Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots May 1, 2019 - Tape Wednesday: JoeJuan Williams

Episode Date: May 1, 2019

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there everybody, welcome on in to a Wednesday installment of the Lockdown Patriots Podcast. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for today, Wednesday, May 1st, 2019. We have made it to May, you can play your NSYNC now. It's going to be May. And while we've made it to May and it's great because, you know, maybe April dragged on for you a little bit. Weather wasn't as great as you would have hoped. It also means that we've reached that point in the NFL calendar,

in the football calendar, where things do start to slow down a bit. We're going to get through sort of a draft wrap-up stuff and have some shows talking about the prospects like we did yesterday, like we're going to do today. But then, you know, we will take the foot off the gas pedal a little bit because, let's face it, you won't want to be doing other things when we get into May and June than just, you know, listening to me drone on and on about schemes and concepts and things. I know. I understand. What we're going to do today, similar to the show yesterday.

Yesterday, we talked about Nikhil Harry. Today, Joe Juan Williams, Patriots cornerback from the University of Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt University. Got to get it right there. I'm going to talk about him, watch some of his games yesterday. I'm going to talk about what I like, what I didn't. And then I'm going to have some stuff on how his college coach views him, his college coach's background, and how I think the Patriots can use him as a rookie.

Before we do that, though, your usual reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, and of course, a trio of SB Nation websites, including Big Blue View, Bleeding Green Nation, and of course, Pat's Pulpit. Now, let's get into Jawan Williams. And I want to start with the games that I watched. I watched two games at Georgia and then against Vanderbilt. I wanted to watch the Georgia game, and both of these were all 22, so I got to see everything.

I wanted to watch the Georgia game because he gave up some touchdowns in that game. So I wanted to see him sort of come back from that. I also wanted to watch the South Carolina game because he had some times when he was matched up against Debo Samuel. So I'll talk about that a little bit. One of the things that stands out when you put him on tape and when you get a chance to see him is the size. And a lot of people say that his size, his length is part of the reason why he's looked at as such an incredibly interesting cornerback prospect.

Because his size and his length really sort of allow him to do some special things as a defensive back. For example, you can see early. In press coverage, if he gets his hands on you with his length he can control the wide receiver at the jam point even if he gets beaten initially for example early in the game against georgia they run a press route against him when he's they run a fade route against him when he's in press coverage now he gets sucked inside but he has a great recovery he has good recovery in the short area. I'm going to talk about long recovery in a second.

But with his length, there are times when even if he gets beat, gives up some leverage to the inside or to the outside, his length enables him to always sort of maintain contact with the receiver, which is great because there's another aspect to him which I really like earlier in the Georgia game they run a corner a comeback route against him and he shows off coverage initially then he rolls up and presses at the last minute and just runs the route with the receiver the receiver runs that comeback route basically runs right with him receiver breaks he breaks at the same time he drives back to the catch point and rakes up through the catch point. And this is something that we've talked a lot about

on this show. Defensive back technique and the difference between raking up through the catch point and raking down through the catch point. You come down, sometimes you get there late. Sometimes if you get there early, you'll draw a DPI. So Patriots, there's a clinic, Matt Patricia at Notre Dame, where he talks about and shows film examples of coming up through the pocket, up through the catch point, and he doesn't hear on this comeback row. Now, he gets beat for a touchdown against Georgia early in this game. He's impressed in line, and he gets beaten to the inside off the snap and doesn't really recover. And then he peeks into the backfield.

He gets caught peeking at the top of the route stem and allows the receiver to get a little bit more separation downfield. Now, he doesn't fully recover. Safety kind of comes over the top after the catch is made and chases down the receiver, misses the tackle, and he misses the tackle late to exacerbate the problem, and it goes for a long touchdown. And so one of his limitations might be as a true cover corner, if he gets beaten deep on a vertical route against faster receivers, because let's face it, he ran 4-6-4, maybe he can't recover maybe he doesn't have the lawn speed to recover on routes like that now hopefully you get better safety help over the top and hopefully he doesn't peek into the backfield like he does here so a little bit refinement might help him he will travel we'll talk about this in the other segment of the show

he will travel he will play on both sides of the field. He will be matched up against the team's premier receiver. At least that's how Derek Mason used him. So that's interesting. Now after that touchdown against Georgia, he comes back and he makes some pretty good plays. So you can tell that he has that sort of short-term memory that you need as a corner. You're going to get beat.

