{"id":61888,"date":"2019-03-24T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2019-03-24T13:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=61888"},"modified":"2019-04-26T12:41:15","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T16:41:15","slug":"justin-layne-2019-nfl-draft-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2019\/03\/24\/justin-layne-2019-nfl-draft-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Layne 2019 NFL Draft Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>Position<\/strong>: Cornerback<br \/>\n<strong>Height<\/strong>: 6\u20192\u201d<br \/>\n<strong>Weight: <\/strong>192 pounds<br \/>\n<strong>School<\/strong>: Michigan State Spartans<\/p>\n<p><strong>Combine Performance Data<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>40-yard dash: <\/strong>4.50 seconds<br \/>\n<strong>Vertical jump<\/strong>: 37.5 inches<br \/>\n<strong>Broad jump<\/strong>: 11 feet, 2 inches (second-best among cornerbacks)<br \/>\n<strong>Three-cone drill<\/strong>: 6.90 seconds<br \/>\n<strong>20-yard shuttle<\/strong>: 4.09 seconds (fifth-best among cornerbacks)<\/p>\n<h1><strong>Justin Layne 2019 NFL Draft Profile<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Michigan State cornerback <strong>Justin Layne\u00a0<\/strong>enters the NFL Draft as a cornerback even though he entered college as a wide receiver. After a productive high school career as a pass-catcher, Layne converted to a cornerback just five games into his collegiate tenure. Learning the position on the fly, Layne finished his true freshman season with 18 tackles, 1.5 tackles-for-loss, and one interception.<\/p>\n<p>Layne improved as a sophomore given a full off-season to learn the cornerback position. Appearing in 12 games, the Ohio native recorded 40 tackles, 0.5 tackles-for-loss, and one interception in 12 games played. Additionally, Layne recorded the first forced fumble of his career while breaking up eight passes<\/p>\n<p>Layne ended his collegiate tenure on a high note, recording his best season to date as a junior. Appearing in 12 games, Layne recorded 72 total tackles, 2.5 tackles-for-loss, one interception, and 15 passes defended. Each statistic either exceeded or tied his career-high, and his impressive play earned him Second-Team All-Big 10 honors. Layne ultimately decided to eschew his senior year to enter the NFL Draft and looks to take his talents to the next level in the upcoming season.<\/p>\n<h2>Strengths<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>ideal height and length for the position;<\/li>\n<li>prior history as a receiver gives him advanced knowledge of opposing route trees;<\/li>\n<li>impressive ability to get hands on the ball and break up passes;<\/li>\n<li>strong hand technique, especially for a player relatively new to the position;<\/li>\n<li>quick to diagnose route patterns and concepts;<\/li>\n<li>aggressive in man coverage and isn\u2019t afraid to be physical near the line of scrimmage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Weaknesses<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>struggles to defend quicker receivers;<\/li>\n<li>physical play style can come back to hurt him against bigger and stronger receivers;<\/li>\n<li>inconsistent in transition due to subpar footwork;<\/li>\n<li>needs more add more weight to become a true outside cornerback;<\/li>\n<li>inconsistent effort in the run game;<\/li>\n<li>lack of quick burst makes him a liability in deep zone coverage despite high football IQ.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>NFL Comparison: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/R\/RoweEr00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Eric Rowe<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Teams With A Need: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/lions\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Detroit Lions<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/packers\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Green Bay Packers<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/raiders\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oakland Raiders<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/chiefs\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/jets\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York Jets<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/bengals\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cincinnati Bengals<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/cardinals\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Arizona Cardinals<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Projection: <\/strong>Third round<\/p>\n<h2>Bottom Line<\/h2>\n<p>He probably won\u2019t ever develop into a full-time starter, but Justin Layne should be able to carve out a role as a depth cornerback. Layne has the ideal height and span for the position and his physical play should translate well assuming he can add on a few pounds of muscle. His history as a wide receiver gives him a strong grasp of what an opposing offense is trying to do and he\u2019s good at getting his hands on the ball and breaking up passes.<\/p>\n<p>Layne is far from being a finished product on the field, although he does have room to grow. The former wide receiver struggles to defend quickness and should only be used as a perimeter cornerback. Additionally, his lack of acceleration makes him a liability in deep zone coverage. Layne will have a role in the NFL as an outside cornerback going up against bigger receivers.<\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"k2t9NzD4TlRr7M9NF9I7-Q\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1059988410\" target=\"_blank\" 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:'k2t9NzD4TlRr7M9NF9I7-Q',sig:'mVBJXFb7B1210uV8adAdxtSmbRQLKRKhZ2_O7iwFgo8=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1059988410',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>Cornerback Justin Layne enters the 2019 NFL Draft after earning Second-Team All-Big 10 honors as a Junior at Michigan State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":61890,"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":[4070,61,4824,40,1173],"class_list":["post-61888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-draft","tag-2019-nfl-draft","tag-football","tag-justin-layne","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61888","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\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}