Kenny Tate on ESPN... Get ready for pure dominance.

[KingintheNorth]

Okay, I charted Tate for the first 3 quarters last night (will watch the 4th quarter tonight) and I have to say, Uno was a tad bit critical of the kid.

What I liked:
*I love the way Maryland uses him. They mix it up and let him play near the line of scrimmage. He blitzed and faked the blitz all throughout the game. For the record, this was the plan for Taylor Mays his senior year before Shareece Wright became ineligible. Mays was killing in practices and scrimmages. This is where you should play these big 6'4" safeties. They are so athletic (for their size) that college coaches put them at Free Safety to make sure there are no homerun plays. Nice precaution but doesn't prepare these kids for their true NFL position. Okay, let me get off my soapbox.

*He is always around the ball. His athleticism shows. He had a nice fumble recovery and a couple of key blitzes. He got hit for Roughing the Passer but it was a suspect call.

What I didn't like:
*Even though he's around the ball he isn't as physical as I'd like. He lacks the upper body strength of a Taylor Mays or Adrian Wilson. When he had to engage an offensive lineman he was knocked backwards pretty easily.

In summary, I would say Canuck's comparisons to Adrian Wilson are a little off. IMO he is much more comparable to Wilson's teammate, Kerry Rhodes. If Taylor Mays was a mid 2nd rounder in a strong 2010 draft, Tate could easily go 3rd round in 2011. He would really benefit from another year but if he comes out this year, he'll definitely make a team, contribute on Special Teams, and possibly compete for playing time. His athleticism is NFL level and he just needs to be coached up a little and hit the weight room.

McShay didn't even have him ranked as a prospect on the his little list that scrolls by for each bowl game. McShay isn't the best draft expert but that isn't a good sign.

 

[CanuckCowboysFan]

Okay, I charted Tate for the first 3 quarters last night (will watch the 4th quarter tonight) and I have to say, Uno was a tad bit critical of the kid.

What I liked:
*I love the way Maryland uses him. They mix it up and let him play near the line of scrimmage. He blitzed and faked the blitz all throughout the game. For the record, this was the plan for Taylor Mays his senior year before Shareece Wright became ineligible. Mays was killing in practices and scrimmages. This is where you should play these big 6'4" safeties. They are so athletic (for their size) that college coaches put them at Free Safety to make sure there are no homerun plays. Nice precaution but doesn't prepare these kids for their true NFL position. Okay, let me get off my soapbox.

*He is always around the ball. His athleticism shows. He had a nice fumble recovery and a couple of key blitzes. He got hit for Roughing the Passer but it was a suspect call.

What I didn't like:
*Even though he's around the ball he isn't as physical as I'd like. He lacks the upper body strength of a Taylor Mays or Adrian Wilson. When he had to engage an offensive lineman he was knocked backwards pretty easily.

In summary, I would say Canuck's comparisons to Adrian Wilson are a little off. IMO he is much more comparable to Wilson's teammate, Kerry Rhodes. If Taylor Mays was a mid 2nd rounder in a strong 2010 draft, Tate could easily go 3rd round in 2011. He would really benefit from another year but if he comes out this year, he'll definitely make a team, contribute on Special Teams, and possibly compete for playing time. His athleticism is NFL level and he just needs to be coached up a little and hit the weight room.

McShay didn't even have him ranked as a prospect on the his little list that scrolls by for each bowl game. McShay isn't the best draft expert but that isn't a good sign.

Pretty good evaluation. And I've been saying that all along.

He's a safety that you just have to let roam around and do his thing. If you have a scheme where he is aloud to do this, he will excel. If you have a scheme where the FS has specific assignments and needs to be disciplined, he'll struggle a little.

 

[KingintheNorth]

Watching Kenny Tate allowed me to refamiliarize myself with one of my favorite prospects from a few years back, the other Maryland safety, Antwine Perez.
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I first met Antwine 5 years ago when he was a highly-recruited 5 Star incoming freshman at USC. He was bigtime recruit and we stole him from a lot of the big time east coast programs.

He played a little his freshman year. That same year fellow freshman Taylor Mays took over as a starter when Josh Pinkard went down. I think Antwine saw the writing on the wall, stuck behind Mays and sophomores Pinkard and Kevin Ellison on the depth chart, and decided to transfer closer to home.

He started 3 times before this season and won the job this year. He started all 13 games this year and had 74 tackles (47 unassisted), 3 INT, 3 Forced Fumbles, 8 passes broke up, and 7 tackles-for-loss. If you watched last night's game you saw he was a no nonsense safety, taking great angles, and finishing his tackles. He kind of reminds me of Dawan Landry while he was at Georgia Tech.

NFL Draft Scout has him ranked him as the 35th senior Strong Safety and has him running a pedestrian 4.76 40 time (I'd bet he runs faster than that at the combine). I'd be thrilled if we took a chance on this guy in the 5th or 6th round. I'm pretty confidant in saying Perez will be a starting NFL safety for someone in the next 4 or 5 years.