Jets 2024 UDFA | CB Brandon Codrington Big Play Return Specialist

[Music] what's good word y it's your boy dkb here I wanted to dive into one of our undra the free agents in cornerback Brandon codrington out of the HBCU realm and realistically he's one of our rookie mini camp try out winners one of the interesting pieces is looking at stuff on paper writer at least on the websites New York and North Carolina both have him listed as 59 and about 185 lbs at his HBCU combine he was actually listed as a shade smaller than 58 so 5'7 and some change and about 175 lbs so I think that looks realistic uh from everything I've seen checking out highlights and a couple film tapes and stuff um so just keep that in mind right you're talking about a guy that is in the realm of the DJ Reed and Michael Carter the second uh uh stature levels but he's he's definitely probably the smallest guy on the team and there's going to be a lot of stuff that we talk about with areas of concern or opportunities for him where these size limitations are going to come up one of the other things is he had a pretty bad showing at the HBCU combine in terms of athletic traits but he did show at his Pro Day an improvement on those numbers but they were still pretty average right I think it was like a 45540 yard time uh I think he had a 43 4ish uh three cone shuttle some along the like of the um those numbers best trade for him was strength uh now pound-for-pound he may be one of the stronger guys on the team he put up 19 reps of 225 um but still there's going to be a lot of things that uh he's just not going to be able to naturally have advantages for right now looking at his collegiate career he was special as the week three times uh finished near at the top of his conference in the meac for Punt and kick returns twice uh the other two seasons he was still one of the top returners uh overall but there was some uh I think it was like his third year he took a step back as a kick returner although he still had some pretty profound punt returns and he ultimately finished college with four uh return touchdowns overall one as a kick returner one uh and excuse me the other three as a punt returner and he's bringing about 41 games of experience with him to the NFL so there's a reason why the coaching staff looked at him during rookie mini camp try out and thought that he was a standout right you take a look at uh what we've seen so far through two preseason games and obviously the returnability uh stands out the most uh but there's also you know maybe I don't want to read into it too much but when mc2 was healthy Brandon was his main backup and I believe since he's been out he's actually been um getting run with the first string as the starting slot guy right so I think that speaks volumes into how quickly he's picking up on this defense and being able to translate some of his skills over he did have 10 pass breakups in college overall not the most active Defender right I think mostly people uh respected the returnability but it's not like he's uh you know direct of being able to play cornerback whatsoever so taking a look at some of the things he does well right Scrappy tenacious those are all things that are going to have to be synonymous with Brandon's name when it comes up and you're going to talk about them right I think when you're an undersized guy at any position you need to have that gladiator type mentality to where I'm going to fight you in Phase uh every single time right I'm bringing the fight to you I'm not really waiting for anything to come my way and I think that's definitely shows up in his game fi looks to contest every ball he's disciplined attacking the run which I really like especially at his size it would be a lot easier to you know kind of drift off to the side and hope somebody else steps up right or just try to get in the way he's not really looking to do that he's looking to go and see if he can land a hit and uh help his team out he's generally in position to fight for the ball which is something I really respect it's not a ton of you know those situations where as a cornerback you may have been you know beaten on the route or you somehow have the recovery speed to get back uh into kind of contesting the ball or at least making it look like it but realistically you did nothing to impact the play the ball goes off the wide receiver's hands and you see the quarterback celebrating if if if you know he had a pass breakup or he did something spectacular not generally the case with Brandon here which I really really like most times you're going to see him be a to turn the ball into a contested catch situation some kind of 50/50 ball uh where the quarterback has to have great accuracy and ball placement um or he's he's you know giving the the wide receiver a reason to not be able to securely bring it in and I can respect that a lot there's also a bit of duality in terms of his special teams ability we talk about his returns and the you know the touchdowns he's got and the big plays but he's also made some plays as a coverage player two block field goals um had a number of tackles I believe he led his team in tackles um a handful of times over the course of his career as a uh uh you know coverage player on special teams he's better in man coverage due to his instincts than Zone in my opinion uh and I think a lot of that just comes from some eye discipline stuff one of the other things to uh keep in mind here is that he played mostly on the boundary in college right he's definitely in a DJ re mode where I I imagine solah looked at him and immediately said slot quarterback guy there's no way he can do anything else and at least to DJ Reed's credit uh to MC 2's credit when you take a look at uh him playing boundary in the Eagles game they have still