You're going to give up some big plays. But he forgets it because he comes back, has another comeback route where, again, he's pressing on the boundary, this time now on the left side of the formation. Good recovery, breaks on the route. Route recognition here on another comeback route. And then this is a play that I loved of his against Georgia.

They've got him outside. They show that smoke screen look with the slot receiver running the fray. Now, he's the outside receiver. He's supposedly covering the smoke route, or at least that receiver. He's the outside corner across the outside receiver. But he recognizes that slot receiver getting vertical, and he matches the route perfectly. it's a very heads-up play great process and speed for a college cornerback and Jake Fromm wants to throw that but he can't

so he's forced to throw it away I really like that play a couple plays later though he whiffs on a jam doesn't have the speed and the quickness to recover, and he gives up a dig route to convert a third and long. So it's a situation where if he can get to you and get the jam on you, he's going to win the rep. But if he doesn't, there are times on deeper routes when he might not have the long speed to recover. Now, he's not afraid to fight downhill and run support. The other thing I noticed, the play against Georgia, they've run wide zone to his side of the

field. He works so hard at trying to force this play back to the inside, really wants to force this. And Derek Mason stresses this. We'll talk about this in a play against South Carolina in a moment, but he will really fight to stay to the outside, stack and shed and make tackles, which is great to see from a cornerback. Now he gives up a red zone fade touchdown. And this is one of those box score scouting type moments where he gives up another touchdown and you think he can get beat. But his footwork and the back pedal and the hip rotation to match this fade route is perfect.

And he comes up through the catch point and tips the ball. It's just he doesn't get enough of it. And he sort of tips it straight up rather than to the side, and it just falls back into the lap of the receiver for a touchdown. So I think he played that rep pretty well, but he just sort of got unlucky with the way he tipped it at the end. And so I thought he did a very good job against some pretty good receivers in Georgia,

and I really liked what I saw there. A couple notes from the South Carolina game, because it's getting a little too long here. Derek Mason stresses run fits. He gave a presentation at, I believe, the 2015 Nike Coaches Clinic. I went back and reread some of that, because I had written a piece about Cunningham, Zach Cunningham, the linebacker,

a couple years ago that was coming out of Vanderbilt, and I wanted to understand run fits. And so I remember writing that piece and reading this. And so I went back. There wasn't a lot on cornerback play in there, but we will have some Derek Mason stuff in a moment. But on a jet sweep play against South Carolina, he really fought unbelievably hard to stay as the force defender. He's the boundary corner on this play.

No, he's the field corner on this play to the wide side of the field. They run jet sweep. He gets basically caught to the inside because of the alignment. He's got a blocker in front of him, but he does everything he can to get to the outside of that blocker, to get outside leverage and turn this back into the inside. And he does it's a tremendous effort play one of those technique and discipline and fundamental type plays that you want to see from a corner the play goes for a 12 yard gain but it would have been 30 or more if he doesn't fight the way he does to get to the outside and force this to spill

back to the inside so that was a very impressive play I will talk more about him and how I want to see him used in a second but a couple plays against South Carolina Debo and others slant routes press run the route break the pass up at the catch point he get flagged for DPI on one of those but I think that was a ticky tack foul love his ability to sort of match the route particularly on press we mentioned the comebacks as well and so i think he is a long smart generally technically sound corner with the length to basically win reps at the line of scrimmage against the press on a variety of routes, mostly along the boundary, he can use his length to maintain sticky coverage against the defender.

If he gets beat, though, at the snap, recovery might be an issue with him, especially on routes that really work away from him. That post we talked about, that dig we talked about, and he needs to, if he gets beat, focus on the receiver, not peak so much and worry about what's happening.

Just focus on doing his job a little bit. And so that's some of the stuff I saw with him up next. I want to talk some Derek Mason stuff. We'll hear from Derek Mason as well. And then I want to talk a little bit about how I think the Patriots can use him as a rookie. That's ahead on this tape Wednesday installment of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Wednesday installment of Locked On Patriots.

