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The Cowboys held their 30 national visits earlier this month, lets take a deep dive into one of the prospects.
This series will examine all draft prospects that have official invites to Valley Ranch. Previous research has shown these players are the most likely to be drafted by the Cowboys. For more explanation, read the opening paragraphs here.
Name: Jalen Ramsey
Position: Defensive Back
School: Florida State
Height: 6’ 1 1/4"
Weight: 209 LBs
Intangibles/Honors:
2015
First Team All-American - ESPN, Walter Camp, AFCA
Second Team All-American - AP, FWAA, Sporting News, CBSSports.com, SI.com, USA Today Sports
All-ACC First Team (Media & Coaches)
Thorpe Award, Bednarik Trophy and Lott IMPACT Trophy semifinalist
2014
Second Team All-PAC 12
2014
All-ACC First Team (Media & Coaches)
First Team All-American - USA Today, Scout.com
Second Team All-American - AP, FWAA, Sporting News, SI.com
Athletic Profile
pSparq Score: 142.8 Z-Score: 2.5 NFL Percentile: 99.3
pSparq is an approximation of the "Sparq Score" metric invented by NIKE (with the help of former USC and current Seattle Seahawks Head Coach, Pete Carroll), designed as a way to standardize athletic testing of High School athletes and interpret their athleticism with a sport specific formula. By standardizing a single metric composed of multiple athletic test results, it becomes possible to compare players to the athletic testing scores of players in past draft classes, and to provide context as to how a player will compare athletically to his peers at the NFL level. The Z-Score represents the number of standard deviations (sigma) above or below the mean at a particular position that player falls, 84% of players will have a Z-score of less than 1, 98% will have a Z-score of less than 2, and 99.87% will fall below a Z-Score of 3. There are currently a total of four players who are "3 Sigma Athletes" in the NFL, JJ Watt, Byron Jones, Evan Mathis, and Lane Johnson. For more on pSparq,(and the man behind the math Zach Whitman) check out 3sigmaathlete.com
Measurables vs others at his position:
Note: This spider graph provides a visual representation of a players’ measurable traits, and combine results. The filled in area of the chart, as well as the number in the light grey circle represents the percentile among the player’s peers by position. A score of 85 here represents that out of every 100 players at his position, the player has a better result in that test than 85 of those 100.
Games Studied: Miami, Louisville, Miami (2014), Notre Dame (2014)
Passing Game:
In Ramsey’s career at Florida State, he played outside cornerback, slot, deep safety and box safety. His combination of size, attitude, and athleticism makes him a dynamic and flexible player no matter where he’s asked to line up. He shows awareness of offensive concepts when in coverage, whether inside or outside, and puts himself in position to make plays. In 2015 he played boundary corner for the Seminoles’ which means that the scheme often rolled coverage away from him to put more bodies to the field. The majority of the time at corner he lined up in press, and showed good but not fully-developed technique in his jam, and his athleticism allowed him to mirror the receiver, and stay in phase. As an inside player he was extremely effective as a blitzer off the edge, and uses his size well when covering opposing tight ends. As a zone player, he plays well both underneath and deep and squeezes the available windows for opposing quarterbacks.
Run Game:
Defensive backs are often judged exclusively by their coverage ability. However, with his mindset and physicality, Ramsey has the ability to step up and challenge blockers, while staying true to his assignment within the scheme. He is a sure tackler who doesn’t shy away from contact, and will stick his nose in to make a physical tackle to shut down a run right at the sticks to prevent a first down, or set up second and long.
Conclusion/Cowboys Projection:
Jalen Ramsey is the number one overall player on my Dallas-flavored draft board. The 2014 game against Miami was quite possibly the most dynamic game I’ve ever witnessed from a defensive back at any position at any level. People point to the lack of interceptions (three in his career) as evidence that Ramsey isn’t a playmaker. But he gets his hands on a lot of balls and as he develops as a true cornerback I am confident the interceptions will come. Adding a player like Ramsey to the secondary would improve the defense as a whole from day one, and would provide it with another cornerstone type player.
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