ultron
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Just ran a 4 round mock draft and I like these results:
1st- Kristian Fulton (CB) LSU
Feet: Ideal blend of agility, flexibility, and body control. Never false steps and works angles very well in his kick-step or his click-and-close to crowd receivers into the sideline or as the ball arrives. Has a steady backpedal with ideal weight distribution and good flexibility when working the half-turn as well.
Man Technique: Ability to play from a variety of angles and positioning relative to the receiver/throw is mighty impressive and that of an NFL veteran. Plays over the top of in-break routes, underneath out-breaking routes, recovers from the trail, or downfield stacks on deep routes all with no panic and great leverage/physicality. Reads the catch point with great reflexes and will play blind to the ball with ease. Loves to crowd breaking routes and forces incompletions by disrupting body positioning and timing without fouling.
Zone Technique: Infrequently tasked with zone coverage, but did well to spin to deep-half or deep-middle roles reacting to pre-snap motion and shows the ability to split routes downfield. Love his ability to squat underneath intermediate routes when given short zone responsibilities and has an effective click and close with quality explosiveness.
Press Technique: Just blown away by his relaxed and measured approach to press. Never plays himself too aggressively out of position and is always ready to frame the initial and secondary release moves downfield. Contests every break and rarely allows a clean release into space. Ability to adjust stride length and step frequency on the fly to varied route stems is as natural as it gets. Doesn't activate his hands as much as you'd like to see and is a bit more willing to play in the trail than you'd like; may be asked to amp up the aggression in the NFL.
Ball Skills: Might be the best in this class at playing with his back to the football. Instinct for receivers flashing tot he catchpoint down the field and ability to time his disruption with the ball's flight path is elite. Good knack for attacking hands through the body when closing downhill and likely commits more DPIs than he gets called for given his great timing. Lacks elite length and won't make many contested INTs in jump ball situations.
Mental Processing: Patient and heady player who doesn't guess and never panics. Reads through half-field route combinations in concert with his initial responsibilities in coverage and is adept at passing routes off when addressing stack and bunch alignments. Understands how he's being attacked across the course of the game and won't fall for the same trick twice.
Reactionary Quickness: Elite player here. Watching his best press or off-man reps in slow motion reveals just how effortlessly he adjusts to his opponent, and with what nuance. Mirror-match ability through the roof with tremendous stride manipulation, hip swivel, contact balance, and closing/recovery burst. Everything you want in a sticky man cover corner.
Fluidity: Super clean swivel with tight footwork to explode out of his redirections. Stride length and weight are ideal; top half is impossibly quiet relative to active lower half when he's forced to flip his hips and recover at the line of scrimmage. Rarely false steps in his gather and drive. Balance through glancing contact is a big part of his game and largely the result of his active lower half helping him play at tough angles.
Tackling: Love the willingness to lay the wood as the first defender and attack the ball-carrier's arm as the second defender. Shows sufficient physicality to close down on boundary plays or serve as the primary contain player as an outside corner. Doesn't have a ton of hustle or competitive moxie to him as a pursuit defender and won't get involved in plays that don't need him. Tackling technique is only average and he'll lunge for ankles in the open field at times.
Round Grade: Incomplete
Best Trait: Reactionary Quickness
Worst Trait: Tackling
Player Comparison: Incomplete
Summary: Kristian Fulton is a quality Day 1 outside corner candidate who is scheme-transcendent at the NFL level. Fulton's best deployment is in the press, where he played comfortably for multiple seasons in Dave Aranda's LSU defense. Fulton is an impossibly balanced and controlled corner who wins with smooth transitions, quick-twitch athleticism in tight areas, and great timing closing space on routes to all three levels. Fulton has delightful ball skills with his back to the football and enough speed to squeeze top receivers down the field without losing phase, and has ideal reactionary quickness and play recognition to win in a Cover 3 zone responsibilitiy. Fulton's biggest weakness are his average play strength and accordingly inconinstent tackling, but he projects as a Year 1 starter with Pro Bowl potential in his future
___________________
2nd - Antoine Winfield jr (S) Minnesota
Coverage Spacing - He doesn't have the most potent burst or range to flow in space but you definitely can work with him in split safety role and his quick processor allows him to shade and jump throws with consistency. He's got a knack for attacking and undercutting the ball with good angles to crash the party and pluck away the football.
