Player: Trent McDuffie

School: Washington

Height and Weight: 5’11”, 193

Combine Results:

• 40: 4.44
• Bench: DNP
• Broad Jump: DNP
• Vertical Jump: DNP
• 3 Cone: DNP
• Other Notes: McDuffie only competed in the 40 yard dash and on field workouts. Not sure what led him to that decision. 4.4 is a good time though and he looked pretty good in the on field drills. I don’t remember him standing out for any negative reasons, so that’s a good thing. 

Strengths: Solid zone corner, solid tackler

Weaknesses: Lacks physicality, minimal support in run defense, minimal man coverage tape

Projected Draft Day: Mid-Late Day 1

Player Comparison: Joe Haden

Player Summary: Washington’s football program seems to play more zone defense than I’ve ever seen out of a program. Due to that though McDuffie does seem like a really smart zone coverage corner. He seems to read plays and the QB’s eyes well to understand where the ball is going if it’s coming to his side of the field. I saw minimal passes thrown McDuffie’s way which seems like a positive. It shows that he either has good positioning on the receiver or QB’s know he has the ability to make a play on the ball. It looked like when McDuffie was coming up to make a play he was more concerned with making a play rather than ball hawking. What I mean by that is, he’s not interception oriented. He’s okay with getting the breakup or if he can’t, just getting the tackle. He’s the smarter player who always seems to be in a good position to make some kind of play.

He comes from a Washington program that on tape looks to run between 90-95% zone coverage. Due to this his man coverage is more so a question mark as there was minimal tape of him playing man from my study. In the small sample of man coverage I saw he seemed comfortable when he did have to play man. Heavy man coverage teams should make sure they do extra research on McDuffie before thinking about drafting him. McDuffie shows flashes of physicality against receivers when trying to shed blocks or play press, but doesn’t use it as much as he probably could. For the most part when he was in a press alignment he gave the receiver free release. In the run game, he showed to be more active than some of the other CB’s in the class, but still not as active as you would hope from a pro player. This is kind of odd because from what I saw McDuffie was actually a pretty solid tackler for a cornerback. Maybe this passiveness is from playing a lot of off-ball zone, but who knows? McDuffie is going to have to learn to be more aggressive and  involved against the run in the league.

Joe Haden and McDuffie are actually the same size; however, the primary reason I compared McDuffie to Haden is due to their typical alignment, drops, the system they are currently in, and the fact that they both always seem to be in a position to make a play. Obviously, Haden runs a lot more man coverage as he is in the league, but in terms of zone I see a lot of similarities, and I think McDuffie will adapt fairly smoothly to having to play more man coverage than at Washington. He does flash man coverage qualities such as physicality.