While Virginia has other pressing needs, they have a significant amount of production to replace at the wide receiver position, after several key departures. The UVa staff took their first step towards filling that vacancy last month, when they added Purdue transfer Jahmal Edrine.

Edrine hails from Fort Lauderdale, and played two seasons with FAU before moving to Purdue. At FAU, Edrine had a quiet 2021 season with just one catch, but had a breakout year in 2022, catching 39 passes for 570 yards and six touchdowns. Edrine posted two 100 yard receiving games that year, including a nine-catch 105-yard performance against Ohio, which included two touchdown grabs.

Edrine transferred to Purdue after the big 2022 season, but unfortunately missed the entire 2023 season due to injury. He rehabbed and was back for last fall, where he played significant snaps for a bad Purdue team that went 1-11 and 0-11 against FBS opponents. Edrine wasn’t quite as productive as he was at FAU, but still made some impactful plays. He played nine games for Purdue, catching 23 passes for 365 yards and 2 touchdowns. His best game came against Northwestern, when he hauled in five passes for 54 yards and a score.

As we mentioned, UVa has quite a bit of production to place. Malachi Fields is gone and a lot of the production goes with him, but losing Chris Tyree, JR Wilson and starting tight end Tyler Neville leaves a lot of targets to replace. UVa seems to be okay doing that mostly with their existing roster, but a few additions makes sense, too.

Edrine is an interesting addition, in part because of his size. UVa has a lot of receivers on the roster already that are smaller, shiftier players that could play outside or in the slot. Edrine is more from the Fields mold, a big, physical target at 6-foot-3, 215 pounds. On his highlights, most of Edrine’s best plays come when he’s bodying up a defensive back and making a physical play, rather than simply running by defenders.

Edrine likely won’t come to UVa and suddenly catch 50 passes and become a WR1, but he certainly has a physicality that makes him a compliment to the existing roster. And he has more career production (63 career catches) than most of the existing receiver room has combined at this point.

Purdue cleaned house after the season, firing coach Ryan Walters and bringing in UNLV’s Barry Odom. Coaching changes always bring about more change on the roster, and perhaps Edrine is looking for a fresh start in what should be his final collegiate season. UVa has opportunity for playing time to be sure, and with Fields gone, the staff surely sold that opening as a role that Edrine could fill with the Hoos. They’re not the same player by any means, but UVa’s staff is surely still selling the success Malik Washington had in one year at Virginia, and how it helped him get drafted, where he’s now playing a meaningful role with the Miami Dolphins.

Edrine has a lot to prove with one year to go. Can he be the guy he was in 2022 with FAU, on a team that’s more competitive than 2024 Purdue? Is he unencumbered by his injury from 2023? His time at UVa should give him opportunities to show what he can do.

This is a tough one to predict. Edrine has shown some promise, but probably wasn’t as productive last fall as he hoped. Perhaps that was due in part to the fact that the Boilermakers were terrible and had several full games without crossing the goal line at all. We’ll soon see.

If there’s anything in particular that makes us more confident that Edrine will have a role, its his size. He has eight career touchdowns, more than UVa’s entire receiver room combined, and could be a red zone target if nothing else. We expect Edrine to at least be in the rotation, and perhaps a starter opposite Trell Harris, depending on how the rest of this transfer cycle plays out.