrived.

Branch's gifts were the most dangerous when the ball was already in his hands.

According to Pro Football Focus, Branch was targeted 96 times and caught 92 passes behind the line of scrimmage in his college career. This happened in a variety of ways, ranging from a standard wide receiver screen to a bubble screen out of the backfield. The end goal was always the same: Get it to Branch quickly and let him go to work. He rewarded those efforts by picking up more than 10 yards per reception on screens and taking five of them for touchdowns, including four in 2025 for Georgia.

Branch forced 29 missed tackles and picked up 642 yards on passes behind the line of scrimmage, earning him the dynamic reputation that drew comparisons to Tagovailoa's former teammates in the first place. However, as we saw once Waddle reached the pros, there are reasons to believe Branch's game can continue to evolve beyond the way he was used at Georgia.

"I think I proved that at the combine and pro day," Branch said after he was drafted. "I can run every single route. ... Curls, deep digs, corners, comeback. I ran a corner — it looks like it's a corner – then I ran a stop, corner stop. Just being able to stop and start on a dime is something that I pride myself in. I've been able to run routes since high school."

Despite his downfield reputation in college, Waddle received only 12 targets beyond 20 yards as a rookie with Miami. That was without Hill on the roster, too, as he didn't join the Dolphins until the 2022 season.

Waddle's highest usage rate came in the short area of the field between 0 and 9 yards, according to Pro Football Focus. He was targeted 78 times, 56.5% of his total target share, and caught 62 passes in that space while primarily running various out routes, hitches, slants and crossers. These allowed him to get the ball quickly and try to make plays after the catch.

In his second year, Waddle's deployment changed. His number of targets between 0 and 9 yards dropped to 36, and he saw a big uptick in passes beyond 10 yards down the field. He was targeted 77 times on passes of 10-plus yards, with a big portion of those coming on vertical plays like posts or go routes. Waddle still had a significant amount of crossing and out routes, but this expansion in usage allowed him to lead the NFL with 18.1 yards per reception in 2022.

He has maintained that larger route tree since that second season, finding his home in the deep intermediate part of the defense, which allows him to take advantage of more spacing behind the linebackers. Branch has the skill set to follow a similar trajectory as he grows as well.

With established downfield options like Drake London and Kyle Pitts in place, most of Branch's work could easily come in the short area of the field as a rookie. Aside from Ray-Ray McCloud in 2024, the Falcons haven't had a receiver truly thrive in that 0-9-yard range since Russell Gage, who gained 770 yards with an average depth of target of 9.3 yards in 2021. If Branch's dime-stopping agility proves as effective in the NFL as it did in college, he could quickly help create more space for his teammates by forcing defenses to cover every blade of grass.

In many ways, Branch is even better equipped for that role in Year 1 than Waddle was, based on how they played in college. The real question is whether his route tree expands as much as Waddle's did, but the tools are in place for that to happen.

"He's a guy you can give the ball to, whether it's in space, running routes, but we see him with a little bit bigger route tree than maybe you got to see on Saturdays in college," Falcons pass game coordinator Tanner Engstrand said. "As he continues to get acclimated, we hope to see that continue to grow."