Shaleak Knotts

Senior wide receiver for Maryland. 2025: 44 catches, 717 receiving yards, 6 TD.

WR · Maryland · Sr. · #4

6′3″ · 194 lb · Monroe, NC

CFB Index 64 · #108 of 485 WRsHigh confidenceReturning to Maryland for 2026

How he plays

Beats you over the top.

Yards / catch: 93rd percentile.

The full scouting read

The numbers

717

receiving yards · 2025

44 catches · 6 TD · 16.3 per catch

Swing playSwung Illinois from 50% to 71% to win.Maryland at Illinois · 24-6

His career numbers, season by season

The story

4 wide receiver for Maryland. 2025: 44 catches, 717 receiving yards, 6 TD.

Signed as a 4-star recruit to Maryland in 2022.

His career, year by year

Shaleak Knotts

WR · Maryland · Sr · #4

Beats you over the top. He has spent four seasons in the Maryland receiving corps. The receipt on tape: 139 rec yds, 8 receptions against Michigan State, Week 14, 2025.

Low coverage — composed from the verified record.

positional archetype classification
seasons on the roster
game log

2025 snapshot

Season context · Team result + system

4 seasons under Mike Locksley — 24-26 over that span.

2022Maryland8-5HC: Mike Locksley · Balanced

2023Maryland8-5HC: Mike Locksley · Pass-leaning

2024Maryland4-8HC: Mike Locksley · Pass-leaning

2025Maryland4-8HC: Mike Locksley · Pass-leaning

Where this profile ranks vs the WR cohort

Box-score + play-by-play EPA percentiles

64Quality starter #108 of 485?

High confidenceBreakout10 metrics · season cumulative

Elite: yards / catch (93rd percentile). Strength: td rate (89th percentile). Concern: catch rate (7th percentile).

Real play-by-play efficiency

Yards / catch#60 / 798 · 93rd pct

16.4

TD rate#91 / 798 · 89th pct

6.2%

Explosive rate#159 / 798 · 80th pct

15.0%

EPA / target#318 / 798 · 60th pct

0.48

Catch rate#745 / 798 · 7th pct

52.5%

Box-score rates (5)

Rec TDs#56 / 558 · 87th pct

Yards / catch#77 / 558 · 86th pct

16.3

Rec yards#101 / 558 · 82nd pct

717

Long catch#138 / 558 · 74th pct

Receptions#153 / 558 · 72nd pct

Season trend

EPA / target— first qualifying season

Explosive rate— first qualifying season

Catch rate— first qualifying season

TD rate— first qualifying season

Yards / catch— first qualifying season

Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season. Most bars are box-score rates; EPA / success-rate bars are computed from real play-by-play (offense only — no defensive EPA model exists yet).

Situational

Situational · Share of own targets (PBP, 2025)

Third-down role

34%27 of his 80 targets came on third down · Receiver median is 24%

Splits & context

Splits · Per-game

2025 season · 11 games

Home/Road · Season halves

Home vs Road

	REC/g	YDS/g	YPR	TD/g
Home6g	4.0	61.5	16.8	0.5
Road5g	4.0	69.6	16.8	0.6

First half vs Second half

	REC/g	YDS/g	YPR	TD/g
Weeks 1-76g	3.8	61.2	17.8	0.8
Weeks 8+5g	4.2	70.0	15.6	0.2

Supporting cast · Scheme

Staff and system around the player

2026 season

Head Coach

Mike Locksley

Scheme reads (pass share, tempo, sack rate) need at least 3 team games — 2 games in so far.

Awards

Player standing · 2025

Rotational

Earning real snaps in the rotation without a starting job.

Recognition

Roster2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex

Production · CFB Index Score

64 · #108 of 485 WRs

Former four-star. Now #108 at the position.

2026 outlook

Outside shot for All-Big Ten

Based on 2025: #13 of 61 Big Ten WRs

How the All-Big Ten estimate is computed

22% estimated, 95% confidence interval 19–25%. Base rate measured from players who finished at a comparable rank in their conference and came back the next season. It is an estimate from a small sample, not a forecast of this player.

Career stats

Season	Team
2025	Maryland	44	717	16.3	6	--
2024	Maryland	11	161	14.6	1	--
2023	Maryland	7	55	7.9	0	--
2022	Maryland	5	30	6.0	0	--
Career		67	963	14.4	7	--

Season	Team
2025	Maryland	--	--	--	--	--
2024	Maryland	--	--	--	--	--
2023	Maryland	--	--	--	--	--
2022	Maryland	1	7	--	--	--
Career		1	7	--	--	--

Signature game

SIGNATURE GAME · Week 3 · 2025

W 44–17

vs Towson

4 rec · 79 yds · 1 TD

Dominant 27-point win at home against Towson.

With M. Washington — 261 yds · 1 TD · 1 INT · QBR 94.8 · 29 rush yds (3 car) · 1 TD · B. McFerson — 48 AVG · 1 IN 20 · 52 LONG

