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DEVON WITHERSPOON
Tyrann Mathieu came out of college labelled as a character concern, so the LSU prospect went in the third round instead of the first round.
But if you could get Mathieu as a player in the NFL, ignoring anything unpredictable such as injuries or suspensions, would he be worth a first-round pick? A high-first round pick, a mid-first round pick or a low-first round pick?
Devon Witherspoon is a good test case
.
Witherspoon isn't the corner you'd typically want in the top 10 of a draft. You want the lockdown, man coverage defender who terrifies opposing quarterbacks from throwing in his direction.
But those cornerbacks don't really exist anymore because of the rules of the NFL. Ahmad Gardner did a damn good impression of one during his rookie season for the Jets though, that must be acknowledged.
Witherspoon isn't that guy. He's not going to pick a side of the field and shut it down. He's not going to follow an opposing receiver in the NFL and shut him down. But he could be what Mathieu became.
He could be a player who plays all over the field, is used in different ways and contributes positively in all without being elite in coverage.
Witherspoon is a heavier, longer athlete than Mathieu ever was so the comparison isn't aesthetically accurate and there are specific differences between the two.
This play is a good example of how Witherspoon is better set up to defend vertical routes from a slot alignment.
For Mathieu to stop a slot fade, he has to overplay the outside and stay on top of the receiver from early in the play. Witherspoon can let the play come to him more because he can extend his left hand to bump the defender just before the ball arrives and then fend him off at the catch point to win the play.
This is a really good interception that accentuates Witherspoon's positives in man coverage.
And while it's important to stress that it's not a major flaw, it's important to note that he does not have particularly quick feet, doesn't show off great fluidity or technique/balance in coverage.
You can see how out of control he is in the above play against Chatanooga. He's quick enough to play in the slot but he won't be shutting opponents down inside there without help the way Leon Hall did all those years ago.
One other concern with Witherspoon was his tendency to guess where routes were going and jump in front of the receiver.
He was good at it in college but it's an incredibly dangerous game to play against NFL receivers, NFL quarterbacks and NFL play callers. His mirroring skills need to improve at the next level if he's going to realize his full potential.
Here are a handful of different plays that capture Witherspoon's mindset.
This is great initial coverage at the top of the screen in off-man coverage. Witherspoon lets the receiver close the space to him and then latches onto his inside shoulder. He turns with the receiver so the curl route is shut down.
But he lets his eyes go to the backfield which causes him to carry upfield while the receiver wheels out the back into the space in behind.
A couple of things about this play are really positive. The initial coverage is great. And the ball skills when he recovers are startlingly good. NFL coaches will see him turn around and locate while jumping into the defender and salivate because if he does that in the NFL he won't give up pass interference penalties.
But he was also fortunate that the throw wasn't better and that the safety tracked over the top for him. That little moment at the top of the initial route where he loses concentration hoping for the ball to be thrown his way will cost him in other scenarios.
The aggression really shows up against the run and YAC plays. This is where he becomes "instinctual" the way Mathieu was.
It's obviously easier to do in college because college playbooks are far more limited, but Witherspoon really stood out for how often he made educated guesses to anticipate play designs and created big plays in doing so.
Here he sees the bubble screen coming before the ball is thrown so the outside receiver has no chance of blocking him.
Playing the slot in the NFL is not easy for a variety of reasons. It's probably easier than playing outside the numbers on balance, but the quality of receivers playing inside, the route combinations, the two-way go aspect and key role in situational football means coverage inside is tougher than ever.
But you will more often than not still get more help than the cornerbacks outside and probably cover the best receivers in the league less often.
On the inside you do have to be able to tackle more and you have to be able to fight through contact so you can beat blocks. It's definitely an ability question mark but it's also an appetite issue more often than not.
Witherspoon relishes contact. He sprints towards alarms instead of running away from them,
You can see him explode off the edge again in the above play when he anticipates the play call to beat the pulling blocker and smack the running back in the backfield.
Witherspoon deserves a lot of credit because he seemingly does a good job of picking his spots. He's not constantly guessing to the point of being reckless and a detriment to the integrity of the defence as a whole.
Here we see his discipline in zone coverage to the top of the screen. The offence tries to draw him inside with a drag route from the receiver at the top of the screen. Witherspoon shifts down inside by a step but doesn't chase it.