Acceleration - His long speed isn't an area where he's going to hang his hat — he's more quick than he is fast. But his short area agility allows him to buzz down into gaps or into the path of routes and disrupt the play effectively to disrupt or get into desirable run fits from the fringes of the hash marks.
Tackling - A few instances of gearing down late or dropping his head but he's a fairly sure tackler who is confident locking horns with bigger dudes and runs the feet through contact for confident finishes. His run fills from the second level are quite nice and he's eager to stick his face into the fire and challenge the ball carrier.
Zone Coverage Skills - Played a lot of deep half and he'll do well there. His eyes are instinctive inside of 10 yards and he'll have the chance to jump some routes in the quick game. His peripheral vision to shade and bait the quarterback is strong and he's rarely caught out of position.
Ball Skills - He's a hunter here. Frequently takes the ambitious angle to make a play on the ball — it's yielded great results for him thus far. Innate sense of turnover opportunities and cashes in on the regular. He doesn't have ideal length so if he's boxed out at the catch point he's not going to be able to extend and play the ball.
Competitive Toughness - Dude is a firecracker. A lot of fun to watch him fly into the frame and get in on the action. He's fearless in the box and as a run support defender and his stout tackling provides effective finishes and doesn't often yield extra yards. He's got a good presence in the trail position against TEs as well, not easily bullied.
Flexibility - Doesn't illustrate elite mobility through his frame when tasked with flipping his hips into pursuit in lateral situations. He's got good coil through his frame to explode and deliver body blows to ball carriers. Body control and contortion tracking the ball is strong.
Feet/COD - Smooth and fluid — doesn't take a lot of wasted steps and is consistently ready to pounce. His effective cadence in footwork leaves him balanced and ready to redirect as needed. He's got good spring on his bucket step to click and close to attack action in front of his face.
Man Coverage Skills - Locked up some talented players in shadow coverage, especially against Penn State. Capable of handling big bodies and shows good resistance to not get uprooted off of his landmarks and stay on the body to prevent separation in the MOF or up the seam.
Versatility - He brings a lot to the table. His lack of elite range cuts down on his upside as a deep FS but working him into nickel reps and subsequently using him in base packages as a strong safety is the expectation. No reason why he can't play nearly full snap count given effective run fills, blitzing and coverage.
---
Best Trait - Football IQ
Worst Trait - Deep Range
Best Film - Penn State (2019)
Worst Film - Iowa (2019)
Red Flags - 2018 Foot INJ
Player Summary - Antoine Winfield Jr. brings an established NFL pedigree to the 2020 NFL Draft. His father's exploits clearly left an impression on Winfield Jr. — he's an instinctive player who illustrates a clear feel for the game on the back end. As a deep safety, Winfield Jr. is best in half field coverages but he brings man to man coverage skills against tight ends and is a viable fill defender in the box to step down against the run. He's not an elite athlete but his instincts and discipline will net him splash plays
__________________
3rd - Brycen Hopkins (TE) Purdue
PROS: Smooth, fluid route runner that runs and fairly advanced route tree. Easy in and out of horizontal breaks and his vertical cuts are seamless. I like his pace and lean throughout his release and stem. Does well to adjust and find soft spots in zones. Ball tracking skills are impressive, particularly over the shoulder. Makes his share of challenging grabs through contact in contested situations. Gives great effort as an in-line blocker and is deliberate with his technique. Brings the fight as a blocker on the move or when tasked with leading into gaps. Competitive worker after the catch. Outstanding production that improved every year in college.
CONS: Positional blocker that doesn’t have ideal mass or functional strength to truly widen rush lanes inline. Hands fail him and his drop rate is concerning. Struggles to dig out low throws. Needs to become more consistent with his hand alignment when greeting the football on arrival. More of a zone-busting tight end that didn’t find the same degree of success creating separation when working against man coverage.
