Fuzzy Thoughts on a Baker's Dozen CBs

FuzzyLumpkins

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This started out as a response to someone telling me that most of the corners in the draft were like Moreau and cowardly on the field. At that point I had only watched a few corners this year and decided to go look for myself. Long story short on that front: I have the opposite opinion. Moreau is one of the softest players I have ever seen and the majority of the prospects I watched this session were many orders more agressive.

Thing is that I ended up looking at them as a whole and writing about more than just their ability as tacklers and in pursuit. So given that and the length I figured I would make a thread out of it as opposed to having it buried on page X of a thread about a specific player.

notes: This is not my ranking. I just went down NFLdraftscouts ranking and skipped Lattimore as I don't see him being available in any scenario. I went to draftbreakdown to watch game cutups of said players. I will put the links at the end of the post. As always I encourage everyone to watch these guys and come up with your own opinions. Dissent is encouraged as it leads to good conversation. Wisconsin's QB is terrible.

Marlon Humphries aggressive in pursuit with strong finish on tackles. Doesn't wrap consistently and can miss. Excellent man skills. Inconsistent in looking for the ball and inconsistent zone awareness but fluid athleticism and strength allow him to dominate routes in man coverage. RS sophomore is still raw with high upside.

Fabian Moreau avoids contact. Will widen pursuit to allow teammates in to make play. Avoids piles. Runs away from blocks. Hard to tell what type of tackler he is because he avoids them so often. Fluid athlete with sticky coverage. Excellent speed to recover. Inconsistent in looking for the ball and does not always attack throws. Do not want.

Tre White is not overly physical but he doesn't avoid contact. Wrap and drag tackler. Adequate athletic metrics will give separation in man. Developed ball skills; will drive on football, highpoint, and intuition to look for ball. Consistent zone awareness playing from slot and both strong and weak side. Deflects a lot of throws to his receiver. Smart player.

Cordrea Tankersley is a wrap and drive form tackler. Willingly takes on blocks would like more consistent effort to disengage. good man coverage but will lose focus and allow receivers behind him occasionally despite timed speed (4.40). Dynamic zone coverage playing cover 3 as well as intermediate and short calls. Awareness to drive on throws. Balls skills to make difficult interceptions through contact.

Chidobe Awuzie is a wrap and drive form tackler. Aggressive attacking ball carriers and piles. Gets pushed around on blocks. Zone skills to pass off and switch. Ran cover 3, short and intermediate looks. Lines up all over the formation. Ball skill to look for the ball, drive on throws, and high point. Gets pushed around at top of routes by physical receivers giving separation and receptions. Quickness to cover through cuts.

Teez Tabor is a leg wrapper and is prone to stiff arms and whiffs. Tenacious and pursuit but can get swallowed up by blocks. Played exclusively at LCB. Played on and off the los. Physical jam that he can sustain through the release to reroute effectively. Heady zone player able to cover two players at once peeling off to attack throws. When manned up relies on quickness and physical play to win. More quick than fast he will overplay the top. Very good at cutting off routes but becomes prone to comebacks and cuts when he does. Interested to see if he doesn't improve his time at his pro day.

Jourdan Lewis tries to dive at and wrap legs. Inconsistent in pursuit. Will see him give up on blocks often but will also see him chase plays across the formation to make a tackle. Prone to stiff arms. Played almost exclusively RCB. Dynamic zone and man coverage. Fluid athlete able to run stride for stride through breaks. Excellent hands and attacks the football but inconsistent intuition to look for the ball. Very handsy throughout the route will constantly push and grab; got away with it more often than not. Prone to mental mistakes and will see breakdowns in coverage. Seems stupid on the field at times.

Gareon Conley is a form tackler aggressive in attacking the football and piles. Attacks blocks but can get taken for a ride. Sticky coverage with a good lid over the top. Fluid athlete quick, fast and swift pivot. Strong punch on jam. Moves around formation. Inconsistent zone awareness but has a strong drive on the ball. Balls skills to look for, high point, and drive on the ball. Small hands and body catches. Can be taken advantage of by big receivers and accurate passes thrown open. Will get pushed around at top of route giving up catches.

Kevin King has poor tackling technique and tries to cut at ball carrier's legs as opposed to wrapping. Aggressive in pursuit and does not give up on plays saving scores. Excellent anchor taking on blocks, uses long arms and one arm technique to keep frame free. Played a lot of cover 3 and man almost exclusively from the RCB. Only moved around in man on WR motion. Ball skills to look for ball and high point. Explosive out of breaks. Stop start not as strong and will give separation on double moves.

