Category: The All-22

Buffalo Bills’ best sleeper pick: Daequan Hardy, CB, Penn State

The Bills got a sixth-round sleeper in Penn State cornerback Daequan Hardy, who could help redefine Buffalo’s rebuilding secondary.

We’re not sure how the Steelers missed out on Hardy; the Pittsburgh native played 7-on-7 football as a kid with Joey Porter Jr. and Mike Tomlin’s son, Dino. In any event, a Bills secondary that got old seemingly overnight will benefit from Hardy’s presence. Last season for the Nittany Lions, Hardy allowed 26 catches on 48 targets for 318 yards, 164 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, two interceptions, five pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 71.4. Not bad for a player selected with the 219th overall pick in the sixth round.

At 5′ 9⅜” and 178 pounds and a wingspan that’s in the first percentile for cornerbacks since 1999, Hardy is absolutely a slot defender at the NFL level, but he has the potential to be a good one.

Xavier Worthy’s record-breaking speed will show up on the field for the Chiefs

Rookie receiver Xavier Worthy could be a big part of the Chiefs’ offense in 2024, and it’s about more than his record-breaking speed.

The Kansas City Chiefs traded Tyreek Hill to the Dolphins before the 2022 season, and they’ve been trying to replace Hill as a receiver who can test and beat the third level of a defense ever since. Two straight Super Bowl wins will lessen the pain of that need, but if you watched any Chiefs tape last season, and watched whatever was going on with that group of receivers, you certainly saw it.

General manager Brett Veach and head coach Andy Reid probably don’t want to be in another position where Steve Spagnuolo’s defense had to drag the team into the postseason in the first place, and that’s why Kansas City traded up with the Buffalo Bills to select Texas’s Xavier Worthy, who set the all-time scouting combine record with a 4.21-second 40-yard dash.

The Chiefs aren’t worried about Worthy’s ability to take that speed to the field in a functional sense, and Worthy has already mentioned the similarities to the offense he was a part of in Texas.

“It’s been fun, learning the new offense and seeing how they run stuff, and just getting the flow of things. It reminds me a lot of Sark’s [Texas Head Coach Steve Sarkisian’s] playbook, a lot of similarities, just a lot of different names to it. It’s going to be fun to play in this offense.

“I feel like [Kansas City] was my main spot. Pat [Mahomes] – I feel like everybody would want to play for Pat with how amazing of a quarterback he is and how versatile he is.”

So far, Andy Reid is impressed.

“I thought he did a nice job picking things up and working through – we asked him to do a whole lot of stuff there,” Reid said during of Worthy during the Chiefs’ rookie minicamp. “He was put in most of the primary spots, so it was good for him to be able to get in there and move around a little bit.”

Worthy has to work on a few things at the NFL level, but it’s not just speed here — he can get free with some pretty good route awareness, and it’s important to know that the 5′ 11¼”, 165-pound Worthy wanted to play for Sarkisian because he was so impressed with how Sark prepared DeVonta Smith, a similarly-sized speed receiver, for the NFL when Sark was Alabama’s offensive coordinator.

This isn’t just a “let’s get a fast guy on the field and hope he can make deep catches” thing — there’s a lot of planning here on all sides.

 

Rookie RB Jonathon Brooks could be the playmaker the Panthers desperately need

The Carolina Panthers are in desperate need of playmakers, and here’s why Dave Canales’ offense could run through rookie Jonathon Brooks.

The Panthers are more in need of playmakers than most NFL teams right now — that’s something new GM Dan Morgan and head coach Dave Canales know all too well. Getting South Carolina receiver Xavier Legette with the 32nd overall pick in the first round was a good call, as Legette is a home run play waiting to happen. But don’t underestimate the addition of Texas running back Jonathon Brooks with the 46th overall pick in the second round.

Canales, who spent last season as the Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator and was therefore in charge of Rachaad White’s place in that offense (only Christian McCaffrey of the 49ers had more carries last season than White’s 299, and White also had 69 catches on 78 targets in 2023), has no issue leaning heavily on one back — as long as that back is the right back.

