At this point in the scouting process, I’m ignoring the big-time prospects and looking for those guys that are considered very good as opposed to great prospects. A lot of people ask whether it is better to take the best player available or draft for need, but that dichotomy doesn’t really work. What you have to do is take the most impactful player for your team. Arizona may think Tua Tagavailoa is the best player available when they pick, but he isn’t all that valuable to them when they already have Kyler Murray so it is figuring out a combination of the two. The Bears are actually in a good spot as their needs aren’t that sexy. Safeties aren’t sexy. Interior linemen certainly aren’t sexy. Tight ends aren’t sexy, because somehow they have 10 of them but also zero reliable ones. Wide receiver is sexy, but this class is so loaded with them that there is plenty of talent to be found. Cornerback is the big issue as that is a sexy position, and the top guys are going to be off the board before the Bears have their first pick. So you have to look at a flawed prospect. I’m going to take a look at two flawed cornerback prospects, starting with Amik Robertson.
Amik has two major flaws to start out with. The first is that he played at Louisiana Tech so he didn’t consistently play against top level competition. The second is that he is only 5’8”, and even in a world with some smaller cornerbacks, he stands out above the rest as that height puts him in the 1% of height for cornerback prospects.
But any long-time reader knows that as a perfectly-average 5’9”, I will always go to bat for my short brothers, so I took a look at
his game against Texas to see what he could do against high level competition.
It’s not like size is nothing as Robertson does have limitations due to his small stature.
He is going to struggle to get off blocks against bigger receivers, and even if he polishes up his technique, it’s never going to be a strength.
Even though he’s small, Robertson will not go down without a fight.
The Texas receiver is able to get his hand on the ball, but Robertson is right with him and continues to fight with his hands until the very end of the play.
Seriously, this dude is not going to back down.
Robertson annihilates the receiver on the line of scrimmage and doesn’t let him go anywhere, and he nearly gets an interception because the receiver is so out of place for the pass. Oh, and the reason that receiver seems so much larger is because he’s 6’6” and 245 pounds. Apparently, that still isn’t big enough to fight off the line of scrimmage against Robertson.
Robertson excels in his ball skills as he shows on the two plays below.
On the first pass, he does an incredible job of breaking in front of the receiver and diving to just barely get his fingertips on the ball to break it up. On the second pass, he just straight up outjumps the much larger receiver and high points the ball to almost make the interception. Even though he didn’t make the catch, this is a guy who had 14 interceptions in three years so he is someone who knows how to make big plays and has better catching technique than KJ Hamler.
Robertson has me torn. There are so many things that I like in that he has excellent ball skills, he’s feisty, and he makes big plays. At the same time, that size is an issue, even from someone who almost always gives short guys the benefit of the doubt. In coverage, I think he will be good to great in the slot. At the same time, he might be a liability against the run if he’s lining up in the box. Ultimately, I think that where the Bears currently have picks in the second round, it’s a little too rich for my blood for Robertson. He’s been proving people wrong for three years in college, so I will not be surprised if this proclamation makes me look like an idiot in a few years, and as a fellow average-heighted guy, I’ll be rooting for him to do that.
Previous Scouting Reports
1. Tua Tagavailoa - Alabama
2. Joe Burrow - LSU
3. Jordan Love - Utah State
4. Justin Herbert - Oregon
5. Nate Stanley - Iowa
6. Tristan Wirfs - Iowa
7. AJ Epenesa - Iowa
8. Geno Stone - Iowa
9. Michael Ojemudia - Iowa
10. Willie Gay - Mississippi State
11. KJ Hamler - Penn State
12. Amik Roberson - Louisiana Tech
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