Measurables
UNIVERSITY- LSU AGE- 20 CLASS- JR
HEIGHT- 6’1” ? WEIGHT-195 ? ARM LENGTH-
40 Time- 3 CONE- VERTICAL- BROAD JUMP- BENCH PRESS-
Overview
Derek Stingley came into LSU as one of the highest rated recruits in school history, he was touted as the best recruit by many and certainly top 3 by practically all in his recruiting class. He won the Gatorade Player of the Year for the state of Louisiana in 2018. He starred at Dunham High School as a CB, WR, safety, a returner as well as in the classroom academically. He comes from a family of athletes such as his father who played football at Purdue before eventually switching to baseball where he was drafted by the Phillies. His grandfather was a first round pick by the Patriots back in ‘73. Stringley’s freshman year in 2019 was one for the ages as he started in all 15 games for the historic LSU title run. He finished with 38 tackles, 1 TFL, 21 PBUs and 6 INTs. He earned Consensus All-American, Sec Newcomer of the Year and First team All-SEC honors. Unfortunately the rest of Stingley’s career at LSU was ravaged by injury. In 2020 though he was able to start 7/10 games, tallying 27 tackles, 2.5 TFL, 5 PBUs and 1 FF. He earned First Team All-America and First Team All-SEC again for his efforts. 2021 Stingley was hurt all year and only started in 3 games before falling to a foot injury. He finished the season with 8 tackles, 3.5 TFLs and 1 FF.
Strengths
Like a good neighbor Derek Stingley Jr is there, covering you all over the field. Stingley has adequate height and really good length for the position. Stingley is an incredibly explosive athlete, his sudden reactionary movement is off the charts. He possesses fantastic quick feet to pair with great balance to remain glued to a WRs hip. Stingley has the athletic ability to stay tight in coverage even on routes crossing the middle of the field. There is absolutely no hinge or lack of flexibility in any of his movements. Stingley is smooth in his back-pedal, turn and go, as well as his lateral movements when playing zone coverage. You will primarily see Stingley in press-man or off-man coverage; he excels in both. As a press corner he uses his length and physicality to knock WRs out of rhythm in their routes. Stringley uses perfect hand to feet mirroring in his press technique, which allows him to always stay balanced in the rep and never over-extend himself. This ensures that not many flags will be thrown his way for defensive holding or pass-interference. As an off-man corner, Stingley is able to quickly process a route underneath and his explosion to drive on those routes is fantastic. Just going off the things I’ve listed so far would make Stingley a damn good corner prospect. What separates Stingley as an elite CB prospect is his ball skills as well as his natural instincts, both are at an elite level, especially for his age. I’m not sure I’ve seen a top corner prospect with quite the ball skills that Stingley possesses. His ability to track the ball down field is like a centerfielder, I’ve never seen a defender with a quicker time from the point they turn and look for the ball to locating it. It’s actually hard to explain how rare his ball skills are. I saw several plays where he will literally look down to ensure that his feet are in bounds before going up and making a play on the ball. The fact that he can do that and still be able to track the ball into his hands is quite incredible for a CB. Then at the catch point, it can be difficult to figure out which player is supposed to be playing WR, 50/50 balls lean in his favor more times than not. Stingley also does a very nice job of simply swatting a ball down if he is unable to make a play on it, without drawing a penalty. Stingley’s instincts flash play after play. He has a great understanding of what an offense is trying to do, he doesn’t get fooled by any misdirection in a route. In zone coverage is where you really see the instincts jump off the screen as he quickly diagnoses a play, then he’s able to jump on a route. His ability to jump a route with his explosive athleticism is top tier. I felt that Stingley was an improved tackler in his limited number of games in 2021. Stingley also has the agility to play in the slot and cover WRs from any side of the field, he followed the opposing team’s star WR every game.. They also lined him up against TEs in some games. Great competitive spirit in the games I watched. Stingley also possesses the ability to be a factor in the punt return game.
Weaknesses/Room for Improvement
From an ability standpoint, from an athletic standpoint, from a cerebral standpoint; Derek Stingley Jr leaves little doubt. However, you have to question his lack of bulk as an elite CB prospect, he is a little light for what you would typically look for. This leads to the overwhelming concern about his long-term health. Can he stay healthy consistently throughout his career? There’s absolutely no way that I could feel confident saying yes given his size and his track record. There were a lot of “business decisions” being made as a player in run support. Stingley often didn’t seem too motivated in getting off blocks and sticking his nose in there as a tackler. I felt he was improved this past season but that was in limited exposure. Earlier in his career he would often just dive and throw a half-hearted arm in there to make the play. I also felt Stingley could have been more physical playing through WRs at the catch point on underneath routes. There were times where he let WRs body him out without giving enough resistance. Overall, physicality was lacking in his game aside from his skills in press coverage. Even though his instincts were a big bright spot in his game, his instincts also failed him at times when playing zone coverage. There were a few plays here and there where Stingley got locked onto an underneath route that he felt he could make a break on but then he let a WR get behind him deep. He could improve his discipline in this aspect of his game. It makes you wonder if good QBs will be able to play off his over-aggressiveness in these kinds of situations. There isn’t much of any concern about his ability in coverage, there’s one interesting thing he does often though. On deep routes for whatever reason, he will actually do a 180 degree turn to readjust to a ball in the air. He has the athletic ability to make it work and it hasn’t hurt him in any games I watched but it’s a really strange aspect of his game that I would assume would be hard to break him of. Ideally you would prefer your CBs to never turn their back to the ball like that for a few different reasons. First being that most guys will simply lose track of the ball if they take their eyes off of it, secondly he takes a big risk that he may fall over in the process of completing his spin. Like I said, it never hurt him in the games I watched but it was just a funny/interesting thing that I noticed and I wonder if it will ever hurt him doing that in the NFL. You would love to break him from doing it but I’m not sure if you can. Overall Derek Stingley Jr is an incredible prospect at CB and he will likely be the best man-cover CB on any team he goes to day 1, you just worry if he will survive long-term.
Scheme Fit
Any defense that features a large bulk of man coverage but also a splash of zone in later downs to where he can make plays on balls with his instincts. At some point(perhaps immediately) he will be a CB who will travel with whomever the opposing team’s best WR is.
Round Grade
Elite Top 5-10 Talent with Glaring Red Flag Concerns regarding his long-term health.