Andru Phillips scouting report: Exploring the Kentucky CB's strengths and weaknesses
One of the top-1000 national recruits in 2020, Andru Phillips saw the field his first two years as part of a talented corner room (four total tackles), before becoming a part-time starter in his third season with the program. He started four games in 2022 and all 12 he was available for in ’23, combining for ten pass break-ups but no interceptions.
Details: 5-foot-11, 190 pounds; RS JR.
Breaking down Andru Phillips' scouting report
Man-coverage:
- Plays with low hips and low eyes in isolated coverage, gaining ground with ease as he’s locked in on the hips of the receiver
- Very balanced with that wide base and patiently waiting for receivers to commit to the release in soft press
- Counters the hands of opponents well in order to deny them stack-position against him on vertical routes
- Doesn’t look uncomfortable covering slot receivers with a three-way go, recognizing any drift during the stem, sliding in front of and attaching to the target as he tries to release the opposite direction
- Rapidly gets his cleats into the turf and is explosive in short areas to counter the break
- Takes excellent angles and maximizes his reach when undercutting routes in off-alignment
- Hit the second-best mark for the vert (42 inches) and third-longest broad jump (11’2”), along with running a 4.48 at the combine
Zone-coverage:
- Playing capped over the top of vertical routes, Phillips has some highly impressive moments of looking back for the ball and attacking it in the air
- Quick to react to any deceleration of the route he’s playing over and closing that gap on deep in-cuts, yet he’s also shown on several occasions that he can run with guys to the post in quarters and break up those passes
- Not scared of receivers blowing by him in cover-three as they release down the sideline and his eyes are inside to make plays on other routes in his vicinity
- However, when he that space is cleared out and he needs to man up the wideout, he seems to have no issues flipping around, locating and instantly attaching to the target
- You really like Phillips’ ability to peak back at the quarterback on those assignments and quickly close ground against easy-access throws in front of him
- Closes down into the flats and on crossers in front of him in a hurry and eliminates free grass for pass-catchers
- When lining up in the slot, Andru Phillips was asked to bail into the deep half occasionally and did well to position himself between vertical routes
- Does well to elongate the path of receivers and working around traffic to get out into the flats and eliminates options for the quarterback
Run defense & tackling:
- Ready to punch somebody in the chest when he keys on the run from off-alignment
- Does well to press through the inside pec of receivers and get involved on tackles with the ball coming his way
- Showcases that sudden explosion to shoot past receivers trying to secure (stalk-)blocks in space with the ball coming his way
- Willing to dip underneath bigger bodies getting out in space to lead the way and funnel the ball back towards the rest of the defense
- Quick to diagnose and trigger downhill against screen passes
- Aggressively wrestles down receivers in space instead of allowing guys to drag him for bigger gains – only surrendered 212 yards after the catch on 55 completions against him over the past two seasons
Weaknesses:
- Accumulated very little ball-production without a single interception during his time at Kentucky (ten PBUs on 1105 career snaps)
- Certainly quicker than fast and may be considered a slot only by some teams, with just under 100 snaps in true man-coverage to evaluate him based off (according to PFF)
- Will allow easy-access throws in cover-three on hitches, due to having his eyes inside and continuing to gain depth without vision on the wideout
- Surrendered career-highs in completion percentage (67.2%) and touchdowns responsible for (four) in 2023
- Simply doesn’t erase enough space to the ball-carrier and gets too far over his skis as a tackler, which is why he missed 19 of 92 attempts over the past two seasons (20.7% miss rate)
Andru Phillips' 2024 NFL Draft projection
Andru Phillips is a player I put my stamp on early on during this draft process. This is a guy who played inside and out at a very high level in the SEC, shows great patience checking receivers at the line of scrimmage, but also possesses great click-and-close ability for a match-zone based system, plus then he’s an absolute dog in the run/screen game.
I’d say he has average long speed and without any picks to his resume, he may drop all the way to day three – although he did haul in a pass vs. Missouri last season, where he was right there in the receiver’s hip-pocket on a fade.
I personally have Andru Phillips firmly inside my top-100 overall prospects and think he can start on the outside in the right system, although I thought his best tape came in the slot. In part that’s because I want him closer to the action vs. the run, but I also want to take advantage of his short-area burst to match him up with quick-footed receivers trying to find openings for what otherwise would be easy completions.
Andru Phillips absolutely needs to clean up his tackling, but not in the slightest do I look at it as any lack of strength or toughness.
Grade: Third round