NATE CLEMENTS
By: Dave-Te' Thomas

#20-NATE CLEMENTS Ohio State University Buckeyes 5:10.2-191

ANALYSIS
Positives... Hard hitter with good muscle definition...Has a good feel for the ball, maintaining eye contact on the receiver while tracking the ball in flight...Has the explosive burst to quickly recover when beaten long...Shows good knee bend and a smooth and easy turning motion coming out of his backpedal...Makes proper zone adjustments and anticipates the quarterback's moves well... Gets a sharp break on the ball and times his jumps perfectly to combat the receiver for the pass... Very flexible in his hip turn and has strength in his legs to go low and jolt ball carriers when stepping up to fill rush lanes...Type of player that initiates contact, rather than wait for the play to develop... Compensates for a lack of ideal height with quickness and ball anticipation skills to maintain leverage...Blessed with exceptional speed...Also excels on special teams, adding another dimension to his game as a breakaway threat as a punt returner.

Negatives... Needs to develop better hand usage as he will get caught holding the receivers upfield...Sometimes gets a little too aggressive, causing him to over-pursue...While he will gert his fair share of pass thefts, he's more of a body catcher, which turns sure interceptions into muffed pass deflections.

CAREER NOTES
Two-year starter who greatly benefitted from spending his rookie year learning from Ahmad Plummer and Antoine Winfield, carrying on the Buckeyes' tradition of producing outstanding coverage cornerbacks...Regarded as one of the hardest hitters, pound-for-pound in the Big Ten Conference...Finished his career with 177 tackles, including a very impressive 154 solo stops while intercepting seven passes and deflecting 22 others...Also gained 695 yards on 58 punt returns (12.0 avg), including a touchdown.

REMIND ME OF... ex-Kansas City Chief James Hasty.

GAZING INTO THE CRYSTAL BALL... It all depends on what a team is looking for to see who will be the first corner taken between Clements and Smoot. If a team is looking for aggressiveness and is willing to give up coverage ability, Clements is the man, but if it is coverage over power, Smoot will go first. Either way, neither is considered All-Pro material.

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