Quincy Wilson is extremely raw and unformed. You will see him occasionally try to wrap the legs but all too often you see him throwing wildly and not squared up. Takes bad angles in space and while he does have the ability to slip blocks with his quickness he gets swallowed up and driven a lot. Alabama had a field day on him in this way. His quickness allows him to keep up through breaks in coverage but his lack of deep speed is apparent when he gives up separation over the top. Has good core strength and body control to handle physical receivers at the top of the route. Fledgling ball skills and awareness leads to inconsistency and bad steps. The natural junior is a project.

Adoree Jackson is is a wrap up tackler who will go for the legs or a form tackle depending on situation. His pursuit is excellent and he uses his elite speed to advantage covering for his teammates and saving scores. Good upper and core body strength allows him to control blocks and make tackles through them. In coverage he was moved around the formation and played in mainly man and cover 3 looks. He uses his speed to advantage in coverage. He has the speed to recover and baits QBs on deep throws to undercut and high point the ball. Excellent intuition for throws and consistent hands catcher. His quicks and pivots allow him to stay stride for stride through cuts. His press is unremarkable and he does take bad steps on juke releases which leads to stumbles or even his falling down. Outside of that he does not get beat deep. Returns punts and kicks on ST. Bit of a project particularly with his technique off the line but he has quickly become a pet cat of mine. I would love him to be our second round pick.

Sidney Jones is a wrapup tackler who has an excellent motor in pursuit. Uses his athleticism to flank blocks and when he cannot he has the core strength and length to play off of them, shed and make the tackle. Can lose leverage and get pushed. Played man and cover 3/4 looks and excellent quickness and pivot to stick with receivers through double moves. Jam is second only to Tabor that I have watched so far in this class and does a remarkable job of sustaining the press on inside releases. Can be taken advantage of due to diminutive size but incredibly polished for a true junior. Should be a first round pick but has fallen precipitously following his achilles injury. Would not select until 4th given immediate need at position. Don't see it happening.

Ahkello Witherspoon is inconsistent with his technique. He will wrap when it is his man but tries to cut tacklers in space. This leads to a lot of misses. He is tentative and avoids contact in pursuit and gives up on blocks similar to Moreau. Good speed and stays with deep routes but average pivot has him allowing separation on double moves. Has intuition to look for the ball but does not make plays on the ball outside of knocking it away. Do not want.

http://www.nfldraftscout.com/rating...ear=2017&sortby=tsxpos&order=ASC&startspot=10

http://draftbreakdown.com/players/?draft_class=2017&position=CB
 
This started out as a response to someone telling me that most of the corners in the draft were like Moreau and cowardly on the field. At that point I had only watched a few corners this year and decided to go look for myself. Long story short on that front: I have the opposite opinion. Moreau is one of the softest players I have ever seen and the majority of the prospects I watched this session were many orders more agressive.

Thing is that I ended up looking at them as a whole and writing about more than just their ability as tacklers and in pursuit. So given that and the length I figured I would make a thread out of it as opposed to having it buried on page X of a thread about a specific player.

notes: This is not my ranking. I just went down NFLdraftscouts ranking and skipped Lattimore as I don't see him being available in any scenario. I went to draftbreakdown to watch game cutups of said players. I will put the links at the end of the post. As always I encourage everyone to watch these guys and come up with your own opinions. Dissent is encouraged as it leads to good conversation. Wisconsin's QB is terrible.

Marlon Humphries aggressive in pursuit with strong finish on tackles. Doesn't wrap consistently and can miss. Excellent man skills. Inconsistent in looking for the ball and inconsistent zone awareness but fluid athleticism and strength allow him to dominate routes in man coverage. RS sophomore is still raw with high upside.

Fabian Moreau avoids contact. Will widen pursuit to allow teammates in to make play. Avoids piles. Runs away from blocks. Hard to tell what type of tackler he is because he avoids them so often. Fluid athlete with sticky coverage. Excellent speed to recover. Inconsistent in looking for the ball and does not always attack throws. Do not want.

Tre White is not overly physical but he doesn't avoid contact. Wrap and drag tackler. Adequate athletic metrics will give separation in man. Developed ball skills; will drive on football, highpoint, and intuition to look for ball. Consistent zone awareness playing from slot and both strong and weak side. Deflects a lot of throws to his receiver. Smart player.

Cordrea Tankersley is a wrap and drive form tackler. Willingly takes on blocks would like more consistent effort to disengage. good man coverage but will lose focus and allow receivers behind him occasionally despite timed speed (4.40). Dynamic zone coverage playing cover 3 as well as intermediate and short calls. Awareness to drive on throws. Balls skills to make difficult interceptions through contact.

