When you look at this young man you see a true football player that has the ability to be able to play at the next level. Prince Amukamara’s overall athletic ability and his desire is what drives him to be what he is and what he will be in the national football league.
You always see a lot of good defensive backs come into the NFL but it isnt about coming in that impresses people it is what you do when your in there. I think Prince will do just fine, he has a build that will allow him to get stronger and a body type that is perfect for a defensive back.
I believe he has the ability to cover many wide receivers quite well, however he has trouble with bigger and more physical wide receivers. I like how he uses his body to maneuver his way into positions, but he seems to shy away from doing that with bigger guys. He has a good frame that allows him to be able to move and break on balls that most people wouldn’t be able to get to, but he doesn’t always stab through with the correct hand. I want to see him in more of a zone cover kind of scheme, until he starts to learn the speed of the game, I think he has a lot of learning still left to do with his cover ability.
His biggest assests are his hip mobility, cutting ability, and his body type. I would like to see him work more on man to man, he does a good job on press coverage because of his closing speed. He does a good job on deep balls down the field as well.
He has some trouble with his lead hand coming through to break some passes up, which in conclusion leads to him missing some tackles on wide receivers that catch the ball. He has good cover ability, but he needs to work on being able to stay in the contigent spot to the possibility of missing the break up but still can make the tackle. He has good hips, he can change direction very well, and he keeps his hips low to the ground when breaking causing some strong steady cuts on the ball.
I was truly impressed with his hip rotation on the get out drills, where he was able to back pedal with his hips nice and low and chin over toes and he was able to open hips and run with not a lot of change of velocity. He does a good job with his footwork on receivers that are faking one way and coming back under the other way. Change of direction is a strong topic for him, as he has the ability to stay low and change direction very quickly. I would like to see him work on his open field tackling a little more as he drops his head and loses the ball from time to time.
He uses his natural ability very well already and as a whole he can read and break on the ball with his natural insticts. He has a tremendous upside, he only can grow. I believe he can really work on his change of direction and his speed out of it the most, just by doing that he will have some ground on some bigger receivers and that will allow him to be in better positions to make plays. In some of the bigger games, he looked like he was shying away from the big time receivers, and it struck me as odd because week in and week out he was one of the best defenders on the field.
But their speed in and out of cuts is what hurt him and he wasn’t alwasy able to recover on some of the throws. If you look back over his previous seasons, how he starts is a huge things on his mindset it looks like as well. He tends to get down on himself on the field if he makes a mistake in the early going of the game, I want to see him drop it and let it go and move on to the next play. I believe he will have a tremendous career in the NFL, but it is the little things he is going to have to work on. He has good hips, good footwork, and good reaction time.
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