BEST TRAIT - Route Running
WORST TRAIT - In-Line Blocking
RED FLAGS - None
NFL COMP - Jared Cook
Despite being the son of former Tennessee Titans offensive lineman Brad Hopkins who started in the NFL for 13 seasons, Brycen Hopkins didn’t start playing football until he reached high school. Hopkins enjoyed a prolific career at Purdue, racking up 130 receptions for 1,945 yards and 16 touchdowns across four seasons with increased production every year. While his hands must become more consistent, Hopkins profiles nicely as a receiving threat at the next level. His route running skills are advanced and he has excellent ball skills. While he lacks the mass and power to be an impact blocker, Hopkins demonstrates great effort and brings the fight on every rep. Hopkins does have the upside to start in the NFL and at a minimum should be a quality No. 2 option that thrives in 12 personnel sets.
__________________
4th - Quartney Davis (WR) Texas A&M
PROS: Crisp! There's very little wasted movement in Davis' game -- impressive control of his body, steps and breaks to sufficiently snap off his route stems and create significant separation, regardless of whether that comes on hard angled breaks back to the LOS, speed outs into the boundary or shallow adjustments across the face of defenders squatting at the top of the route. Davis is flashing much more production early on in 2019 and with continued production could make a significant push to consider declaring -- his route tree, exposure and techniques to create space in the secondary all suggest there's notable next level potential. Davis moves a little bit like Deebo Samuel -- he's a taller player but watching him operate in releases and breaks brings me flashbacks to Samuel at South Carolina...and Davis is quick, too. Very easy accelerator who gets up to top speed quickly against off coverage to eat up space and force defenders to respect his ability to get vertical. A&M has moved him around in alignments -- he's not handcuffed to one side of the line of scrimmage or slot versus boundary or field in order to successfully stack coverage and get separation. Footwork and body control along the boundary will definitely capture your attention, too.
CONS: Davis has some notable injuries on his ledger that could threaten draft stock, including a 2016 torn ACL suffered ahead of the 2016 season -- forcing him to redshirt. Davis also has missed one game thus far in 2019 on account of a back injury, so medicals are something to keep an eye on. Davis, if he's caught with hands on his frame, can be edged off his line and forced into low leverage situations and diminish the throwing window for his quarterback. He's got good ball skills to read the ball in flight and adjust his body to the trajectory of the ball, but I'm not completely bought in on his hands being a true strength of his game -- he's not the most plucky attacking the ball with his hands and has had several catches on film where he's not getting the nose of the ball clean, extending his time to tuck the ball away.
1st- Kristian Fulton (CB) LSU
Feet: Ideal blend of agility, flexibility, and body control. Never false steps and works angles very well in his kick-step or his click-and-close to crowd receivers into the sideline or as the ball arrives. Has a steady backpedal with ideal weight distribution and good flexibility when working the half-turn as well.
Man Technique: Ability to play from a variety of angles and positioning relative to the receiver/throw is mighty impressive and that of an NFL veteran. Plays over the top of in-break routes, underneath out-breaking routes, recovers from the trail, or downfield stacks on deep routes all with no panic and great leverage/physicality. Reads the catch point with great reflexes and will play blind to the ball with ease. Loves to crowd breaking routes and forces incompletions by disrupting body positioning and timing without fouling.
Zone Technique: Infrequently tasked with zone coverage, but did well to spin to deep-half or deep-middle roles reacting to pre-snap motion and shows the ability to split routes downfield. Love his ability to squat underneath intermediate routes when given short zone responsibilities and has an effective click and close with quality explosiveness.
Press Technique: Just blown away by his relaxed and measured approach to press. Never plays himself too aggressively out of position and is always ready to frame the initial and secondary release moves downfield. Contests every break and rarely allows a clean release into space. Ability to adjust stride length and step frequency on the fly to varied route stems is as natural as it gets. Doesn't activate his hands as much as you'd like to see and is a bit more willing to play in the trail than you'd like; may be asked to amp up the aggression in the NFL.
Ball Skills: Might be the best in this class at playing with his back to the football. Instinct for receivers flashing tot he catchpoint down the field and ability to time his disruption with the ball's flight path is elite. Good knack for attacking hands through the body when closing downhill and likely commits more DPIs than he gets called for given his great timing. Lacks elite length and won't make many contested INTs in jump ball situations.
Mental Processing: Patient and heady player who doesn't guess and never panics. Reads through half-field route combinations in concert with his initial responsibilities in coverage and is adept at passing routes off when addressing stack and bunch alignments. Understands how he's being attacked across the course of the game and won't fall for the same trick twice.
