Jabril Cox Scouting Report

Linebacker Jabril Cox transferred from NDSU to LSU after the 2019 season. He is 6’4 231 and he certainly has room to add weight on his frame. He is a linebacker who excels in coverage although he is slightly better in man than zone. He projects best as an inside linebacker in a 3-4 scheme but would also work as a WILL linebacker in 4-3 schemes.

Strengths: 

• Great Athleticism

Jabril Cox is the type of athlete that coaches will want on their team. He is 6’3 230 and certainly has room to add some weight to his frame. He’s already pretty strong, and he’s also got great short area quickness and long arms.

• Explosive After He Plants

When Jabril Cox sticks his foot in the ground he explodes off of his plant foot and he can really get going after that. This helps a lot in the run game and helps him rally to the ball quickly.

• Works Well Through Traffic

Cox has a feel for where blockers are when he’s going from one side of the field to the other. He sifts through blockers and is able to make plays.

• Sheds Blocks Pretty Well

Jabril Cox has nice long arms which he uses to his advantage to stay away from blockers before disengaging at the right moment to make a play.

• Balances Patience Extremely Well

In the run game Cox picks his moments when to be patient and when to hit a hole early and a lot of the time he makes the right decision. This is a skill that takes linebackers a long time to develop and Cox has it.

• Gets His Hands on the Ball

In coverage Jabril Cox is a playmaker whether that’s in man or zone. When the ball is in the air Cox does a great job locating and he’s able to break up good passes and intercept bad ones.

• High Effort Player

Cox has the best motor out of all of the linebackers in this year’s draft class. Even when a play is completely dead Jabril Cox can be seen running downfield in hopes of doing something which shows a lot.

• Good in Man Coverage

Jabril Cox is the best man coverage linebacker in this draft class. He’s got quick enough feet and good size to be able to keep up with running backs, tight ends, and occasionally receivers.

• Potential to be Good in Zone

Jabril Cox has a lot of work to do in zone coverage especially because he’s not always checking where receivers are but if he learns to do that with his linear and lateral movement skills he can be very good

Weaknesses: 

• Average Processor

Jabril Cox isn’t the greatest at reacting to plays in fact compared to his teammates last year at LSU he seemed to be reading and reacting to the field a bit slower than some of the other guys.

• Not the Best Tackler

Cox isn’t always a guy that wraps up and tackles and occasionally he’ll attempt weak arm tackles that are easily broken and lead to chunk plays. He has to get this issue fixed

• Doesn’t Have Long Speed

Jabril Cox doesn’t have the sideline to sideline speed that a lot of other guys have and rather he relies on his quickness to make plays.

• Takes Bad Angles

Jabril Cox doesn’t have the greatest long speed in the world and he magnifies this weakness by taking bad angles that allow offensive players to run by him.

• Raw in Zone

Jabril Cox has the potential to be good in zone but if he’s asked to play zone right off the bat there are going to be a few players where he’s not really doing anything.

Player Comp: My comparison for Cox is the guy that I think Cox can be at his ceiling and that is Fred Warner of the San Francisco 49ers. Coming out of college they both had similar concerns that they were bad tacklers who weren’t the strongest guys in the world and weren’t the most advanced mentally, but both guys ended up having great short area quickness, coverage ability, and athleticism to be really good players.

Final Thoughts: Overall I feel that I am higher on Jabril Cox than the general consensus. I have him pegged as an early round 2 guy when most have him around the mid to late round 2 range. He has a low floor I will admit but his ceiling is through the roof and considering he’s a high effort guy from what I can tell he definitely has the capability to work hard enough to get close to his insanely high ceiling. Some team fits are the Saints and Patriots. With the Saints he can replace Alex Anzalone as the WILL linebacker for a team that plays a lot of man and gave up a lot of TDs to tight ends. The Patriots also play a lot of man coverage and Belichick would love to have Cox instead of Ja’Whaun Bentley.