Kevin Byard, S, Middle Tennessee: 2016 NFL Draft scouting report
2016 NFL Draft: Scouting report for Middle Tennessee safety Kevin Byard, who racked up 19 interceptions over the course of his college career…
The most underrated player in the draft just might be Kevin Byard, the safety from Middle Tennessee.
What other college players do you know who have ever picked off 19 passes and didn’t get invited to the scouting combine? Look at these career numbers for Byard:
| Tackles | Def Int | Fumbles | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | School | Conf | Class | Pos | G | Solo | Ast | Tot | Loss | Sk | Int | Yds | Avg | TD | PD | FR | Yds | TD | FF |
| 2012 | Middle Tennessee State | Sun Belt | DB | 12 | 48 | 26 | 74 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 4 | 167 | 41.8 | 2 | ||||||
| *2013 | Middle Tennessee State | CUSA | SO | S | 13 | 61 | 45 | 106 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 5 | 159 | 31.8 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 2014 | Middle Tennessee State | CUSA | JR | S | 12 | 44 | 28 | 72 | 3.0 | 0.0 | 6 | 1 | 0.2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2015 | Middle Tennessee State | CUSA | SR | S | 11 | 43 | 23 | 66 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 4 | 50 | 12.5 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Career | Middle Tennessee State | 196 | 122 | 318 | 6.0 | 0.0 | 19 | 377 | 19.8 | 2 | 15 | 1 | 3 |
Provided by Sports-Reference.com/CFB: View Original Table
Generated 3/21/2016.
At 5-11, 217 pounds, Byard is built like an NFL safety, if only just a little bit shorter than ideal. Scouts have questions about his athletic ability, so it would have been nice to have gotten those answered with some actual measurables at the Combine. The intrigue over his athleticism will have to continue until Byard’s Pro Day, which at the time of this writing has yet to happen.
Byard’s translatable traits
For me, the clear best trait he possesses here is his ability to take away the football. You don’t pick off 19 passes by accident. Byard broke up as many passes over the last three seasons as he did intercept them. He’s highly, highly effective at getting his hands on the football and making plays, especially when it comes to making difficult plays.
Watch his interception against Alabama. It’s one of the best catches of the 2015 college football season. Byard’s nose for the football wasn’t noticed by whoever puts together the roster for the Scouting Combine, but some NFL team is going to get an absolute steal. He knows how to take the ball away, and it’s more than just sitting back from a center field spot and catching overthrown balls by quarterbacks.
Byard reads plays really well. He anticipates things before they happen, and while so many want to criticize him for his tackling technique, he’s willing to get his hands dirty and make plays against the run as well.
As far as a canvas on which an NFL coach can go to work, Byard is one of the best in the draft. He doesn’t have ‘elite’ size but he’s well-built, and he has more than enough speed from what I’ve seen on tape to hold up at the NFL level.
He might break in as a rotational safety, but he has starter potential and will make his way onto the field at first on special teams. He only had one punt return in his college career, but it was also returned for a touchdown. This guy just knows what to do when the football is in his hands, he knows how to take it away, and I’m incredibly impressed. I would say for me at this point, he’s definitely a top five safety in this class.