STRENGTHS
Chidobe has excellent size, length and speed along excellent athletic talent to play more than one position in your defensive backfield. He is a cover safety who can be moved out to cornerback in a certain style of defenses. He is big enough and athletic enough to cover those big Tight Ends and big receivers in the slot and in the red zone has the ability to cover and stay with any style of receiver and in any kind of route. Chidobe has good speed and solid change of direction skills. He has the hands to make the interception and has some leadership skills through his play on the field. Chidobe has the size to play up near the line of scrimmage or back deep as a safety in a two deep zone. He’s a good tackler and this is what allows him to play more than one position all over the defense.

CONCERNS
Chidobe has good speed but he doesn’t have the top end speed so dealing with those small speed receivers without help would be his biggest weakness.

BOTTOM LINE
Chidobe is the new style of defensive back who has the bulk, strength, speed and quickness to run down players and be used in cover situations all over the field for you defense. It use to be you had a strong safety who played up near the line and helped out mostly in run situations and in passing situations would drop back into a two deep zone defense to help out in passing situations. But as you all know with the slot receivers and pass catching Tight Ends who are fast and more athletic and can run down the field with speed, a new kind hybrid, cover safety/ LB has been needed to counteract those athletic players. Chidobe fits this description to a tee. He has all of these skills and talents to play that rover defensive back field position and he plays it well. He can be used in blitzing situations because of his size to handle running backs that would be responsible to block him. He’s very smart and understands the game plan and its purpose during the game. He interacts with his teammates and is quick to identify offensive formations. Chidobe has leadership qualities. Although he may lack the top end speed to be a pure cover corner he will be able to handles those big Tight Ends in the red zone that seem to be scoring all the Touch Downs in the passing game. Chidobe is not a specialty player he will be a starter and a core player and impact player for your defense because you can use him all over your defense in different position depending on down and distance. Inside the red zone you can use him on the outside or inside because of his has talent and size to cover. I suspect some playoff team in the later part of the first round might select Chidobe but if not I don’t think he will last very long on anyone’s boards. At least on my board he wouldn’t.

Drew Boylhart  FEB.2017