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The Panthers finally addressed the cornerback position with the No. 113 overall selection in the draft. Notre Dame’s Troy Pride Jr. is a high character individual who had tremendous Senior Bowl and combine showings.
Let’s take a look at Pride’s scouting report and see how he can help turn around Carolina’s secondary.
Strengths:
Pride brings good size to the table as he measured in at 5-foot-11, 193 pounds at the combine. He ran a 4.4 second forty yard dash, jumped 35.5 inches in the vertical and clocked a 6.94 in the three cone. He is an excellent athlete who plays with very fluid hips in coverage and quick footwork. He is solid in man and zone coverage and he has a quick trigger to close on the ball and good ball skills at the catch point. Pride has smooth feet and is able to flip his hips quite nicely and transition into the hip pocket of receivers.
Pride has good enough length to be able to play on the outside, but would be most effective at nickel. With his smooth footwork and tremendous short yardage quickness/agility, he would be a plug and play starter at nickel.
Weaknesses:
Pride displays decent tackling ability, but will need to improve on his open field tackling in space. He also gets a bit grabby at the tail end of routes near the catch point, so defensive coordinator Phil Snow and his staff will have to break that habit.
Fit with the Panthers:
Carolina needed a corner badly and got a strong one here with Pride. He can bring versatility at either outside or nickel corner and should be able to start Week 1. This is another tremendous pick for the Panthers, as they got one of the best players available at a position of need.
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