The Las Vegas Raiders seemingly got the biggest steal of the 2026 NFL draft, adding former Tennessee cornerback Jermod McCoy to the roster at the top of the fourth round. The first-round talent was expected to come off the board much earlier than he did, sliding due to concerns over the long-term health of his knee after missing the entire 2025 season with a torn ACL.
However, the hype is justified by McCoy’s performance the previous year.
The 2024 second-team All-American was one of the best cornerbacks
in the country, posting the ninth-best coverage grade from Pro Football Focus (89.6) among FBS cornerbacks, and that figure ranked third in the SEC. The mark was the result of allowing a 50 percent completion percentage (31 catches on 62 targets) for just 386 yards and two touchdowns, while recording four interceptions, six PBUs and a 53.6 passer rating.
Even better than the numbers, McCoy’s film shows a cornerback who moves differently than the rest to justify the pre-draft buzz.
McCoy is at his best when playing press-man coverage, and this rep against Alabama freshman sensation Ryan Williams is a great example.
With the ball on the far hashmark and the Crimson Tide in a three-by-one formation with trips and the back in the boundary while Tennessee plays Cover 1, the safety has to stay in the middle of the field and can’t cheat too much toward Williams pre-snap. That leaves the cornerback on an island with the receiver, as the former lines up in press coverage.
Off the line of scrimmage, McCoy shows solid patience to avoid opening his hips too early as Williams closes the gap and gives him a slight inside fake before releasing toward the numbers. Then, the hand fighting starts as the receiver runs the go route, and the cornerback uses his inside hand to fight back and stay in phase.
That continues throughout the route as McCoy is in a perfect position to defend against a back-shoulder throw or play Williams’ hands at the catch point if the pass goes over the top. The wideout fades toward the sideline with the ball in the air, but the corner mirrors his man and cuts off the route, giving the quarterback nowhere to complete the pass.
This is about as perfect a coverage as you’ll see against a go route, and it comes against quality competition, too.
We’ll get another rep in press coverage, and this one highlights part of what is meant by McCoy moves differently, as his change-of-direction skills are impressive.
He lines up against Deion Burks (who also slid in the draft due to injury concerns) and is in man coverage against a blaze out route. What makes a blaze out different than a regular out route is the hard inside release off the line of scrimmage, which helps sell a vertical or over route and can cause a lot of cornerbacks to run right past the receiver.
McCoy almost succumbs to that, but his ability to sink his hips and turn on a dime allows him to recover and stay in phase, leading to the throwaway from the quarterback.
Now, you may have noticed that McCoy gets a little handsy at the top of the route. That’s one area of improvement for him, as he drew eight penalties in 2024, per PFF, and tends to get a little grabby when he feels like he’s losing control of the rep.
But what I like about McCoy’s game in this area is that he can be subtle about it and force the referees to make a tough call in a split second. While he does have his hand on Burks’ hip here, the contact isn’t egregious where the receiver isn’t significantly restricted on the route, so the flag stays in the ref’s pocket.
The former Volunteer is going to be left on an island again, as Tennessee runs Cover 0 on third and two. Alabama motions into an empty formation where, on the three receiver side, the two slot receivers are in a stacked set to set up a one-on-one opportunity outside. Also, the outside receiver is lined up outside the numbers to spread the defense out even further and really put the corner on an island.
But the press coverage technique from McCoy is pretty much flawless, showing patience at the line of scrimmage, using his inside hand to control the receiver, and he’s in a perfect position to defend a back-shoulder pass or throw over the top.
Now, the receiver does slip at the top of the route—and nearly takes the corner out—but he gets off the ground in time to work back to the quarterback on the scramble drill and essentially turn this into a long comeback route. Meanwhile, McCoy sees that and drives on the wideout to get in the passing lane and come up with a PBU to bring the punt team onto the field.
Beginning with the previous clip, we’re moving on to the 101st overall pick’s ball skills, which also help separate him from the rest of the draft class.
Oklahoma is facing fourth and two, while Tennessee brings a blitz for what looks like a fire zone. The Sooners have a good play call for the defense, rolling the quarterback out of the pocket to avoid the pressure and running a pick route with the two receivers at the bottom of the screen. The quarterback’s first read is to hit the short out route from the slot receiver, but the nickel corner avoids the pick and takes that away.
Meanwhile, with no help over the top, McCoy has to stay deep in his area to avoid giving up a touchdown. But once the outside receiver breaks toward the sideline after failing to set the pick, McCoy knows he can get aggressive and drives on what essentially becomes another blaze out route. Finally, he has excellent timing to make contact with the receiver as the ball arrives, and perfectly plays through the receiver’s back to get a PBU.
This is what happens when route recognition is paired with natural ball skills, as McCoy has a knack for making plays on the ball in the air.
This time, we’ll take a look at a high football IQ play.
Tennessee is running Cover 2 with a three-man rush here, and our subject is responsible for the flat to the short side of the field. Meanwhile, Oklahoma is setting up a throwback pass to the receiver running an over route from the wide side of the field by running play action and having the quarterback quarter roll to the other side of the field to get the defense to rotate away from the over route.
Meanwhile, the wideout McCoy lines up across from releases hard inside and runs a deep crossing route. As a result, the corner doesn’t have any immediate threats in his area and has extra help in the flat with the standup outside linebacker dropping in coverage on the three-man rush and the running back coming from the other side of the formation. So, he can be more aggressive to make a play.
McCoy shows great eye discipline in zone coverage to see the over route coming and read the quarterback’s eyes. So, once he sees the half-roll from the quarterback to confirm the throwback concept, he gets depth and picks up the receiver to step into the passing lane and get the interception. The quarterback likely wasn’t expecting the Cover 2 corner to be there when he let the pass go.
This is a great execution of a “search technique”, and a big shoutout to Cody Alexander on X/Twitter for helping me identify the coverage and technique. For those interested in learning more, here’s a link to Alexander’s breakdown of the technique on his Match Quarters substack and another example that he posted on X/Twitter.
We’ll wrap up with a much simpler breakdown and another perfectly played go route. But this time, we’ll get a little extra flair at the end.
Coverage-wise, it’s more of the same. The Volunteers play man-to-man and leave McCoy on an island against a go route in Cover 1. Technique-wise, again, you can’t ask for much better defense than this against a deep shot. But the catchpoint is where this play gets special.
McCoy goes to high-point the ball and gets a hand on it to keep the pass away from the receiver. But he never gets a firm grasp on the ball and is juggling it on the way to the ground. However, like a little league coach yelling at an eight-year-old who just took a hard ground ball on an all-dirt infield off the shin to “stay with it”, the corner shows excellent concentration to make an acrobatic interception.
For those wondering, yes, that annology might have come from personal experience, and yes, McCoy does have a baseball background. According to The Athletic’s Dane Brugler (via The BEAST), the reason why the Oregon State transfer was lightly recruited in high school was because he focused on baseball instead of going to football recruiting camps during the spring. McCoy was also an All-State baseball player, in Texas.
While the film is great, the biggest question surrounding the first-round talent is if he can return to this form after the torn ACL, and then same line of thinking applies if he needs the second surgery for the potential cartalidge damanage. Of course, there’s no way of knowning that at this juncture, hence the draft slide.
The good news is that McCoy tested really well at Tennessee’s pro day, earning a 9.81 Relative Athletic Score, at the end of March to help ease some concerns. Also, if he gets anywhere close to how he looked in 2024, that’d make for a pretty good cornerback in the NFL.
