Continuing with the top corner list, Marlon Humphrey is another of the top CB’s coming into the NFL in 2017. Ranked as the second best CB by my fancy little aggregator, as well as being my 2nd ranked corner. Marlon was ranked as the top corner by WalterFootball, and is the second ranked corner by Ourlads and FOX.
About Marlon
Born in Hoover Alabama, the 6-1 198 pound sophomore cornerback played in 15 games in 2016, including the national championship game against Clemson, and amassed 36 tackles, 5 passes broken up, 2 interceptions, and a touchdown. Strangely, Humphrey’s freshman year was arguably better. At least on paper it was, racking up 45 tackles, 8 passes broken up and 3 picks.
The larger part with Marlon being he’s a consistent contributor. He was regarded as one of the best players in the nation coming out of high school, he dominated in his freshman year, and he continued to dominate some of the best receivers in the country in his sophomore campaign. Marlon is ready for the next level.
Footage
First of all, take a look at one of his strongest assets.
His bloodline. That’s not Marlon, as I’m sure you figured out, it’s his dad Bobby. Bobby actually was a stud back in his day. He would have likely won the Heisman Trophy at Alabama if not for a foot injury, won rookie of the year if not for Barry Sanders, and had a great career if he didn’t hold out for more money. Had his luck been just a little better, Humphrey would most likely be a household name to us all.
Another positive that needs to be noted, and further proof that Marlon comes from good stock, is the fact that he is not just a good football player. He’s a good athlete.
To summarize this quickly, there were talks of Marlon training for the Olympics coming out of high school. Are you getting that he’s a good athlete yet?
Now that we got the DNA out of the way, let’s take a look at some football footage shall we?
Physicality
The first thing I’m always curious about is a corners physicality. Although I’ve given Teez a pass, I typically can’t stand seeing a defensive football player that doesn’t want to hit someone. With Marlon it’s sort of a good/bad situation.
On one hand he’s a violent player and clearly loves to hit people. On the other hand, his tackling isn’t fantastic. I frequently watch him hit someone and jump out of my chair with excitement. That is until I see him dance with the receiver for 5 second because he forgot that ultimately, bringing the guy down is the goal.
To be fair, not only is tackling coachable but in each frustrating incident like the one above, Humphrey is the first to the ball and is always at least able to disrupt the play enough until backup arrives. The play above isn’t great but at the same time… it kind of is.
Coverage
To start with, because it’s sort of a physicality/coverage hybrid that ties in closely with what I stated above, Marlon is very good with plays behind the line of scrimmage such as WR screens. It’s almost as if he is offended by them. Bottom line; Marlon don’t play that.
And that’s great news. Offenses in the NFL are determined to get the ball out of the quarterbacks hands quickly and WR screens are no longer just a Packers staple. A corner in today’s NFL needs to be able to read and react quickly.
With the need to get the ball out quick, an ability to cover short to intermediate routes become paramount. Despite the fear of being beat deep as well as the consequences of such a throw, if you can’t cover short, teams will not only dink and dunk you down the field, the time of possession battle begins to swing out of your teams favor and soon your defense has no ability to stop anything. That’s when you’re finished (see Super Bowl LI).
So how does Humphrey handle quicker routes? Take a look at Marlon against arguably the best receiver coming into the draft in 2017, Mike Williams.
Marlon, bottom of the screen, is matched up against Williams and covers the slant with ease. Williams is able to get a half a step on Marlon after he sticks his foot in the ground but Humphrey closes the gap and break up the play.
Several plays later we get a look at Marlon playing the deep ball. Again matched up with Williams, Humphrey makes no attempt at getting his hands on Williams, allowing him to run right past.
Despite the free release, Humphrey is able to run stride for stride with Williams down the field. Although the gif above doesn’t allow you to really see much, Humphrey completely blankets Williams. The play was called pass interference but I think it’s a terrible call. In slow motion you can see Humphrey somehow draped all over Williams without actually making contact.
Up to this point it’s easy to see why Marlon Humphrey was ranked as the top corner by Walter Football, and is widely regarded as a first round pick. He’s currently my second favorite corner but if I were a GM, Humphrey would be at the top of my board. Not only does he have a high ceiling, he has a higher floor than Teez. That said, he isn’t flawless. Here’s a clip of a whoopsy daisy.
The track star got burned in this video. It seems hard to believe someone could outrun him but they did. Again Marlon wasn’t able to get his hands on the receiver but in this case his athleticism wasn’t enough to keep up.
But everyone gets burned once in a while. Right? Here is a few plays later in the same game.
Yes it’s the same receiver. His name is Darius Slayton. It was hard to find information about him because he’s a freshman but I did see a profile of his detailing his high school career saying he runs a 4.4 40. If that’s true he’s a pretty fast dude. If Marlon isn’t able to run stride for stride with a speed receiver (Marlon is expected to run in the high 4’s in the 40 yard dash), he needs to do a better job using his hands. He can’t let the guy get behind him untouched.
Ultimately Darius had 0 receptions in this game and it’s hard to fault Humphrey for it but there is no question he was beat.
Overall, Marlon is a notch above everyone. He played well against Mike Williams, as you saw. He also went against John Ross and held him to 5 catches for 28 yards, he played JuJu Smith-Schuster and held him to 1 catch for 9 yards, and held Malachi Dupri to 3 receptions for 17 yards. These are some of the best receivers in the game right now going into the draft. Marlon was better.
Rest assured, if the Packers are somehow able to draft Marlon Humphrey in the first round I will be jumping up and down and will probably spill BBQ sauce all over the carpet…. What you don’t eat ribs for the draft?