ESPN Scouts INC Ranking of skills on Reid

[Hangman]

Eric Reid
FS
Junior
6-1¼, 213 lbs
LSU

Scouts Grade87
Position Rank4
Overall Rank40
Arm Length33-1/2"
Hand Size10"
40-YD Dash4.59




Overall Football Traits
Production 2
2010: (13/3)  32-1-2 2011: (13-13)  65-2-22012: (13/13)  91-7-2 Career: 4.5 TFL, 2 FF and 2 FR

Height-Weight-Speed 2
Above average blend of height, weight and top-end speed. Long arms (33.5) and big hands (10).

Durability 2
Played in all 13 games as a true freshman in 2010 and has started in 26 of 27 games the past two seasons (2011-'12). In 2011, he left the Ole Miss game with a thigh injury and missed the following game (Arkansas).

Intangibles 1
Hard worker on and off the field. Excellent student. Set to graduate with Business Administration degree in 3.5 years. Named to the 2011 SEC Academic Honor Roll. Emerged as a team leader the past two seasons. Parents are Eric Sr. and Sharon Reid. Father was a three-time All-American hurdler for LSU (1984-87).

Instincts/Recognition 2
Plays under control. Has a FS mentality. Reads his keys and consistently gets an early jump on the ball. Very instinctive in coverage. Although took more risks in 2012 than he did off of 2011 film study. Generally understands leverage but will occasionally get caught gambling and needs to know his limitations vs. the personnel he is facing (See 1st QTR Alabama 2012 vs. Amari Cooper). Feels WRs coming through his zone but doesn't panic.

Cover Skills 2
Smooth athlete with good top-end speed but he's not very sudden or explosive. Does not show good initial burst out of pedal. Has adequate size for a FS but might struggle to match up one-on-one versus some athletic TEs in NFL. At his best in zone responsibility and breaking forward. Can hold up in deep-third when he diagnoses play properly, which is vast majority of time.

Ball Skills 2
Puts himself in position to make plays on the ball with good instincts and angles. Hands are adequate. Fails to high-point the ball at times. But has proven capable of attacking the ball in the air and taking it away from bigger targets. Not a threat with ball in hand.

Run Support 3
Average to slightly below average in run support. Will occasionally over-run a play and get burned by the cutback, and angles need to be cleaned up. Flashes willingness to fill the lane hard and attack the ball carrier. But more often than not he serves as 'last line of defense', which appears to be his preference. Can be a bit of a pile inspector at times. Has long arms and can wrap up in space. Also flashes a little bit of initial pop when he leads with his shoulder Will fail to wrap up at times in space and will bounce off some ball carriers when he doesn't get a clean shoulder pop. Struggles to bring down hard-charging RBs in the open field.

1 = Exceptional 2 = Above average 3 = Average 4 = Below average 5 = Marginal
Safety Specific Traits

 

[MrChangoT97]

..........so is he a solid pick?

 

[NinerSickness]

..........so is he a solid pick?

He's the most interesting man in the round!

...well, maybe not. But he's the best safety in the draft IMO. Very high floor and by far the highest ceiling of any safety.

 

[NinerSickness]

Random workout facts about Reid:

*Tied for 2nd fastest 10 yard split of any DB at the combine (by .01 seconds).
*Tied for highest vertical of any DB at the combine
*tied for longest broad jump of any DB at the combine.

And he did all that at a very solid 213 pounds.

 

[Kinzu]

He was the best safety in the draft. I know some feel we reached trading up to #18 to get him, but it only cost us our first 3rd round pick which is not bad at all to jump 13 spots.

I think the plan was to sit and see when Vaccaro was drafted. The 49ers knew which teams were in the hunt for a safety and were willing to let them have Vaccaro for Reid. When Vaccaro went #15 though Trent jumped at the Dallas trade to insure he got his man.

I would imagine we were trying to trade up with the Jets for possibly Sheldon Richardson, but I assume their asking price was above what we were willing to pay at the time.

This is really an odd draft for us because their is a lot of depth in it, but we don't really need depth. I expect us to package more picks to move up for guys we want in the middle rounds or attempt to trade them back for picks next year. I wouldn't expect more than 3-4 players from this draft class to make our final roster.

On a side note this is why Marcus Lattimore should be picked by us in round 3. We can afford to put him on the DL and let him rehab that knee for the entire season and have a stud running back for next year.

As for the Tavon Austin, I don't think we were ever serious about him. We drafted James last year, and if we want that type of speed player that can move around in the offense we will be working him into that role.

