After a promising start in the preseason and the regular season opener, Las Vegas Raiders cornerback Kyu Blu Kelly has regressed over the last few weeks.
According to Pro Football Focus, Kelly has allowed the most passing yards when targeted (346) of any cornerback in the NFL and ranks 104th out of the 114 cornerbacks who have at least 47 coverage snaps with a 44.1 coverage grade this season.
Granted, he did surrender 67 yards in Week 1, but he at least had a pass breakup and a coverage stop to earn
a 67.6 mark in that contest. In the four games since then, he’s given up 279 yards, had two PBUs and two stops, resulting in a 35.6 grade.
This past Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts was the third-year pro’s worst performance of the campaign. He was targeted six times for four completions and a career-high 90 yards while making no plays on the ball and recording no stops, per PFF.
So, what’s going on with Kelly? Let’s review the tape from the last three weeks and see what we can find out.
The most consistent theme when it comes to Kelly giving up receptions is that he’s struggling to drive on curl routes when playing Cover 3. Part of that has to do with the play call, as curl routes are difficult for corners to defend against in Cover 3 since they’re responsible for the deep third of the field and have to protect against a deep route.
However, where Kelly has room for improvement is with his change-of-direction skills. He often stumbles or has to take several steps to get in and out of his breaks, preventing him from being able to drive on the route at potentially make a play on the ball. This was seen on his tape in the preseason and Week 1; opponents are just attacking it more often and will continue to do so until he improves.
This is a good route from Terry McLaurin as McLaurin pushes vertical and hits the brakes late to stop on the curl. But we see the same issue going from north to south with Kelly, where he takes several steps to gather himself before driving on the route. That prevents him from breaking up the pass by playing through the receiver’s back, and his problems with changing direction extend beyond this specific circumstance. More on the latter later.
This is where Kelly is more frustrating with his Cover 3 coverage, since he gets beaten over the top in the play above. Granted, McLaurin runs a double-move with the out and up route. But if Kelly is going to keep everything in front of him against the underneath routes like the clips above, he can’t also let the receiver get behind him when the receiver goes deep.
Kelly bites pretty hard on McLaurin’s fake toward the sideline by opening his hips, and that’s more than enough for the two-time Pro Bowler to win down the field.
We’ll see a similar rep as the last one here, where Kelly gets beaten over the top while playing Cover 3. The biggest difference is that this one isn’t a double move; he lets the receiver get into his blind spot instead. Then, he hesitates because he can’t see his man anymore, so the receiver wins on the go route for an explosive play down the field.
Also, this looks somewhat similar to the touchdown Kelly gave up in Week 2 against the Chargers.
He got caught with bad eyes in zone coverage in that instance, trying to help on a crossing route while his man went deep and the ball sailed over his head for the score. This time, the out route from the tight end might catch his eye and also be part of the reason for the hesitation. That’s not meant to be an excuse; Kelly is wrong either way, but it is another possible explanation for why he gets beaten over the top as the deep third defender.
Here, the Raiders are in man coverage and playing Cover 1. So, Kelly has safety help in the middle of the field and plays with outside leverage against the dig route, and the issues start when he goes to make the cut.
At about the 50-yard line, he sees the receiver break toward the middle of the field. Instead of making a sharp turn to undercut the route to get in the passing lane, he rounds the cut, stumbles, ends up on the 45-yard line and is behind the receiver, giving up the 20-yard gain. Also, Kelly can do himself a favor by getting a better jam at the line of scrimmage to disrupt the receiver’s route and the quarterback’s timing.
This next rep is more of an isolated incident rather than a common theme, and the corner does a much better job of using a jam to disrupt the route. However, he loses at the top of the out route because he fails to maintain outside leverage and gets out-muscled by Rome Odunze. The combination of Caleb Williams throwing with anticipation and Kelly’s lack of short-area quickness results in an easy conversion for the Bears on third and five.
Overall, Kelly is a young player who is still finding his footing in the league, so some struggles are expected. Also, he’s had a handful of good reps recently that are getting overshaddowed by the bad ones. That comes with the territory of playing cornerback in the NFL.
However, the most concerning factor is that he might not be a good fit in a Cover 3-heavy defense. That’s an issue with a Pete Carroll-led team and may lead to Kelly getting benched for Darien Porter or Decamerion Richardson. We’ll find out soon what adjustments are going to be made, either schematically, on the depth chart or by the player.
