Philadelphia Eagles Draft | Isaiah Ford the Projection

Continuing our foray into the Philadelphia Eagles’ draft targets, we take an extended look at Isaiah Ford, WR, Virginia Tech.

What does it mean, when a prospect is a ‘projection’? It doesn’t mean that player lacked production in college–after two 70 catch, 1,100 yard seasons, Ford drew plenty of scouts’ eyes as a dynamic piece of Virginia Tech’s offense.

However, Ford’s usage at the professional level will only remotely resemble his usage at Virginia Tech. At VT, Ford operates somewhere between a burner and a bully–on back to back plays, Virginia Tech might ask Ford to out-muscle a DB on a back-shoulder fade and then outrun him over the top. At 6’2 and 194 lbs, he lacks both the physical frame and the straight-line speed to consistently create separation under these circumstances.

He does excel, however, creating separation with double-moves and lightning-quick breaks. He needs to create this separation, too–while he flashes the occasional spectacular catch, his strengths clearly dictate a game predicated on change of direction and elusiveness in the open field.

Strengths

As aforementioned, Ford’s greatest strength is, without a doubt, his route-running. His ankle and hip flexibility are both far, far off of the charts, and I anticipate he’ll be a Combine stud in the 3-cone and short shuttle. He understands how to get defensive backs’ hips turned and possesses the explosiveness necessary to blow by them.

You can see, after his initial break fails to get #23 (Cameron Sutton, a solid corner and fellow prospect) turned, Ford continues driving toward the sideline until Sutton has to match–then he sticks that right foot in the ground and fires forward, easily clearing the CB.

Still working against Sutton. Watch that hard, long stride Ford takes with his outside foot, his left foot. With that stride, Ford puts Sutton’s weight back on his heels–the second he accomplishes this, Ford’s won the route. That big lurch Sutton takes backwards after Ford cuts inside? His feet want to go forward, but he must first gather the weight that Ford pushed back–hence the name. Here, Ford shows vertical push on the route, forcing Sutton into a preemptive backpedal. Nice hands snag behind the body here as well.

Also, as always, peep the toe drag. Mmh. Attention to detail, man.

Ford lacks the hand strength of a WR1 in the NFL (more on that later), but he does have spectacular catch ability. Most of these spectacular catches, however, aren’t the result of hands and catch radius, a la Mike Williams from Clemson–they’re the result of Ford’s incredible athleticism, body control, and ball-tracking skills.

As alluded to earlier, Virginia Tech loved to throw the back-shoulder fade to Ford, despite the fact that he lacked the imposing physical frame to consistently come down with it. However, when the ball was thrown to space–space not created by Ford, but created by the throw–Ford demonstrated the ability to adjust to it and reel it in.

That’s a concentration catch, not a hands catch. The first hand-ball contact just settles the ball, while the second actually completes the catch. But Ford has the ability to locate that ball, plant his foot, and throw his hips and shoulders back to catch it–with a hand in his facemask, no less. Insane athleticism/awareness there. If Ford had a more physically imposing frame, he’d routinely catch these contested balls. But, with only his athleticism, he relies on contortions like these.

I mean, this is straight silliness. Look at how much earlier he leaves his feet than the DB, but for how long he still hangs in the air. Nuts. Catches the ball while getting hit, too–concentration. Not enough WRs have that high-point ability, that attack-the-football-in-the-air mentality. Ford does.

Weaknesses

Ford plays wide receiver, so we’ve gotta start with the hands–as the Philadelphia Eagles’ fanbase knows all too well. Ford reels in plenty of balls, and obviously makes some incredible catches, but you notice while watching Ford how often he has to “settle” balls before he catches them. Even in the two catches above, watch how Ford uses his hands to bring the ball to his body, instead of catching the ball with his hands.

This may seem like a nitpick. It’s not. Watch this play:

This is called a catch on the field. I don’t know if it was reviewed or not, but I’m not too sure his knee comes down fully in-bounds. If Ford can snag this ball cleanly, without re-gripping, then he has two feet down, ball controlled, catch, no question. But, lacking in hand strength, Ford jeopardizes this completion with a bobble.

Remember that awesome route from above? Well, watch what happens when Ford goes up to get this underthrow, and Sutton recovers from the double move.

Without the frame of Ford’s weak hands, this is just a great play by Sutton. But watching that slo-mo, I’m not sure Ford has a clean grip on this ball. I’d love for my receiver to pluck balls out of the air, even with contact around his arms, and Ford doesn’t have that capability.

Oh, we forgot the worst part of weak hands:

Yep.

I’ve talked a lot about Ford as a tweener: not large/physical enough to consistently beat corners with size, not fast enough to beat corners over the top.

We’ll start with physicality. On these two back-to-back plays, watch the corner ride Ford directly into the boundary.

And even when Ford wins the release and gets on top of the defensive back, he doesn’t have the second gear necessary to run underneath deep throws. Here, he resorts to a push-off (that will likely get flagged at the next level) in order to create separation.

Conclusion

Ford regularly creates separation with elite route-running and devastating flexibility/burst. He can make catches in traffic, and adjusts to difficult balls with NFL-level athleticism, concentration, and awareness. These traits make him a deadly man-on-man responsibility from any alignment: flanker, split end, or slot.

However, Ford’s hands, size, and speed don’t scream “WR1”. If a team helps Ford add weight to his frame and teaches him how to use it, he could develop into a much more reliable weapon. The Philadelphia Eagles, if they elect to forego a wide receiver in the first round, may find themselves as that team, betting on Ford’s potential in the second. But he’ll need time, patience, and support to grow in a different system, at a different weight, playing an entirely different game.

After all, he is a projection.

Next: Moving On From Jason Kelce

Isaiah Ford ranks as my #4 WR with an overall grade of 6.3. I project him as a late Day 2/early Day 3 pick, that will likely go earlier due to demand.

Games watched:

vs. Pitt; vs. Tennessee; vs. Boston College (2016)

vs. Ohio State; vs. Tulsa; vs. Purdue (2015)

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