Grading The Cowboys’ Draft: Rnd 1 – Morris Claiborne
By cowgirlcas
Every year following the NFL draft, I like to evaluate the Cowboys picks and then place a grade on them. No one disputes the potential of a guy like Mo Claiborne. I will be doing a series that will consist of a break down of all the Dallas Cowboys 2012 draft picks. I, as someone who has been analyzing drafts for quite some time now, have learned a few things. The 1st being, never anoint a player before they play a down in the NFL.
Morris Claiborne, CB LSU.
5-11 188 40 High 4.54 – 40 Low 4.50
Grade Entering draft: 91.5
My Grade: Player Potential/Impact: A. Draft Value: C
Claiborne had a stellar college career and came in to the 2012 NFL Draft as the top ranked defensive player on most boards. In 26 starts at LSU, he amassed 95 tackles, 2 TFL’s, 0 sacks, 0 FF’s, 12 PBU’s, and 11 INT’s. He acquired quite a list of awards that include:
2011 Thorpe Award Recipient
2011 Consensus First-Team All-America (AFCA Coaches’, AP, FWAA, Sporting News, Walter Camp, ESPN.com, Rivals.com, CBSsports.com, FoxSportsNext.com, SI.com)
2011 Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Year (Coaches)
2011 First-Team All-SEC (AP, Coaches)
2011 Nagurski Award Finalist
2011 Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the Week (vs. Miss. State)
2010 Second-Team All-SEC (AP, Coaches)
Positives: Claiborne has excellent athletic ability and some of the best ball skills I have ever seen. He is an “in-your-face” type of press corner who can also play off. He likes to use his tall frame and long arms to get up in the face of receivers and stun them at the line of scrimmage to interfere with the QB’s timing. When he punches, he doesn’t just get his hands in there, he makes his presence known. Claiborne can run with his back to the ball at the receiver’s hip using a press/bail technique and looks natural running with his man in-stride, while still being able to keep his eye towards the ball. He is such a talented athlete with rare body control, that he runs with his man fluidly while maintaining the awareness to break off at any time to get involved in plays coming across him.
Negatives: There are several things that put up a red flag with me. His work ethic, his weight and his speed. His predecessor Patrick Peterson, who was the top rated CB in the 2011 NFL Draft, had a stellar rookie season. When I look at his intangibles, over all there was more upside to Peterson as a prospect. The first being speed. Peterson clocked a 4.34 40 at the NFL Combine and has been known to run in the 4.2 range. Claiborne ran a 4.50 and a 4.54. His size/weight. Peterson comes in at 6-1, 219 lbs. Claiborne is 5-11, 188 lbs. Every year the wide receivers in the NFL seem to be getting bigger, faster, and more physical. When I look at the guys like Fitzgerald, Megatron, Nicks, Gonzales, Jackson etc. They are not only bigger, but run like greased lightning.
There were 39 WR’s in the 2012 NFL draft class that ran 40’s between 4.3 and 4.48. All of them are faster than Claiborne. At the NFL level that’s an average. Many being in the 4.3 range. So my concern becomes, in spite of his excellent ball skills, will he be able to stay with NFL level receivers or will he be limited to covering TE’s and RB’s in the slot? My other question becomes, with only weighing in at 188 lbs, how well will he do when it comes to trying to tackle 6-5-6-6, 250- 275 lb TE’s at the NFL level? Many of the WR’s outweigh him by 20 lbs. Is it possible he may get over powered and just plain get run over? At only 188 how well will he do if needed to lay down a block in the event of an interception against a much larger player? My final concern is, Claiborne is such a talented athlete that, many times he gets lazy in his technique because he was able to rely solely on his athletic ability at the college level. When in off-man coverage, he has a tendency to get his pad level high in his back pedal and diminish the explosiveness that makes him so effective out of his breaks. Hopefully the elite receivers in the NFC East wont be exploiting these weaknesses.
My story is continued on the next page….