Here is what I thought of him before the draft.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OldSchool
CB
Phillip Gaines, CB, Rice, Senior
Measurables: 6' .3", 193 lbs, 31 7/8" arms, 9 5/8" hands.
Bench Reps: 11
40 time: 4.35 unofficial, 4.38 official
3-cone: 6.62
Short Shuttle: 4.04
Background: Played CB at Rice. He was a dominant CB in his senior year. He was targeted 40 times in 2013 and allowed 13 receptions while making 4 INTs with 9 PBUs, 32.5% success rate. He has 38 PBUs in his career at Rice which is their career record. Gaines had legal troubles in 2011 when he was arrested for possession of 2 ounces or less of weed.
Positives: Aggressive defender in coverage, he plays fearlessly and isn't afraid to challenge receivers at the line. He's experienced as a press-corner and looks comfortable in the zone as well. He has great ball skills and broke up a ton of passes when playing at Rice. He has tremendous speed and quickness to mirror even the fastest WRs to go along with his good length, great closing speed. He was left on an island for most of his career and performed at a high level in that role; shows good awareness in coverage to fall off his man and make a play on the ball when it is thrown elsewhere. Very fluid athlete who is a willing tackler.
Negatives: Needs to improve his technique to in order to be more effective as a press corner (though he is fine in his trail technique). Struggles to get off of blocks in the run game; needs to add more strength to deal with WRs blocking him or improve his physicality at the point of attack. Needs to do a better job of catching the ball when he gets an opportunity.
Overview: Gaines is a confident, aggressive, and physical corner who has the potential to become a top cover corner in the NFL in either zone or press-man schemes. He has all of the tools to succeed but could stand to improve his strength, teams also have to check out his character. I would take him as soon as the 4th round in this draft in order to improve our pass coverage.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OldSchool
Looking at draft sites, they all say 7th round. His play is way above that of a 7th rounder, I would rate him as high as the 2nd for just his physical abilities alone; you're talking about a good sized corner at 6'1" and almost 200 pounds who has the movement skills of a 5'9" and under guy. The only reasons that I could think of why he would be rated so low are off the field issues and the fact that he didn't play against NFL level talent all of the time. However, his skill set translates very well to the NFL and he would immediately become a solid contributor for us.
His big problems: suspended for the Texas A&M game due to team rules violation; and arrested in 2011 for posession of 2 ounces or less of weed.
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Again, it was his pre-season games that had me thinking that he was going to need a lot more work that I initially thought. Scrub WRs were running circles around him.
Today was very promising, he showed a bit of what he could potentially become. Stuck pretty close in coverage to a very fast and quick receiver in Eddie Royal. That was the CB that I thought we would be getting.