Welcome to the Big Show: Trae Waynes

Welcome to our ongoing series profiling our newest Vikings. Thus far, Carl delivered a good look at Tyrus Thomas and Austin put together a nice break down of Stefon Diggs.

This most recent draft seemed oddly routine for Vikings fans. There weren’t any major trades or surprise picks and the team addressed some of their biggest needs in the early rounds. The first being Trae Waynes out of Michigan State.

When trying to take the crown of the NFC North, drafting cornerbacks is always a good idea. The Vikings believed that to be true and used the 11th pick overall to draft Waynes making him the highest drafted cornerback in franchise history. With Waynes being the first cornerback off the board last weekend, the Vikings clearly made a statement that Waynes was their guy.

There was plenty of speculation that Waynes would end up with the Vikings prior to the draft, but now that he is officially a Viking, let’s take a moment to break down what he brings to the defense.

Physical attributes and Combine Performance

Waynes caught the NFL by storm with his incredible 40 time while at the combine. I think it’s safe to say, his combine performance solidified his ranking as the #1 cornerback in the draft in a lot of people’s minds.

If there is a recurring theme in the comments made by Mike Zimmer and his staff after the selection of Waynes, it is the appeal they saw in Waynes height. Zimmer clearly wanted a tall cornerback he could bookend with Xavier Rhodes and trust to go up and get the ball in a division with wideouts who tower over most.

“To get big corners that can run and have good change of direction–they’re hard to find,” Zimmer said of Waynes after the draft.

Couple Waynes’ height with his 31 inch long arms and you have someone who can use that size to press receivers at the line of scrimmage and reroute them. Sometimes this is towards the sidelines, other times, when Waynes has help over the top, its towards the safety. Either way, he is able to use his physicality to shrink the quarterback’s throwing window.

I apologize for the quality of the video below, but I think its a good example of how Waynes’ uses his length to jam the receiver at the line of scrimmage, throwing off the timing of the slant route. You can see the quarterback is forced to wait on his initial read and the timing of the entire play is out of whack.

Waynes has success in press due to his strength in my opinion. Ranking 4th overall (19 reps) for the position in the bench press at the combine, Waynes does possess more than adequate strength to win in hand to hand combat with big receivers. To add perspective, Xavier Rhodes put up 14 reps with the bench press and has managed to become a cornerback who plays physically.

One of the bigger knocks on Waynes was his lateral speed and his ability to adjust to quick cuts made by a receiver. Although this will be something to watch, Waynes has the ability to work a receiver towards the boundary and use his incredible straight line speed to put himself between the receiver and the quarterback. Isn’t there a wide receiver in Green Bay who often runs go routes along the sideline?

You can see how Waynes does just that in the highlight below. It’s plays like this that make you really believe in what Waynes can do for the Vikings defense. An NFL quarterback probably wouldn’t have made this throw, but Waynes isolating the receiver is the next best thing to an interception.

****

Game Tape and Scouting Report

The Good:

Mesurables are fun, sure. You can sit around and pick apart 40 and shuttle times, but ultimately, the NFL scouts and GMs who are making the decisions in real life will rely on game tape more than anything else.

When watching some Waynes film, I like what I see when it comes to his ball skills. Remember how many times Chris Cook was in good position, but oblivious to the ball? How often has Chicago thrown touchdowns over Josh Robinson? Waynes might not always come away with an interception, but he seems to be good at preventing the receiver from making a reception.

As I mentioned above, one of the major concerns about Waynes is agility and ability to keep up with sudden cuts of receivers. I think he’s proven he can square up with recievers who are running go routes, but how about someone who might try to get Waynes to open his hips the wrong direction.

Below is a great example of how Waynes does keep his fundamentals. This route is essentially a go route up the boundary, but I like what I see in the fluidity in his hips and keeping his shoulders square to the receiver.

For what it is worth, Waynes is also is a high character player with a strong football IQ. For a team who spent the off season battling off the field issues with one of their star players, I am sure character is a required attribute. I will admit that I was a fan of Marcus Peters in this draft as well, but I am fairly sure that the Vikings had removed him from consideration due to character concerns.

The Bad:

Waynes will have to improve in many areas, there is no doubt. I’d challenge you to find many rookies that won’t.

Ultimately, my major concerns are based in two areas, the first being tackling and block shedding.

One of the appealing things that I liked about Marcus Peters was the attitude he carried on the field. You could tell he liked hitting and getting in the receivers face. I tend to like that kind of confidence as long as it doesn’t lead to doing stupid things.

I think Waynes can improve in his willingness to mix it up in run defense and general down field block shedding.

You can see two examples of that below.

As for the other area of concern, I think Waynes can use his hands a little too much if he gets in trouble. I didn’t see too many plays where he was penalized with Michigan State, but I do think NFL referees would catch the majority of them.

It will be up to Zimmer and defensive backs coach Jerry Gray to help Waynes solidify his fundamentals so he’s not in positions to draw penalties. Spielman touched on this in his post draft press conference.

“There’s no question about the athletic skill set, there’s no question about the ability to play press man. We haven’t seen him a lot in the off coverage because they play so much man coverage so some of that may be a little new to him. But I love going to those workouts with Coach Zim because he coaches the heck out of those guys and he sees how they respond. So there’s some technical things that he’ll have to work on. Just little tweaks here and there with his feet and his shoulders coming out of breaks. All the physical attributes are there; it’s just cleaning that part up.”

****

Overall Impressions

I think Waynes is a solid addition who will obviously have areas of improvement. Many will argue that they feel that Zimmer is the perfect coach to help Waynes’ development and while that might be true, it is important to be realistic with expectations.

While in Cincinnati, Zimmer drafted Dre Kirkpatrick coming out of Alabama with high projections. Kirkpatrick’s development has likely been slower than many expected, which isn’t necessarily uncommon when making the jump the NFL.

I’m not sure Waynes will start in week 1, but I bet he will be by mid season at the latest. Either way, I think Waynes will be a good player for the Vikings for a long time. I’d like to see him add some bulk in the name of staying healthy, but I wouldn’t jeopardize any of his speed to do so.

Overall, I gave the Vikings a B+ for the Waynes pick. Even though I projected Waynes going to the Vikings 11th overall, I personally wished they would have address the offensive line in the 1st round, just not at 11 with Brandon Scherff off the board.

None the less, strengthening the secondary is wise knowing our conference opponents. It’s important to keep in mind that the Vikings front office was looking for Waynes to compliment that existing scheme and defense and at the end of the day, they have a better sense of that than anyone else. When it came down to it, they believe in Waynes enough in that regard to make him the first cornerback off the board.

Welcome to the big show, Trae Waynes.

****

Sources: a handful of these videos were found via draftbreakdown.com