Don’t forget about Asante Samuel Jr. in 2021 NFL Draft CB class
By Hunter Neel
Where Samuel Jr. shows room for improvement
In man coverage Samuel had some nice moments of staying in phase and being super effective here, as he generally was able to keep pace with receivers and hold his own. Although, he can struggle to stay in phase with quick breaking routes due to a lack of overall route anticipation.
Defenders seem to have a knock for manipulating his blind spot, partially due to him opening his hips one way too early in the rep. This seems to stem back to some of the technical issues seen in Samuel’s game. He can get sloppy at route stems and needs to learn how to stay balance/leveraged for longer periods in backpedal.
Samuel needs further development in his zone coverage technique. Currently he just seems to be uncomfortable dropping into the depth of his zone and seems unsure of where defenders are relative to himself. He needs to grow in terms of route anticipation to better leverage himself in both man and zone coverage.
Above all else, Samuel’s biggest question entering the league is where he best projects too. Currently listed at 5-foot-10 and 184 pounds, there is a lot of talk on whether or not Samuel would be a better projection in the nickel.