Chidobe Awuzie is a wrap and drive form tackler. Aggressive attacking ball carriers and piles. Gets pushed around on blocks. Zone skills to pass off and switch. Ran cover 3, short and intermediate looks. Lines up all over the formation. Ball skill to look for the ball, drive on throws, and high point. Gets pushed around at top of routes by physical receivers giving separation and receptions. Quickness to cover through cuts.

Teez Tabor is a leg wrapper and is prone to stiff arms and whiffs. Tenacious and pursuit but can get swallowed up by blocks. Played exclusively at LCB. Played on and off the los. Physical jam that he can sustain through the release to reroute effectively. Heady zone player able to cover two players at once peeling off to attack throws. When manned up relies on quickness and physical play to win. More quick than fast he will overplay the top. Very good at cutting off routes but becomes prone to comebacks and cuts when he does. Interested to see if he doesn't improve his time at his pro day.

Jourdan Lewis tries to dive at and wrap legs. Inconsistent in pursuit. Will see him give up on blocks often but will also see him chase plays across the formation to make a tackle. Prone to stiff arms. Played almost exclusively RCB. Dynamic zone and man coverage. Fluid athlete able to run stride for stride through breaks. Excellent hands and attacks the football but inconsistent intuition to look for the ball. Very handsy throughout the route will constantly push and grab; got away with it more often than not. Prone to mental mistakes and will see breakdowns in coverage. Seems stupid on the field at times.

Gareon Conley is a form tackler aggressive in attacking the football and piles. Attacks blocks but can get taken for a ride. Sticky coverage with a good lid over the top. Fluid athlete quick, fast and swift pivot. Strong punch on jam. Moves around formation. Inconsistent zone awareness but has a strong drive on the ball. Balls skills to look for, high point, and drive on the ball. Small hands and body catches. Can be taken advantage of by big receivers and accurate passes thrown open. Will get pushed around at top of route giving up catches.

Kevin King has poor tackling technique and tries to cut at ball carrier's legs as opposed to wrapping. Aggressive in pursuit and does not give up on plays saving scores. Excellent anchor taking on blocks, uses long arms and one arm technique to keep frame free. Played a lot of cover 3 and man almost exclusively from the RCB. Only moved around in man on WR motion. Ball skills to look for ball and high point. Explosive out of breaks. Stop start not as strong and will give separation on double moves.

Quincy Wilson is extremely raw and unformed. You will see him occasionally try to wrap the legs but all too often you see him throwing wildly and not squared up. Takes bad angles in space and while he does have the ability to slip blocks with his quickness he gets swallowed up and driven a lot. Alabama had a field day on him in this way. His quickness allows him to keep up through breaks in coverage but his lack of deep speed is apparent when he gives up separation over the top. Has good core strength and body control to handle physical receivers at the top of the route. Fledgling ball skills and awareness leads to inconsistency and bad steps. The natural junior is a project.

Adoree Jackson is is a wrap up tackler who will go for the legs or a form tackle depending on situation. His pursuit is excellent and he uses his elite speed to advantage covering for his teammates and saving scores. Good upper and core body strength allows him to control blocks and make tackles through them. In coverage he was moved around the formation and played in mainly man and cover 3 looks. He uses his speed to advantage in coverage. He has the speed to recover and baits QBs on deep throws to undercut and high point the ball. Excellent intuition for throws and consistent hands catcher. His quicks and pivots allow him to stay stride for stride through cuts. His press is unremarkable and he does take bad steps on juke releases which leads to stumbles or even his falling down. Outside of that he does not get beat deep. Returns punts and kicks on ST. Bit of a project particularly with his technique off the line but he has quickly become a pet cat of mine. I would love him to be our second round pick.

Sidney Jones is a wrapup tackler who has an excellent motor in pursuit. Uses his athleticism to flank blocks and when he cannot he has the core strength and length to play off of them, shed and make the tackle. Can lose leverage and get pushed. Played man and cover 3/4 looks and excellent quickness and pivot to stick with receivers through double moves. Jam is second only to Tabor that I have watched so far in this class and does a remarkable job of sustaining the press on inside releases. Can be taken advantage of due to diminutive size but incredibly polished for a true junior. Should be a first round pick but has fallen precipitously following his achilles injury. Would not select until 4th given immediate need at position. Don't see it happening.

