CornerBack ~ Marcus Peters ~ Washington Huskies ~ 5115/198
CornerBacks are of course Pass Defense Specialists, but I will include Run Defense in my Evaluations. But I will note, of course, that as with Blocking as it pertains to WideOuts, it is desirable, yes, but its absence is no Red Flag.
Agility: Acceleration, Ricochet, Fluidity, and Verticity ~ that's Turn & Burn Acuity, to you Earthlings!!
Processing Speed: How quickly and effectively one Reads & Reacts to the developing Play.
Run Defense: Power, Agility, Combat Skills, Navigating Traffic, Processing Speed, Motor, and Tackling.
Pass Coverage: Combat Skills, Agility, Processing Speed, and Catch Point Capacity.
Broken down into SubCategories, it'd go something like this:
Agility
* Fluidity, above all things: Core Agility & Flexibility makes everything possible.
* Ricochet ~ How crisply and how rapidly one breaks in a new direction.
* Acceleration ~ Short Speed or Quickness. Closing Speed.
* Verticity ~ The Ability ~ or lack thereof ~ to Flips Hips and Turn & Burn in Pass Coverage.
Processing Speed
* How quickly and effectively one Reads & Reacts to the developing Play.
Run Defense
* Power
* Agility
* Combat Skills
* Navigating Traffic
* Processing Speed
* Motor
* Tackling
Pass Coverage
* Combat Skills
* Agility
* Processing Speed
* Catch Point Capacity
Processing Speed: Magnificent.
Run Defense: Excellent. His Tackling Mechanics need some Work, but he is a powerful and ferocious Run Defender!!
Pass Coverage: Phenomenal. In Press Coverage, Peters manifests magnificent Jamming Skills at the Point of Attack and tremendous Fluidity to mirror, and in Off Coverage, he consistently exhibits an astonishing Command of the Field, extraordinary Processing Speed, and outstanding Ricochet and Short Speed to Click & Close. His Excellence in Press Coverage is matched only by his terrific Off Coverage ~ he is extraordinarily Schematically Versatile.
I'm not sure you can trust'm in Big Games, though.
I hear he chokes.
Haw.
Be warned: I'm not anywhere near as concerned about Peters's Character as most are.
He's been a bit of a JackAss, to be sure. But I, being myself a JackAss, am less inclined to hold that against'm than most. As far as I'm concerned, it's a matter of whether his behavior has suggested that he's simply a young man stumbling on the Path to Maturity, or is in fact a more fundamentally unsound Soul with a propensity towards Self Destruction.
My feeling ~ and this is of course only an Educated Guess, based on partial Data ~ is that it's the Former.
He missed or was late for several Meetings, and that concerns me more than any silly Rumors of his choking Coaches, or his blowing positive for Marijuana: I'm confident that the choking Rumors were BullShit ~ I seriously doubt they'd've let'm come back for'is Pro Day, otherwise!! ~ and Pot is just Booze in Herbal form...But the kind of sporadic Focus that the missed Meetings hints at is a Red Flag in my Book. However, having dredged up everything that I could, regarding his Dedication or lack thereof, I've come to believe it very likely that this Transgressions were Out Of Character.
To be certain: One need merely watch a few minutes of Game Tape to absolve oneself, if nothing else, of any doubts about Marcus Peters's Passion for this Great Game: The young man is unrelenting and ferocious out there.
I tend to take "Character" issues with an enormous grain of salt, for a couple reasons:
01 ~ I seriously doubt that we but rarely hear the whole story ~ the context of what happened.
02 ~ These are kids we're talking about. A few bumps in the road are expected.
Marcus Peters was kicked off the Team, yes...But leave us not forget: He was in the process of becoming a young Father. His son was born on October 18th, right in the middle of the FootBall Season and a busy School Year.
Hey ~ I'm not playing the Violin for the kid, here: These are all wonderful things to have.
I'm just saying: It's a lot to take on, all at once.
I'm simply not worried about Marcus Peters's Character. Word around the CampFire, in fact, is that he is an extraordinary TeamMate, and loves the Game. And while I'm always cautious about Spin and about Prospects being coached to say what the Public purportedly wants to hear, I really liked his aggressively contrite tone in this Article.
The impression I have is of a kid who simply buckled under a load of Pressure and freaked out.
It happens.
I believe that he's sincere in Taking Ownership, and as far as I'm concerned, his past Transgressions are dust.
I'll be applying no Character Risk Discount.
And as far as playing FootBall is concerned...Hoo, boy.
Good Lord, can this kid play FootBall!!
1st/2nd Round Fringe?? Don't make me laugh.
Marcus Peters isn't infallible, mind you: he doesn't have blazing Long Speed, so if the WideOut runs a Perfect Pattern and the QuarterBack throws the Perfect Pass, Peters can most certainly be beat...But everyone gets beat, now and then.
On a Snap to Snap basis, Marcus Peters brings the Potential to become one of the very greatest Press CornerBacks in the entire League to the Field of Battle...And as it turns out he also brings the Potential to become one of the very greatest Off Coverage CornerBacks in the entire League to the Field of Battle. His Power, his ferocious physicality, his tremendous Combat Tactics, and his Fluidity in Press are matched by his phenomenal Processing Speed and Field Vision and tremendous Ricochet and Short Speed in Off Coverage. He is a genuine Dual Threat Hybrid CornerBack, and of extraordinary potential. He is, in short, exactly what 21st Century Defenses are screaming for.
And yet in a Market utterly starved for Impact CornerBacks, he's going for a Discount!!
Grateful Thanks, as always, for the crucial Work done by the folks at Draft BreakDown!!
1st/2nd Round Market Value | Yankee Grade Top 10!! |
This is not is even remotely a Complaint, mind you, but rather a Warning: Caveat Emptor!!