Prospect Profile: Taylor Mays

Perhaps I shouldn't be the one writing up a profile on Taylor Mays, because it is unlikely that there is any other person in the country that carries the same bias against Mays that I do. 

Most people see Mays for all of his positives and all of his negatives, but they still give him a first round grade.  

Me on the other I struggle to give Mays a first round grade, but as tends to happen with prospects who come out of the top prospects in the country, there is a tendency to overrate those prospects. 

However based on a number of factors there is legitimate reason to not think of Mays as a first round worthy free safety or even a strong safety and certainly not a linebacker in the NFL. 

Succeeding as a safety in the NFL requires a lot more than being a big, fast and strong player, Mays is that, he's likely one of the best if not arguably the best pure athlete to come out of college in the last decade. 

There in lies the major problem though, his size and speed ratio is working to his advantage and causing scouts to look at Mays with blinders on. 

Call it the Mike Mamula syndrome a player who blows up the NFL scouting combine and then his stock begins to take off exponentially for no legitimate reason. 

Mays is that type of prospect coming out of  USC,  the legends of his 40-yard dash times are legendary, talk of at one point Mays ran a 4.19 that USC coach Pete Carroll hand timed himself. 

Here's the problem though, Mays did what he was SUPPOSED to do, BLOW UP THE COMBINE, but what he can't get away from the fact is that his ball skills are so poor and his tackling may be equally as bad.  Mays has never been a solid open field tackler that can square up on a RB in the open field and wrap up and make the tackle.  He can fire up into the hole, attack his gap with ferocity, and make the tackle, but he's not a good tackler. 

He also has a real lack of ball skills and coverage abilities in the secondary.  He's not going to cover anyone in a one on one situation, not going to go man to man on a TE who is more physical than Mays, or cover a good hands back on third down.  He's going to do everything in his power to make the big hit as he did throughout his career at USC. 

Make no mistake Mays' high light reel is full of big hits and unbelievable plays that he makes with his speed, but you don't see the type of ball skills of the two safeties rated ahead of him, Earl Thomas and Eric Berry.   To be a safety a player needs those read and react skills, needs those coverage skills to anticipate and get a jump on the ball. 

Mays instead goes for the BIG hit every time and NFL scouts and analysts have a horrible tendency to fall in love with those big hits and the fact the player comes out of a program like USC makes it all the more maddening.

As an example, three linebackers came out of USC last year two drafted in the first round.  Of the three LB Brian Cushing was thought of to be the worst of the bunch, but when you popped in the game tape the player around the football, the player making the most plays amongst the LBs was Cushing. 

Rey Mauluga, the 6-foot-2 256-pound 4.5 40-yard dash LB, showed up as the guy who made the high light reel plays (the big play against Illinois in the Rose Bowl and the INT against Ohio State) but wasn't consistent in his abilities.  Making the wrong reads, over pursuing taking bad angles or flat out missing tackles.  A year later the rookie of the year on defense wasn't Mauluga who received much more hype than Cushing, but it was Cushing himself. 

This is that same level of hype that Mays is getting, unfair if not astronomically insane hype based on high light reel hits and mythical athleticism. 

You never see Mays make the basic plays on the ball nor does he make any INTs or have his hand in a lot of turnovers.  Mays had a total of FIVE interceptions during his career at USC, in four years as a starter.  Three of them came in his freshman year, which means two INTs over the next three seasons for USC. 

That more than anything is perhaps the most telling stat for Mays, in coverage zone or otherwise he's lost.  He can make up for those poor instincts with his speed, but there are times where a player like Golen Tate caught a ball over the top of Mays' double coverage for a touchdown.  Mays showed the ability to get the ball and take a good angle but because he went for the player instead of the ball he ended up missing Tate all together.

Mays is perhaps the biggest boom or bust prospect in the NFL draft this year.  He has all the tools physcially and has enough skill to potentially be coached up into a solid player at the next level.  The question with his reckless style, and lack of true football instincts will he able to translate his freakish ability into consistent play making ability?

Based on his skills as a player Mays gets a third round rating at best, but because of his top five level athleticism it helps him sneak into the second round of the NFL draft.