 

[4lifer9er]

All in on Lattimore.. I wish we woulda moved our later 3rd and our 4th and kept our first 3rd, cause thats where I expect him to be taken

 

[4lifer9er]

Man.. NFLN keeps tempting me!!!! As soon as I started typing, they went to a special about speaking a ty a non-profit guest speaking thing in Beaufort, SC..

DAMNIT I WANT HIM SOOO BAD

 

[BINGO]

Overrated. Not a first round type safety for me, but a solid 2nd round prospect - that's where he belongs. Trade up for him... Gotta be kidding me! The guy has a beautiful physique- looks like he was sculpted by the great Michael Angelo. That's all he has going for him. Is he a starting caliber safety in the NFL? Yes, would he ever make at least 2-3 probowl appearances? Highly unlikely. You don't trade up for a safety of that caliber when you could have had someone with similar talent at a later round. He will not pose any fear on WRs with regard to inflicting the "oooh hits" that Dashon was known for doing. Reid is simply a solid tackler, and he is not a ballhawk type of safety. He tends to take bad angles on passes, and because of his average abilities, I don't believe he would have brought us better value than Patterson, Floyd, or even Eifert. I would have rather used Eiftert (and I am highly opposed to trading up for a back up TE) in that trade than to use that selection on a safety such as Eric Reid.



Better options at pick # 18 to me were:
1.) Patterson
2.) Floyd
3.) Rhodes
4.) Eifert
5.) Jones

Had we gone Rhodes, I would have loved to move Chris Culliver to safety. Rhodes to me is a poor man's Richard Sherman. Big receivers who are great and jamming receivers and have a knack to run with receivers and using their length to deflect passes. Rhodes is a little stiff in the hips, but he'll be fine because of his other skill set. He is ready to play man coverage now on day one!!

Eifert and Davis in a 2 TE sets would be stupid. We desperately need an end zone threat, and we let him him pass us by without saying hello. He's not your typical TE... Good news is, Escobar can be had in the 3rd (oh wait, we gave up our 3rd for a mediocre safety )

 

[Badger8843]

^Thats all he has going for him? He is a stud FS, he is strong and can recover quickly and lay someone out. He will be a great fit next to Donte. Had the highest broad jump and vertical. Not to mention he's almost 6'2-215. Thats pretty damn impressive

 

[BINGO]

^Thats all he has going for him? He is a stud FS, he is strong and can recover quickly and lay someone out. He will be a great fit next to Donte. Had the highest broad jump and vertical. Not to mention he's almost 6'2-215. Thats pretty damn impressive

Taylor Mays had an impressive combine as well. How about this, let's send a petition to college football (NCAA governing body). Let's just forget about games and films and rely on combine numbers. Let's draft players solely based on their athletic abilities.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

I really don't like the trade up. Reid basically has to become a pro bowl caliber player to merit the move, IMO. Maybe he will, and if so, it was worth the move. But I'm somewhat skeptical. And safety is very strong in this draft. There was so much talent still on the board at 31, and no other safeties went until 32. And the 74th pick in this draft is going to be valuable.

Trent has proved me wrong in the past in terms of taking guys too high based on pre-draft rankings, but there are times when I wish he'd let the draft come to him a bit more - meaning that he waits to see what talent falls and takes the best player, a la Ozzie Newsome. I absolutely hate the thought that we made an aggressive move up based primarily on need.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Baalke really reinforced his early draft MO with this pick, IMO.

2010: OT Russell Okung drafted at #6. Baalke trades up to #11 to pick Anthony Davis.

2011: QB Andy Dalton drafted at #35. Baalke trades up to #36 to take QB Colin Kaepernick.

2013: S Kenny Vacarro drafted at #15. Baalke trades up to #18 to take S Eric Reid.

I've noted before that his MO is to target a player, and as soon as the player at that position generally regarded as being ahead of that guy is taken, he moves up and grabs his guy. I pointed that out when people were saying the Niners wanted Dalton but settled for Kap. I never believed that based on the Niners' move. Now, in the two earlier cases when we did this, it worked out quite well. So I'm cautiously optimistic. It's just tough to see us losing some value on the face of these moves.

 

[BINGO]

I really don't like the trade up. Reid basically has to become a pro bowl caliber player to merit the move, IMO. Maybe he will, and if so, it was worth the move. But I'm somewhat skeptical. And safety is very strong in this draft. There was so much talent still on the board at 31, and no other safeties went until 32. And the 74th pick in this draft is going to be valuable.

