As a long, intriguing cornerback prospect out of Virginia, Maurice Canady is looking to put his name in consideration for Day 2 of the 2016 NFL Draft, but can he overcome his lack of deep speed with his physicality at the point of attack?

CB Maurice Canady

College: Virginia Cavaliers
Year: Senior
Birth Year: N/A
Height: 6-1
Weight: 193

Analysis

The best thing about Canady’s game is his ability to play at the LOS in Press. He plays with patient feet and jabs the receiver with quick, strong hands at the point of attack. As a result, he is able to redirect the receiver off of his original path and onto the island of Maurice Canady. His length and physicality help him a ton in this area as he is able to extend and pretty much make it academic once he gets his hands on the receiver. With that being said, I thought his play strength was a bit overwhelming to almost every receiver he faced in Press this season. This kind of play strength at the LOS also showed at the Senior Bowl in Mobile.

In my opinion, I think Maurice Canady is one of the best cornerbacks in this class at jumping underneath routes in Off coverage. He has excellent reactionary quickness and closing speed to make a play on the ball in a heartbeat. This could also be attributed to his advanced mental processing skills as it seems like he is a step ahead of the opposition in terms of his positioning. This vision and field awareness he has makes him a versatile chess piece who can be appealing as a corner who can play both Man and Zone, and if you are in an Isaac Newton experimental type of mood, you can try him at safety as well.

He shows great timing of when to break on the football, whether that be a pass deflection or interception. His long arms and strong hands give him a wide catching radius when the ball enters his vicinity. Canady has shown some awkwardness when trying to look over his shoulder for the ball, but when everything is in front of him, he has excellent vision and tracking ability of the football.

Quicker than fast type of athlete who will much rather play the short game than the deep one. Stiff athlete who really struggles to flip his hips and run vertically with the receiver. In addition, he does not trust his feet well enough to recover back on the hip pocket of the receiver, and as a result, he has an awful tendency of being too grabby if beat.

He is an aggressive player at both the LOS and when the ball is in the air, but there were some plays on tape where the willingness to get dirty in run support was lacking. In addition, he is a wildly inconsistent open field tackler who lacks the proper wrap up technique and timing on his attempt. If he could carry his aggressiveness over from coverage and into the run game, he would be a more consistent player. Speaking of his aggressiveness in coverage, he bites on a lot of double moves and will get burned as a result. The fact that he doesn’t have the long speed or recovery to get back on the hip pocket of the receiver should mean that he doesn’t have any room for error on double moves, but this is definitely an issue for him on tape.

Like most tall cornerbacks, he does have stiff hips and change of direction skills. I see a smooth backpedal, but once he is asked to stop/start in and out of the receiver’s breaks, he is in trouble as he gives up a cushion because of his lack of fluidity. However, he is a smart cornerback that masks this in several ways, and getting his hands on the receiver with physicality is one of his loopholes.

Overall, I see a Jimmy Smith like cornerback prospect in Virginia’s Maurice Canady. Like Smith, he is a long, angular cornerback that can dominate with his competitive toughness, physicality, and play strength at the LOS in Press, but will struggle in Off because of his stiff, rigid movement skills. He is tight in the hips, but he masks a lot of his deficiencies with his mental processing skills in that he consistently puts himself in perfect position to succeed and make a play. Teams will be appealed by his length, ball skills, and versatility, but I am not sure I can spend anything higher than a third round pick on him considering his lack of fluidity and deep speed.

Grade: 3rd Round