Boston College CB JT Thompson II Scouting Report
Background
JT Thompson II was a zero-star recruit coming out of high school despite leading Gwinnett County (northeast Atlanta) in interceptions. He attended Highland Community College in Kansas from 2017 through 2018. In seven games in 2018, Thompson recorded 27 tackles, one INT, 1 FF, and 2 PBUs. After two years in junior college, he transferred to Southern Illinois University, an FCS program, in 2019.
During his first year with the Salukis, he played beside 2020 NFL Draft second-round pick, Jeremy Chinn. Thompson played in every game and started five, including the final four, during the 2019 season. In the FCS’ spring season this year, he started all ten games. He recorded 32 tackles, four pass breakups, and one interception. Late this summer, Thompson transferred to BC to improve his stock for the NFL draft by working with a coaching staff littered with NFL experience
In his time at Southern Illinois, Thompson played on both sides of the field, almost exclusively at outside corner. However, he always aligned as the “field corner.” In some modern defenses, defensive backs are designated as boundary corners/safeties or field corners/safeties. Because the hashes are so far apart in college, offenses tend to align their passing strength to the wider side of the field based on where the ball is placed. Therefore, in response, defenses will assign their defensive backs to the wider (field) or narrower (boundary) sides of the field.
Thompson basically always aligned to the wide side of the field, making him the field corner. He also frequently aligns in Off-coverage, giving a five- to ten-yard cushion between himself and the wide receiver. This allows him to drop into deep coverages in Cover 3 and Cover 4/6 defenses, but also come downhill and cut off shorter routes in Cover 2 and some inverted/Cloud coverages. As the field corner, Thompson is frequently asked to decipher route concepts featuring three or four receivers and discern which receiver he needs to cover.
2019 - Overall: 62.4, Run Defense: 72.9, 77.3 Tackling, 59.3 Pass Rush, 59.1 Coverage
2020 - Overall: 65.3, Run Defense: 77.2, Tackling: 81.4, 62.6 Pass Rush, 62.6 Coverage
Strengths
- Very good mental processing and instincts: asked to process complex route combinations with multiple receivers and make quick decisions; mostly makes good ones.
- Excellent hip fluidity and foot quickness, smoothly changing direction, and flipping hips in transition in the backpedal or half-turn shuffle. Able to quickly trigger and get downhill against shorter routes and the run.
- Comfortable at mirroring and matching routes from Off coverage alignments. Has a very good understanding of body angles and leverage to maintain the upper hand against his opponent.
- Does a good job of attacking the ball/catch point to break up passes from a Trail technique.
- Not at all afraid to stick his nose in as a run defender. Moves through traffic well and takes good angles to ball carriers. Very willing tackler and good at bringing down ball carriers in space.
Weaknesses
- Lacks explosive athleticism and long speed. Very smooth and fluid but not as quick and struggles to reaccelerate. Can get burned over the top with raw foot speed.
- Press technique is non-existent. Almost never asked to jam receivers at the line, so his hand technique and ability to combat various types of releases are unknown.
- Ball skills are also still a bit of an unknown; rarely tested as a jump ball defender and does not have many interceptions in his career.
- Has not displayed positional or alignment versatility; only played outside corner and almost exclusively plays in Off-coverage to the field.
- Skinny frame: struggles to deconstruct and especially blocks out in space; forced to go low and take out ball carriers’ legs to make tackles
Summary
When Thompson’s transfer was announced, it was a pretty surprising move. BC brought back several players with starting experience, including four cornerbacks. All of these plays ostensibly stood above Thompson on the depth chart. However, reports out of camp indicate that he is climbing the depth chart very quickly. Thompson is a very smart, technically refined player. He has excellent hip fluidity and quick feet, which are extremely important when playing Off coverage.
However, I am concerned about his overall athleticism and speed. Typically, players go to junior college if they have academic issues, are undersized, or lack athleticism. Thompson earned multiple academic awards in high school and has decent size. This, along with only moving up to an FCS program, indicates to me that he could be lacking the requisite speed or athletic ability to consistently succeed at the FBS and the Power-5 level. With all that being said, Thompson consistently performed very well at multiple stops in his career. I can see a path to him being a significant contributor to the Eagles’ defense this fall; if the coaching staff trusts him to be a starter, I will gladly give them the benefit of the doubt.
