Coverage Technique And Skills
Central Michigan didn’t play the most complex coverage scheme last season, but Bunting was asked to play in a number of different ways – he showed a number of different strengths and weaknesses in the process. He spent a lot of his time in press man; here, he showed nice hand work to get receivers off-rhythm at the line:
And he did a consistently good job of forcing his man into the boundary on outside routes, allowing him to limit the potential reception window:
As shown above, he did a good job of following receivers through routes, but he also had a tendency to get quite grabby through routes, leading to occasional holding calls:
This isn’t a catastrophic issue; a lot of college corners have this tendency and some colleges – like Michigan – actively coach their players to do so, but this is something he’ll need to rely less on in the NFL. The other concern in terms of his college tape is his ability to function in a zone scheme that asks him to work over the top of routes; this just wasn’t something he was asked to do much in college, and while he flashes some nice quickness:
He also looked a little lost at times when asked to play in this way:
This is something that he should be able to improve at with practice, because I should stress how little he was asked to do this at Central Michigan, but any scheme that asks to do this consistently is going to need to know that this is a skill he needs to learn, likely preventing him from seeing the field early on in his career.
The final coverage skill that he showed at a high level was his ability to make plays on the ball, showing a rare ability to locate the ball in the air:
While also having the hands to come down with interceptions:
Bunting is definitely in need of development in coverage, and coming from a smaller school, this probably shouldn’t come as a surprise, but there are a lot of things he does well in both zone and man, and with his combination of core traits and ball skills, there is certainly a lot for an NFL defensive backs coach to work with.
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