The 2024 NFL Draft is getting close, making it an excellent time to highlight some of the class' best players with scouting reports. Each report will include strengths, weaknesses and background information.
Here's our report on Max Melton.
Melton has extensive experience playing outside and the slot, and that positively impacts his projection and transition to the next level, with outside-inside versatility a desired trait. Melton showed quick, sudden feet and movement and loose fluid hips, allowing for easy transitions and direction changes.
What consistently stood out was his aggressiveness and competitiveness in playing mirror match and physical press man coverage, in addition to his willingness to play the run with physicality.
Two areas of concern with Melton in press coverage are his tendency to lose contact with the receiver at the top of the route and an inability to stop when matching vertical releases, resulting in overrunning break points on intermediate routes.
Even though Melton has the athletic traits with his quick feet and significant snaps through his tape of playing press man effectively, some might see him better transitioning to the next level as more of a predominant off-coverage corner with his excellent plant-and-drive ability.
The bottom line with Melton is that he is a higher-level traits prospect who can play press man and off-coverage. Even though he is not quite as big as you’d like, he can play on the outside. Still, he also has extensive experience playing in the slot, and it would not surprise me if teams project him there more.
Melton played four years at Rutgers, becoming a starter in his freshman season and finishing his college career with 40 starts in 43 games.
He played significant snaps outside and in the slot, with a higher percentage of the targets he faced coming on the outside and, more often than not, outside the hash marks.
When he aligned outside, he played to the field and the boundary. There were Cover 2 snaps in which Melton sunk as one of the half-field safeties. Melton was deployed as a blitzer when he was aligned to the boundary.
Against Ohio State, Melton had snaps vs. Marvin Harrison Jr., playing mirror match and press man coverage. Melton matched up effectively, including running stride-for-stride on a vertical route in the fourth quarter. A red zone interception vs. Iowa came with Melton playing off-coverage, reading the quarterback and then driving on the throw.
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