Why the Slide?: Anthony Averett, CB, Alabama
By Charlie Campbell, @draftcampbell
Four years ago, we started a series of articles on why certain prospects went undrafted. In that series, I reach out to sources with NFL teams to find out why their organizations passed on drafting a given player, and/or, what were the reasons for other teams to pass on that prospect. We got a lot of positive reader feedback about the series, so we decided to expand in the genre to investigate why some prospects slid in the draft. Three years ago, we started the Why the Slide? series, and this year it is back. Feel free to email me requests for Why the Slide? and Why Undrafted? at [email protected]. I can’t promise to get to all of them, but I will do my best and definitely will respond to the email.
For a lot of the leadup to the 2018 NFL Draft, Alabama cornerback Anthony Averett was considered to be one of the top prospects at his position. Averett was a projected first-rounder all the way into January by media outlets like ESPN and Bleacher Report. However, WalterFootball.com reported during the season that NFL teams were never that high on Averett and that he was receiving a lot of second-day grades for the 2018 NFL Draft. In his final year of college football, Averett had a solid season for the National Champions while also running fast at the NFL Scouting Combine. Thus, it was surprising to some that Averett slipped to the third day of the 2018 NFL Draft.
In following up with sources after the draft, Averett slipped to the fourth round for the same reasons that caused teams to grade him lower than the first round. One big issue was that Averett has a thin frame. At 183 pounds, teams were concerned about him getting pushed around by big NFL receivers and avoiding injury in the more physical professional game. The other primary reason that caused Averett to slide was him struggling to play the ball. While Averett was a dependable corner to stay with receivers and prevent separation, he allowed a number of catches to be made over him. Averett’s ball skills and the ability to defend the pass in the air hurt his draft grade. When you combine that issue with having a thin frame, it gave teams concerns about Averett handling NFL wideouts.
The Baltimore Ravens ended Averett’s fall, and that landing spot seemed very foreseeable, although I wasn’t wise enough to predict it. Running his last draft for Baltimore, general manager Ozzie Newsome was well known to take a lot of players from Alabama. A year ago, he drafted Averett’s former teammate Marlon Humphrey to be a starting cornerback for the Ravens. Humphrey is bigger and better than Averett, but he also had the same flaw of struggling to play the ball over him. Baltimore looked past that when it drafted Humphrey, so it isn’t surprising the organization would do the same with Averett.
Averett also makes sense to give the Ravens a trio of corners with Humphrey and veteran Jimmy Smith. It might take some time for Averett to beat out the likes of Brandon Carr and Tavon Young, but eventually Averett probably will be the team’s third cornerback. If Averett can get stronger and fill out his frame while improving his ability to play the ball, he could become a good starter and an excellent value pick for the Ravens.
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