6’1” – 210 lbs. – 4.45
Appeared in twenty-five games over the first two seasons of his career, then started nine of twelve games played as a junior, intercepting four passes. Reprised his starting role the following season to conclude his career. Tall, long, and well-built cornerback who checks all the boxes from a physical standpoint. Takes snaps on both sides of the defense and plays different techniques; predominantly a press-man corner, but does some shuffle/zone coverage as well. Able to use his size and length to disrupt receivers at the line of scrimmage, keeping his hands on opponents and sticking with them through the route; pretty good footwork to match the release at the line of scrimmage. Long-strider when shuffling; can cover a lot of ground. Appears to have solid top-end speed to carry receivers down the field; uses his size and length to pin them to the sidelines. Provides tight coverage on crossing routes over the middle of the field. Ball skills are a little bit difficult to evaluate because teams didn’t target him very often when he was in-phase during the games reviewed; recorded four interceptions and ten passes defensed over the past two seasons. Wasn’t targeted very often during the games reviewed but it looks important for him to be successful at disrupting releases at the line of scrimmage because there is some wasted motion/sloppiness to his movements at the route stem, something which could allow quarterbacks to pick on him with timing routes. Tendency to be a little bit handsy might put him at a somewhat higher risk of pass-interference calls at the next level. Played in a defense which often rotated all of their defensive backs over when there wasn’t a receiver on one side of the field, so took some occasional snaps as more of a safety. Likes to get physical in the run game. Attacks blockers and uses his size and length to work himself into position. Closes pretty quickly when working downhill and uses wrap tackling technique to bring down ballcarriers. Was also asked to do a lot of blitzing off the edge; does a good job of disguising his intentions and picked up 2.5 sacks this past season. Looks to be in the second-day conversation because of his physical gifts and his ability to get physical with opposing receivers and disrupt their timing out of press-man coverage.
DRAFTEXAMINER 