NFL Draft Profile: CB Trey Amos

Breaking down Ole Miss CB Trey Amos

Ole Miss cornerback Trey Amos has been one of the most commonly linked names to the Washington Commanders at the cornerback position. I’ve seen Amos linked to the Commanders at both their first and second round pick, which shows there’s quite a wide range of opinions on his value and where he’ll be drafted. Given all of that, I thought I’d spend some time watching him to see what he does well, if he’d be a good fit for what the Commanders are looking for and find out if he should be in the mix for the Commanders at pick 29.

Amos is an intriguing prospect. He’s a big, long cornerback measuring in at 6-foot-1, 195 pounds with 31¼-inch arms. With that size and length, Amos gets profiled pretty quickly as a physical press corner that can line up on the line of scrimmage, jam receivers at the line and be disruptive in their releases as he sticks tight to them in man coverage. There are certainly parts of that description that fit him well. His length does give him the advantage when he does line up in press coverage and he’s certainly not afraid to be physical at the line of scrimmage when jamming receivers.

On this play against Florida, Amos is isolated to the left of the formation working against a single receiver in press coverage. That receiver wants to work inside and underneath for a quick pass on third down. However, Amos has other ideas. At the snap of the ball, the receiver initially works outside and up the field, trying to get Amos to open his hips towards the sideline so that the receiver can cut back inside of him. Amos does indeed open up towards the sideline, but as the receiver works inside, Amos uses his length to reach out and initiate contact on the receiver.

After that first punch lands, Amos closes the gap and gets his other hand on the receiver too. From there he remains very physical, adjusting his position to get back inside and prevent the receiver from running his route where he wants to go. The quarterback looks to that side off of the snap but quickly recognizes Amos has cut off the receiver and taken the route away. That forces the quarterback to look elsewhere. He can’t find anything else and ends up scrambling before being taken down for a sack.

That’s the type of rep that shows the upside Amos has due to his size and length. Being able to lock up a receiver at the line of scrimmage is the ultimate form of press coverage, but it’s pretty rare for it to turn out quite like that. So how does Amos fare when he’s not able to just lock up a receiver at the line of scrimmage while playing press? He’s still a very capable press corner but does have some things to work on.

This time Amos works in press coverage against Georgia, who have their receiver run a go route down the sideline. There’s both good and bad things to take away from this rep for Amos. For starters, Amos gets happy feet just before the snap. Ideally you want press corners to have calm, patient feet at the snap that forces receivers to declare their intentions instead. But here, you can see Amos is trying to anticipate the snap and starts moving his feet just before the snap of the ball. That means when the ball is snapped, Amos is already on his heels and shuffling backwards rather than staying patient and square to the receiver.

This movement takes Amos away from the receiver, which means he can’t extend his arms out and reach him to jam him at the line even if he wanted to. It was something I saw quite a few times from him, so it will be something he needs to improve on at the next level. Despite that, Amos does alright for most of this rep. As the receiver releases outside and tries to run by him, Amos opens up his hips and turns to run with the receiver, using his inside arm to make contact and force the receiver wider. Amos stays on top of the route and uses that arm length to drive the receiver closer to the sideline, closing the potential throwing window for the quarterback.

However, he does fall into a trap about 10 yards down the field. With the receiver pressed to the sideline, Amos decides to try and look back inside and sneak a peek at the quarterback to try and find any potential throw that might be coming. You can see his head turn back to the quarterback and as a result, he loses track of the receiver. The receiver uses that to his advantage to gain a step and run by him, but fortunately the quarterback threw the ball elsewhere.

Knowing when to look back for the ball and when not to is an important part of playing cornerback. Too often corners will look back for the ball and lose track of their receiver in the process, resulting in them giving up a pass when they initially had the route secured. Amos had no real need to look back for the football here because he had pressed the receiver to the sideline and there was no real throwing window. It’s also not like the receiver was giving him any hints that the ball might have been coming because he knew there was no window for the quarterback to throw to.

This isn’t to say it was a bad rep, there were positives in there. The length and physical coverage to stay on top of the route and force the receiver to the sideline were very good. But things like the initial footwork at the snap and knowing when to look back for the ball are things that make his press coverage a little inconsistent, despite his natural traits for it.

While his physical profile suggest press man corner, where I actually like Amos more right now is in match coverages. He seems to be a smart corner that has a strong idea of match coverages, both man-match and zone-match coverages. For those that don’t know, match coverages are coverages where the defenders are matching their assignments to the receivers as they run their routes. There are various ways of doing this but Amos appears well coached in all of them.