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Longhorns CB
Quentin Jammer
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Editor’s note: This is the eighth in a series of articles previewing the top NFL
prospects, by position, for the 2002 draft.
This should be a solid year for cornerbacks, but the field is lacking a truly superior,
"can’t miss" super blue-chip prospect like Deion Sanders, Mike Haynes,
Charles or Rod Woodson or Champ Bailey.
The one player a number of scouts are getting excited about is Texas’ Quentin
Jammer, who really benefited greatly by staying in school for five years and could be
ready to cash in. Jammer is very aptly named because his specialty is using his size,
power and strong arms and hands to keep a receiver from getting off the line of scrimmage.
He is at his best when up in bump-and-run coverage, and he does a great job of jamming the
receiver at the line and preventing him from getting off cleanly. There are a number of
times you will see Jammer literally jolt the receiver at the line, and if he gets his
hands on the receiver, it can be very hard to escape. Jammer understands leverage and bump
technique, both in bump coverage and tackling, and is a strong, physical, aggressive
tackler who can wrap and face up and cause fumbles with his hard hits. While Jammer is
much better in bump coverage than man-off or zones, he is more than adequate in both those
areas and has the feet, fluid hips and closing burst NFL scouts look for in a corner. His
ball skills are good, and he has also started at safety in the past. The knocks on Jammer
are that he will get turned around at times and bite on double moves while in coverage.
Despite the fact he reportedly ran a 10.3 in the 100 meters in high school, he does not
show great long catch-up speed on the field. He also will get sloppy about his technique
and gets flagged a lot. As a junior, he was flagged for pass interference in eight
straight games. While Jammer seems to have cooled down a little and matured, his
hair-trigger temper was a concern in the past, and at times, he seemed to show a little
attitude. Or as one scout put it: "When you think of the prototype Raiders corner,
Jammer is it."
Some scouts and long-time followers of Big 12 football believe Nebraska’s Keyuo
Craver, not Jammer, is the best corner in the conference and perhaps the country.
While Jammer is not a great pure leaper, Craver is a 51-foot triple-jumper on the track
team and perhaps the best pure athlete in the entire school. As a three-year starter,
Craver is a football player first and foremost, and you never see any signs of having what
scouts less than fondly call "a track mentality." While not tall at a shade over
5-10, Craver is well-built and looks more like a strong safety or running back than a
corner. He has the fluid hips, quick feet and the quick twitch needed to be a top cover
corner — either backed off or in press coverage. He shows good closing and make-up
speed and reaction to the ball. He is a solid hitter and tackler who can wrap up and will
face up. He has good hands and ball skills and is both a punt returner and kick blocker
who is a top special-teams player. One knock on Craver is when teams avoid his area, he
tends to get bored and will get sloppy about his technique and freelance and guess too
much.
Once you get past Jammer and Craver, there is a major dropoff between the elite players
and the next group that could be filled by a few juniors. However, scouts say while
Miami’s (Fla.) outstanding cover corner, Phillip Buchanon; Florida’s Lito
Sheppard; and Kansas State’s Terence Newman are all big-time talents, all
of them would benefit from another year in school. Buchanon could be the best pure
man-on-man cover guy in the country and also rates well as a punt returner, but he is not
a big, physical corner. He does have the great hips, feet and suddenness scouts look for
in a corner.
Newman may be the fastest player in the Wildcats’ secondary and has really come on
this year, but he is still very much a work in progress. He is a track sprinter, and this
is his first year as a full-time starter.
Sheppard may be the most polished and ready corner for the pros. He is a big-play maker
both as an interceptor and returner who has RB skills and vision to go with it. However,
he lacks ideal size, still needs to improve his focus and refine his techniques and could
really use another year to mature and polish his skills.
The Hurricanes’ Mike Rumph has the size Buchanon lacks, but he is not the
pure cover man his teammate is and is getting picked on more often now because Buchanon is
so hard to beat. Rumph is an enigma. In some of Miami’s practice tapes, he looks like
a big-time player and shows scouts everything they want to see. But then in games, he has
lapses, gets turned and fooled badly at times and seems to need an extra step to turn on
occasion.
Tennessee’s Andre Lott is another very hard-to-figure player. He shows you
big-time skills and toughness at times, but he also has breakdowns and lapses and gets
beat.
If Oregon’s Rashad Bauman was 6-feet instead of 5-8¼, he probably would be
a first-round pick. Bauman is tough and feisty. He covers well man-on-man and can track
and catch the ball. He did a really nice job on UCLA’s Freddie Mitchell and Oregon
State’s Chad Johnson last year, but really big receivers will give him fits. Granted,
there are not many 6-5, 240-pound wide receivers at any level, but Stanford’s Teyo
Johnson really took advantage of his size advantage over Bauman when the Cardinal upset
the Ducks in a game that knocked Oregon out of the Rose Bowl picture. Bauman also is a
big-time trash talker and is not always the easiest player to coach. He missed the 1999
season after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in the spring, and while quick and
seemingly sudden, he may no longer have great deep catch-up speed.
Wisconsin’s Mike Echols has great stopwatch speed and character and was
rated as the No. 1 corner by one scouting combine this past spring. Unfortunately, he is
only 5-9 and does not really play to his sub-4.4 time in the 40-yard dash. Echols is a top
competitor and can play press coverage, but he will struggle at times with man-off
coverage and get turned and beaten cleanly, which has nothing to do with size. He also is
an insulin-dependent diabetic who must take shots regularly. While he has never missed a
game at Wisconsin, it is still a major concern.
Going into the fall, many experts rated South Carolina CB Sheldon Brown as a
potential top pick and did not even have his teammate, Andre Goodman, on their
radar screen.
However, at least in my eyes, Goodman has been the much better player in coverage for
most of the fall, although Brown has rebounded from a poor start. Goodman seems to have
regained the confidence and speed a major knee injury suffered in ’99 had taken away.
He has good feet and hips and breaks on the ball well, but he is only about 5-10.
Brown is not that tall, but he has very long arms for somebody who is 5-9¼ and looks
like he has a better frame and build. He also doubles as a college baseball player, but he
is no Deion. Brown is athletic but tends to get high in his pedal and is not as sudden as
scouts would like. At times this year, he hung back like he was worried about getting hurt
and losing stock in the eyes of the NFL. By being cautious, he really may have hurt
himself.
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