This season, the Green Bay Packers made their 19th consecutive selection, with Ole Miss wide receiver Malik Heath becoming the first undrafted rookie from the Week 1 roster to make the final 53rd pick.
Thanks to a stellar preseason, the Packers left the Heat with five more draft picks behind them: Christian Watson, Romeo Dubs, Jaden Reed, Dontayvion Weeks and Samory Toure. During the preseason, Matt LaFleur praised Heath’s toughness, calling him “a talented young player and someone I’d like to see how he reacts to certain situations.” The rankings make it difficult for players like the Heat to bounce back, let alone bounce back in the regular season.
That’s how the year started for the Heat, who took just 83 snaps on offense and special teams through the first 10 weeks and was inactive in five of those games. However, the Heat have only taken 176 snaps since Week 10, including scrimmages, due to serious injuries to Watson, Reed and Weeks. Given additional opportunities, Heath is starting to show the ability to find the ball in the air, generate yards after the catch and make blocks.
On the Heat’s first touchdown against the New York Giants, he made a nice catch on Jordan Love’s outside shoulder that only the Heat had a chance to catch. The impressive part of the catch is that Heath has enough body control to turn, immediately locate the ball, catch it, turn to the post and break the plane with the defender behind him. When it comes to Heat yards after the catch, there haven’t been enough catches to generate any real statistical trends.
However, he has shown flashes in space to get his hands on the ball and demonstrate the ability to make someone miss. Against the Kansas City Chiefs, Heath took a screen pass, made a good move in open space, made a defender miss and turned his shoulder to the second defender for extra yards to go ahead and win impulse. Most importantly, Heath looks natural with the ball in his hands. He is not afraid of contact and will do anything to gain extra distance.
Heath has shown a natural ability to catch and run, but his most notable and impressive ability is blocking. Take a look below as the Heat take on the Detroit Lions, a player on the move. He doesn’t just place a block behind the defense, he continues to do so until he puts the opponent down. This is a robbery. The Heat had another great block last week against the Carolina Panthers, setting up Aaron Jones’ 39-yard touchdown run, Green Bay’s longest run of the day.
Heath does a great job holding his block long enough for Jones to get past him and the defender. The great thing about this play is that the Heat are intrigued not only by their blocks, but also by Jones’ big plays. That kind of energy is inspiring to Heath, his coaches and teammates alike, and it shows that Heath doesn’t just play for himself, but for everyone around him.
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