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Crystal Ball - TEXAS' HUFF DESTINED FOR GREATNESS
DB should make an immediate impact in the NFL
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Posted On: 4/8/06
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After months of workouts, scouting and interviews, star college prospects will finally have the chance to see if their hard work pays off when the NFL draft is held in a little more than three weeks. Among the top players to keep any eye on is Texas safety Michael Huff. Huff, who helped guide the Longhorns to a National Championship, and also won the Thorpe Award, finished his career with over 300 tackles, two sacks and seven interceptions. Four of his interceptions have been returned for touchdown scores.
Huff has transitioned between the safety and corner positions throughout his career. He started his career at Texas as a strong safety, was then moved to cornerback at the beginning of his junior year, and then he finally settled at the safety position midway through that season. Even if Huff is designated at either secondary position, he has been moved all over the field in Texas’ scheme. Huff can line up on the outside edges, further down the middle in deep support and close to the line-of-scrimmage as a run stuffer. He is the type of player who a quarterback must account for on every snap because a good defensive coordinator will move him all over the place to take advantage of his versatility.
What makes Huff such an anomaly is that he does not have a true position pinned heading into the pros. The fact that scouts have a hard time placing him at either corner or safety may lead to his stock dropping a bit. Granted, Huff excelled as a safety in college. He handled both run and pass defense responsibilities seamlessly. However, given the need for good cover corners, will a team take a chance and use Huff on an island as opposed to center field? After all, Huff ran the 40 in 4.3 seconds, which is a faster time than most other cornerbacks clocked in at. Huff also has better size (6’1, 205 pounds) to play corner than safety, although he will need to adjust back-peddling in zone coverage situations (Huff had some trouble moving his hips smoothly in drop back coverage situations during the combine workouts).
If a team does decide that Huff will be their starting cornerback, Huff’s agent may eventually demand more money as corners are usually paid bigger dollars than safeties.
Ultimately though, one would think that Huff will be inserted at the safety position, which is his natural position, despite the fact that he has the skills to develop into a serviceable cornerback in the NFL. It was only a few years ago when San Diego assumed that Quentin Jammer, who played at an All-Pro level at Texas, could handle playing at a high level on the outside despite having better upside at the safety position. Like Huff, Jammer was moved from safety to corner during his stint as a Longhorn. Unlike Huff, Jammer was never moved back to safety. If you ask all 32 GMs in the NFL if Jammer should have remained at corner or switched to safety, they would all agree that Jammer should have started his career as a safety. The same mistake that San Diego made with Jammer should not be repeated by another organization when Huff is selected somewhere in the first-round.
At safety, Huff could likely impact a defense in the same way that All-Pro safeties Ed Reed and Troy Polamalu impact their respective teams. Reed and Polamalu are dynamic players because they are versatile enough to line up anywhere on the field. Huff could be even better because he can handle playing the corner position over the slot on third-down in the Nickel defensive set. Huff also has the intangibles to be an effective leader and signal caller at the next level. He will make sure that his teammates are correctly positioned depending upon the defensive play call.
The lucky team that lands Michael Huff will net a plug-and-go player. In other words, a coach would have no trouble inserting him on the field as a starter on day one of training camp, because he would have little developing to go through, especially as a safety. In addition, a franchise’s financial investment in Huff will be much more secure than an investment made in a player who is more of a boom-or-bust prospect. In Huff, a team is getting a ready pro prospect with a high ceiling to be among the best defensive backs in the NFL.
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Posted On: 4/8/06
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