“Our system calls for a back that can be used, of course, just in a traditional way, hand it to him,” Canales said after Brooks was selected. “Then, how can we get this player in space? Being able to get him in perimeter screens and checkdowns. We got a really cool empty package where we use the backs, flex them out to get matchups, things like that.”

“He’s a bigger back, he’s got range. There’s so much that he brings from a versatility standpoint, that’s probably the biggest thing that stood out and then just vision, patience, contact balance, acceleration, like he’s got it all, he’s the best back in this class.”

Brooks lined up outside on 4% of his snaps in 2023, and in the slot 1% of the time. He had no targets in 2023 outside of the backfield. But Canales’ point about Taylor and perimeter screens rings true. He was dynamic from the backfield to gain serious yards after catch with quick passes. This 73-yard gain against TCU proves the theory.

Rams rookie RB Blake Corum is the perfect fit in Sean McVay’s run game

The Rams got Michigan RB Blake Corum in the third round of the draft, and Corum fits Sean McVay’s offense as well as he possibly can.

In 2023, the Rams and head coach Sean McVay decided to engineer a drastic change in their overall run game. McVay had been one of the NFL’s most effective proselytizers of the zone run game for years. But last season, McVay (and primary running back Kyren Williams) called and ran more gap power stuff than any other team in the NFL — on Wham and Duo alone, the Rams gained 510 yards and 284 yards after contact, and scored eight touchdowns, on 115 carries. The Patriots ranked second with 82 carries, so this was a Real Thing for McVay.

Now, when you look at backs in this draft class with the most success in those concepts, you can start with Michigan’s Blake Corum. In the 2023 NCAA season, no back ran more out of Wham and Duo than Corum, who gained 276 yards, and 81 yards after contact in those two concepts, scoring three touchdowns on 38 carries. Notre Dame’s Audric Estime, who went to the Broncos in the fifth round, ranked second with 27 such carries. Troy’s Kimani Vidal ranked third with 24 such carries. So, Blake Corum to the Rams with the 83rd overall pick in the third round is one of the tighter scheme fits you’ll see in any draft.

Moreover, McVay isn’t bringing Corum in to replace Williams — he sees them as two backs who already know how to do what he wants his backs to do.

“For me, one of the things that jumped off is there’s a lot of traits that reminded me of Kyren Williams,” McVay said of Corum after the pick was made. “Obviously I love Kyren and he’s been so important and just the human being, but then also when you just look at the way he works at it, the production and the things that he was able to bring to our offense last year and even really some of the things that he worked through his rookie year. I think there’s a lot of similarities.

“Kyren will put Blake under his arm and be a great mentor and kind of a leader but [running backs coach] Ron Gould was really excited about him, [Offensive Coordinator] Mike LaFleur, I obviously loved his game and he’s got a bunch of tape to be able to evaluate. He’s been a part of an incredibly successful program. He’s been the bell cow for them in the midst of the successful runs that they’ve had the last few years. And so we’re really looking forward to getting to work with him.”

Seahawks’ two new Auburn cornerbacks could shake things up in the Emerald City

The Seahawks got two new Auburn cornerbacks in the draft, and Nehemiah Pritchett and D.J. James could be part of a defensive revolution.

The Seahawks obviously re-tooled a lot of stuff with their defense over the offseason. Gone was Pete Carroll, and the fumes of the Legion of Boom. In came former Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, who got career years out of more than half of his players last season. Seattle could certainly use some of that; their ranking of 28th in Defensive DVOA in 2023 after ranking 22nd in 2022 might have been more than team ownership was willing to accept.

So, onto Macdonald’s defense, which doesn’t really have an established type, and comes at you from everywhere. First-round defensive tackle Byron Murphy II from Texas might have the tools to be for the Seahawks what Justin Madubuike was for Macdonald’s Ravens last year, but as far as the new guys with interesting profiles and potential, there are two cornerbacks from Auburn ready to write their names in something — Nehemiah Pritchett with the 136th overall pick in the fifth round, and D.J. James with the 192nd pick in the sixth.

As Macdonald said after both players were selected, the 6′ 0⅛”, 190-pound Pritchett projects more as an outside cornerback, which would allow Macdonald to keep 2023 first-round pick Devon Witherspoon as an inside/outside guy, if that’s what he wants to do. In terms of sticky coverage style and aggressive mentality, Pritchett does hearken back to the LOB.

