STRENGTHS
What you see is not what you get with Jalen…you get a whole lot more, much more. He reminds me a lot of the Bills Jordan Poyer. Jalen plays multiple positions for his college team because of his high football IQ and maturity. He has good size and is a lot better cover safety than most give him credit for. He shows excellent overall athletic agility and solid cover skills that make it easy to see how he can handle being a slot cover corner. He does a good job getting off blocks to make tackles on sweeps and screens because he plays with excellent anticipation, instincts and has good recognition skills. Jalen should be a fan favorite and coach favorite, the type of player for the team that selects him.
CONCERNS
He needs to get much stronger and add some bulk to his frame without it affecting his speed and agility. He is a good tackler but still with improved strength in his hands and forearms he could become a much better and surer tackler. Because Jalen played up near the line of scrimmage most teams will think that he lacks the cover skills required to be a starting Defensive Back for the next level. He could be pigeonholed as a zone cover defensive back and this could affect his draft status. Of course, that will be a mistake. Jalen needs for his workouts and combine numbers to address all of these concerns.
BOTTOM LINE: 2.03
I’m going to out on a limb and suggest that Jalen was one of “those” players who went to class and did not spend all of his time just playing football. My thinking is that for the next level his upside will be physical more than mental because he already has an extremely high Football IQ and shows excellent leadership skills. When he gets bigger and stronger his tackling will improve and as he gains more experience his cover skills will improve. He is a playmaker on defense and a leader and in future years should become a coach on the field. When a player shows those attributes to me on film along with the athletic talent to play more than one position I tend to rate them for early draft round consideration. But that’s just me. Most of the time, players like Jalen aren’t selected until the later rounds but if he has very good workouts and runs 4.4 or 4.5 range, he could move into the third round. It’s a possibility.
