Juan Thornhill S Virginia

STRENGTHS
Juan has the size and look of a cornerback playing safety. He has good speed and solid change of direction skills. He has those long arms and legs that make it easy to trail in coverage and still make a play on the ball out over his head. He is smart and looks to communicate well with his teammates. He has played close to the line of scrimmage and in the slot in single coverage, as well as being used in a deep single safety because of his speed. Juan was a cornerback who was moved into the hybrid safety position and has done well the season improving from game to game.

CONCERNS
Personally, I think for the next level Juan should be moved back to corner. He struggles tackling in the open field because he drops his head and this will make him miss tackles at the safety position. When he goes low and keeps is head up he’s fine but in the open field he dives at a player’s feet and drops his head and that’s going to get him hurt. Juan has very good strength pushing up 22 reps at the combine but he has a pipe cleaner type body that will struggle at the next level to handle the punishment a safety takes.

TALENT BOARD ROUND 3.89
Juan can definitely help a team right away in nickel/dime coverage inside or outside and that is his value for this draft. If he can move back to the cornerback position and stay on the field than he can impact but for the purposes of this draft, I would considered him as a coverage nickel/dime back. Now some teams who are using a 4-2-5 as their base defense will be all over Juan and rate him high and those that use that style of defense on a limited bases will rate Juan lower unless, they feel that Juan has the potential to be a starting corner back in the future. Every team needs nickel/dime coverage defensive backs and although Juan struggles to make clean tackles at times, it’s a form issue and not an issue of him not wanting to make tackles. Juan is a solid defensive back who could be a better than average cornerback and that means there is value to selecting Juan and value to his play on the field.