At 5′ 11⅝” and 175 pounds, James is more of that inside/outside player. Most of his 10 pass deflections last season came outside, and he was particularly ridiculous when defending fade balls. But the speed to match routes and the ease of transitions does make you think that a fuller-time switch might not be too tough.

“Come in and compete, that’s the theme for the whole draft class,” Macdonald said of the plan for the new cornerbacks. “Nehemiah is probably more of an outside guy. Definitely early both guys on special teams we anticipate to come in, make a huge impact for us. DJ probably both inside and outside, but, come in, compete, we’ll figure it out. Kind of like the offensive line, defensive line. We got a lot of reps to be had out there, so it’ll hash itself out.”

Asked about the scheme fit for Pritchett and James, Schneider deferred to the overall athletic traits as opposed to how somebody attacks in Cover-1. Which, as malleable as Macdonald’s coverage concepts can be, makes a lot of sense.

“It wasn’t necessarily scheme, quite honestly. It was just the skill set with Pritchett, the speed. D.J., he can play nickel, he can play outside, too, so it wasn’t necessarily a scheme evaluation. They’re both talented cover guys. There’s things both of them need to clean up and once they get here, they’ll understand that and they’ll have a clear vision for where they’re headed.”

New 49ers CB Renardo Green adds all kinds of spice to San Francisco’s secondary

The 49ers added Florida State CB Renardo Green to their secondary in the second round. Here’s why Green is a dawg… and the perfect fit.

The 49ers’ change in defensive shot-caller from Steve Wilks to Brandon Staley might not be too different from a coverage perspective. Last season, Staley’s Chargers led with Cover-3, followed by Cover-4. Staley ran far more of his preferred Cover-6 than the 49ers did; Wilks was more about Cover-1.

No matter how things change in the secondary, one key addition will be Florida State cornerback Renardo Green, selected by the 49ers with the 64th overall pick in the second round. Green’s potential is important to this defense no matter who’s running it, because outside of Charvarius Ward, it got pretty dicey back there at times. Deommodore Lenior is better in the slot, and both Ambry Thomas and Isaiah Oliver struggled more than anyone would have preferred.

Green, who last season allowed 31 receptions on 60 targets for 290 yards, 103 yards after the catch, three touchdowns, one interception, 13 pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 75.0, did his thing in the Seminoles’ press-heavy, man-heavy schemes, which led to some instances in which he got beaten on an island, but also some spectacular plays that showed all of his attributes — particularly a knack for clamping down in more press reps than most NCAA cornerbacks have to deal with. Green allowed just eight catches on 23 targets in press coverage last season, and just 3.5 yards per catch.

If you don’t have time to watch all of Green’s reps from the 2023 season, all you need to study is his game against LSU receiver Malik Nabers — my WR1 in this class, who was selected by the Giants with the sixth overall pick. Green’s line against Nabers? Two catches for 20 yards, and an interception caused by Green eclipsing Nabers down the boundary.

“He’s got a heck of a mentality, Renardo,” general manager John Lynch said. “I mean, that’s the thing we really loved about him. 186 pounds, but he wants to hit you. And everyone correlates, I think interceptions to ball production. We look at it, PBUs, and he had 13 PBUs, one of the tops in the nation last year, had one interception, one forced fumble, really good tackler, plays a tough physical game. He told us 15 times when we called him, you got a dog, you got a dog. And that’s exactly what we thought when we drafted him. He can play man-to-man, he’ll get up, challenge receivers, has done it against some really top-level players and fired up to have him as well.”

When John Lynch is impressed with the amount of pure dog in a defensive back, that’s noteworthy. And fortunately for the 49ers, the tape matches it over and over again. That’s something every defensive coordinator would like, no matter what coverage he’s calling.

How the Packers’ three new safeties will change their defense radically for the better

With Xavier McKinney, Javon Bullard, and Kitan Oladapo on board, the Packers’ safety group will change the defense for the better… radically.

