What do the Redskins have in Jimmy Moreland?
May 16, 2019
by Steve Thomas
The Redskins’ selection of cornerback Jimmy Moreland from James Madison University in round 7 of the recent NFL draft was less a case of the team filling a need and more the team simply seeing an opportunity to bring a talented player into Washington. The Redskins hope that he will be able to compete for a roster spot and playing time at some point down the road. The front office took a chance on a player from a small school with talent who they most likely know better than other teams considering that he played his college ball in the DC area. What do the Redskins have in this player? Let’s find out.
Moreland is stands 5’10” and weighs 179 pounds and spent five years at James Madison. During that time, he played 50 games, making a total of 208 tackles, 18 interceptions, and 6 interception returns for touchdowns. He was dismissed from the team in 2015 after being charged in March, 2015, with petty larceny valued at less than $200, but was reinstated to the program in 2016. There is no evidence that he displayed any other character concerns beyond this incident. Without knowing the details – which the Redskins almost assuredly do know – I tend to chalk this up to a teenager doing a stupid thing moreso than a bad guy doing bad things. It isn’t good, but it isn’t the end of the world, either. The key isn’t whether Moreland did something dumb; he clearly did, like most people. What’s important is whether it was a one-time mistake or a pattern, and I see no evidence of a pattern of negative behavior. End of story. Moreland was not invited to the NFL Combine, but reportedly ran the 40 yard dash in 4.44 seconds, the 3 cone drill in 6.90 seconds, and jumped 39 inches in the vertical leap and 10’0” in the standing broad jump, all of which would have been solid scores at the Combine.
Moreland is known to have good man to man coverage skills, speed, and a high football IQ. He has great acceleration and burst, and was an absolute ball hawk in college. 18 interceptions is the JMU record and an incredible number in 50 games at any level, and 6 touchdowns is almost unheard of. Moreland is competitive and a quality player against the pass, but lacks the strength and size to be a significant asset in run defense. There is no doubt that his best assets are his speed and ball skills, but his lack of physicality and his small size are his principal negatives.
What does his film show?
My standard disclaimer applies here: I’m not a professional scout. #notascout. I’m just person who loves football and would like to think I know something about the game, but at the end of the day, I don’t pretend or claim to be a serious NFL-level scout. Take my observations for what you will.
One limitation of this study is that I just don’t have access to a whole lot of James Madison game film. JMU was formerly a Division I-AA school and is now a Division I-A school in the Colonial Athletic Association, but the Dukes don’t play many big-name schools, and thus their game film is tough to find. In fact, the only complete game I was able to locate from the last two years was JMU’s matchup against North Carolina St. from September, 2018. So, this study is only based on that game, some of his practice film from the Senior Bowl, and his highlight reel. I find highlight reels to be fairly useless in general and normally ignore them, but in this case, that’s all I have.
Moreland’s reputation as a ball hawk and playmaker is well deserved. His best quality is that he has the innate ability to put himself into position to make plays. He tracks the ball well and has good hands. Because the interceptions are what he’s known for, let’s start with a quick highlight reel of interceptions:
The first play in the series is a good example of Moreland’s ball skills – he has the ability to track the ball after the tip and reel it in. This is the sort of innate ability that can’t be taught. The second play features an absolutely horrendous throw by a quarterback in the end zone, but Moreland is in position to make the play. The third play is yet another ball that should never have been thrown that Moreland somehow is in position to come down with anyway. The fourth play is a good example of something Moreland does on a routine basis, setting up the quarterback and jumping the route. It’s a bit hard to tell much about the defense because of the camera angle of the broadcast clip, but it appears as though Moreland sat back in a 3 or 4 deep zone and waited. The fifth and sixth plays are both deep balls that are poor decisions and poor throws. One theme of many of Moreland’s interceptions is that he was the beneficiary of simply horrible quarterbacking, which is certainly a hallmark of the lower competition he faced throughout college. Notice that he didn’t make any interceptions against Ryan Finley in the North Carolina St. game. The bottom line is that Moreland was good enough to make the plays that were presented to him, but a significant number of his interceptions were from terrible passes that won’t be thrown at the NFL or even the power conference level.
Moreland’s film, as limited as it is, did not show that the Redskins should expect him to have the same amount of success against NFL-level competition as he did against the limited talent that James Madison played against. He was not able to be that same kind of dynamic, ballhawking playmaker against North Carolina St. Moreland actually lined up against future Redskin Kelvin Harmon, who was drafted in the sixth round. Here are two separate reps:
The first two clips of this sequence are two different broadcast views of the same play, the first being the replay isolated on Moreland and Harmon and the second being the original live view. Notice that in this play, Moreland stumbles right before Harmon makes his cut outside (which was a clean break) and is unable to recover, thereby allowing Harmon to separate and make the catch. The good part about this rep for Moreland, even though it didn’t work out, is that it’s an example of his ability to smoothly rotate his hips, which is critical for success to a corner. Moreland is agile and flexible and normally does a solid job in pattern matching. The second play is a 10 yard square out in which Moreland simply gives Harmon too much space, allowing the quarterback to toss an easy first down.
I’ll give one more example play from the North Carolina St. game:
In this play, Moreland immediately takes an outside position on the receiver, but the play calls for a quick slant. Moreland does not get a hit on the receiver at the line of scrimmage, and as a result he is able to break inside on his slant route with space. Finley is good enough to quickly and accurately deliver the ball and the play results in a solid gain for the Wolfpack. This play, and for that matter, the two Harmon plays, aren’t a big deal and not an indictment on Jimmy Moreland, necessarily; there are just examples of how a better offense – with a more talented quarterback and receiver – is able to limit Moreland’s talent advantage he had over JMU’s normal opponents. Moreland is a solid corner with talent, agility, and natural flexibility, and has the ability to make plays, but expecting him to jump out immediately and be a playmaker in the NFL might be overly optimistic.
Moreland was frequently used in the corner blitz in college. Here’s one example:
I didn’t feel the need to show you more examples, because you get the idea; just know that this is something that Moreland seems to have done on a regular basis at JMU. Corner blitzing is obviously a risk because it leaves a gaping hole in coverage, but Moreland was able to get home on at least some of these. It’s something that he’ll probably continue to do in the NFL, albeit far less often.
Moreland also participated in the 2019 Senior Bowl, which is an opportunity for smaller school players like Moreland, in particular, to show their talent against higher-level competition. Here are two of the only reps by Moreland that I could find:
You should understand that these one on one drills are run in such a way as to favor the offense pretty heavily, so there’s not necessarily shame on a defender in having a ball caught. In the first rep, Moreland does a decent job but ultimately lets the receiver create space by spinning away from Moreland, who is seemingly temporarily fooled and can’t recover. Moreland is just flat-out beaten badlly by a better receiver in the second rep. It’s not his proudest moment.
The lack of significant available film limits my ability to dive deeply into Moreland’s real abilities, but what we can conclude regarding this player is that he is talented enough to take advantage of situations and make plays when opportunities present themselves. The problem is, I haven’t necessarily seen evidence that he’s so talented as to be able to create those opportunities when facing the type of higher-level competition as he will face in the NFL. Moreland has some proven talent, but his smaller size may end up limiting his opportunities at the next level, particularly if asked to face the bigger outside receivers in the NFL. I didn’t include run defense clips here, but suffice to say that while Moreland may be able to put himself in the correct position against the run, his lack of size and strength can be a negative in this regard as well. He was probably appropriately drafted in the 7th round.
What do you think of Moreland? Let me know in the comment section below.