Talking to some Juwan Williams, the cornerback from Vanderbilt that the Patriots drafted in the second round. And what I want to do now is talk for a moment about Derek Mason, his college head coach, and then hear from Derek Mason, both some audio as well as read some quotes from him, about the Patriots' new quarterback and cornerback, excuse me. And for those of you that don't know about Derek Mason's smart, young, defensive-minded head coach. His background prior to becoming the head coach at Vanderbilt, he was the defensive backs coach at Stanford University.

And he coached a player that we're going to talk about a little bit as we continue this discussion. But first, I want to play for you a clip from the 2018 media days sec media days i pulled his speech i want to just play for you a moment when he got a chance to talk about williams and we'll talk a little bit about it on the other side nobody's talking about juwan williams that's okay nobody's talking about ladarius wiley that's okay juwan williams when you look at the second half of the season, he shut down some big-time receivers and played well. He's probably the best corner that I've been able to coach outside of Richard Sherman, and he's right along those lines. Again, when you're 6'3", extremely athletic, okay, and can cover, okay, then it means something.

Biggest thing he's got to do in 2018 is touch some footballs, and now as we move away from some of the man coverage and and mix up our coverages a little more his eyes will be able to uh make him right so i mean i'm excited about what he could do now that's pretty high stuff he talks about how he's really good down the stretch how he locked up some really good receivers and how the new shift to a more zone coverage is going to give him a chance to get some hands-on balls. And he said that's what we want to see from him. We want to see him breaking some passes. Well, he responded by breaking up 14 passes last year, which is a big number in the SEC. I think it was near the top of SEC defensive backs.

And so he responded, which is great. But Mason's and how he feels about Williams doesn't stop there. I want to pull a couple of quotes from Mason about Williams from the Vanderbilt Hustler, which is a school paper at Vanderbilt University. And this is sort of a draft profile written by Simon Gibbs, who is a senior writer for the Hustler. And he talks about the measurables, identifies the fact that Williams is the tallest cornerback prospect in the 2019 draft. His size and his length gives him an advantage

that could be suitable for many defensive schemes as he could match up with some top receivers. And his 211 pounds makes him a big, long, and physical corner. Now, he got some quotes from Mason that I wanted to read for you. First of all, he talks about how Williams, a Nashville native, could have played anywhere. He had offers from LSU, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Penn State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan. And according to his coach, Derek Mason, he could have gone anywhere. But he decided to stay home

the results were pretty incredible when I looked at his play count last year I was shocked the dude played like 916 snaps now I look at his career totals and I see that he has played close to 2,700 snaps in his career here at Vanderbilt University he wouldn't have been given that opportunity anywhere else and he proved that he deserved every one of those snaps we're talking about a guy that didn't play high school football as a senior and didn't return for his senior year despite that two-year discrepancy he's one of the most prepared prospects in this draft period now the reason why he didn't play as a senior he was suspended for an entire year he tried to transfer schools as a senior.

The State High School Association denied his hardship case. And that's why he didn't get to play as a senior. Now, Jason Tarver, the defensive coordinator at Vanderbilt, calls him the prototype NFL safety, both NFL prospect, both mentally and physically.

Coach Mason, this is a quote, Coach Mason talks about relentless, tough, and physically. Coach Mason, this is a quote, Coach Mason talks about relentless, tough, and intelligent. That's exactly who he is. If someone beats him, oh, he'll get up. He'll get up immediately. That's relentless. He is the drive to succeed. Better yet, he'll rub some dirt on it and say, do that again. Let's go. You won't beat me again. That's tough. It extends to practices and games. Being competitive is one of the major factors of success in the NFL, and he's got that. Above all, he's intelligent. He makes all the calls on the defense.

From a corner position, that's rare. And you see it on tape, and I mentioned it earlier. He's calling stuff out. He's active in the pre-snap phase. I mention that all the time with quarterbacks. To see it from a cornerback is very impressive. And here's Mason on him. You know, from a physical standpoint, Jawan is a once in a decade player for a defensive coach. He's going to be a first take in my opinion, just based on the simple fact that he's fast enough, he's long enough,

he's competitive enough. Now, Mason makes a comparison that might surprise you. When you look at all those types of players that have surreal length and athleticism, your list will be short, extremely short. When I said one in the past decade, I truly meant I've only seen one other like him in the past decade. You know where I'm going with this. He continues. When I got to Stanford in 2010, I got the chance to work with Richard Sherman, and now I'm working with Williams

