Post by Purple Pain on May 25, 2022 8:27:17 GMT -6
Zone Coverage: How the Vikings Can Unlock Akayleb Evans by Luke Braun
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Film study and analysis exploring the basics, his press technique, footwork, "the grabbies", and run awareness here at the link:
zonecoverage.com/2022/minnesota-vikings-news/how-the-vikings-can-unlock-akayleb-evans/
Akayleb Evans can be a very good NFL cornerback. That’s not as spicy of a take as it seems for a fourth-round corner. I “can be” an astronaut, but the path to my going for a space walk is nearly impossible. So, what’s the path to Evans becoming a genuine NFL starting cornerback? That’s the central question in anyone’s draft analysis.
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Run defense will always be a tertiary thing for cornerbacks. His coverage ability is the most important thing here. But this is a flaw to exploit, and that makes him difficult to trust. Say I put Evans as the fourth outside corner. Say one of Patrick Peterson, Andrew Booth, or Cam Dantzler gets injured, and another is fatigued from consecutive deep routes in man coverage. Can you really put Evans in as he is right now?
Were I an offensive coordinator, and I saw Evans trot onto the field, I’d tell my receivers to start running faux post routes on every run play. It’s like a free elimination of a potential tackler. And that’s not a difficult exploit to set up. Just put a receiver alone on Evans, run a toss to that side, and tell the receiver to fake a route. That’ll give you an outside run with no force player, which is a reliable way to generate explosive gains. No defense wants to let the run game be that effective.
This is not a difficult fix, either. Evans just needs to learn to read what he sees in his periphery a bit. He needs to see his teammates all fitting the run, or that nobody else is in coverage, and get his head turned. I wouldn’t want to distract him from coverage on actual plays. Just be able to notice when the offense is luring him out of his responsibility.
If Evans can fix this and his grabbing issue, he might have a higher ceiling than some of the corners that went in the first round. That is a tall order in a player’s rookie season, though. As Evans acclimates to the heightened intensity of the NFL, an entirely new verbiage system, and mightily increased level of competition, there might not be time to iron out these kinks. If they can’t, he might have to sit on the bench. But if he can, look out.
Were I an offensive coordinator, and I saw Evans trot onto the field, I’d tell my receivers to start running faux post routes on every run play. It’s like a free elimination of a potential tackler. And that’s not a difficult exploit to set up. Just put a receiver alone on Evans, run a toss to that side, and tell the receiver to fake a route. That’ll give you an outside run with no force player, which is a reliable way to generate explosive gains. No defense wants to let the run game be that effective.
This is not a difficult fix, either. Evans just needs to learn to read what he sees in his periphery a bit. He needs to see his teammates all fitting the run, or that nobody else is in coverage, and get his head turned. I wouldn’t want to distract him from coverage on actual plays. Just be able to notice when the offense is luring him out of his responsibility.
If Evans can fix this and his grabbing issue, he might have a higher ceiling than some of the corners that went in the first round. That is a tall order in a player’s rookie season, though. As Evans acclimates to the heightened intensity of the NFL, an entirely new verbiage system, and mightily increased level of competition, there might not be time to iron out these kinks. If they can’t, he might have to sit on the bench. But if he can, look out.
Film study and analysis exploring the basics, his press technique, footwork, "the grabbies", and run awareness here at the link:
zonecoverage.com/2022/minnesota-vikings-news/how-the-vikings-can-unlock-akayleb-evans/
... and neither is this Chris guy.