Draft in depth: Defensive backs + Rams Needs/ PD

[RamBill]

Draft in depth: Defensive backs
• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_d51b7525-1e9a-51a8-9e03-203aec005216.html

CREAM OF THE CROP

Player, position, school, height, weight

TRAE WAYNES, CB, Michigan State, 6-0, 186

Good luck running by him; some had him timed in 4.2s at Combine.

MARCUS PETERS, CB, Washington, 6-0, 197

Tons of talent, but is he coachable? Was dismissed from team in ’14.

KEVIN JOHNSON, CB, Wake Forest, 6-0, 188

Lacks strength and bulk, but is very fluid and polished in coverage.

LANDON COLLINS, S, Alabama, 6-0, 228

Much better in box than in coverage; led Tide in tackles (103) in ‘14.

BYRON JONES, CB/FS, Connecticut, 6-1, 199

Jumped onto everyone’s radar with Combine record broad jump (12-3).

DON’T OVERLOOK

Jalen Collins, CB, Louisiana St.

Ronald Darby, CB, Florida St.

Quinten Rollins, CB/FS, Miami (Ohio)

Eric Rowe, CB/FS, Utah

P.J. Williams, CB, Florida St.

FUN FACT

Rollins played basketball his first four seasons at Miami (Ohio), and was a point guard and a two-time captain. Was Mid-American Conference defensive player of the year in 2014, his only year playing college football.

QUOTABLE

“He’s got more red flags than the Soviet Union.”

—Radio analyst and former Rams assistant coach RICK VENTURI, on the issues surrounding Washington’s Peters.

RAMS’ NEEDS

As is the case at many positions on the roster, the Rams have everybody back from last season. That includes the top six corners, headed by Janoris Jenkins, Trumaine Johnson and E.J. Gaines. And the top five safeties return, headed by the McSafeties — T.J. McDonald and Rodney McLeod. Jenkins and Johnson are free agents after next season, so the Rams could be looking at cornerback.

RATING THE FIELD

It’s a representative year at cornerback but a down year at safety. There could be five or six corners taken in Round 1, with Waynes generally considered the best of the bunch. But at safety, only strong safety Landon Collins is expected to go in the opening round. The best bets at free safety could be potential converted corners such as Jones, Rollins and Rowe.

 

[RamBill]

Top cornerback may not be first picked
• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_c6565eee-153e-58cb-af05-737df46a4e9c.html

It will be an upset if Michigan State’s Trae Waynes isn’t the first cornerback taken in the NFL draft Thursday. But Washington’s Marcus Peters might be better.

“The best tester and a good cover guy is Waynes,” said radio analyst Rick Venturi, a former Rams assistant coach. “He ran like a 4.31 at the Combine, and because of that speed will probably be the first guy to go.”

Some stopwatches even had Waynes below 4.3 at the NFL Scouting Combine. Simply stated, it’s hard to beat a guy deep who runs that fast.

But some, including Venturi, think Peters is a better prospect — on the field.

“He’s not the best tester; he’s the best player,” Venturi said. “Now, he’s got more red flags than the Soviet Union. He’s been suspended twice by two coaching staffs.”

Actually it went beyond suspension with his second coaching staff at Washington, the one headed by current Huskies coach Chris Peterson. Peterson went a step further than suspension — he kicked Peters off the team last season.

Against Eastern Washington, Peters was benched after drawing a personal-foul penalty for head-butting an opponent. Peters threw a fit on the sidelines — tantrum might be a better description — and was suspended for a game against Illinois.

He subsequently was benched for a couple of series against Stanford later in the season after arriving late for a team meeting. In November, Peterson finally had enough, kicking Peters off the team a day after Peters didn’t show up for practice.

Previously, under previous Huskies coach Steve Sarkisian, Peters failed a drug test for marijuana in 2011 and was suspended for the first quarter of a bowl game in 2013 because of an academic issue.

As Venturi put it, that’s a lot of red flags.

As a player, Peters has just about everything you want in a cornerback except elite speed — he was timed in 4.53 seconds in the 40 at the Combine.

He plays with toughness, flashes playmaking skills and has good overall coverage ability be it press or off-coverage. At Washington, he led the team in pass breakups in both his first two seasons as a starter, 2012 and ’13. He also had a combined eight interceptions those seasons.

Between the suspension and the dismissal in 2014, he appeared in only eight games with seven starts, finishing with three interceptions and 10 breakups.

“He’s a freaky, good-looking corner that if he was clean off the field would be probably a top 15-18 pick in any class,” said NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock. “Now, you add in the question of whether or not there are character concerns, I think that just throws a cloud over it a little bit and pushes him towards the bottom of the first round. I think he’s going to go between 20 and 32.”

Peters, who is from Oakland and is a good friend of Seattle standout running back Marshawn Lynch, has tried to face the character questions head-on during the draft build-up.

“I made some immature decisions at the University of Washington, and it hurt me truly,” Peters said. “So I’ve just got to learn from my mistakes and I grow from it.”

During the Combine interview process, as well as what SFGate.com said was a dizzying 17-team tour of pre-draft visits and workouts, Peters had to both sell and explain himself.

“(Teams) want to know the character,” Peters said. “Am I a hothead? Which is false. I made some immature decisions, and I live from them and I learn from them, and I grow as a man.”

Even so, the immediate penalty is that Peters probably gets drafted behind Waynes, and maybe Wake Forest’s Kevin Johnson as well, in Round 1.

Waynes was a two-year starter for the Spartans before turning pro a year early, combining for six interceptions in 27 starts.

Those sub 4.3 times means he should have the capability off playing one-on-one coverage against anybody in the NFL, and the closing speed to make up for mistakes.

On a Rams pre-draft visit list full of offensive linemen, wide receivers and edge-rushers/linebackers, Waynes was a late addition — dropping in at Rams Park last Tuesday.

Two of the Rams’ top three corners — Janoris Jenkins and Trumaine Johnson — have contracts that expire after the coming season. And there’s some question if the Rams will be willing to pay big money to Jenkins given some of his past off-the-field issues.

Even as the top corner in the draft, Waynes almost certainly will be available at No. 10 when the Rams are scheduled to make their first-round pick. If that’s the path they choose to take.

“Trae Waynes is very comfortable in press coverage,” Mayock said. “He’s got length. He understands the game. ... He tackles. I know when you get a Michigan State kid coming off that defense, he’s a tough kid that will tackle, that’s been well-coached.”