Calvin Pryor 2014 NFL Draft Profile

It sometimes seems like Pryor’s awareness comes in flashes, and it also seems like he throws his body around instead of consistently displaying sound technique when making the tackle. He did this late in the third quarter against UCF, as he simply flailed on a screen pass to Johnson; his tackle attempt looked more like a belly-flop into the community swimming pool. There are inconsistencies in Pryor’s game that make him a bit frustrating to watch at times, but he has the ability to make up for some of those mistakes, since he is a physical specimen. In fact, no other safety in this class has better physical tools. And while there are more important things for a player to have than simply tools, Pryor’s athleticism does bail him out at times.

Speaking of Pryor’s athleticism, check out the play below that occurred in the back of the red zone on third-and-eight early in the first quarter in Louisville’s game against UCF. It was one of the best interceptions I ever saw last season in either the NFL or in college football, because it was the perfect combination of physical and mental tools. Pryor has the ability to be a special player in the NFL, and this interception encapsulates that. Not only did he do an incredible job of reading the play (he took full advantage of Blake Bortles’s inability to manipulate safeties with his eyes), but he came up with an interception that many players couldn’t dream of hauling in. He looked like a wide receiver out there, corralling the ball with one hand and somehow keeping both feet on the paint in the end zone before tumbling out of bounds. Draft Breakdown has the play below in another clip for you to dissect.

It’s important not to bite on play-action passes, especially when you are the only thing stopping the wide receiver from getting a first down. On a play late in the third quarter against UCF, Pryor gets absolutely undressed by Bortles on a play that is designed to fake out the defense twice. First of all, it’s a play-action pass. Secondly, Bortles barely pretends to run on a keeper, thus causing Pryor to move a bit inside. He’s playing man on this play, and the steps he takes towards the inside of the field leave his man wide open on the outside for an easy first down for Bortles. Pryor gets a nice hit on the wide receiver at the end of the play, but that doesn’t matter. The reception and subsequent first down allowed are totally on him, since he should have stuck with his man running an out route from the right slot. That’s a mistake that you can’t afford to make in the NFL, because biting on small moves by the quarterback will get you burned.

I’ve already thrown in more than enough specific clips of Pryor, so I’ll quickly go over some observations from his game against Kentucky. Early in the game, there was another play in which he over-pursued a run by shooting through the gap and taking himself out of the play. But later on, he made an even more mistake, as he had another flail-tackle, which allowed the Kentucky running back to rip off a massive gain on the right sideline. Patience is a virtue that Pryor has yet to grasp, and he also needs to cut down on arm tackles and plays in which he senselessly throws himself at the ball-carrier, because those give the offense free- and big- yardage.