Verone McKinley III NFL Draft 2022: Scouting Report for Oregon S

HEIGHT: 5'10"

WEIGHT: 198

HAND: 9 1/8"

ARM: 30 5/8"

WINGSPAN: 6'0 3/4"

40-YARD DASH: DNP

3-CONE: DNP

SHUTTLE: DNP

VERTICAL: 35"

BROAD: 10'0"

POSITIVES

— Fluid player who is able to flip his hips and run. Smooth athlete when running.

— Patient in coverage. Plays with good leverage and positioning. Has some ball-hawking to his game.

— Plays well close to the line of scrimmage. Fills the run quickly and can sift through trash to shoot gaps.

NEGATIVES

— Strength and blow delivery is a question. Throws his body around but seems to take most of the brunt.

— Average breaking ability. Doesn’t consistently trust his eyes, while having wide breaks.

— Can look to be a one-speed athlete. Shows some acceleration at times but lacks top-end twitch overall.

2021 STATISTICS

14 G, 77 TKL, 1 TFL, 6 INT, 6 PBU, 1 FF

NOTES

— 2021 first-team All-Pac 12.

— 2019 FWAA and The Athletic All-American Team.

OVERALL

Verone McKinley III is an intriguing prospect at safety. He's a smooth athlete with high awareness and instincts, especially when in coverage.

As a high safety, McKinley does a good job of tracking and attacking the ball in the air. He can be lazy in his backpedal at times, which leads to him being high and hopping around, but he's typically in good overall position and keeps the receivers in front of him.

McKinley occasionally anticipates the wrong routes, leading to him being out of position. He does a good job playing to the man in recovery, although he lacks the desired makeup speed.

When playing in deep coverage, McKinley reads the quarterback’s eyes well and does a good job of undercutting routes when he can. He has strong hands to pluck the ball out of the air as well as catching away from his body. He also does a good job of understanding his threats in underneath coverage and even shows to try and bait quarterbacks into throws.

When playing the run, McKinley does a good job of reacting and closing the space to the ball-carrier. He fills running lanes quickly while throwing his body around and not shying away from contact.

Sitting around the 200-pound range, McKinley looks to lack some strength in tackling. He can take the majority of the impact, especially when tackling larger running backs. He tends to take good angles to the ball, but he occasionally can have them erased by faster, twitchier players.

McKinley flashes a lot of positive skills on the field, but he can be a bit sloppy overall. He will need to clean up his play and consistency to carve out a role in the NFL.

GRADE: 6.2 (High-level Developmental Prospect - 5th Round)

OVERALL RANK: 203

POSITION RANK: S14

PRO COMPARISON: Damon Webb

Written by B/R NFL Scout Cory Giddings