Ahkello Witherspoon is inconsistent with his technique. He will wrap when it is his man but tries to cut tacklers in space. This leads to a lot of misses. He is tentative and avoids contact in pursuit and gives up on blocks similar to Moreau. Good speed and stays with deep routes but average pivot has him allowing separation on double moves. Has intuition to look for the ball but does not make plays on the ball outside of knocking it away. Do not want.

http://www.nfldraftscout.com/rating...ear=2017&sortby=tsxpos&order=ASC&startspot=10

http://draftbreakdown.com/players/?draft_class=2017&position=CB
Great write up and Ill come back to it again and comment further. One quick, I think Adoree is likey a late first. Too much upside, and too much of a footbal player mentality to second. People look too much at how much seasoning he needs. He will get better quicker then people think. At this stage he can be effective in sub, but by mid season he would will double his snap count IMO.

Keep him off the offense. Play him on ST's, but keep his focus on defense
 
Great write up and Ill come back to it again and comment further. One quick, I think Adoree is likey a late first. Too much upside, and too much of a footbal player mentality to second. People look too much at how much seasoning he needs. He will get better quicker then people think. At this stage he can be effective in sub, but by mid season he would will double his snap count IMO.

Keep him off the offense. Play him on ST's, but keep his focus on defense

Maybe I have seen him ranked in the 60s.
 
Great post.

Watched a bit on Jackson, Humphries, Moreau, White, and Awuzie.

I was most impressed with Awuzie out of that bunch as he looks the most well rounded player. I loved how unafraid he is to come up and plug holes and his coverage is pretty tight. Seems like a heady player.

White has good tape too though he's less aggressive in tackling.

Humphries is definitely a project with upside imo. His Clemson tape from 2016 shows flaws against top flight talent. Williams consistently was able to push him off in press coverage and he blew several assignments in zone. Lots of talent but needs work.

Jackson is smooth but wasn't durability an issue with him? Also worried about him going up against some of the bigger receivers that moved into the division.

Moreau, no thanks.
 
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The opinions on Adoree annoy me, I'm sorry.

1. Stop thinking he has a shot at lasting until 60 when he's closer to being our 28 pick.

2. All this talk about his build but yet guys like Chris Harris, Brent Grimes and Janoris Jenkins have been locking down big WRs for years. And I just named those three off the top of my head. I could probably name many more. Scandrick played a lot of outside corner in 2014. What big WRs took advantage of him?

3. Adoree is not a (project). He's just not a finished product. A project is jabril Peppers. Adoree has plenty of film of good corner play, he needs refinement but far from a project.

And no, he doesn't have an injury history.
 
The opinions on Adoree annoy me, I'm sorry.

1. Stop thinking he has a shot at lasting until 60 when he's closer to being our 28 pick.

2. All this talk about his build but yet guys like Chris Harris, Brent Grimes and Janoris Jenkins have been locking down big WRs for years. And I just named those three off the top of my head. I could probably name many more. Scandrick played a lot of outside corner in 2014. What big WRs took advantage of him?

3. Adoree is not a (project). He's just not a finished product. A project is jabril Peppers. Adoree has plenty of film of good corner play, he needs refinement but far from a project.

And no, he doesn't have an injury history.

No need to be annoyed. It's just a different opinion. It's so boring when everyone agrees.

NFLdraftscout has him at 64. I trust them more than any other source when it comes to ranking. They update them constantly.

I saw big receivers push off at the top of routes like they allow in football the world over and get separation. The Washington receiver did it quite a bit. Ross also juked him so hard off the ball he fell down and gave up a long TD.

If he is not a finished product then his upside is projection thus the term project; I don't mean anything more than that although I can see why you would dispute a different interpretation.

His footwork off the snap in press coverage is a glaring issue that showed up every game I watched. His jam needs work too. If he doesn't clean that up then the Alshon Jeffries and OBJ's of the NFCE are going to eat him up. It is what it is.
 
No need to be annoyed. It's just a different opinion. It's so boring when everyone agrees.

NFLdraftscout has him at 64. I trust them more than any other source when it comes to ranking. They update them constantly.

I saw big receivers push off at the top of routes like they allow in football the world over and get separation. The Washington receiver did it quite a bit. Ross also juked him so hard off the ball he fell down and gave up a long TD.

If he is not a finished product then his upside is projection thus the term project; I don't mean anything more than that although I can see why you would dispute a different interpretation.

His footwork off the snap in press coverage is a glaring issue that showed up every game I watched. His jam needs work too. If he doesn't clean that up then the Alshon Jeffries and OBJ's of the NFCE are going to eat him up. It is what it is.
Ok cool. By the way, I'm more of a walterfootball guy. They have Adoree ranked 15th.
 
