Thursday, April 07, 2011

Player Profile #35: Orlando Scandrick


Orlando Scandrick
Position: Cornerback
Size: 5'10, 192
Age: 24, 2/10/87
College:Boise State
Drafted: 2008: Round 5, Pick 143
Experience: 3 seasons

Salary History and Contract Status - 6/23/2008: Scandrick signed a four-year deal worth about $1.85 million with a signing bonus of about $185,000. 2011: $1.2 million, 2012: Free Agent

2008 Draft Profile From OurLads.com:Orlando Scandrick - Boise State - 5'10 - 192 - 4.35 - Junior Entry. Three year starter with rare speed. Excellent hip flexibility in his turns. Smooth and athletic. Has the speed and quickness to be effective in coverage. When he concentrates he is tough to beat. Has 38 starts in his career. Blocked 4 kicks in 2007. Consistent play last fall. Uses hands effectively in coverage. Can read and react to routes. Runs with receivers in man coverage. Smooth in his backpedal. Good hand placement to reroute receivers in zone coverage. Has rare catch-up speed. Good leaping ability. Will make a play on run support. Talented and athletic. Would not be surprised if he were drafted in the 3rd Round with the rare time and play speed. Fourth/Fifth Round.

Pre 2010: Judging players on a personal basis sometimes requires mitigating circumstances. Whether we admit it or not, we constantly are grading players on a curve. If we simply based our thoughts on football plays and football players, things would be different. But, we must consider investment in a sport where salary caps and drafts exist. You must maximize your resources to find success. And when considering Orlando Scandrick, we should readily admit that we are judging a player who arrived as a 5th Round pick and makes 5th Round pick money. A young and extremely interesting project pick, Scandrick arrived and demonstrated that 3 years of starting at Boise State translated quite well to what was waiting for him in the NFL. Mike Jenkins is always judged by the standard that he was a 1st Rounder on a $10 million contract. Scandrick, selected in the same draft, was a 5th Rounder on a deal that would be near the league minimum. Expectations for Jenkins were for elite play. Expectations for Scandrick were non-existent. So, when Scandrick out-performed Jenkins in their rookie seasons, the Cowboys felt like their plan to collect young, fast corners had the potential to be very strong. In 2009, Jenkins and Scandrick started the season as rotating starters opposite Terence Newman, but that would not last long as Jenkins really started playing to his expectation levels, and Scandrick hit a bit of a regression - especially in coverage and was relegated to 3rd corner duty which is a spot he occupies to this day.

2010: Last season, Scandrick had the distinction of grading out as the best performing corner (according to ProFootballFocus.com) - which is like being the tallest dwarf in Snow White. No corner played particularly well, but Scandrick played slightly less poorly than Newman or Jenkins. In coverage, Scandrick conceded 7 TDs to players he was covering (all in the first 9 games) and appeared to be a real target at times for the opposing QB. In particular, Eli Manning has spent the last 4 meetings absolutely victimizing Scandrick. In 4 games against the Cowboys, Eli has gone at Orlando 33 times for the following line: 23-33, 265 yards, 4 TDs and 0 Ints - QB Rating of 133.2. That is called picking on a target. On the other hand, Scandrick has proven to be a very effective blitz candidate, despite Wade Phillips' strong aversion to ever blitzing a defensive back. Scandrick trailed only DeMarcus Ware, Anthony Spencer, and Jay Ratliff in sacks when he bagged 3 sacks on just 25 pass rush opportunities from the slot.

2011 Analysis: Still, having just turned 24 years old, Orlando Scandrick certainly figures into the plans of the Cowboys. We have seen his limitations and like the rest of the defensive backs concede that better play at the safety position would certainly help him improve further. Scandrick is also pitches in on special teams and can be counted on for reasonable play there, too. Very soon, the Cowboys will have to decide if he is worthy of a much more lucrative extension and if they pay it, the expectation level will rise dramatically. But, as it stands, for just $1.2 million, you get over 600 plays, a reasonable slot corner, a special teams contributor, and your best blitzer in the secondary. Scandrick needs better coverage performances, but has a nice combination of size and speed that is worth sticking with longer as he seems to limit mental mistakes and is always prepared to put his body in harm's way. If the Cowboys could find 5th Rounders who contribute this much on a more regular basis, they would not have the roster issues they do today.

Previous Profiles:

Miles Austin

Alex Barron

Martellus Bennett

Stephen Bowen

Josh Brent - new 3/30

Keith Brooking

Dez Bryant

Victor Butler

Marc Colombo

Phil Costa

Leonard Davis

Doug Free

Andre Gurode

Montrae Holland

Jesse Holley

Sam Hurd

Bradie James

Mike Jenkins - New 4/5

Kyle Kosier

Sean Lee

Terence Newman- New 4/4

Kevin Ogletree

Igor Olshansky

John Phillips

Jay Ratliff - New 3/28

Marcus Spears

Anthony Spencer

DeMarcus Ware

Brandon Williams

Leon Williams

Roy Williams

Jason Witten

Sam Young

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