{"id":42367,"date":"2018-04-20T11:00:16","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T15:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=42367"},"modified":"2018-04-19T17:13:18","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T21:13:18","slug":"kevin-toliver-2018-nfl-draft-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2018\/04\/20\/kevin-toliver-2018-nfl-draft-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Toliver 2018 NFL Draft Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>Position<\/strong>: Cornerback<br \/>\n<strong>Height<\/strong>: 6&#8217;3&#8243;<br \/>\n<strong>Weight<\/strong>: 204 pounds<br \/>\n<strong>School<\/strong>: LSU Tigers<\/p>\n<p><strong>Combine Performance Data<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>Bench Press<\/strong>: 10 reps<br \/>\n<strong>Vertical Jump<\/strong>: 33 inches<br \/>\n<strong>Broad Jump<\/strong>: 10 feet<\/p>\n<h1><strong>Kevin Toliver 2018 NFL Draft Profile<\/strong><\/h1>\n<div class=\"td-g-rec td-g-rec-id-content_inlineright \">Following a successful high school career that culminated with a Florida state championship, <strong>Kevin Toliver<\/strong>\u00a0was a five-star recruit and the nation&#8217;s top-ranked prospect at defensive back in 2015. However, there was no bidding war for Toliver that year since he had already committed to LSU as a sophomore back in 2012. He didn&#8217;t take long to make a strong impression on coaches as he started eight games as a freshman and played in all 12. Toliver made 35 total tackles, one interception, and broke up five passes.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"td-g-rec td-g-rec-id-content_inlineright \">After an impressive first season, Toliver gained national attention and faced high expectations heading into his sophomore year. Unfortunately, Toliver was limited to just five starts as he struggled through a knee injury early on and suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in LSU&#8217;s seventh game. Toliver managed 20 total tackles and broke up one pass that season.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Toliver entered the 2017 season hoping to rebound from his rough sophomore season.\u00a0 However, he faced competition from teammate <strong>Andraez Williams<\/strong> in the starting lineup. Toliver ended up starting only five games, and he spent much of the season in the slot behind Williams and fellow 2018 draft prospect <strong>Donte Jackson<\/strong>. Despite the reduced role, Toliver was at least able to play in every game except for LSU&#8217;s season opener. He finished his junior year with 27 total tackles, one sack, one interception and 10 pass breakups.<\/div>\n<h2>Strengths<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>ideal height and frame for the cornerback position;<\/li>\n<li>very physical in press coverage, disrupts routes;<\/li>\n<li>rarely gives up easy completions on short routes;<\/li>\n<li>dependable tackler;<\/li>\n<li>most wide receivers struggle to block him;<\/li>\n<li>has impressive speed for his size;<\/li>\n<li>correctly anticipates a receiver&#8217;s first break.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Weaknesses<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>hesitates to assist teammates with tackles;<\/li>\n<li>has trouble locating deep passes;<\/li>\n<li>continues contact with receivers in press coverage beyond five yards;<\/li>\n<li>struggles to match routes with multiple breaks;<\/li>\n<li>waits too long to turn his head and locate the ball;<\/li>\n<li>former coaches and scouts have voiced character concerns;<\/li>\n<li>fell down the depth chart last season and started only five games.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>NFL Comparison<\/strong>: <strong>Brandon Browner<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Teams With Need at Position<\/strong>:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/teams\/den\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Denver Broncos<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/teams\/cle\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cleveland Browns<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/teams\/tam\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/teams\/gnb\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Green Bay Packers<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/teams\/rai\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oakland Raiders<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/teams\/mia\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Miami Dolphins<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/teams\/was\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Washington Redskins<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/teams\/sea\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Seattle Seahawks<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Projection<\/strong>: Third to fourth round<\/p>\n<h2>Bottom Line<\/h2>\n<p>Following the success of his freshman season, many expected Toliver to someday enter the draft as a first-round projection. But injuries and inconsistent play have since hurt his reputation. Unfortunately, Toliver has also been labeled as a player with character concerns. Toliver was suspended for the first half of a game in 2016 after missing a team meeting and missed the 2017 season opener for undisclosed disciplinary reasons. Still, Toliver benefits from a physical frame that defensive coordinators dream about, and he showed improvement in man coverage and route anticipation last season.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"0M7uHZQaTCtq4iqSew1Exw\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/624315032\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'0M7uHZQaTCtq4iqSew1Exw',sig:'OFv_sM87AzA_jTanLICFYQxy6RMYmNmWfEMAZcj5tcE=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'624315032',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kevin Toliver 2018 NFL Draft Profile: Toliver entered his college career as a five-star recruit and turned heads in his freshman season. But injuries and off-field incidents have since damaged his reputation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2321,"featured_media":42494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1647],"tags":[2580,61,3851,2143,40,1173],"class_list":["post-42367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-draft","tag-2018-nfl-draft","tag-football","tag-kevin-toliver","tag-lsu-tigers","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft"],"modified_by":"John Bava","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2321"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}