Trent has proved me wrong in the past in terms of taking guys too high based on pre-draft rankings, but there are times when I wish he'd let the draft come to him a bit more - meaning that he waits to see what talent falls and takes the best player, a la Ozzie Newsome. I absolutely hate the thought that we made an aggressive move up based primarily on need.

It's one thing to be aggressive with draft picks. That's fine, we wanted that. C'mon we had 13 draft picks, we need to be agressive throughout the weekend. However, that is not what Baalke did IMO. The right term to use under this circumstance is "wreckless". He is being wreckless with his draft picks. He talks the talk (pre draft interviews, but he doesn't walk the walk). Clearly, Reid was NOT the BPA when we moved up to pick #18 last night. He assured us that we would be taking the approach of BPA with an eye on need. He lied...! He was wreckless.

 

[Badger8843]

Taylor Mays had an impressive combine as well. How about this, let's send a petition to college football (NCAA governing body). Let's just forget about games and films and rely on combine numbers. Let's draft players solely based on their athletic abilities.

Please dont compare the 2, Taylor Mays was awful in coverage and everyone knew that. Not to mention Reid has played in the SEC for years which is close to NFL talent as you can get each week and he is a stud. Every draft grade I have seen from CBS, profootball talk, rotoworld, they all either gave us an A- or a B+. So you are the minority in this thinking, not to mention our GM may be the best in the NFL in finding talent, when he snags Tank C. who should have been a 1st rnder then we will have 2-1st rnd talent guys on defense.

 

[Badger8843]

It's one thing to be aggressive with draft picks. That's fine, we wanted that. C'mon we had 13 draft picks, we need to be agressive throughout the weekend. However, that is not what Baalke did IMO. The right term to use under this circumstance is "wreckless". He is being wreckless with his draft picks. He talks the talk (pre draft interviews, but he doesn't walk the walk). Clearly, Reid was NOT the BPA when we moved up to pick #18 last night. He assured us that we would be taking the approach of BPA with an eye on need. He lied...! He was wreckless.

Haha dude you dont have a clue, he was wreckless? He only have up a mid 3rd rnder to move up 13 spots in the 1st rnd, everyone has said they were shocked the Cowboys didnt get more then that. We move up almost half a draft and only gave up a 3rd rnder in return? Wreckless is the last word I would use, not to mention we had 13 picks with low cap space, we can throw some extra picks around bc we are stacked with talent and dont have the $ or roster space so waste on 10 picks, man get with the damn program bro

 

[TobyTyler]

..........so is he a solid pick?

I lost a little interest in Reid when he did the matador routine on Eddie Lacey near the goal line. Watching him dive to the side was kind of disturbing.

 

[Flyingiguana]

Haha dude you dont have a clue, he was wreckless? He only have up a mid 3rd rnder to move up 13 spots in the 1st rnd, everyone has said they were shocked the Cowboys didnt get more then that. We move up almost half a draft and only gave up a 3rd rnder in return? Wreckless is the last word I would use, not to mention we had 13 picks with low cap space, we can throw some extra picks around bc we are stacked with talent and dont have the $ or roster space so waste on 10 picks, man get with the damn program bro

i think reid woulda been there when we picked in the early 2nd

 

[BINGO]

Haha dude you dont have a clue, he was wreckless? He only have up a mid 3rd rnder to move up 13 spots in the 1st rnd, everyone has said they were shocked the Cowboys didnt get more then that. We move up almost half a draft and only gave up a 3rd rnder in return? Wreckless is the last word I would use, not to mention we had 13 picks with low cap space, we can throw some extra picks around bc we are stacked with talent and dont have the $ or roster space so waste on 10 picks, man get with the damn program bro

You're an idiot. I can't wait 8 months from now when we bring this thread back up. During their bowl game DeAndre Hopkins made this dude look like Roy Williams in coverage out there. He's not equiped to handle the speedy/athletic receivers he will be asked to cover in this division.

 

[BINGO]

i think reid woulda been there when we picked in the early 2nd

His source of reference for why Reid was a solid move to trade up for was because some "experts" at some random draft sites gave us a grade of Forget films, he had a tremendous combine.

 

[TobyTyler]

Haha dude you dont have a clue, he was wreckless? He only have up a mid 3rd rnder to move up 13 spots in the 1st rnd, everyone has said they were shocked the Cowboys didnt get more then that. We move up almost half a draft and only gave up a 3rd rnder in return? Wreckless is the last word I would use, not to mention we had 13 picks with low cap space, we can throw some extra picks around bc we are stacked with talent and dont have the $ or roster space so waste on 10 picks, man get with the damn program bro

I don't blame you since the word is actually "reckless"