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Right after a mid-late pick . . .
the talk can become a little pollyanna, and you wonder – “Why the heck did that player go so late?”
Listening to the interviews with CB Jason Pinnock, who is an impressive guy with great spirit, I’m thinking to myself, “Why the heck did this guy go in the fifth round with so many teams needing cornerback help?”
Long, fast, great leaping ability, good ball skills, excellent character.
What gives?
Yes, all those things are true about his measurables, and he’s a great kid, but he is somewhat inconsistent at Pitt.
I’m not saying teams don’t mistake on prospects who slip, but cornerbacks with great tape, almost never slip to late in the draft, aside from a few aberrations like Richard Sherman, also a fifth-round pick.
Look I’m not looking to attack Pinnock, who has a lot of potential, but after researching a lot today to do a story on him, I realized that some of the praise needs to be tempered just a tad.
The Jets other fifth-round corner, Michael Carter II, people are raving about his speed and versatality, but he clearly slipped because of his size (5-9, 186). We will see if that is a problem or not in time.
Look, on paper, in makes a ton of sense to draft jumbo safeties Jamien Sherwood and Hamsah Nasirildeen and move them to linebacker, but before we get too crazy with praise, let’s give these experiments some time.
Sherman is tough as boot leather and one of the best tackling safeties in the draft, but I want to see how the coverage things works out, because watching tape on him, he seemed to labor at little bit in coverage playing last year at 222. If he has to put on any more weight to become a linebacker, it could hurt his coverage range even more. The same applies to Nasirildeen, another big-time hitter, who sometimes struggles in coverage, so a weight addition here could be problematic as well.
I like the make-up of both guys. They both love football and are extremely physical, but time will tell how these transitions go. And one other thing about safeties moving to linebacker. Even with a few extra pounds, they are still somewhat undersized for linebacker, and a lot of these transition guys get hurt a lot, because they don’t have the build of typical linebackers, the body-armor,
Look, the Jets first four picks, QB Zach Wilson, G Alijah Vera-Tucker, WR Elijah Moore and RB Michael Carter all look like excellent picks. Time will tell, but on paper, it’s hard to argue with any of them.
But people need to hold their horses a little on the hype surrounding some of the late round picks.
I’m still very cynical of late-round corners, because with such a shortage in the league at the position, why would really good corners slip to late in the draft.
Look, we can all see on tape how a guy covers people on the college level. It’s not like you can hide that stuff.
This article wasn’t meant to be a downer, just a reality check.
Guys usually slip for a reason. Obviously mistakes are made. We will see in time whether other teams made mistakes on all these Jets late round defenders or not.
May 5, 2021
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