Coverage Concerns
However, there are also a few areas where he could stand to improve, starting with his footwork at the head of routes in off coverage – here, he sometimes stopped his feet and got a little flat-footed, making him him a touch slower coming out of his breaks:
There was also the fact that Florida played their corners with outside leverage quite a lot, and while this is always going to make their corners vulnerable to in-breaking routes, Henderson could probably have done a better of taking away such routes, knowing that they are likely to be coming:
Though sometimes you just get done by a really good route:
It is also worth pointing out that, while he has pretty good hands for a corner, there is a reason why he isn’t playing receiver:
Possibly the biggest question mark with Henderson’s game, however, is how well he processes on the field – while he wasn’t bad in this regard on tape, he just wasn’t asked to read-and-react underneath in zone a huge amount. There are times on tape when he shows a nice ability to recognize where his responsibilities are and takes away receivers as they move into his zone with good anticipation:
There were also times where it was hard to work out exactly what he was doing:
The final cause for concern – the easiest to fix – is that he tends to be a little to focus on the backfield, opening him up to getting burnt over the top on run fakes:
None of these flaws are deal-breakers, and most are things that can be worked on through an understanding of responsibilities in scheme, but for the others, it is more a matter of understanding that he does have some limitations and polishing up some areas where he could be better. In all, as a coverage player, Henderson is one of the better pure players to come out in recent years, and while there are ways in which he can continue to improve, from a coverage point of view, he is certainly deserving of a first-round grade. However, playing corner isn’t just about coverage…
