Scouting Notes
- Tenacious as hell. Witherspoon has the perfect mentality for a No. 1 NFL Corner.
- Effort and toughness are off the charts.
- Excellent and immediate break on routes.
- Super quick and explosive, like he runs on unlimited jet feul.
- Brings the absolute BOOM as a tackler, but is undisciplined and unrefined in his pursuit.
- It is impossible to break a route and get open on this guy. As soon
- as you put your foot in the dirt, he’s in your lap, and he stays there.
- Zone coverage is questionable, to say the least. Witherspoon isn’t very rangy and doesn’t cover a wide zone. He doesn’t track players to the edge of his zone, and he is pretty static in general.
- Is more “glue” in coverage than a mirror. His steps don’t mirror his opponents, despite managing to perfectly stay in stride with them.
- Tape vs Wisconsin was flat bad. That’s going to be hard to overlook.
- Lower body and hips aren’t smooth enough, and he doesn’t flip around so smoothly. This resulted in him getting SMOKED on many deep routes.
- Fast receivers blew right by him on go routes, and by the time he flipped around they were long gone.
- Way too handsy and physical, he is a constant penalty concern.
Short Summary
Devon Witherspoon is an extremely exciting prospect, and rightfully so. He burst onto the scene in 2022 and put together arguably the most impressive Cornerback season in the country. He was dominant and was a constant force that offenses had to worry about.
Every physical attribute you could want, he at least checks the box, if not exceeds expectations. Size, speed, mentality, quickness, he’s got it all. On the other hand, he is far from a complete polished product. His zone technique is shotty and unreliable, and he got blown by too many times for comfort. Horizontally, he may already be one of the best corners in the NFL (without the penalties). Vertically, however, he was flatly not good. My main concern is similar to my concern with Christian Gonzalez. Gonzalez is an elite vertical Corner but struggles horizontally. Witherspoon is the opposite. With both, I am nervous that their weakness – which consists of half of the job – will be exploited to a fault.
Ultimately, I know I will be lower on Devon Witherspoon than most members of the media. Still, it’s hard not to fall in love with the type of tenacious, dominant, and explosive player he is. All it takes is one team to fall in love with him for him to be selected very high, but I would be hesitant with a Top 10 pick.
Scouting Card Key
- Age refers to the age of the player come draft night, rounded to the nearest half-age.
- Percentage numbers in the Player Info and Combine Stats sections – This refers to the percentile that number belongs to among all players at his position, going back nearly a decade.
- CVRGrade – PFF Coverage Grade.
- Tgt/Snap – The percentage of a players snaps in which he was targeted.
- QBRA – QB Rating Against.
- Snaps/PEN – Snaps per Penalty. In other words, how many snaps does he play before getting his next penalty. The higher the number, the better.
- TDA – Touchdowns Allowed.
- RecYdsA/Tgt – Receiving Yards Allowed per Target.
Credit
Advanced stats – pff.com
Scouting card template / idea – Jordan Pun @Texans_Thoughts
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