bkeavs
UDFA
- Messages
- 2,189
- Reaction score
- 0
Writer: Morris Claiborne plays ball in air 'better than any CB in recent memory'
Published: 04 July 2012 05:47 PM
When it comes to current NFL cornerbacks, there's Darrelle Revis and everyone else. So when Pro Football Focus' Sam Monson spent some time trying to pick out all the corners who could be considered (either now or in the future) among the league's elite, Revis was the yardstick by which everyone was measured.
Monson identified 10 corners in all, and new Cowboys rookie Morris Claiborne made the cut.
Clairborne, who the Cowboys traded up to get with the No. 6 overall pick in April's draft, was the second-youngest player on the list and the only one without a snap of NFL experience. And while Monson admits that plenty of promising young prospects flame out every year in the NFL, he says that Claiborne's skill set is far from ordinary.
"Obviously we have yet to grade a snap of his – we are, after all, Pro Football Focus – but in watching some of his LSU tape he plays the ball in the air better than any corner of recent memory," Monson wrote. "He showed an incredible ability to lock down a receiver in man coverage and then become the receiver when the ball was in the air. Who knows if he will translate to the NFL, or if he will become another in a long line of draft busts, but he is a player to keep an eye on if nothing else."
Claiborne was mentioned along with a group of three other "youngsters" -- players with one or fewer years in the NFL -- that included Seattle's Richard Sherman, Arizona's Patrick Peterson and Baltimore's Jimmy Smith. Three of the four are former first-round draft picks.
Published: 04 July 2012 05:47 PM
When it comes to current NFL cornerbacks, there's Darrelle Revis and everyone else. So when Pro Football Focus' Sam Monson spent some time trying to pick out all the corners who could be considered (either now or in the future) among the league's elite, Revis was the yardstick by which everyone was measured.
Monson identified 10 corners in all, and new Cowboys rookie Morris Claiborne made the cut.
Clairborne, who the Cowboys traded up to get with the No. 6 overall pick in April's draft, was the second-youngest player on the list and the only one without a snap of NFL experience. And while Monson admits that plenty of promising young prospects flame out every year in the NFL, he says that Claiborne's skill set is far from ordinary.
"Obviously we have yet to grade a snap of his – we are, after all, Pro Football Focus – but in watching some of his LSU tape he plays the ball in the air better than any corner of recent memory," Monson wrote. "He showed an incredible ability to lock down a receiver in man coverage and then become the receiver when the ball was in the air. Who knows if he will translate to the NFL, or if he will become another in a long line of draft busts, but he is a player to keep an eye on if nothing else."
Claiborne was mentioned along with a group of three other "youngsters" -- players with one or fewer years in the NFL -- that included Seattle's Richard Sherman, Arizona's Patrick Peterson and Baltimore's Jimmy Smith. Three of the four are former first-round draft picks.