While NFL teams like the Lions and Eagles chose to overhaul their cornerbacks this offseason, the Packers went safety first under new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley. First, there was the signing of former Giants star Xavier McKinney to a four-year, $67 million contract with $23 million guaranteed. Then in the draft, the Packers got Georgia’s Javon Bullard with the 58th overall pick in the second round. Then, the addition of Oregon State’s Kitan Oladapo with the 169th pick in the fifth round.

Packers nab former Giants DB Xavier McKinney to be the face of their pass defense

Necessary changes for a defense that ranked 27th in 2023, and 25th the year before, under Joe Barry. Moreover, all three players are fairly interchangeable in the defense. This is especially true of Bullard, who transitioned from a slot/box defender in 2022 to a free safety in 2023, and did it all without a hitch. Last season, Bullard allowed 14 catches on 26 targets for 119 yards, 68 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, two interceptions, five pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of

“I think probably his ability to maybe play more nickel than some of those guys,” assistant director of college scouting Patrick Moore said of Bullard’s attributes. “We felt like him at the second level, playing that slot and playing a little bit more nickel, with the ability to play safety as well was probably a strength. Just really we have a good feel for him and who he is and what he’s going to bring to our defense intangible-wise, too. That’s just where we had him stacked.”

“As far as my role, man, just being — really doing whatever the team needed me to do, man,” Bullard told reporters after he was drafted. “It was some cases where as far as my sophomore year at nickel, there were some cases where I was more involved in the run game and more involved in blitz packages and things like that and also more involved in man to man coverage, being able to cover slot receivers and things like that. As far as safety, we lost a great player in Chris Smith to the NFL, as well, so like I said, just being that versatile Swiss Army knife that the team needs, whatever they ask me to do, I will definitely do that and I try to do it at a high level.”

Bullard has already proven all of that.

Oladapo’s responsibilities didn’t change much over his last three seasons at Oregon State — he was about equally in the box, the slot, and the deep third. Last season, he gave up 21 completions on 36 targets for 212 yards, 58 yards after the catch, one touchdown, two interceptions, seven pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 61.3.

“He’s a little different body type than the other two [McKinney and Bullard], said Jon-Eric Sullivan, vice president of player personnel, of Oladapo. “He’s a big, 6-2, 216-pound kid. Long arms. Aggressive — when he hits you, you go down. He’s a very good athlete at that size. He can pedal, he can flip, he can turn. He’s versatile, more of a true safety but he can play that big nickel or will linebacker if you need him too. The playstyle. Very smart. Captain as well. One, good football player, and two, the kind of person we want to infuse in this locker room.”

Hafley has already said that he wants his cornerbacks to play more aggressively than they did under Barry, which is a pretty low bar. One thing we know for sure is that Hafley’s safeties will be athletic, smart, versatile, and deployed in all kinds of places opponents may not expect.

Marshawn Kneeland adds the right kind of chaos to the Cowboys’ defensive line

The Cowboys got a second-round steal in Marshawn Kneeland, who will make Dallas’ defensive line a real problem for opposing quarterbacks.

Last season under defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, the Cowboys ran some kind of stunt or game on their defensive line on 292 of their 1,159 defensive snaps. That 25.2% rate was one of the league’s highest, and while it’s unlikely that new defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer (who also ran Dallas’ defense from 2000 through 2006) will be that volatile with his fronts, the 2021 Vikings did run 158 stunts in Zimmer’s last season as head coach there. And in an NFL where gap versatility is the order of the day, every defense should aspire to have as many multi-position “jokers” as possible.

The Cowboys already have one of the best in Micah Parsons, who can beat opposing blockers everywhere from head-over nose to wide-9 end, and can also beat offenses off-ball. Now, with the addition of Western Michigan’s Marshawn Kneeland with the 56th overall pick in the second round, they have two.

Last season for the Broncos, Kneeland totaled six sacks, 37 total pressures, 38 solo tackles, and 35 stops, and he did it all over the line, with all kinds of attacking techniques.

