Ht – 5’11” Wt – 194lb Class – JR Age – 22
Attribute Breakdown
Fluidity – Very fluid and hyper-athletic. Gordon is a very smooth mover, and while his hip-flip isn’t crisp and perfect, it is very good.
Press – Very disciplined in press. Gordon never bites and has the patience and technique to maintain the press even through great releases and quick feet. He didn’t display a ton of physicality in his few press reps, but I don’t think he lacks physicality.
Man Coverage – Good but not great. While he showed effortless mirroring and ideal speed to stick with receivers, his reactionary quickness was an issue. Many times he was playing catch-up because of a late break on a route stem. Receivers that can cut sharply and smoothly will give him all sorts of trouble.
Zone Coverage – Breaks on passes with good speed, and he reads the Quarterback’s eyes well, but his positioning is consistently off. He often positions himself farther back than he should, relying on his burst to create pass breakups, but Quarterbacks with good arms can exploit that.
Ball Skills – Poor ball skills. This even manifests in his coverage. He gave up many catches while struggling to locate the ball in the air. This is a massive concern, as it means that unless he is facing the ball, he is a liability in coverage.
Length – Terrific length for a corner, Gordon is tall and lanky, and his wingspan is ideal. He is a very twitched-up athlete, and he used his long arms to create a few breakups.
Tackling – Wraps up very well, and he delivers a good blow as well. The tackling technique is great, but Gordon’s pursuit abilities are questionable. While he has the requisite speed, he takes poor angles to get to ball carriers, and he struggles to get off blocks. That being said, when lining up on the line of scrimmage in run support, his burst, closing angles, and wrap-up ability were outstanding in cutting ball carriers off from the back.
Combine – Gordon was expected to be a very long and athletic Corner, he came up short on both accounts. Measuring in at 5’11” with 31″ arms, that isn’t nearly as long as we expected. Additionally, he only ran a 4.52 40, which isn’t terrible, but very disappointing.
Overall
Kyler Gordon is a long and athletic Corner who will likely blow the combine away. While he is getting a lot of hype as the 1B to Trent McDuffie’s 1A, I think the gap is much bigger than that.
It’s very easy to fall in love with Gordon. He is very smooth in space, is good in run support, and has great speed and mirroring ability, all important qualities for a Corner.
Unfortunately, his quickness in coverage is a huge issue, and his ball tracking skills are terrible. That combo is unsettling. The ball skills issues eliminate his ability to cover deep routes at an elite level and his reactionary quickness will limit him from being a short-area lock-down Corner.
After a very poor Combine, Gordon’s stock took a huge hit. I believed him to be a dominant athlete with subpar football abilities, but now I’m not even convinced he is a dominant athlete.
I’m not dooming his career from the get-go, but there is much room for improvement.
See Kyler Gordon’s overall ranking among other players on my Big Board.
Check out all my scouting reports on my Author Page or follow my opinions and hot takes on Twitter!
Make sure to check out many more NFL articles at Belly Up Sports – NFL!
