Long armed rangy Athlete with versatility to play Nickel/STAR or Safety, but projects best at Boundary Corner.
Has very good smooth footwork skating his feet coming out of his stance while playing in Press Man. Does a good job maintaining eye discipline in Nickel playing against outside stems on quick breaking routes.
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As you can see here;
- Skates his feet on the initial release
- Plants his left foot while reading the WR's stem
- Immediately recognizes the slant route
- Gets upfield at an angle to close the distance to the WR
- Plays to the outside shoulder while getting his left hand underneath to make a play on the ball.
- Plays through the WR's hands & gets the breakup/PD
Very good coverage on a quick slant route that usually ends up as a catch. It's a short & simple route that's not easy to defend because a lot of Corners with hook the WR with their off hand & get called for a P.I., but in this instance he played correctly exactly how you teach it.
What I like the most about him at Boundary is the prototype arm length that is crucial to playing that side of the field.
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- Playing outside leverage
- Immediate hip turn
- Initiate jam, square shoulders & steer the WR
- Reads the 5 route & collapses the route by flattening the angle of the brake
- Smoothly shuffles his feet to get perpendicular to the WR
- Presses to the sideline
- Walls off the chest of the WR by getting his hands up
- Eyes up on the QB with good route awareness knowing he doesn't need to look at the WR
- Makes a play on the ball & gets the breakup/PD
Again, not an easy route to defend, you'll see a lot of Corners over commit to playing a 9 route & get lost on the comeback break. Him getting the WR to the sideline closing the distance & walling him off made the route a dead end play. That's route recognition & good recovery technique to get back to the ball & not the allow the WR any room to make the catch. Those are the kind of routes you'll see often on the Boundary side & can be a struggle for a lot of Corners.
Here he is again at Nickel, this time playing Off Quarters coverage l.
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- Quick route recognition
- Breaks at an angle to cut off the route
- Meets the WR at the catch point
- Plays over top to the outside shoulder
- Turns into the WR while breaking on the ball & giving himself better position to get his hands inside the catch point
- Plays through the hands & gets the breakup/PD
This was basically an easy pitch & catch Curl route against an Off look in Quarters. All the WR has to do is run 5-6yds & sit. It's not a full on Bang 8 because you have to 2 LB's dropping back in that Zone so you don't run it all the way through in order to keep from having your QB throw a potential pick in traffic. When you're in off coverage there's not much you can do against that route because it's a free release & he's already 5+ yards up the field before you even know which leverage he's stemming towards.
But, T-Money makes a very smart read & immediately breaks to cut the route off & plays to break the ball up at the WR. He could've easily just let him catch it, get a tackle & live to fight another down, but the fact he stayed active & didn't just give him the catch it what I like/love from CB's. That's the kind of awareness & aggressiveness you need to excel at the next level. The play ain't over until you say so, that's the mentality every CB needs to have, but so few do.
This is a good pick up for Miami early in the Summer cycle. Chevis's first HS recruit/verbal & it checks off most of the boxes. He's very similar to another Alabama Corner that Chevis eval'd, recruited & signed at Kansas, JaCobee (Cobee) Bryant, who was also a Safety in HS with a 87 3-star rating, but has developed into one of the best Corners in CFB coming into his Junior year.
Merritt doesn’t have blazing speed, but he's not slow either. 10.9 100m is good, anything sub 11 is good. Idk if that's verified, but eye test he looks to have low 4.5 ish speed which is fine.
But the rest of his attributes, physically & his football IQ make him a plus add.
Like most HS Corners, will need to have his technique refined & learn more tricks of the trade, but with development can be a good Boundary or STAR at the next level.
Now, here comes the hard part; figuring out if this is a placeholder commit or if we can hang onto him. If we can keep him committed after his visits to Auburn & Tennessee & make it to ENSD with him still in this class it'll be a very good pick up to start the foundation for the CB haul.
But again, just have to survive those AU & Tenn visits & keep him in the class.
As far as potential Portal entry, I can't see the future, so just keep that in mind you fkin psychos.
Welcome to the U.
