Georgia Football: Don’t sleep on Jermaine Burton in 2021
By Eric Taylor
Georgia football’s second-year receiver is ready to breakout.
Going into the 2021 season, there is a lot of talk about what JT Daniels and George Pickens can do together for good reason. However, don’t let that make you forget about a young kid by the name of Jermaine Burton. The kid is a killer and he could quite possibly be the most dangerous receiver for Georgia football this season.
In Georgia football’s first six games of the 2020 season, Burton caught 11 of the 29 passes thrown his way. Nine of those 11 catches went for first downs and another one went for a touchdown. So it goes without saying that when Burton gets the ball in his hands good things happen.
According to SEC Stat Cat, ten of Burton’s first 29 targets were uncatchable. That leaves 19 passes that were on target and Burton caught 11 of those, dropping four others, giving him a catch percentage of 58. However, these numbers got a heck of a lot better when Daniels took over the reins of the offense.
With Daniels at quarterback, Burton caught 16 of the 24 targets, seven of those 16 catches went for first downs and two went for touchdowns. Just four of those passes were deemed uncatchable which gave Burton an adjusted catch percentage of 80. Burton’s production jumped up in a big way with Daniels at quarterback.
Over the first six games, Burton averaged 13.09 yards per catch, 12.14 average depth of target, 3.45 explosive pass play percentage, and had a 34.48 success rate. Over the last four games of the season, Burton averaged 16.56 yards per catch, 15.63 average depth of target, 12.50 explosive pass play percentage, and had a 50 .00 success rate.
In year two, with Daniels at quarterback from game one, expect Burton to take off. He was Daniels’ second-favorite target behind Pickens so expect him to be looked to quite often in 2021. If Burton can stay healthy he could get around 700 yards and 7 touchdowns this season, and that is on the low end of his possible production. Burton is no doubt Georgia’s future WR1.
Burton’s best attribute is his route running. He can run any route on the route tree. Which makes him a nightmare to cover because you never know what he is going to do. He crossed up more than a few defensive backs as a freshman, just wait until they see him after a full offseason getting to know Todd Monken’s offense.
This season is lining up to be a fun one and Burton is a big reason for that. He is just one of the many weapons Georgia football’s offense can throw at a defense, but they better pay him close attention or he can do quite a bit of damage by himself. Team him up with all the rest of the receiving options, which includes tight ends and running backs, for Georgia and defenses are going to have their hands full this fall.