Quick Analysis: Mackensie Alexander

I like what Mackensie Alexander brings to the table with his sticky cover skills and his physicality and competitive toughness. He is ultra-confident and highly aggressive with 4.47 speed and athleticism to turn and run with wide receivers.

The Clemson slot corner has long arms and a great vertical which makes up for is 5’10 190 pound frame. He is explosive with great stop-go quickness who will fight hard to disrupted completions. Alexander has good balance and body control who routinely times his leaps and lunges to breakup passes. As his NFL.com profile indicates, Alexander was the fourth-best prospect in the country by ESPN coming out of high school.

Most analyst had Alexander ranked as a top-three cornerback in this class. The Vikings find value and upside too good to pass up with the 54th overall selection. Pundits will be quick to point out that he had zero career interceptions in 27 games as a two year starter. However, the All-American defensive back wasn’t thrown at very often as quarterbacks only completed 24.5% of there attempts targeting his coverage last season.

The Vikings are now loaded at the cornerback position with Captain Munnerlyn, Terence Newman, Jabari Price, Xavier Rhodes, Marcus Sherels and Trae Waynes all on the roster. Munnerlyn is 28 and Newman is 37, so, Alexander represents the future at the slot cornerback position.

He is a top-tier talent but is a bit of a gamble because he lacks experience and production. Zimmer will have plenty of raw talent to mold with this scrappy defensive back. Selecting players with good work ethic and toughness seems to be the early theme with the first two picks.

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