Reactionary Quickness: Elite player here. Watching his best press or off-man reps in slow motion reveals just how effortlessly he adjusts to his opponent, and with what nuance. Mirror-match ability through the roof with tremendous stride manipulation, hip swivel, contact balance, and closing/recovery burst. Everything you want in a sticky man cover corner.
Fluidity: Super clean swivel with tight footwork to explode out of his redirections. Stride length and weight are ideal; top half is impossibly quiet relative to active lower half when he's forced to flip his hips and recover at the line of scrimmage. Rarely false steps in his gather and drive. Balance through glancing contact is a big part of his game and largely the result of his active lower half helping him play at tough angles.
Tackling: Love the willingness to lay the wood as the first defender and attack the ball-carrier's arm as the second defender. Shows sufficient physicality to close down on boundary plays or serve as the primary contain player as an outside corner. Doesn't have a ton of hustle or competitive moxie to him as a pursuit defender and won't get involved in plays that don't need him. Tackling technique is only average and he'll lunge for ankles in the open field at times.
Round Grade: Incomplete
Best Trait: Reactionary Quickness
Worst Trait: Tackling
Player Comparison: Incomplete
Summary: Kristian Fulton is a quality Day 1 outside corner candidate who is scheme-transcendent at the NFL level. Fulton's best deployment is in the press, where he played comfortably for multiple seasons in Dave Aranda's LSU defense. Fulton is an impossibly balanced and controlled corner who wins with smooth transitions, quick-twitch athleticism in tight areas, and great timing closing space on routes to all three levels. Fulton has delightful ball skills with his back to the football and enough speed to squeeze top receivers down the field without losing phase, and has ideal reactionary quickness and play recognition to win in a Cover 3 zone responsibilitiy. Fulton's biggest weakness are his average play strength and accordingly inconinstent tackling, but he projects as a Year 1 starter with Pro Bowl potential in his future
___________________
2nd - Antoine Winfield jr (S) Minnesota
Coverage Spacing - He doesn't have the most potent burst or range to flow in space but you definitely can work with him in split safety role and his quick processor allows him to shade and jump throws with consistency. He's got a knack for attacking and undercutting the ball with good angles to crash the party and pluck away the football.
Acceleration - His long speed isn't an area where he's going to hang his hat — he's more quick than he is fast. But his short area agility allows him to buzz down into gaps or into the path of routes and disrupt the play effectively to disrupt or get into desirable run fits from the fringes of the hash marks.
Tackling - A few instances of gearing down late or dropping his head but he's a fairly sure tackler who is confident locking horns with bigger dudes and runs the feet through contact for confident finishes. His run fills from the second level are quite nice and he's eager to stick his face into the fire and challenge the ball carrier.
Zone Coverage Skills - Played a lot of deep half and he'll do well there. His eyes are instinctive inside of 10 yards and he'll have the chance to jump some routes in the quick game. His peripheral vision to shade and bait the quarterback is strong and he's rarely caught out of position.
Ball Skills - He's a hunter here. Frequently takes the ambitious angle to make a play on the ball — it's yielded great results for him thus far. Innate sense of turnover opportunities and cashes in on the regular. He doesn't have ideal length so if he's boxed out at the catch point he's not going to be able to extend and play the ball.
Competitive Toughness - Dude is a firecracker. A lot of fun to watch him fly into the frame and get in on the action. He's fearless in the box and as a run support defender and his stout tackling provides effective finishes and doesn't often yield extra yards. He's got a good presence in the trail position against TEs as well, not easily bullied.
Flexibility - Doesn't illustrate elite mobility through his frame when tasked with flipping his hips into pursuit in lateral situations. He's got good coil through his frame to explode and deliver body blows to ball carriers. Body control and contortion tracking the ball is strong.
Feet/COD - Smooth and fluid — doesn't take a lot of wasted steps and is consistently ready to pounce. His effective cadence in footwork leaves him balanced and ready to redirect as needed. He's got good spring on his bucket step to click and close to attack action in front of his face.
Man Coverage Skills - Locked up some talented players in shadow coverage, especially against Penn State. Capable of handling big bodies and shows good resistance to not get uprooted off of his landmarks and stay on the body to prevent separation in the MOF or up the seam.
