Laviska Shenault Opens Up About Toughness

Laviska Shenault's toughness jumps off the screen. Every analyst that discusses him as a prospect talk about his unique running style for a wide receiver.

A wide receiver that runs like a running back in a linebacker's body, if you will.

In 'A Letter to NFL GMs', a letter Shenault wrote on The Player's Tribune, he talks about how that toughness was instilled in him at a young age and how it just kept building.

Shenault used to play a game called 'Sideline Kill' with his friends in the neighborhood. It is basically a game of two-hand touch football in the street. The catch is if you are near the sidelines, or grass, then you can be tackled.

"Everyone in my neighborhood played that game like our lives depended on it, even the little kids," Shenault wrote on Player's Tribune. "Some of the fiercest hits I’ve ever seen, taken and delivered were in Sideline Kill. It was common for kids to limp on home and not come back around for a few days."

Shenault had the toughness instilled in him by his father at a young age and games like Sideline Kill continued to develop it.

"Sideline Kill definitely gave me a real lesson in toughness, and in how to play with pain, which I had no clue at the time would be so necessary to playing college football," Shenault penned in The Player's Tribune. "And I can assume is absolutely necessary to playing wide receiver in the National Football League."

Shenault also discussed how that game and how he grew up playing football helped shape him as a football player.

He described himself not as a wide receiver but a football player. His receivers coach at Colorado, Darrin Chiaverini, describes him as an, "Offensive weapon."

"I mean, yes, I line up at receiver a lot," Shenault wrote on The Player's Tribune. "And I catch a ton of passes. And I definitely pride myself on my route-running and receiving skills. But more than anything else, at the end of the day, I’m a football player."

The big receiver discussed growing up playing tight end his first two years of high school football and how Desoto figured out they could use him all over. So when he got to Colorado he was already acclimated to being used as a weapon.

He also got into his player comparisons. He believes he is a mix between Jarvis Landry, Julio Jones and Larry Fitzgerald.

Shenault delivered the message that scouts need to quit comparing him to the other receivers in this draft. He is a completely different animal.

Shenault has been mocked from the first round to the third round. It appears analysts have no idea where he is going to land.

He is currently around +300 on most sportsbooks to go in the first round.