Akayleb Evans Scouting Report: 2022 NFL Draft Profile

 

Cornerback, Missouri Tigers #26

 

Akayleb Evans Measurements

6-2 / 198 lbs

40 Time: Reported 4.53 in high school.

 

Akayleb Evans NFL Draft Profile

Akayleb Evans is from McKinney, Texas where he played his high school football at McKinney High. It was his junior season that he began to stand out from the crowd. That season he would record 80 tackles in his first year as a starter.

I was more impressed by his off field efforts though. As a young man Akayleb decided to start the Akayleb Evans Foundation prior to going to college. The point of the foundation is to give back to the kids and adults in his communities. Evans says it is one of his proudest accomplishments. The foundation has donated toys to children at McKinney’s homeless shelter and donated gift cards to health care employees of the community, among many other good deeds.

247Sports would rate him as only a two star prospect and the 223^rd rated corner in the 2017 recruiting class. Coming out of high school he weighed in at 175 and stood 6-1. He would earn scholarship offers from Iowa State, Kansas, and Tulsa. Originally he committed to Kansas, but after a change of heart he took his talents to Tulsa to play for the Golden Hurricanes.

 

College

 

Evans would play for Tulsa for four seasons. Two of which would be hampered by injuries. In 2019 he would receive a medical hardship. He would also be recognized for his off field efforts by being named to the Wuerffel Trophy watch list. The Wuerffel Trophy honors college football’s most impactful leaders in community service. In 2020 he would return to play in all 9 games while recording 29 tackles and 3 passes defended. At seasons end he would enter the transfer portal as one of the top targets in the portal.

Evans would choose to join Missouri after his DB coach from Tulsa also joined the Tigers. The familiarity was enough to coerce him to take his talents to Colombia. This season he would play in 11 games and contribute 26 tackles, 6 passes defended and snag his lone career INT. Evans announced he would enter the 2022 NFL Draft early in December and opted out of the Armed Forces Bowl. He is however slated to attend the Reese’s Senior Bowl in February, where he would benefit from a strong showing.

 

Akayleb Evans Strengths

 

Football IQ

 

Akayleb displays great knowledge of the game with his pre-snap recognition of his receivers alignment. It may seem like a small thing, but it is not. Evans is quick to read both where and how his receiver lines up.

This allows him to identify the possible routes they will run against him. He does a good job choosing inside or outside leverage according to the pre-snap read. I would credit this as the reason he rarely gets beaten deep on the sideline.

 

Size

As noted above, Evans has prototypical size to play cornerback at the NFL level. He is listed at 6-2 and 198lbs. He uses his size to blanket receivers along the sideline well. During his time at Tulsa, I saw him use his frame and length to quickly get into receivers and press them. However, I was less than impressed with his press in his Missouri film. He played more off coverage it seemed.

 

Leadership

Akayleb Evans isn’t just a football player, he is a good man. He is the type of teammate others will look up to and the type of player coaches love in the locker room. One of his former teammates from Tulsa, Deven Lamp, has been quoted as saying, “Just seeing a guy like that you know genuinely cares about people regardless of whether he knows them or not, it definitely kind of opens your eye to what type of person he is.”

This goes to prove that he is the type of leader that other players will look up to and be inspired by.

 

Akayleb Evans Weaknesses

 

Run Defense

I read a lot of positive discussion about his tackling, but I’m not seeing it. He was better at Tulsa than Missouri, but if your team needs corners to contribute in the run game, then I’d pray they take him off their draft board now. You can watch a highlight reel on YouTube that shows his tackles and even those are suspect. I’m even left wondering who counts tackles for the Missouri stat book?

 

Can Get Lost

During the 2021 season he was saved by a few bad throws. There were times when he should have been thanking the opposing quarterbacks. Even though I say he has high football IQ, I see him get lost when he has to switch receivers on pick plays or decipher which receiver to take out of a stack. This led to a couple easy touchdowns for opponents. I also believe he is prone to double moves when he is playing off coverage as he wants to come up to make the play as soon as he can.

 

Lack of Ball Skills

He compiled only one career interception. Not every corner has to produce big turnover numbers, but it sure helps. I don’t see a nose for the football and he is regularly defending the receiver not the ball. This may lead to pass interference calls at the next level. He can get pretty handsy at the top of routes while his back is turned to the quarterback. This is something he needs to have coached out of him.

 

Injury History

 

Now we all know that teams will have doctors give him a good look over at the 2022 NFL Draft Combine, but many teams may be concerned about it. If teams have to decide between him or another player of the same caliber without the injury history, they will probably look another direction. He missed games during two different seasons and even had a shoulder injury sideline him for the majority of 2019.

 

Akayleb Evans Draft Stock

I see some scouts have a day 2 grade on him. My response is WTH? No way I could pull the trigger on him that early. This is especially true with the quality talent at cornerback in the 2022 NFL Draft class. Even as a day three prospect I say round six would be my ceiling for him.

 

Final Thoughts on Akayleb Evans Scouting Report

After watching ample film of the young man I hope he has a better career than I currently envision. I don’t see him as a starter at the next level. However, he has a chance to add depth to a team in need of secondary help.

I don’t expect him to make an impact on special teams either. This is due to his lack of desire to find contact and make tackles. If he is drafted by a team with solid depth at the CB position, I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up on the practice squad. However, maybe after a year of practice squad time he could find some of the player he was at Tulsa.

NFL Player Comparison currently unknown. Due to lack of him standing out on tape.

Akayleb Evans scouting report by Ken Noble.