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Colts Work Out Marshall Cornerback Darryl Roberts

By Luke Schultheis

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According to Aaron Wilson of The Baltimore Sun, the Indianapolis Colts worked out a potential under-the-radar cornerback in Marshall’s Darryl Roberts:

The 6’0″, 182 pound Roberts had 75 tackles, 3.5 tackles for losses, and an interception last season. The former redshirt senior is coming off an impressive pro day performance, in which he boasted a fast 4.36 forty time, 39-inch vertical, and 23 bench reps on the bench press. Per NFL.com’s Gil Brandt, his Pro Day caught many scouts attention, and he could now be a Round 6-7 draft pick.

Having lost Josh Gordy just recently to the New York Giants, the Colts will be in the market for some additional cornerback depth behind Vontae Davis, Greg Toler, and Darius Butler, and Roberts has shown some impressive physical measurables to possibly become a late round sleeper.

It’s not all impressive physical attributes when it comes to Roberts though, as he was highly productive last season as a member of the Marshall Thundering Herd. Roberts received Conference USA First-Team All-Conference Honors as a defensive back and was also named to the Conference USA Honor Roll.

However, Roberts impressive athleticism will certainly help his draft stock, especially for a team like the Colts during their evaluation. Their General Manager in Ryan Grigson has already said that he believes cornerbacks have to be the most elite athletes on the field to typically be successful in today’s NFL per his prior NFL Combine press conference:

"“It’s getting tough because those guys had to be your most elite athletes on the field even 10 years ago,” Grigson said. “And now, I mean they can’t really put their hands on anybody, so I mean you really have to have tremendous athleticism, anticipation, instincts, and things like that…and recovery speed.”“But the movement skills, that’s to me where you start,” added Grigson. “If you have a stiff guy, depending on your scheme, but if you’re playing man coverage and playing a guy on an island, then that guy has to be able to 1) Be able to press and he has to be able to play off and still have the hips and the movement skills and the acceleration and burst out of his break to do those type of things, to break on the ball. It’s a tough spot, but if you start with a really, really special athlete, I think you’re ahead of the curve.”"

Fortunately for Roberts, he clearly has elite athleticism working in his favor. It’ll be interesting to see if the Colts like enough of the rest of his game to take a flyer on him in presumably the later rounds of this year’s NFL Draft.

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