Signature plays

Signature plays · top plays by |EPA|

The plays that mattered most

fact

Week 2 · Northern Illinois · 4&5 · Q4 · EPA +5.67Malik Washington pass complete to Shaleak Knotts for 42 yds for a TD (Sean O'Haire KICK)
Week 4 · Wisconsin · 1&10 · Q4 · EPA +4.95Malik Washington pass complete to Shaleak Knotts for 62 yds for a TD (Sean O'Haire KICK)
Week 14 · Michigan State · 3&8 · Q4 · EPA +4.21Shotgun #7 M.Washington pass complete short middle to #4 S.Knotts caught at UMD21, for 47 yards to the MSU35 (#30 A.Grose), 1ST DOWN
Week 14 · Michigan State · 3&10 · Q3 · EPA +3.76Shaleak Knotts 25 Yd pass from Malik Washington (Sean O'Haire Kick)
Week 1 · Florida Atlantic · 2&14 · Q2 · EPA +3.65Malik Washington pass complete to Shaleak Knotts for 29 yds for a TD (Sean O'Haire KICK)
Week 8 · UCLA · 2&10 · Q1 · EPA +3.43Malik Washington pass complete to Shaleak Knotts for 32 yds to the UCLA 43 for a 1ST down
Week 13 · Michigan · 3&8 · Q1 · EPA +3.33(13:56) Shotgun #7 M.Washington pass complete deep left to #4 S.Knotts caught at MIC25, for 29 yards to the MIC24, out of bounds at MIC24, 1ST DOWN, PENALTY MIC UNS: Unsportsmanlike Conduct declined
Week 6 · Washington · 2&13 · Q3 · EPA +3.27Malik Washington pass complete to Shaleak Knotts for 14 yds to the WASH 36 for a 1ST down Washington Penalty, Personal Foul (Jacob Manu) to the WASH 49 for a 1ST down
Week 14 · Michigan State · 3&10 · Q3 · EPA +3.25No Huddle-Shotgun #7 M.Washington pass complete deep middle to #4 S.Knotts caught at UMD47, for 23 yards to the UMD50 (#7 J.Eaton; #14 M.Bell), 1ST DOWN
Week 12 · Illinois · 3&9 · Q4 · EPA +3.12(14:29) Shotgun #7 M.Washington pass complete short middle to #4 S.Knotts caught at ILL39, for 16 yards to the ILL39, End Of Play, 1ST DOWN

Game log

Game log · Week-by-week

2025 season · 11 games

Box score · CFBD

Wk	Opp	REC	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG	Note
Wk 1	W 39-7vs Florida Atlantic	5	59	11.8	1	29
Wk 2	W 20-9vs Northern Illinois	2	58	29.0	1	42
Wk 3	W 44-17vs Towson	4	79	19.8	1	33
Wk 4	W 27-10@ Wisconsin	3	80	26.7	2	62	2 TD catches
Wk 6	L 20-24vs Washington	4	29	7.3	0	14
Wk 7	L 31-34vs Nebraska	5	62	12.4	0	22
Wk 8	L 17-20@ UCLA	3	54	18.0	0	32
Wk 11	L 20-35@ Rutgers	2	13	6.5	0	11
Wk 12	L 6-24@ Illinois	4	62	15.5	0	19
Wk 13	L 20-45vs Michigan	4	82	20.5	0	31
Wk 14	L 28-38@ Michigan State	8	139	17.4	1	47	Season-high 139 yds
Total		44	717	16.8	6	62

How he plays

Play style

Stretches the field vertically. Every snap is a potential big play.

CFB Index positional classification

Money down · 3rd-down role

Catch rate says one thing, EPA says another

checked · no story

9/273rd-down conversions

0.713rd-down EPA/target

0.37Other-downs EPA/target

11 of 27 caught on third down (40.7%) — EPA/target 0.71 vs 0.37 elsewhere (9 conversions).

Catch rate is disclosed context only, never the gate — conversions and EPA/target are. Interception targets carry no attribution row at any source, so EPA/target here is unfixably, slightly inflated.

2026 Outlook

Maryland

Preseason read · May 27

2026 Depth chart

Returning starter

Wide receiver · Maryland

Returning around him

54% of 2024 offensive production back (Solid continuity)
1 Maryland player drafted to NFL
Transfer portal: -2 net (14 in / 16 out)

2026 Award watch

No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)

Maryland · Last season: 4-8 · Talent rank #46 · 2026 recruiting class #43

DNA match

Player DNA

Deep Threat

Stretches the field vertically. Every snap is a potential big play.

His 2025 production profile sits closest to Jason Brownlee’s 2020 season.

Jason Brownlee

80%match

Southern Miss · 2020

All-Conference USA

Lawrence Arnold

Kansas · 2022

80%

Nick Nash

San José State · 2023

All-Mountain West

78%

Michael Jefferson

Louisiana · 2022

All-Sun Belt

78%

Anthony Smith

East Carolina · 2025

All-AAC

78%

Matches Jason on

Yards / reception

Reception volume

Weight

Differs from Jason on

Recruiting rating (higher)

Class year (higher)

Through 2 college seasons, his career arc tracks closest to Beau Kelly’s path through Portland State.

Beau Kelly

100%match

Portland State · 2022

Tre Nixon

UCF · 2020

NFL Rd 7

100%

Will Vereen

South Carolina State · 2021

99%

Jalen Coker

Holy Cross · 2023

93%

Ja'Cory Thomas

Old Dominion · 2025

91%

Matches Beau on

Yards per reception

As a senior, his production profile tracks closest to Ramel Keyton's senior season at Tennessee (2023).

Ramel Keyton

85%match

Tennessee · 2023

Chase Roberts

BYU · 2025

All-Big 12

74%

Christan Horn

App State · 2023

72%

Marcus Rosemy

Georgia · 2023

72%

Emmanuel Henderson Jr.

Kansas · 2025

All-Big 12NFL Rd 6

70%

Matches Ramel on

Total EPA (college ability)

EPA / play (adj)

Reception volume

Differs from Ramel on

Recruiting rating (lower)

Player DNA

Players who play like Shaleak Knotts

Anthony Smith

East Carolina · 2025

78%

Stats from CFBD · ESPN · fan discourse. Every figure computed from source tables — not invented. Methodology

20225 games

2025 snapshot

Situational

Splits & context

Awards

Rotational

Career stats

Signature game

Signature plays

Game log

How he plays

DNA match

Deep Threat

Players who play like Shaleak Knotts