Maryland cornerback Deonte Banks is someone that has been picking up a lot of hype over the last few months. He put up some incredibly impressive numbers at the combine and that always causes people to go and take a longer look at his film to see how that athleticism translates to the field. For the 6-foot, 197 pound Banks, it translates extremely well. He’s a smooth athlete with easy speed and great change of direction ability thanks to his quick feet and loose hips.
You need more than just athletic ability to make it in the NFL as a cornerback, but Banks has more than just athletic ability. He’s at his best when he’s up at the line of scrimmage, pressing a receiver and being physical at the snap. After that, his athleticism enables him to stick tight to the receiver wherever he goes.
On this play against Michigan, Banks aligns over the single receiver isolated to the left of the formation. That receiver is tasked with running a go route down the sideline and tries to just run by Banks. However, off the snap, Banks does a solid job pressing the receiver. He shows good patience at the line, waiting for the receiver to declare his intentions before engaging, but once the receiver takes his step outside, Banks takes control. He opens his hips towards the sideline and extends his inside arm to the shoulder of the receiver, forcing him wider towards the sideline. Banks has the speed to stay on top of the route, which allows him to drive the receiver even wider towards the sideline and close the throwing window even further.
At about 25 yards down the field, the receiver realizes he isn’t going to get the ball because Banks has him covered. He stops his route and looks back to the quarterback, who is beginning to feel pressure in the pocket and scramble around. The receiver attempts to work back towards the quarterback, but Banks sticks tight to him. The receiver does eventually get a few yards on Banks, but by that time the quarterback had already been scrambling around for a while and ended up running the other way.
The most important part of that rep was how under control Banks was. The patience at the line of scrimmage was good, but then to be able to open his hips and land the jam, disrupt the release of the receiver while forcing him wider and still stay on top of the route without breaking a sweat is impressive. He was able to angle that receiver further and further towards the sideline, making any chances of a throw completely unrealistic.
Banks isn’t the only corner with press ability in this draft class. I broke down Joey Porter Jr. earlier this week and he’s excellent at pressing receivers to the sideline when they take an outside release. However, Porter struggled with receivers releasing inside. Banks doesn’t have that same issue and was able to consistently disrupt inside releases.
Here we see Banks line up against Marvin Harrison Jr. Harrison is widely considered one of the best receivers in college football and having watched plenty of Ohio State film during this draft process, I’d be comfortable saying he’d be a top 10 pick in the draft this year if he was eligible. On this snap, Harrison looks to run a quick slant to get inside of Banks for a simple completion, but Banks has other ideas.
At the snap, we see that same patience from Banks as he waits for the receiver to declare his intentions. Harrison takes a hard jab step outside before cutting inside. Banks extends his inside hand to try and cut him off, landing a punch to the chest which delays Harrison. Banks then follows up with his outside hand, gaining control of the play as he rides Harrison inside. The quarterback looks to Harrison, but with Banks disrupting the release, the timing is off and the quarterback works to the back side curl route instead.
This wasn’t the only strong rep Banks had against Harrison either.
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