“The number one thing about him is the high effort and motor that he plays with,” Cowboys Vice President of Player Personnel Will McClay said of Kneeland. “Then to be talented, physically talented enough to play at this level. We noticed him early on. [Brett] Maxie is the area scout who brought him to our attention early, and the more you watch him, the more you see NFL traits and the traits that we are looking for on the defensive side; playing hard all the time and having the ability to rush the passer outside and inside. We’ve talked about it before, as hard as DLaw [DeMarcus Lawrence] played at Boise State, there are some similarities there. That is what we thought about him.”

2024 NFL Draft: Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean are the pieces the Eagles’ secondary needs

The Eagles’ secondary struggled in 2023, which is why draftees Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean arrived at the perfect time.

The 2023 Philadelphia Eagles allowed 447 completions on 688 attempts for 4,927 yards, 38 touchdowns, just nine interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 99.0 — third-worst in the league behind the Commanders and Cardinals. That played out in their 32-9 wild-card demolition at the hands of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, when Baker Mayfield lit that defense up like the proverbial pinball machine.

Darius Slay was still solid in coverage last season at age 32, but James Bradberry allowed 10 touchdowns in 2023, the most by any player in the NFL. And there was nobody to pick up the slack. So, as is is wont, general manager Howie Roseman attacked the most prevalent need with the selection of Toledo cornerback and Senior Bowl superstar Quinyon Mitchell 22nd overall in the first round. Then, the Eagles doubled down with Iowa defensive back Cooper DeJean as their second-round pick, 40th overall.

This was the first time the Eagles had selected a cornerback in the first round since they did so with Lito Sheppard out of Florida in 2002. And in Mitchell’s case, it really is most about what he adds as a suffocating outside cornerback.

“He’s obviously got good movement,” new Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said of his new top man. “He’s got good size for a corner. He’s going to have to adapt to the NFL game, covering NFL receivers, NFL schemes in the passing game. There’s a lot to learn. We think he’s the right guy emotionally and mentally to do that. Hopefully he’ll pay dividends quickly rather than later. But he’s going to be one of the many competing.”

With the Rockets, Mitchell played more off than press reps, and he would occasionally be waylaid by receivers running angular stuff under his position. But as he showed at Toledo and in the Senior Bowl, he’s more than capable of locking guys down when he’s pressing and moving upfield. Last season, he allowed 27 catches on 62 targets for 290 yards, 67 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, one interception, 14 pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 51.1. In Mobile, he answered any questions anybody might have had about strength of competition.

But DeJean is where it gets interesting, and Fangio brought that up both with DeJean’s position versatility, and how he prefers to add those kinds of players to his defense.

“We have a system that is versatile, we like to think. It needs to be versatile because every week you’re facing different strengths of an offense, different schemes. So, what you play in one week 10, 15 times, you may not play at all the next week. You have to have a versatile system for the offenses today in the NFL. What we’ll eventually do is learn what our guys are best at.

“I like to throw a lot at them early because I think one of the worst things you can do is come Week 3, Week 5, ‘Man, we could really use this scheme,’ but it hadn’t been introduced to the players yet. Whereas if you introduced it to them in training camp and worked on it, when you pull it back out three, four weeks later, there’s recall. We’ll throw a lot at them in training camp to see what best fits for them, what they’re good at, and then try and whittle it down, but always keeping some stuff in the bank in case we need it at some point during the season.

Fangio doesn’t seem to see those growing pains as an issue for DeJean.

“You start them out at a primary position, and then you start giving them the secondary position, and you go from there. There’s a lot of players that physically are capable of being versatile. Where a lot of them get eliminated from being versatile is they struggle to learn the assignments and the techniques and the execution at a couple different positions.

“There’s a lot of guys that are versatile physically, but can’t do it mentally. And I don’t mean that — they’re not going to get — your reps are watered down the more you’re moving around — and other guys it comes easier for them than others, if that makes sense.”

DeJean can play everywhere from outside cornerback to slot to box to hybrid safety, and the play he detailed for me when I asked him at the scouting combine for his favorite NCAA rep showed his vision and range… which will place him in good stead wherever he lines up.

“I think a play that comes to mind is my first pick-six against Rutgers [in 2022]. Caught a ball over my shoulder, and took it back for six. I feel like that showed by ball skills and athleticism and all that.”

