NFL Draft Profile: Jalen Catalon, Safety, Arkansas Razorbacks

NFL draft profile scouting report for Arkansas safety, Jalen Catalon

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#1
Pos: S
Ht: 5095
Wt: 189
40: 4.59
DOB: 3/15/2001
Hometown: Mansfield, TX
High School: Mansfield Legacy
Eligibility: 2023

Jalen Catalon
Arkansas Razorbacks

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One-Liners

An elite athlete and playmaker with a nose for the ball, Catalon excels in Zone coverage due to range, route combination recognition and ball skills but will need to clean up pursuit angles when working East-West and refine tackling technique to reach his ceiling.

Evaluation: 

A team captain and three-year starter, Catalon is a heat-seeking safety who plays extremely fast and can lay the lumber. There are some concerns about his size but he compensates with his heart, energy and effort. Catalon enters his third season as a starter and has been used in a variety of capacities, including in the slot or even as a blitzer off the edge at times. He is at his best when lined up in the box, putting his cat-like closing speed to good use. Catalon brings big time pedigree and the production to back it up. In 17 career games, the Razorbacks defender has racked up 151 tackles, five interceptions, three forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and a touchdown. Surprisingly, the Texas native had scholarship offers from just about every college football program nation in the country and chose Arkansas. While a shoulder injury cut his season short a year ago, he is primed to bounce back and remind NFL scouts why he is viewed as a potential first round talent.

Grades

2nd Round

Background: 

Jalen Catalon was raised in Mansfield, Texas and his inner competitor was always brought out due to growing up dueling with his brother, Kendall Catalon, who is a wide receiver for the Razorbacks. Jalen attended Mansfield Legacy High School where he unfortunately only played in 1 game as a senior due to a major knee injury that required surgery but tallied an impressive 101 tackles, 6 TFLs, 3 INTs, 6 FFs and 6 FRs as a junior. Catalon’s elite athleticism and talent has always been on display as he was also a QB who threw for 1,122 yards, 15 TDs and rushed for 1,063 yards and 13 TDs. Furthermore, Catalon was a four-year varsity letter winner in football, but also lettered in baseball and basketball. Catalon led Legacy to the 2017 Texas High School Football Class 5A-II state semifinals and earned four 2017 Defensive Player of the Year honors from SportsDay. After high school, 247Sports ranked him as a 4-Star recruit, the 305th-best recruit nationally, the 26th-ranked safety recruit in the country and the 38th recruit in the state of Texas.

As a freshman at Arkansas in 2019, Catalon appeared in 4 games and got his season cut a bit short as he underwent shoulder surgery. In 2020, Catalon maintained redshirt freshman status and made his name known. After missing about four weeks of practice for a procedure on his meniscus, he tallied 99 tackles, 2 TFLs, 3 INTs, 4 PBUs, 2 FFs, 1 FR in just 10 games. He led the Razorbacks in solo tackles and was tied for the lead in INTs. He is the only FBS freshman to post 95+ tackles and at least three interceptions during the regular season and the first SEC freshman since Tennessee’s Eric Berry (2007) to post at least 86 tackles with three INTs. Catalon was recognized as All-SEC First Team by the AP and All-SEC Second Team by the coaches. He was named a FWAA Freshman All-American, the first Razorback since Dre Greenlaw and selected to The Athletic’s Freshman All-American Team.

Catalon boasts a combination of on-field talent and off-field mentality that NFL execs and coaches will love. His work ethic after his freshman year was evident, being asked about goals for the offseason, he responded, “working hard, keeping my head down and just making sure I put my defense and my team in the best situation it can be for it to be successful. I have always carried myself to work hard no matter what the situation is, so when the new staff came in, it wasn’t going to change how I worked as a man. I always attacked every single thing that I did as if he was going to be the last drill I was going to have to do” While Catalon is uber-talented, he balances it with self-awareness and humility, understanding his youth and the value in learning from vets, “it was a humbling year for me to kind of look back and learn from the older guys and kind of see how things ran.” Catalon has a good head on his shoulders and if he takes a jump in 2020, don’t be surprised to see him in first-round mocks.

Quotes:

"That goes back to your technique and the tendencies and going back to the player and knowing what he is good at and not good at on his routes. You know, that comes from film study. I look and know he is good at this and not so much using this. I think if you diagnose those tendencies, you can kind of break it down." -- Arkansas CB Jalen Catalon on defending speed versus size