That allows him to stay in position to react to the flat route coming out of the backfield. When he takes that route away, the quarterback is forced to look past him into the endzone.
And that's where the interception occurs.
When he combines his discipline and aggression, you really see his full value.
In that Michigan game, you see Witherspoon step inside with the receiver to the top of the screen while keeping his eyes on the ball carrier. He redirects past that block with ease and then accelerates through the running back to not only stop him in his tracks, but turn him back in the opposite direction.
Finding a cornerback in the NFL who tackles as well as this is a very difficult thing. That's a big reason why his next coach will be able to line him up in different spots all over the field.
A really creative defensive coordinator will give Witherspoon some freedom on occasion too the way Mathie has had during different spots in his career. That means the defence can let him make educated guesses and chase big plays without creating the inherent risk that comes with him doing that in a traditional play call.
Finally, something that is really going to help Witherspoon is how he finds the ball and attacks it at the catch point. He's really smart and the route he takes to the ball relative to the receiver he's covering and understands how to read the flight of it to win the catch point.
He doesn't touch the ball on this play. but he perfectly times his reach so that he takes out the receiver's hand and does so by going over his shoulder rather than through his back.
Officials will call him for interference more than they should when he does this, but that's just an inevitability of playing cornerback in today's NFL.
You can see him do the same thing on another play from the same game inside the numbers when he recovers to take a great angle to the ball past the receiver's inside shoulder.
That left hand on the hip will get flagged quite a bit in the NFL, but it's a situation where every cornerback has to do it all the time and just hope the officials don't see it or don't call it.
Whether Witherspoon's arms are particularly long or not is unclear, but by just watching him play they look huge because of the way he plays. He is so good at judging the ball in the air and high-pointing it or cutting it off at its earliest point.
That's a rare commodity for an NFL cornerback and puts him on par with NFL receivers when it comes to battling for possession on 50-50 balls or even passes that favour his opponent.
Taking any defensive back in the top 10 of the draft is a huge risk in today's NFL. But you can only make decisions based on the prospects available and it's not hard to imagine there aren't many prospects better than Witherspoon this year.
Tyrann Mathieu came out of college labelled as a character concern, so the LSU prospect went in the third round instead of the first round.
But if you could get Mathieu as a player in the NFL, ignoring anything unpredictable such as injuries or suspensions, would he be worth a first-round pick? A high-first round pick, a mid-first round pick or a low-first round pick?
Devon Witherspoon is a good test case
.
Witherspoon isn't the corner you'd typically want in the top 10 of a draft. You want the lockdown, man coverage defender who terrifies opposing quarterbacks from throwing in his direction.
But those cornerbacks don't really exist anymore because of the rules of the NFL. Ahmad Gardner did a damn good impression of one during his rookie season for the Jets though, that must be acknowledged.
Witherspoon isn't that guy. He's not going to pick a side of the field and shut it down. He's not going to follow an opposing receiver in the NFL and shut him down. But he could be what Mathieu became.
He could be a player who plays all over the field, is used in different ways and contributes positively in all without being elite in coverage.
Witherspoon is a heavier, longer athlete than Mathieu ever was so the comparison isn't aesthetically accurate and there are specific differences between the two.
This play is a good example of how Witherspoon is better set up to defend vertical routes from a slot alignment.
For Mathieu to stop a slot fade, he has to overplay the outside and stay on top of the receiver from early in the play. Witherspoon can let the play come to him more because he can extend his left hand to bump the defender just before the ball arrives and then fend him off at the catch point to win the play.
This is a really good interception that accentuates Witherspoon's positives in man coverage.
And while it's important to stress that it's not a major flaw, it's important to note that he does not have particularly quick feet, doesn't show off great fluidity or technique/balance in coverage.
You can see how out of control he is in the above play against Chatanooga. He's quick enough to play in the slot but he won't be shutting opponents down inside there without help the way Leon Hall did all those years ago.
One other concern with Witherspoon was his tendency to guess where routes were going and jump in front of the receiver.
He was good at it in college but it's an incredibly dangerous game to play against NFL receivers, NFL quarterbacks and NFL play callers. His mirroring skills need to improve at the next level if he's going to realize his full potential.
