OVERVIEW
After four years of basketball and with a semester of eligibility left, decided to give football a shot in 2014 after being away from the sport since high school. Named 2014 MAC Defensive Player of the Year and first-team All-MAC. Finished the season with seven interceptions, including a pick-six against Ohio. Participated in the 2015 Senior Bowl. Four-year starter for the Miami (Ohio) basketball team. Only player in school history to record seven steals in a game twice. Honored with Richard Shrider Defensive Player of the Year Award for the basketball team three different times. Four-year football letterman and three-year team captain for Wilmington High School (Ohio).
ANALYSIS
STRENGTHS
Four-year basketball player. Seamless transition to football field as a cornerback. Has point guard's foot quickness and hip fluidity. Plays with balance and above-average play strength. Well-built and competitive. Can be a disruptive press-corner. Has NFL-caliber "click-and-close" ability. Good leaper. Attacks the ball and receiver at high point. Good instincts and overlaps to make plays beyond his territory. Ruined hitches and bubble screens his way. Physical and has a strong desire to tackle. Wraps up receivers and throws his body at running backs in open space. Crowds receiver downfield, giving little breathing room. Has recovery quickness and natural anticipatory traits in coverage.
WEAKNESSES
Likely lacks the necessary experience to come in and help right away. Too reliant upon foot quickness. Needs technique work. Outside-in releases get him turned around. Shows gambler tendencies. Always sniffing around on underneath throws and opens himself up to double moves. Will get caught lunging in press coverage. Basketball is his first love. Scouts wonder whether he loves football enough to keep working at it. Must answer questions about his long speed.
DRAFT PROJECTION
Round 2 or 3
SOURCES TELL US
"We are grading him as a safety. He can play cornerback too but he has to be protected a little bit because I don't think he's fast enough. I think he's a 2nd round safety but a 4th round cornerback." - AFC defensive backs coach
NFL COMPARISON
Perrish Cox
BOTTOM LINE
Rare start-stop-start suddeness. His ability to change gears instantly gives him a chance to develop into a talented cover cornerback. With more work on technique and overall discipline, Rollins has the physical tools to become a very good NFL starter.
STRENGTHS: Constructed well for the position with good length and solid build for his height. Fluid athlete with coordinated footwork and smooth belt action to easily flip his hips.
Good flexibility out of his stance, keeping his nose over his toes and staying low to spring in any direction. Above average ballskills, reflexes and hand-eye coordination (16 passes defended in 12 starts).
Impressive tackling technique for a player with his inexperience, sinking, striking and wrapping with timing and pop. Throws his body around with emphasis and embraces the physical side of the game. Good eye use to read and anticipate the play before it happens, staying dialed in with natural instincts to put himself in position to make plays on the ball.
Ideal toughness for the position, both physically and mentally. Highly confident with a short-term memory to bounce back quickly after mistakes, especially important for a player with his inexperience. Aggressive hands to fight through blockers and make a play on the ballcarrier. Has experience on special teams coverages.
Mature work ethic with ambitious personality, both on and off the field. Solid durability with his body (not used to that type of consistent beating) holding up the full football season without serious injury. Productive one year on the football field, earning MAC Defensive Player of the Year honors.
WEAKNESSES: Only one year of football experience since high school and never played cornerback until spring 2014. Very raw technically and still learning trends and tendencies at the position. Unpolished recognition skills and needs to better anticipate route concepts and how to leverage the field.
Shows natural transitional quickness, but his mechanical flaws will hinder his ability to gain proper body position downfield. Often allows too much cushion at the line of scrimmage and is raw with his spacing and closing time. Does have press experience, but doesn't make contact off the snap and is unproven jamming receivers at the line.
Bad habit of biting on outside moves at the line and giving up inside position due to impatient feet. Too often flips his hips off the snap and needs time to develop his backpedal technique. Green behind the ears with defensive schemes and still learning secondary terminology.
COMPARES TO: Byron Maxwell, Eagles - Well-built, physical cornerbacks with the size/speed combination to stay on the outside are tough to come by and Maxwell and Rollins have several similarities.
--Dane Brugler
PLAYER OVERVIEW
A football and basketball recruit out of high school, Rollins focused mostly on basketball and enrolled at Miami (Ohio) to play on the hard court.
He started all four seasons for the Redhawks' basketball team at point guard (106 career starts), finishing second in school history in steals (214) and fourth in career assists (391). Rollins was a two-year team captain and earned the team's Defensive Player of the Year Award three straight seasons.
Unsure about a professional basketball career, he decided to play one year of football with his final season of collegiate eligibility and went to Redhawks head coach Chuck Martin, who invited him to spring practice for a tryout just days after the basketball season ended. Rollins said he "was almost done with football" during spring because he was so far behind compared to others on the team, but he stuck with it and moved his way up the depth chart through spring and summer, earning a starting job in the season opener.
Rollins finished the 2014 season with 72 tackles, 4.0 tackles for loss, 16 passes defended and a MAC-best seven interceptions, which ranked third nationally. He earned MAC Defensive Player of the Year and conference First Team honors and a spot on the Senior Bowl roster.
Rollins was an unknown in the football scouting world after not playing the sport since high school, but it didn't take long for him to move up the depth chart for the Redhawks, impressing coaches and scouts throughout the season. He played the robber rover position in high school, but played mostly offense so he entered 2014 with no football experience in four years and zero experience in his life at cornerback.
Rollins adjusted quickly and showed a raw understanding of the position, lining up inside and outside for the Redhawks, also playing man and zone coverages.
He needs to be coached up with backpedal and overall technique, but he has moldable traits with the basketball athleticism, ballskills and defensive mindset (three-time defensive player of the year for the Miami basketball squad) that translates well to the football field.
Although there will be a steep learning curve for him in the NFL and inexperienced mistakes will be inevitable, Rollins is an attractive player due to his talent, toughness and confidence to embrace challenges with his overachieving work ethic. He has the physical and mental makeup to see the field early in his career and fit any defensive scheme.
