Film room: Decamerion Richardson, a project with outstanding potential

Raiders got an ‘upside’ prospect in 4th round

The fourth round of the NFL Draft is typically when a lot of teams start looking for ‘upside’ or potential in prospects. That’s likely a big reason why the Las Vegas Raiders used the 113th overall selection on Mississippi State cornerback Deacmerion Richardson.

Richardson stands at a little over 6-foot-2 with good arm length for the position — 32⅜” which is in the 81st percentile, according to MockDraftable. Also, he put up some impressive numbers at the NFL Combine, highlighted by a 4.34-second 40-yard dash and a 10’8” broad jump, to earn an 8.61 RAS out of 10.

Even better, the former Bulldog is coming off a good season where he ranked seventh among SEC cornerbacks with an 86.5 coverage grade from Pro Football Focus, two spots ahead of first-round pick Terrion Arnold (84.9). Additionally, Richardson had the most defensive stops in coverage with 18, three more than any other corner.

The fourth-round pick still has some work to do, but he shows plenty of traits to become a quality player down the line, as the clips below highlight.

A big reason why Richardson racked up so many defensive stops last season is he has good acceleration to close in coverage, shown by his 1.53-second 10-yard split.

Here, Arizona runs an RPO with a smoke screen to the single receiver. With the corner playing off coverage on first down, the quarterback throws the screen instead of handing it off. Richardson quickly triggers downhill and makes contact with the receiver right at or about a yard past the line of scrimmage.

However, Richardson does have some room for improvement on this rep. He’s only 188 pounds which is pretty skinny considering his height and needs to spend some time in the weight room to bulk up. Also, his pad level is about as high as can be which leads to him getting carried for about three or four more yards after contact.

This may not seem like a big deal, but those extra yards are the difference between the offense staying on schedule and being behind of the chains in a second and long situation.

Plays like this showed up a few times in this game, including one rep where Richardson did everything correct but ended up allowing a fourth down conversion by giving up extra yards after contact.

Now, to the Mississippi State product’s credit, he did show growth in this area last season as the clip above comes from the following week.

This time, LSU is in second and long and dials up a short curl to Brian Thomas Jr., the Jacksonville Jaguars’ first-round pick. Again, Richardson is playing off coverage, and he gets even deeper in his zone since the slot receiver is running a vertical route and the defense is playing Cover 3.

The corner does a good job of reading the quarterback’s eyes and, similar to the clip above, driving on the short route. This time though, Richardson gets his pads down and wraps up Thomas’ legs to prevent or limit any yards after contact. That sets up third and short, which the defense will take in this situation.

This is another example of the former Bulldog’s growth as this clip comes from the Egg Bowl in the last week of the season.

He’s in zone coverage again and bails with the outside receiver pushing vertical on the route. But once Richardson sees the quarterback throw to the flat, he comes off his man and shows off that 10-yard split by closing on the ball carrier from deep in his zone.

Again, Richardson has better pad level than that first rep above and brings some more force on the tackle attempt. Granted, I think he’ll need a little more mass to bring down an NFL back, but this is a great close to keep the play to a five-yard gain considering how much ground he had to cover.

What might be the most-concerning part of Richardson’s game is his lack of ball skills/production. According to PFF, he only had three PBUs in college and didn’t come down with any interceptions.

On this rep, he does a good job of staying in phase on the stutter and go route from Malik Nabers, the sixth overall pick in the draft. Richardson is in position to make a play on the ball at the catchpoint, but the wideout ends up getting the win and creating an explosive play.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a great rep by Nabers to flash his hands at the last second and come down with the catch. But you’d like to see Richardson either rip hands at the catch point or turn his head to locate the ball in the air and get a PBU. This was almost a perfect rep from the cornerback, but it’s that last little detail that ends up making a big difference.

All of that being said, the fourth-round pick’s coverage skills are pretty impressive. Here, he’s facing lesser competition and gets another stutter and go route from the receiver.

Again, he’s is the receiver’s hip throughout the rep and Richardson does a good job of using the sideline as his friend, preventing the receiver from getting to the numbers. That limits the amount of space the quarterback has to throw into and the ball falls harmlessly incomplete.

We’ll end with another nice rep in coverage.

Mississippi State is playing Cover 3 against a three-by-one formation from Arizona. That puts Richardson on an island against the single receiver, essentially making this man coverage for him.

He quickly recognizes the dig route from his man and breaks on it about the same time as the receiver cuts inside. To finish, Richardson times up his hit well to make contact with the wideout right before the ball comes, preventing the wideout from being able to adjust to the throw.

As long as Richardson continues to improve as a tackler by limiting yards after contact and works on his ball skills, the Raiders and Tom Telesco might have gotten themselves a good corner on Day 3 of the draft.