Jets Spotlight, CB Royce Adams

This morning, we’re going to spotlight one of the rookies vying for a spot in the secondary. That’s cornerback Royce Adams. He played his college ball at Purdue University and also played for the Pittsburgh Power of the AFL.

There’s a Jets connection with this signing. Adams’s freshman and sophomore years as a Boilermaker coincided with Jets tight end Dustin Keller’s junior and senior years.

Some of the particulars on Adams is that he’s 6-0 tall and 190 lbs. He also runs the 40-yard dash in 4.34 seconds.

In college, he had 91 tackles. 79 of them were solo tackles, and 12 of them were assisted. (2006-2009). He also had a forced fumble and an INT that he ran back for 28 yards. That last stat was from his freshman year. His senior year of college, Adams did play a little bit at wide out but he had one catch for 11 yards. He was also a returner in three out of his four years of college, freshman year a punt returner (28 punts for 141 yards with 6 fair catches) and in his junior/senior year he was the kick off returner (12 returns, 201 yards combined).

When he played for the Power, he had 51.5 tackles, 47 solo tackles, and nine assisted tackles. He broke up seven passes and had one force fumble.

Here’s a look at some game tape to get a taste:

PROS:  One thing that Adams does really well is play the bump and run well. He’s a got a lot of foot speed so he can stay with any of the receivers. He uses his hands really well. He does move his hips well. Adams defends the screen well and you see that in the game tape from college. Adams does have no fear of taking on a guy over the middle and for this Jets team, that’s a big hole that needs to be filled especially when it comes to covering the tight ends. He has really good field vision, and has a real knack for getting to the ball. He really does tackle pretty well.

CONS: Adams does play really deep as if he’s a center fielder in baseball but in football terms, he’s playing the back field more like a safety rather than a corner. He has some moments when he doesn’t tackle properly.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Adams was brought in because I don’t think that they are completely sold on Kyle Wilson to play in their nickel packages. When watching the film on Adams, I saw a lot of Darrelle Revis in Adams when it comes to technique in playing the corner position, as he has the foot speed to stay with any receivers and he can hit people. He can also bring a lot to special teams. His foot speed is an asset in that he can be a gunner on returns. He can also handle himself as a returner so it can give Mike Westhoff and the special teams staff another body back there. Plus, if they needed him as a wide receiver, they could use him but that it a little bit unlikely. This team could always use DBs so here’s another capable body.