The rookie corner had to switch positions once he came to the NFL, and had a bit of a learning curve. But he still had some nice moments.
Marvell Tell was taken in the 5th round of the 2019 draft with the first of their two fifth round picks. Tell played mostly safety at USC but had to transfer over to corner with the Colts. Because of that, Tell had a rough start to his NFL career.
Tell was so bad in the preseason, I thought he was going to get cut. He was constantly out of position, got burned on deep throws, and got called for pass interference too much. Surprisingly, the Colts stuck with him. Because of that faith, he ended up playing more at the end of the season.
Tell played in 13 games as a rookie, but didn’t have any defensive snaps in 3 of those games. He ended up finishing with a total of 22 tackles, 5 passes defended, and 1 forced fumble. Most of the defensive snaps he played were because of injuries to the secondary.
As far as rookie seasons go, Tell’s could have gone worse. He was only a 5th round pick, so not much was expected of him. After his awful preseason, I had zero expectations for him. What the Colts have found in him is a corner they can use to play productive snaps in the case of an injury. That’s a valuable player to have.
Of course Tell wants a role that’s bigger than that. But if he wants such a role, he will need to work hard to improve his ball skills. He has a chance to be a pretty solid corner in this league. His rookie year was pretty average, but he will get better.