Dallas Cowboys: The Curious Case of Nahshon Wright (a film breakdown)
Man Coverage
When discussing Wright’s athletic ability, I mentioned how his current athletic shortcomings limited his ability to play off coverage while succeeding in press coverage. When it comes to man coverage, most of Wright’s completed passes came in off coverage while he showed a consistent ability to prevent quarterbacks from viewing his assignment as a target in press coverage.
The Cowboys are a press zone coverage-heavy team. It is unlikely Wright is forced to play man coverage more than 40 percent of the time, and if he does, almost all of those reps will happen in press. It’s an important trait to have because when the zone defense stops working, you have to try something different.
LOS skills
Dallas drafted the Beaver for his length and long-distance speed. The team probably wishes he was stronger, but fortunately, that is something he can develop as his playing career progresses. Wright understands how to jam displaying solid punch timing and good punch location. While his grip strength is adequate, the violence and upper body strength with which he jams does disrupt receivers and help him get on top of receivers.
He does show a willingness to take on blocks against wide receivers, which comes as no surprise considering his competitive toughness, but his adequate grip strength prevents him from disengaging with blocks. This is concerning especially if Wright is forced to start, but hopefully, the run defense will be better than last year such that he won’t be exposed trying to tackle ball carriers down the field.
Ball Skills
They’re good. His ball skills were some of the best in the class even though his pass deflection numbers were markedly lower than the average. The Cowboys have stressed the need for playmakers at defensive back for years, they got another guy with experience in that area.
Range
Pretty good yeah?
I’ll rightfully admit, it isn’t as good as the top players in this class, but zone coverage seemingly coves really easy for the beaver. He understands route patterns depending on splits and he can quickly get his body out of phase to undercut a route or make a play on the ball.
It is possible that he was taught this, but he does seem more willing to latch onto the deeper route for longer in order to prevent deep completions which can lead to shallower completions in front of him, but as I made note of it when talking about his mental processing, communicating better prevents defensive backs from having to play hero ball when they could just do things a little bit easier.
Open Field Tackling
It’s surprisingly solid, but his technique could absolutely use some work. It is usually harder for taller guys to get lower than the ball carrier, but he doesn’t seem to have a problem doing this. His arms don’t always wrap up and instead applies enough force with his shoulder to knock the ball carrier down. It might have worked in college but it definitely won’t work at the next level.