Ohio State cornerback Malcolm Jenkins, who many scouts feel is the best defensive back in the draft, might have cost himself an opportunity to be a top 10 pick after a poor showing at this year’s scouting combine.
Jenkins, mentioned as a possible selection of the Browns at No. 5, ran unofficial times of between 4.53 and 4.58 at Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium. He also dropped some passes in the ball drills, prompting Deion Sanders of the NFL Network to proclaim that Jenkins and a couple of the other DBs were “killing themselves.”
“His value will be affected by his time, like it or not,” said Mayock. “But there’s a lot of good tape on him and a lot of Cover 2 teams are going to love him at corner.”
Or perhaps at another position.“Some people think day one he’s a Pro Bowl free safety,” said Mayock. “He’s got the size and the strength and the physicality to play the position.”
Most of the analysts were more concerned about Jenkins’ shaky performance in the ball drills.
“He kind of followed up [the 40 time] with an average at best — and probably not even average — performance for his skill-set,” said Mayock.
I watched the combine yesterday on the NFL Network and Jenkins’ performance was as bad as the article suggests. He’s a good player and he had a tremendous collegiate career at Ohio State. The combine doesn’t mean everything, but it’s hard to shake off a bad 40-time when you’re a corner – especially when you’re projected to go in the top 10. Most safeties run n the mid 4.5’s, so this isn’t good for Jenkins’ draft stock.
What’s interesting about Jenkins being labeled a Cover 2 corner by Mayock is that some say that’s a knock. But the fact of the matter is that most defenses run a variety of coverages (Cover 2, man to man, Cover 4, etc.) and outside of Denver’s Champ Baliey and Oakland’s Nnamdi Asomugha, there aren’t any true cover corners left in the NFL anymore. So Jenkins being labeled as a Cover 2 corner isn’t a bad thing and chances are he’ll still be a top 15 pick.
Illinois’ Vontae Davis ran a 4.49 at the combine and is a physical marvel. The knock on him is that he freelances too much in coverage, but he might have done enough at the combine to leapfrog Jenkins as the top corner selected in April.
