Player: Kaiir Elam

School: Florida

Height and Weight: 6’2”, 196

Combine/Pro Day Results:

• 40: 4.39
• Bench: 10(Pro Day)
• Vertical Jump: 37.5”(Pro Day)
• Broad Jump: DNP
• 3 Cone: DNP
• 20 Yard Shuttle: 4.21(Pro Day)
• Other Notes: Elam only ran the 40 at the combine, but had a solid time. He did a couple of the other tests at his pro day. His vert would’ve tied for 4th at the combine. His 20 yard shuttle would’ve ranked second although only one CB did it at the combine. I’ve heard Elam is a physical corner, so I would’ve hoped for a little better bench numbers, but not a huge deal.

Strengths: Physical in coverage, man coverage

Weaknesses: Poor tackling, block shedding, run game presence overall

Projected Draft Day: Day 1/Day 2

Player Comparison: Darius Slay

Player Summary: I started seeing Elam pop up in first round mocks more and more, and I wasn’t sure why. Was it based on upside? Was it based on his college play? Is it based on stats? Well for starters I can tell you it is definitely not based on stats. His tackle numbers are not impressive, and his interceptions are far from impressive. He has 6 INTs in 3 years. Luckily for Elam, INT numbers are not high on my priority list. I know that true lockdown corners are not going to have the interception numbers, and that’s exactly what I saw from Elam’s film.

Elam is a really good man to man corner who likes to get hands on and make you feel uncomfortable running your route. He has pretty good footwork and pretty fluent hips. I heard that Elam was a very physical corner and I definitely see it on tape. My only issue with his physicality is it’s usually not at the line of scrimmage. If he jab and pressed at the line, I think that could add a new element to his game. He is not the strongest guy based on his bench press number, but he is a big, lengthy corner, and can definitely use that to his advantage. At Florida he played a lot of off ball alignment, and it seemed like he could drop a little too deep sometimes. However, it seemed like he did have good zone awareness and vision. His big negative in my book is his presence in the run game. His tackling is really bad from what I saw, and his block shedding is just as bad. On pretty much every run snap I watched him in, he got bullied by the receiver. This is in part why he’s a day 2 corner for me. In the pros you cannot just be a coverage corner, you need to learn how to be an impact player in the run too. In coverage he’s a day 1 without a doubt, and has lockdown potential.

I comped Elam to Darius Slay. Slay has been one of the league’s best corners for years now. Slay is known for his physical man-to-man lockdown style he played back in his Detroit days. I see a lot of similarities in the way that they play. Since going to Philly Slay has had to learn to play a lot more zone and off ball coverage under Jim Schwartz and now Jonathan Gannon. I think a man heavy team with an established starter would be the best situation for Elam; however, I could see him quickly learning an off-ball zone heavy scheme. He is weaker in zone than man, but I could see Elam as a guy who could make the transition, and learn to be a little more of a ball hawk.