Rock Ya-Sin
What a name. This alone should make him one of your favorite players in the draft. As good as his name is, his story and play on the field might be even better.
Background
From Decatur, Georgia, Rock was a star 2 sport athlete. He was the Dekalb County leader in INTs as a CB while also being a two-time state champion wrestler. He played his first 3 years of college football at Presbyterian College in the Big South conference before transferring to Temple due to Presbyterian's move from FCS to Divison II. Temple awards the 9 toughest players on the team with single digit jersey numbers. Ya-Sin was awarded that honor and wore #6.
Measurables
Ya-Sin was measured at the Senior Bowl at 5'11" and 189 pounds. While this is average size for an NFL CB, the impressive part comes next. His hands measured at 9 3/4 inches and his arms are 32 3/8 inches long, both good for 2nd among all CBs at the Senior Bowl. He shows his length in his on field performance.
Analysis
The Temple CB played almost exclusively on the perimeter in 2018, playing both zone concepts and a version of press man. He looked comfortable in both. His impressive plays came in man to man, specifically in the 2nd game of the season against Buffalo.
He has good eyes, keeping his focus on the WRs hips and looking back for the ball as soon as he sees the WR break down.
Even in Zone, he reacts quickly on the WR's breakdown and makes a play. This time it's a clutch 4th quarter INT.
He looks natural when playing the ball in the air. This ball is extremely underthrown, but his good positioning on the WR allows him to be comfortable enough to turn his head and find the ball. Even if it was a better placed throw, he had a good shot at knocking it away.
Ya-Sin shows his natural ability here again. His disciplined eyes in man to man help him know when the ball is coming, but he can't get turned around, so his instinct kicks in and he backhands the pass away. It wasn't a great throw, but without the contest Rock gives, it could've been a clutch catch on 3rd down.
Finally, he shows off his play making ability. Another bad toss but he has the whereabouts to come off his man and make the INT. He avoids a few obstacles and finds himself in open field and takes off with impressive straight ahead speed for a pick 6 (it was a 2 point conversion attempt, so it wasn't officially a TD).
All these plays are from one game. He has had other impressive performances as well, but all the crucial plays he made to keep Temple close in this game show that he can take over a contest with his play making ability.
Conclusion
It is early in the draft process, but Rock Ya-Sin is my first big draft crush and I would love to see him on the Chiefs. His draft stock is hard to figure out at this point, but he doesn't seem to be garnering Day 1 attention. He could be a great pick on Day 2. Looking forward to see how he performs at the NFL Scouting Combine.
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