He’s an instinctive, physical guy. It’s pretty easy to see why he’s on our board. His click-and-close is one of the best in the draft (which shows on his explosiveness scores, 42 inch vert!), and he’s great triggering downhill and he brings the heat as a tackler. Sometimes a little too much heat, as evidenced by the missed tackles. But you’d rather have to fix that than otherwise.
However he has some of the same issues DeJean has in that he’s MUCH better in zone than man. So maybe the fact we’d look at a guy like this should give the Cooper fans some hope. I also think he’s probably slot only as well, and his long speed isn’t great. If he gets beat he’ll need help, he’s not recovering on his own.
Thanks for elaborating. I still hope we go for more talented playmakers in the secondary than guys who are heat seeking tackling CBs. Your a CB gotta be able to cover and gotta be able to cause turnovers.
That’s my philosophy, our staff seems to prioritize you gotta stop the run first…even as a CB.
As far as Cooper Dejan and the man coverage thing goes…I’m not so sure he can’t do it well, not buying it.
Of course he’s better in zone, that’s how you make plays when you are facing the QB and can jump routes.
He’s a game changer and a baller, you want him in zone for that reason.
Oh he’ll cause some turnovers. His instincts are top notch, probably my favorite part of his game. And his closing ability will fool plenty of QBs too. And again, he’s actually a positive in the run game overall. He’ll sniff out a screen and blast the WR at least once or twice a game. The problem is once every other game, he’ll come in to hot and get shook. That’s fixable imo. The deep speed, not so much.
I’m not saying he can’t improve, but right now? He’s not great. You can just search “Cooper DeJean scouting report” and 85% of them will mention this and many have video. He’s just a bigger corner and they’re always gonna struggle with their hips. If we draft him it’s not for what he can do in man, it’s because of everything else.
Ha, no. I’m a huge DeJean fan. I just know where he’s gonna win and where’s he’s not, at least for now. Again, that doesn’t mean he can’t improve but right now he’s just not a press-man corner. And if we drafted him, I’m sure we wouldn’t use him that way.
I think interception numbers are a bit fluky in college (Ramsey only had 3 over the course of his college career and none his last year for instance). When I watch the tape I’m paying more attention to how they read the play, how they break on the ball, how calm they are at the catch point, how their hands are, and if I see that stuff, I think they’ll eventually cause more turnovers.
In fairness though, Phillips can get a little panicky at the catch point (especially if he’s trying to make up ground) and doesn’t have the greatest hands. So he’s not a perfect example of a guy who’s gonna start getting turnovers with more opportunities. But like I said his instincts as far as reading the play goes are top notch, and he breaks on the ball like a madman. He’s got a great nose for the football. You have to think that will lead to more turnovers.
I’m not nearly so high on Phillips overall though. In fact I’m pretty far below consensus. But that has almost everything to do with his limited athleticism outside of a small area. He’ll be real good though against quick slot receivers and RBs, at least early in their routes.
Except when we were trying to throw a curveball (which I don’t really remember this FO doing), I suspect we’ve met with pretty much everyone we’ve drafted at least twice. Even if it’s just a scout at a pro day or something, or a zoom meeting. We’re only gonna hear about, say, 10% of the meetings or so. Only the official ones (and even then we rarely hear about all 30 top 30 visits) and the ones where the prospect says they met us. Most will be kept under wraps.
Those are good points I guess. But we do hear too from prospects where they say they never even met with us and were shocked we drafted them because we showed no interest.
Even then Holmes has personally scouted the player at a game, Pro Day, Combine, and spoken with coaches and other players.
In interviews teams will often ask indirectly about players on the team.
“Besides you, who is the hardest working player on the team?”
Remember when Dan had info on Jalen Carter last year?
They get info directly and indirectly.
That happened with Jack Campbell last year. Lions interviewed his teammate at Iowa, the kid the Packers drafted, and sprinkled a bunch of questions about Campbell into it. Remember hearing the tv game announcers talking about it last year.
I know it goes against popular opinion, but I think I might like KoolAid better than Arnold. Wondering if he goes higher than many think. Maybe I’m just drinking the KoolAid:)
I also want it to be known that I’m a Mike Hall fan. I really do like him. I just think he has a ways to go to be that guy in the NFL, and I don’t think he’s a “Dan Campbell” player all the way.