Maybe I have seen him ranked in the 60s.
He is one those guys thats all over the place in terms of rankings. Ive seen him ranked from the late first to the late second. Its possible he could go that late in a deep class. I personally have him pegged as a late first. Talent wise I think he has the ability to be a top tier #1 CB, and he is a 24/7 kid who plays hard. Where he goes is in if people want to pick his cieling or his floor IMO
 
NFLdraftscout has him at 36 overall. He could be there. I like the value better in the second round than I do the first though.

If that's what Dallas is wanting in the first is a dB I'll be pretty upset if they don't take him.
 
He is one those guys thats all over the place in terms of rankings. Ive seen him ranked from the late first to the late second. Its possible he could go that late in a deep class. I personally have him pegged as a late first. Talent wise I think he has the ability to be a top tier #1 CB, and he is a 24/7 kid who plays hard. Where he goes is in if people want to pick his cieling or his floor IMO

I personally have him rated above Tabor, Lewis and Moreau myself but in my experience NFLdraftscout is spot on with their top 100 rankings when compared to what the NFL teams end up doing year in and year out. I don't care about the mock draft rankings which ask for exactness, I care about players being projected in the right neighborhood.
 
I personally have him rated above Tabor, Lewis and Moreau myself but in my experience NFLdraftscout is spot on with their top 100 rankings when compared to what the NFL teams end up doing year in and year out. I don't care about the mock draft rankings which ask for exactness, I care about players being projected in the right neighborhood.
Does draft scout have 2016 big board available anywhere?

I don't remember Walterfootball being that low on bosa.
 
Does draft scout have 2016 big board available anywhere?

I don't remember Walterfootball being that low on bosa.

http://BAN-INCOMING-IN-3-2-1/draft2016bigboard.php

They did have a whole bunch of suspect rankings. They rank them by what they feel whereas nfldraftscout seems to go more by consensus plus they are very much so tied into the scouting community.

draftscout may have a big board on the CBS site but each player on their main site has their overall ranking listed on his listing. Their top 10 right now is

Garrett
Thomas
Allen
Lattimore
Adams
Hooker
Howard
Barnett
Foster
Cook
 
Haha Jackson and Awuzie are both the guys I've taken up for a while now.

Adoree has been a big pet cat of mine, especially if we want to play more zone Serious football speed and plays the ball. I think his floor is good #2 that will have more INTs in a season than Carr/Mo had in 3 years. I also think he immediately comes in and is one of the best punt returners in the league.

Awuzie is just a good DB. I've thought he'd probably go in the 2nd.

I was really trying to make a good argument against taking Adoree at 28. But, as far as what you're getting and a piece to build around, itd be hard for me to say no unless someone just obviously BPA was there. He's a playmaker.
 
I personally have him rated above Tabor, Lewis and Moreau myself but in my experience NFLdraftscout is spot on with their top 100 rankings when compared to what the NFL teams end up doing year in and year out. I don't care about the mock draft rankings which ask for exactness, I care about players being projected in the right neighborhood.
I take all ratings with a grain of salt. They are good for what they are meant for, giving us fans somewhat of a consensus as prospects stack VS each other. The only way we can measure accuracy is how they stack VS. the actual draft.

How teams themselves rate prospects is a huge mystery to us. The best we have to go on is the Cowboys leaked boards. I think there is a good probability that teams boards vary widely based values such as player type, character, floor/cieling and such. You get a small glimps of that in 2013 leak where you see some prospects rated significantly lower then where they are drafted. I think the CB Jonathan Banks was a good example where we had a very low grade on a 2nd round CB. I could see Adoree being a guy that some teams have a 1st round grade on, while others could have a 3rd or 4th round grade.

My philosophy when guessing where those guys go is "it takes one team to fall in love". Ive been right, Ive been wrong. I once though Lawrence Sideburry was gonna sneak into the first. With Jackson my guess is enough teams will value his upside and his football to drive his value into the late first. I think there will be teams from 22 to 32 willing to take a " not quite ready for prime time " guy that will develop in subpackages with certain coverage assignments to move him into the first.

Could easily be wrong and in a deep draft, I dont know if that would be a gun to the head prediction.
 
No need to be annoyed. It's just a different opinion. It's so boring when everyone agrees.
You must love it when we pick late. Every prospect has warts and epic forum wars are waged by factions of fans for one guy and against others. The Elliott/Ramsey/Bosa thing was ok. But when you have large variety of players, all with warts. It gets more interesting.

Oh, and picking late also means your team doesnt suck
 
Hey OP, let's go for a baker's dozen and tell us what you think of Rasul Douglas?
 

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