a height advantage on him they have a weight Advantage right uh and then of course also the experience aspect to it um so this isn't a guy that I think would be a you know candidate to move to the outside but just come think about it from the perspective that him transitioning into the NFL he's now working at a position he's never really done in college um you know with ample opportunity we'll put it at that um he's a short tackler overall we'll talk about some areas that do have some concerns here with for him but there was a comment during his HBCU combine where Bucky Brooks was impressed by his hands and thought that he should get a look at wide receiver now I look at that and say that if he ever does refined his ability uh uh to have eye discipline to be able to go out there and put himself in position to jump certain balls from a mental standpoint um this sounds like great you know it's a great thing right probably going to be rare but overall it's not a situation where I see him being like a ultimate Gadget Guy where you can put him in for offense in certain packages and know that you have a short Ed guy that you know maybe has some underrated uh burst or something like that not really the case athletically he's a little disadvantaged compared to the rest of the NFL uh and no matter the hands it just you know you have Xavier Gibson right let the guy that has experience handle it uh along the you know not to mention Malachi Corley and some of these other guys now the opportunities here every single thing if I didn't mention this before is literally um coming from the focal point of of his size limitations um you know him not having overwhelming athletic traits in terms of speed agility acceleration uh so projecting him here is a little tough right but strictly a slot cornerback so you're not talking about a guy that's going to have a ton of Versatility for uh solid's defense didn't have any interceptions in college so it's great as the hands that Bucky Brooks thinks he has even with him getting 10 pass breakups he hasn't found a way to help his defense get turnovers right and again a lot of that with his limitations means that he's going to have pretty much Picture Perfect technique eye discipline route recognition um and then of course the talents of some of the guys he'll be surrounded with in order to go out there and and roam a little bit and find his way to the ball right you talk about some of these guys like Ashton Davis for example who just seem to have a knack for being around the ball or being a magnet for the ball coming to them um can't say the same for Brandon here right he's just a scrappy dude that it's is interesting cuz like his level of play to me just it it has a bit of self-reflection right he understands he's going to be at a disadvantage almost 99% of the time um and he's looking to really just minimize damage right and when you're looking to do that you don't necessarily have the opportunity to have that Ball Hawk mindset uh and that's perfectly fine plenty of great cornerbacks that were never great um you know uh takeaway players so it is what it is I think the fact that he's been able to come in and be a backup to Michael Carter II screams value because you do have JBC you do have Brandon nichels who has inside outside versatility JBC a guy who loves the mental component of the game who understands the the necessity for for strong fundamentals and yet is codrington that's finding a role to be able to back him up um there are some fumble some fumble concerns he's put the ball on the ground uh a handful of times over the course of his uh special teams plays um and open field tackling is going to be the biggest concern right if he's left on an island or even if he doesn't necessarily have immediate help right guy that needs to make a sideline sideline play he's a guy that can be uh I don't want to say easily broken uh you know uh easily targeted for broken tackles um but more often than not that's going to be the case right I don't have any concerns about somebody shifting him out of uh his shoes or anything like that but when it comes to just Mano imano on an island jump ball situation or quick pass to him you can have a guy that can just run through his face mask potentially and then go out there and get a big play so um again another one of those things that you have to just kind of keep in mind as a defense if he finds his way into uh playing significant snaps and as far as his coverage techniques go sometimes and again this goes into the mindset I mentioned about him minimizing damage he can provide too much cushion which allows a bunch of plays underneath and stuff um to that point he does do a great job of being able to go up there and make the Stop and uh not have an extra you know 5 10 15 yards on top of that but uh again there is a lot a lot of things to be wary of when it comes to him just purely from a side standpoint uh there's a reason why physicality and some of these traits still matter now at his position maybe you can get away with it a little bit more there's uh certain ways you can try to hide your slot cornerback to a degree from a run defense standpoint um and from him not being isolated uh as a you know a primary Defender but let me know what you guys think two preseason games into things hearing what I've been hearing from training camp with a couple standout practices he looks like a guy that uh uh could impress there are going to be some struggles cuz at this point it may be tough to keep him and stash him on a practice squad are we going to keep six cornerbacks to try to uh you know retain his talents at least as a special teamer and see if we can develop anything further for him as a cornerback who knows but let me know what you guys think and I'll catch you again peace