Prospect Profile: Kool-Aid McKinstry, CB, Alabama

Context

Plays mostly as the right outside CB regardless of field or boundary.

Coverage

At the line of scrimmage in soft press or catch-man, he has the footwork and foot speed to match angles with even the most athletic Wide Receivers. He is patient and it is very hard to get him to commit. He can be susceptible to a straight speed release into a vertical route from the most explosive Wide Receivers he’s faced but he’ll compete even in this scenario. When he presses with a jam, he’s not as consistently patient with his hands as he is with his feet. When he times the jam well, he can use his length to disrupt the receiver, as he does place his hands effectively. When he doesn’t stay patient, his hand is more of a touch on the shoulder and is easily wiped away by those receivers with solid play strength and a good release package. In off and bail coverage he’s difficult to target as he plays with such high intelligence that he will always be able to click and close quickly.

His processing, along with his footwork, foot speed, hip fluidity and savvy physicality at the break point are what allow him to stay in phase in man coverage in most situations. He reads route progressions and receivers’ posture at a very high level; it allows him to stay in phase despite a lack of ideal explosion for the position. He is not easily fooled by salesmanship on deeper routes with a break like post and corners as he reads progressions so well and knows when a receiver is going to break off their stem and work to the inside on a dig route or the outside on a deep out. On these routes, he is routinely in phase and preventing a target from the QB against all types of receiver. He will make transitions almost instantaneously as the receiver makes a cut. He does also have good movement skills in transition, in his backpedal and on the half-turn in Zone. He has good physicality and play strength at the break point too; he lives on the edge of holding but does it expertly as he wasn’t penalized once last season. Stands his ground and is very hard to break through. He’s excellent in short areas including on hitch and slant routes – he stays close due to his reactive athleticism. Where he is likely to be out of phase is on broken plays because the WR is freestyling and he can’t use his high-level processing. There will likely be an adjustment period at the next level for this as there will be when he is inevitably targeted with option routes, but he has the intelligence to get up to speed with it. He breaks well on underneath routes from Zone coverage, especially bubble screens and anything thrown behind the line, his trigger on this is impressive. When getting to the ball, he has very good ball skills, with good timing and placement in getting his hands on the ball.

Run Support

He is functional as a force player but he doesn’t constrict running lanes, nor does he particularly aggressively get involved in the running game. He will take on Wide Receiver blocks but hangs an arm out instead of going for the tackle on bigger ball carriers, when it’s unavoidable he shrinks from contact with bigger backs. As an open-field tackler on lighter receivers, he’s far more aggressive but doesn’t form tackle well as he doesn’t wrap, resulting in missed tackles in the open-field.

SUMMARY
Great in coverage, elite processing, instincts and reactive athleticism without ideal explosion. Good ball skills. Not the most aggressive run defender, some issues with open field tackling.

PRODUCTION 
JR: 1 QB Hit, 34 To. Tackles, 4 PBUs
SO: 1 QB Hit, 36 To.Tackles, 16 PBUs, 1 INT
Injury: None

RAVENS FIT
Athleticism 3
Intelligence 5
Versatility 3
Grit 2
Scheme 4