Versatility - He brings a lot to the table. His lack of elite range cuts down on his upside as a deep FS but working him into nickel reps and subsequently using him in base packages as a strong safety is the expectation. No reason why he can't play nearly full snap count given effective run fills, blitzing and coverage.
---
Best Trait - Football IQ
Worst Trait - Deep Range
Best Film - Penn State (2019)
Worst Film - Iowa (2019)
Red Flags - 2018 Foot INJ
Player Summary - Antoine Winfield Jr. brings an established NFL pedigree to the 2020 NFL Draft. His father's exploits clearly left an impression on Winfield Jr. — he's an instinctive player who illustrates a clear feel for the game on the back end. As a deep safety, Winfield Jr. is best in half field coverages but he brings man to man coverage skills against tight ends and is a viable fill defender in the box to step down against the run. He's not an elite athlete but his instincts and discipline will net him splash plays
__________________
3rd - Brycen Hopkins (TE) Purdue
PROS: Smooth, fluid route runner that runs and fairly advanced route tree. Easy in and out of horizontal breaks and his vertical cuts are seamless. I like his pace and lean throughout his release and stem. Does well to adjust and find soft spots in zones. Ball tracking skills are impressive, particularly over the shoulder. Makes his share of challenging grabs through contact in contested situations. Gives great effort as an in-line blocker and is deliberate with his technique. Brings the fight as a blocker on the move or when tasked with leading into gaps. Competitive worker after the catch. Outstanding production that improved every year in college.
CONS: Positional blocker that doesn’t have ideal mass or functional strength to truly widen rush lanes inline. Hands fail him and his drop rate is concerning. Struggles to dig out low throws. Needs to become more consistent with his hand alignment when greeting the football on arrival. More of a zone-busting tight end that didn’t find the same degree of success creating separation when working against man coverage.
BEST TRAIT - Route Running
WORST TRAIT - In-Line Blocking
RED FLAGS - None
NFL COMP - Jared Cook
Despite being the son of former Tennessee Titans offensive lineman Brad Hopkins who started in the NFL for 13 seasons, Brycen Hopkins didn’t start playing football until he reached high school. Hopkins enjoyed a prolific career at Purdue, racking up 130 receptions for 1,945 yards and 16 touchdowns across four seasons with increased production every year. While his hands must become more consistent, Hopkins profiles nicely as a receiving threat at the next level. His route running skills are advanced and he has excellent ball skills. While he lacks the mass and power to be an impact blocker, Hopkins demonstrates great effort and brings the fight on every rep. Hopkins does have the upside to start in the NFL and at a minimum should be a quality No. 2 option that thrives in 12 personnel sets.
__________________
4th - Quartney Davis (WR) Texas A&M
PROS: Crisp! There's very little wasted movement in Davis' game -- impressive control of his body, steps and breaks to sufficiently snap off his route stems and create significant separation, regardless of whether that comes on hard angled breaks back to the LOS, speed outs into the boundary or shallow adjustments across the face of defenders squatting at the top of the route. Davis is flashing much more production early on in 2019 and with continued production could make a significant push to consider declaring -- his route tree, exposure and techniques to create space in the secondary all suggest there's notable next level potential. Davis moves a little bit like Deebo Samuel -- he's a taller player but watching him operate in releases and breaks brings me flashbacks to Samuel at South Carolina...and Davis is quick, too. Very easy accelerator who gets up to top speed quickly against off coverage to eat up space and force defenders to respect his ability to get vertical. A&M has moved him around in alignments -- he's not handcuffed to one side of the line of scrimmage or slot versus boundary or field in order to successfully stack coverage and get separation. Footwork and body control along the boundary will definitely capture your attention, too.
CONS: Davis has some notable injuries on his ledger that could threaten draft stock, including a 2016 torn ACL suffered ahead of the 2016 season -- forcing him to redshirt. Davis also has missed one game thus far in 2019 on account of a back injury, so medicals are something to keep an eye on. Davis, if he's caught with hands on his frame, can be edged off his line and forced into low leverage situations and diminish the throwing window for his quarterback. He's got good ball skills to read the ball in flight and adjust his body to the trajectory of the ball, but I'm not completely bought in on his hands being a true strength of his game -- he's not the most plucky attacking the ball with his hands and has had several catches on film where he's not getting the nose of the ball clean, extending his time to tuck the ball away.
