Player: Clark Phillips
School: Utah
Measurables:
- Height: 5’9” (NFL Combine)
- Weight: 184 (NFL Combine)
- 40: 4.51 (NFL Combine)
- 10 Yard Split: 1.51 (NFL Combine)
- Bench: 18 (NFL Combine)
- Vertical Jump: 33” (NFL Combine)
- Broad Jump: DNP
- 3 Cone: DNP
- 20 Yard Shuttle: 4.32 (NFL Combine)
- Other Notes: Despite average athletic testing, Phillips really looked good in the drills
Graded Position Specific Traits:
- Man Coverage: 6/10
- Zone Coverage: 7.5/10
- Field Vision: 6.5/10
- Tackling: 5.5/10
- Run Support: 4.75/10
- Range: 5.25/10
Prospect Grade: 35.5/60; 59.2%- Borderline starter/high-end role player with potential to be a good starter
Projected Draft Day: Round 3- Round 4
Player Comparison: Ugo Amadi with the turnover mindset of Trevon Diggs
Player Summary:
Phillips is a prospect who’s name I’ve had written in the notes of my phone for a couple years now. I’ve seen him make plays whenever I’ve watched a Utah game(which isn’t that frequent), so I was really excited to finally get a look at him. Unfortunately, I thought he had up and down tape. It was quite disappointing for me personally, I was hoping to see more.
I think everyone is pretty much on the same page here, but I see Phillips as a nickel player at the next level. Based on his skillset I also wouldn’t be surprised if someone asked him to move to free safety. I know he doesn’t have the size to man up TEs, but in terms of playing 2-high or even 1 high I think that’s something Phillips could do.
I really didn’t see too much from Phillips in run support unfortunately, but I think that’s something that could improve simply by transitioning to the nickel spot. His tackling is okay, he didn’t really flash, but in all honesty I didn’t see much tape of him tackling either. Phillips is a really good blitzer though. Again, not a ton of tape of him blitzing, but in the small sample size you can see what he’s capable of.
Phillips is definitely a better zone corner than man corner, although his man isn’t horrible. Phillips rarely ever presses, he’s usually playing off or bailing, which I suspect is due to a fear of getting beat. Phillips is not a fast corner, and you can see the lack of speed at times on tape although his catchup speed isn’t bad. I know some people don’t care about combine testing, but Phillips did bench 18 reps which led CBs. I would like to see Phillips get a little aggressive and press his receiver at the line on release. I think that could add another element to his game.
Phillips can get a bit physical while in coverage, although the issue I see is that it can be too much sometimes. He has a tendency to get too handsy sometimes. When he gets handsy, there are times the WR just shakes him off leaving Phillips unbalanced and in most cases falling down. The amount of times I saw Phillips fall in coverage was alarming, I’ve never seen anything like it. The other thing is Phillips needs to learn to turn his head on deep routes. I think I saw him turn his head maybe once, and funny enough it was on a play that he picked.
Overall, I personally see Phillips as a 4th rounder. Look, Phillips is a ball hawk, he’s a playmaker, he has the statistical production. I could see someone taking a chance drafting Phillips in the 3rd due to his ball production, but that’s a best case scenario for him in my opinion. Yes he is going to find ways to get turnovers, but I have concerns about him in coverage. I think we could see Phillips becoming a nickel version of Trevon Diggs. A player who everyone ignores the concerns of because he’s going to come up with good turnover numbers.