Tall long armed kid with good technique, natural skills, exemplary footwork & route IQ.
Started opposite of Micah Abraham as a True Sophomore last season & put up good numbers with 55tks 10PD's & 1INT. Played mostly as a Boundary, but also had a few snaps at Nickel & Field.
He's another Chevis Jackson kid who excelled early under his tutelage, much like Karon Prunty, Cobee Bryant Mello Dotson & others. Had a good coverage grade with his best games being against, NC ST, Old Dominion, App ST, JMU, G-ST, G-Southern & Ark ST. He's also very good against the run with an exceptionally high 80+ percentile run defender grade as a CB. Which means he did very well coming up in run support & laying a hat on somebody & from watching his games, he was most of the time in pursuit from the Boundary side, which means most of those tackles in run support were effort plays on back side cutbacks.
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From a technical aspect, he displayed advanced level technique & awareness for a kid starting his first season.
He does a really a good job utilizing his one/two-hand jam to keep his man in front of him & stifle routes. He completely disrupts the rhythm & timing of the release in order to intercede the stem while reshuffling his feet to break on the ball.
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Another thing he does really well is play with outside leverage. He walls the WR & presses to the inside hip to once again slow down & re-route before the stem not allowing for the WR to stack'em & get up field. And in the instances where he has to play to towards the outside shoulder of the WR coming over top he displays active hands making a play on the ball while not being grabby.
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Overall, this is very good add. He can play Press Man, Off coverage in Quarters & understands how to stay within the pocket to keep from getting beat immediately off the release. He's got good physicality at the line & has enough recovery speed to get back to the ball on in breaking routes, curls, comebacks etc.. He also adds another Corner to the group that allows for flexibility to move Mesh Powell to Free Safety & can put DP JR at Nickel in certain packages.
This is an upgrade over Ja'Dais Richard & Damari Brown, plus with his familiarity with Chevis teaching & Guidreaux's Defense, he'll be able to seamlessly transition without too much of a steep learning curve.
Great pickup!