He's rated high because people get hard ons for bodies and 40 times. It's not because he's a good football player. Same with guys like JPP.

If the guy was going to turn into a good football player, shouldn't it have happened already since he was a 4 year starter for a guy who is the head coach of an NFL team now?

I think some people have a really hard time realizing what a cover 1 deep safety does, if he was this bad how did USC have the defense it did the prior year?

It's like it's now somehow Taylor Mays fault his front 7 turned into shit.

This only happens if he has a bionic swivel installed for his neck. like i said in the other thread NFL OCs will abuse his lack of ball position skills over the top and his lack of hip flex underneath early and often. Hes good for atleast one game killing interference penalty a game.

USC had some other guys who were pretty good on defense the year before this past one and you know that.

His deep responsibilities don't have anything to do with him taking poor angles and missing tackles.

That's my major concern.

He doesn't seem the have the flexibility to be elite in coverage. He has the speed to make up for some of it, but he's certainly going to get beat deep some w/ a slow backpeddle and mediocre hips.

Worse still, he hasn't shown an ability to make solid reads in run support. He has obscene physical skills that can overcome this in college, but in the pros he won't always be able to do that.

I honestly don't think he'll make a plus safety. He may be a guy that's starting caliber, but that pretty much just makes him Bernard Pollard with more straight line speed.

He really looks like a guy that should be strong side OLB to me.

If you constantly badger a guy as a bad tackler, why would you want to make him a front 7 player? That doesn't make any god damn sense.

Also his entire role at SC was as a deep cover man, if he was shit at it he'd have gotten beat numerous times over the years.

If he can't tackle, and he can't cover, why would you want him playing in the secondary?

pac 10 v. nfl caliber players week in & week out isnt even in the same galaxy.

The idea that he can't cover is completely overblown, he doesn't have great ball skills but that doesn't make him ****ing Bernard Pollard either.

We're talking about a guy playing cover 1 for a team that gave up the fewest passes over 20 yards in college football, they'd have given up some big plays in the pass game if he had no cover ability.

But the fact that he WILL be a liability in deep coverage remains.

We'll see, when he's not responsible for so much field he'll probably look much better in coverage.

Mays is a guy that I fully expect to be better in the pros than college because NFL teams don't play cover 1.

They did give up big plays in the passing game. It's not like they didn't allow any.

I fully understand as you have commented on these facts numerous times. My statements still has truth in them. .

Because he would be a guy that could get to the edges and re-direct plays back into the muck. I don't want him playing MLB.

Time will tell, but I don't see him being more than an average safety in the league.