I can say from experience they both have the same hunger they both have the same propensity to play the game they both have the same build they may get overlooked but that's a mistake these dudes can ball and can compete with anyone so that's how these guys view him

now the Richard Sherman comparison I'm not ready to go there I didn't study a ton of Richard Sherman when he was coming out. It's a lofty comparison. But let's talk scheme stuff with him before we wrap this up. They used him kind of as their press corner. They would have him travel. He would play on the right side of the field or the left side of the field. And you would see other corners on Vanderbilt playing off coverage when he would be rolled up. You would see a lot of cover six with him where he would be the hard press corner.

You would see a lot of Meg. Meg everywhere he goes where everybody else is playing combo coverage, zone coverage. He's basically one-on-one against their top receiver. He's great at pressing with his length, but he used a lot more catch man where he would not jam initially. He would just wait and then try to catch him when the receiver makes a break. I would like to see him used as more of a pure press corner. They would use him on corner blitzes.

They weren't afraid to send him. He's not afraid to attack downhill. As we mentioned earlier, as some of his coaches described, he's a very smart player, active in the pre-snap phase, can handle responsibility from the mental perspective. You saw him calling out adjustments calling out rotations making calls in the secondary usually you see the safeties doing that no they had their corner doing that because they had trusted him with it from a mental standpoint and this is a guy that has coached Richard Sherman now saying this is the same type of player.

Now, how I want to see him is kind of a physical corner that can travel at times, that can play bigger receivers, whether big slots or big boundary guys. And yes, I think he has the size to play against tight ends. I think in this day and age, the NFL, it is a matchup league right now and I think what you want to do with him is identify the bigger type opponent receiver on the opponent's roster and have him cover that player and travel with that player whether it's a tight end whether it's a big slot whether it's an x I think that's what you want to do. Shifty speed type guys, that's not what you're going to want to use him on. That might be more a Gilmore situation. But I think you could put him against bigger receivers. He can be trusted to play jam against these guys. He can be trusted to play man against those cover guys. And let's

face it, Belichick wants to play man coverage. They'll play zone at times, but they really want to be a man coverage team. Belichick believes in cover one. And so he gives you a matchup answer. When we talk about the Patriots from an offensive perspective, when we talk about offenses league-wide, we talk about getting the matchups you want and then exploiting them. You need to have answers on the defensive side of the ball williams gives you a potential answer for bigger type receivers

and his length and his ability to work to the catch point and be smart at the catch point i think is going to help him going up against bigger type receivers and so i'm envisioning situations where you're going up against let's say for example the Kansas City Chiefs you could use him on Travis Kelsey perhaps you could use him on a Sammy Watkins and then have perhaps Gilmore and help or JC Jackson and help against the Tyree Kill should he come back and see the field and so he gives you some matchup answers. And right now, with the way this league is trending, that might be all you can ask for before the play begins

as a defensive head coach or a defensive coordinator. Do you have some potential answers for the matchups the offense wants to try to dictate and then exploit? I think Williams gives them a chance to do that. And so I think I'm a fan of this pick as well. There are certainly some things he needs to clean up. But he's a smart player. I like his length.

I like his ability to press. I think that's going to work in the National Football League, especially as he'll get more reps at doing it. Let's face it, you're going to press a lot more in the NFL than you will at Vanderbilt, even though that's how he was used. I think with some more reps at doing it, he'll get even better at it. And so I'm excited about this pick. I think it's a very good selection for the Patriots.

And it's an eye towards trying to answer what offenses do, which is create those matchups. And so I'm a big fan of this pick. I hope you are too. The rest of this week, again, we'll be working our way through each of the players the Patriots drafted. That's today. Tomorrow, what we're going to do, we're going to take a look at Chase Winovich

and this might be a pretty easy one to do as well. The first two shows with Harry and now Williams have been pretty easy. I think Winovich is going to be an easy one too. Let's face it, the guy's a motor and he doesn't stop and he wants to kill you. I think that's probably your 10-word scouting report on

Chase Winovich. That's tomorrow. I'm done for now. Until next time, keep it locked report on chase one image, but that's tomorrow. I'm done for now until next time. Keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield and locked on Patriot.