The Hawkeyes were in 2-Man coverage. Pressure caused quarterback Evan Simon to make an abbreviated throw on the play, and DeJean broke off underneath coverage to go up and take receiver Joshua Youngblood on the deep over. One acrobatic interception later, DeJean had his first pick-six.

Ideally, I could see Fangio running more man coverage with Mitchell and Slay as his boundary cornerbacks — it’s what he did in Denver when he had Patrick Surtain II as his primary. Perhaps DeJean’s starting spot is as a slot/hybrid guy, and Fangio can work it out from there.

2024 NFL Draft: Terrion Arnold is the ideal cornerback for Aaron Glenn’s Lions defense

Detroit Lions rookie CB Terrion Arnold could be his team’s first true lockdown defender since the Darius Slay days.

The 2023 Detroit Lions were perhaps the NFL’s most fun and fascinating team last season, and they very nearly made it to Super Bowl LVIII despite a cornerback group that allowed 172 completions in 291 targets for 2,583 yards, a league-high 24 touchdowns, eight interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 104.4. Among cornerback groups last season, only the aforementioned Cardinals (107.8) were worse.

So, when general manager Brad Holmes and his crew went into the 2024 NFL draft, it was pretty clear what needed to happen. First, the Lions simply needed better cornerbacks. Secondly, they needed cornerbacks capable of playing press coverage and man coverage. Defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, who was a cornerback in the league from 1994 through 2008 with three Pro Bowl nods, and spent his pre-Lions coaching tenure as a defensive backs coach with the Browns and Saints, would prefer that his secondary be more aggressive than it was in 2023. But when your cornerbacks allow 77 catches on 140 targets for 1,250 yards, 12 touchdowns, one interception, and an opponent passer rating of 110.7 in man coverage… well, let’s just say that Glenn’s options were limited in that regard.

Step 1 was to take Alabama cornerback Terrion Arnold with the 24th overall pick. Step 2 was to add to that with the second-round selection (69th overall) of Missouri cornerback Ennis Rakestraw, Jr.

I’m a bit of two minds about Rakestraw, because I can’t get the image of Florida receiver Ricky Pearsall beating him badly in coverage more than once last season. But when you watch Terrion Arnold? That’s a different breed of cat, and his attributes should allow Glenn to better match his personnel to what he wants to call on the field.

“Yeah, he’s sticky,” Holmes said of Arnold. “He can play man coverage. The thing about Terrion, what’s great about him – some of these guys, they are what they are or you might say, ‘Well, the ceiling might not be as high.’ The thing about him is you go back to his ’22 film, you go back to earlier this season, and you saw an incremental improvement just every single game. So I think the first time I watched one of his games was I think it was the LSU game, that’s when I first kind of saw him and I was like, ‘OK, I see skillset.’ But then you start getting down – you start getting to those late games in the college football playoffs and you see him against Georgia and you’re like, ‘OK, it’s on the come.’ And that as well with the skillset. We feel really good about his floor, but we feel even better about his ceiling.

“He’ll get in your face. He’s got a challenge mentality. He will tackle. He’s got the right mindset that we’re looking for. He fits us like a glove. He fits us to a tee exactly how we want to play. We couldn’t be (more) thrilled. Like you guys know, it’s kind of a – when guys don’t play hard, when guys aren’t physical, it’s hard to play here when those guys aren’t wired that way, but he’s one of those guys that are wired that way.”

Arnold doesn’t have to be as wired that way as a lot of cornerbacks do, because when he’s pressed up on a receiver, that receiver is going to have a terrible time dealing with Arnold’s quickness, ability to match step for step, and scalding playing demeanor to the ball. Arnold’s closing speed was a primary ingredient in his five interceptions and 13 pass-breakups last season. Some of the NCAA’s best receivers found it too much to deal with.

And yes. if you catch a ball underneath, good for you, but Arnold will be on his way quickly to make you reconsider.

Every NFL team needs at least one cornerback who becomes frighteningly offended at the thought of any receiver daring to catch the ball against him. The Lions haven’t really had that guy since Darius Slay in 2019. But in Terrion Arnold, they might just have that guy who can make 2024 just a bit more Super Bowl-conversant.