Here are a handful of different plays that capture Witherspoon's mindset.
This is great initial coverage at the top of the screen in off-man coverage. Witherspoon lets the receiver close the space to him and then latches onto his inside shoulder. He turns with the receiver so the curl route is shut down.
But he lets his eyes go to the backfield which causes him to carry upfield while the receiver wheels out the back into the space in behind.
A couple of things about this play are really positive. The initial coverage is great. And the ball skills when he recovers are startlingly good. NFL coaches will see him turn around and locate while jumping into the defender and salivate because if he does that in the NFL he won't give up pass interference penalties.
But he was also fortunate that the throw wasn't better and that the safety tracked over the top for him. That little moment at the top of the initial route where he loses concentration hoping for the ball to be thrown his way will cost him in other scenarios.
The aggression really shows up against the run and YAC plays. This is where he becomes "instinctual" the way Mathieu was.
It's obviously easier to do in college because college playbooks are far more limited, but Witherspoon really stood out for how often he made educated guesses to anticipate play designs and created big plays in doing so.
Here he sees the bubble screen coming before the ball is thrown so the outside receiver has no chance of blocking him.
Playing the slot in the NFL is not easy for a variety of reasons. It's probably easier than playing outside the numbers on balance, but the quality of receivers playing inside, the route combinations, the two-way go aspect and key role in situational football means coverage inside is tougher than ever.
But you will more often than not still get more help than the cornerbacks outside and probably cover the best receivers in the league less often.
On the inside you do have to be able to tackle more and you have to be able to fight through contact so you can beat blocks. It's definitely an ability question mark but it's also an appetite issue more often than not.
Witherspoon relishes contact. He sprints towards alarms instead of running away from them,
You can see him explode off the edge again in the above play when he anticipates the play call to beat the pulling blocker and smack the running back in the backfield.
Witherspoon deserves a lot of credit because he seemingly does a good job of picking his spots. He's not constantly guessing to the point of being reckless and a detriment to the integrity of the defence as a whole.
Here we see his discipline in zone coverage to the top of the screen. The offence tries to draw him inside with a drag route from the receiver at the top of the screen. Witherspoon shifts down inside by a step but doesn't chase it.
That allows him to stay in position to react to the flat route coming out of the backfield. When he takes that route away, the quarterback is forced to look past him into the endzone.
And that's where the interception occurs.
When he combines his discipline and aggression, you really see his full value.
In that Michigan game, you see Witherspoon step inside with the receiver to the top of the screen while keeping his eyes on the ball carrier. He redirects past that block with ease and then accelerates through the running back to not only stop him in his tracks, but turn him back in the opposite direction.
Finding a cornerback in the NFL who tackles as well as this is a very difficult thing. That's a big reason why his next coach will be able to line him up in different spots all over the field.
A really creative defensive coordinator will give Witherspoon some freedom on occasion too the way Mathie has had during different spots in his career. That means the defence can let him make educated guesses and chase big plays without creating the inherent risk that comes with him doing that in a traditional play call.
Finally, something that is really going to help Witherspoon is how he finds the ball and attacks it at the catch point. He's really smart and the route he takes to the ball relative to the receiver he's covering and understands how to read the flight of it to win the catch point.
He doesn't touch the ball on this play. but he perfectly times his reach so that he takes out the receiver's hand and does so by going over his shoulder rather than through his back.
Officials will call him for interference more than they should when he does this, but that's just an inevitability of playing cornerback in today's NFL.
You can see him do the same thing on another play from the same game inside the numbers when he recovers to take a great angle to the ball past the receiver's inside shoulder.
That left hand on the hip will get flagged quite a bit in the NFL, but it's a situation where every cornerback has to do it all the time and just hope the officials don't see it or don't call it.
Whether Witherspoon's arms are particularly long or not is unclear, but by just watching him play they look huge because of the way he plays. He is so good at judging the ball in the air and high-pointing it or cutting it off at its earliest point.
That's a rare commodity for an NFL cornerback and puts him on par with NFL receivers when it comes to battling for possession on 50-50 balls or even passes that favour his opponent.
Taking any defensive back in the top 10 of the draft is a huge risk in today's NFL. But you can only make decisions based on the prospects available and it's not hard to imagine there aren't many prospects better than Witherspoon this year.
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