Akwasi Owusu-Ansah: Possible Dallas Cowboys 2010 Draft Pick

We recently detailed the 2009 success of the Cowboys’ cornerbacks in our Grading the ‘Boys segment .  Leading the pack was Mike Jenkins, who really took tremendous strides last season.  The second-year player led the team in interceptions, pass deflections, completion percentage against, and yards-per-attempt against.

Surprising to some was how highly we graded Terence Newman (B+).  Newman has been underrated for years, and last season he was finally healthy enough to perform well over the course of an entire 16-game schedule.  Newman was thrown at on just 9.49 percent of plays, making him the least targeted cornerback on the team.

The success of Jenkins and Newman was not matched by nickel CB Orlando Scandrick.  Scandrick, who began the season as a rotational starter, regressed in his second season in Dallas.  He was actually one of the most targeted players in the league and allowed a pedestrian 62.9 percent of passes thrown his way to be completed.

The difference between Jenkins and Scandrick doesn’t appear to be in their skill sets as much as it is in their minds.  Jenkins gained confidence at a seemingly exponential rate as the 2009 season progressed.  Scandrick, who was often in position to make a play, often displayed a bit of hesitation which ended up costing him by year’s end.

We believe Scandrick has the adequate physical tools and mindset to rebound nicely in 2010.  Still, a team can never have enough talented cornerbacks.  Thus, the Cowboys may be looking to bolster the position during the draft, perhaps even in the early rounds.

Akwasi Owusu-Ansah is a small-school cornerback out of Indiana University of Pennsylvania.  He is a personal favorite of ours not only because of his coverage, but also due to his electrifying return ability.  The latter of these skills is the primary reason we view him as a target for Dallas (we rated a dominant return man as the team’s No. 1 draft need ).


Scouting Report

Owusu-Ansah is eerily similar to Cardinals’ CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie.  At 6′0”, 207 pounds, Owusu-Ansah has the requisite size to be solid in run support.  He does not have the blazing speed of DRC (AOA ran a 4.47 at the Combine), but he may actually be a more versatile player.

Owusu-Ansah was highly productive in college, albeit against DII talent.  The major knock on him coming out is that he has not faced elite competition.  How will he react when he gets beat?  That basically never happened at IUP, so his ability to respond to adversity is a question mark at this point.

For Dallas, Owusu-Ansah would be an upgrade at both punt and kickoff returner.  He displays great vision and has the strength to break tackles.  His biggest weakness on returns is his propensity to use his superior athleticism to dance around before getting up-field.  That will obviously not work in the NFL.

A possible concerning issue for Dallas is the fact that Owusu-Ansah is probably better suited to play outside than in the slot.  If the team is interested in bringing someone in to compete with Scandrick, they may want to look elsewhere.  However, this concern could easily be alleviated by playing Newman in the slot and Owusu-Ansah outside in nickel situations (assuming AOA beats out Scandrick).


Projection

AOA is steadily climbing draft boards just as Rodgers-Cromartie did two seasons ago.  While he won’t be a first round selection, AOA figures to go somewhere in Round Two.  In our opinion, he represents great value if he falls to Dallas at pick No. 59.  We would rate the odds of this happening at about 50/50.