Chambo & Marty Scouting Faceoff: Alshon Jeffery vs. Michael Floyd Mark Chamberlin and Scott Martin, Fantasy Football Staff Writers Jan 18, 2012 | More
More articles from Mark Chamberlin and Scott Martin

What they both do well

Floyd and Jeffery are both very big targets. Floyd is 6-foot-3, Jeffery is 6-foot-4, and both will likely weigh more than 220 pounds at the NFL Combine. Both possess good body control for their size, and both have a surprising burst off the line. Each player has very good hands, run above average routes at this stage in their development, and both are able to catch the ball extremely well in traffic.

What Floyd Does Better

Marty’s take – Floyd has a better feel for running the intermediate routes than Jeffery. If either player is going to be successful at the next level, they’ll need to make the tough over-the-middle catch. Floyd runs those routes extremely well and can succeed at making a living doing so on Sundays. Floyd also appears to have a knack for getting more separation from his defender. While this likely has a lot to do with route running as a whole, Floyd is quicker than Jeffery off the ball, allowing him to get just that much separation so his quarterback can find that open window to deliver him the ball.

Chambo’s take – What separates (no pun intended) Floyd from Jeffery is his ability to utilize the entire field to make plays. He positions himself well on quick outs and quick slants alike, has the ability to burst off the line to create enough separation to offer the quarterback a target on those routes, he can make plays off bubble screens, utilizes the sideline as well as anyone, can get on top of defenses deep, and finds room in the intermediate passing game, also. Holy run-on sentence! Sorry. There’s just too much he does well on the field. I even failed to mention an area in which Floyd dwarfs Jeffery – his ability to block downfield. Basically, the only skill I’ll give Jeffery the nod on is his ability to high-point passes. I have to be honest, Jeffery’s real good at that … but that’s it.

What Jeffery Does Better

Marty’s take – Jeffery possesses elite talents across the board, but he has always impressed when going up against other elite talents. In the Capital One Bowl this year, he was matched up against Alfonzo Dennard, a Round 1 cornerback prospect from Nebraska. While these guys both had their ups and downs, it was Jeffery who shined most, amassing 148 yards and a touchdown in essentially one half of play before these two got into a fight and subsequently ejected from the game.

While some may view this as a red flag, Jeffery’s career has been pretty clean. In referencing Dennard, Jeffery has continually played well against some very good cornerbacks. Let’s throw this year out the window because he essentially didn’t have a quarterback much better than what Jordan Jefferson looked like in the National Championship game (horrid). In his earlier career, he performed tremendously against Dre Kirkpatrick (Alabama) and Janorris Jenkins (Florida at the time), who will both be first-round picks. The fact that he’s done well against some of the elite cornerbacks in this draft shows that he’ll match up well with whoever he faces. What he did well against these players, and throughout his career, is excel against press coverage. While Floyd has more explosion off the ball, Jeffery is stronger, allowing for him to gain separation that way.

While many will also question Jeffery’s speed, I think he’s faster on longer routes than Floyd. Many people are worried about his 40-time, but he’s going to surprise and land right at about 4.55. He also can use this speed to be a better deep ball threat than Floyd, since he gets to the ball at its highest point better than Floyd. His elite body control allows for him to position his body in a manner that makes it difficult for a defender to get him off the ball. There are also no character red flags, as we’ll talk about soon in referencing Floyd. He has been fairly clean at South Carolina, save the one incident in this year’s bowl.

<< prev | 1 | 2 | next >>