2016 NFL Draft Scouting Notes: A.J. Stamps, Safety, Kentucky
2016 NFL Draft Scouting Notes: A.J. Stamps, Safety, Kentucky
By Lijah Spencer (@tweaked74)
Moving along with the safety portion of scouting notes tonight we look at a player who started his collegiate career at a junior college, but last season joined the Kentucky team and started all 12 games. Here are my notes:
A.J. Stamps. 6’0. 197 lbs. Senior. Kentucky.
The Positives
1) A very good tackler
2) Plays with good speed
3) Good blitzer
4) Has good catching ability
The Negatives
1) Needs to improve coverage abilities
2) Limited experience playing against top talent
A.J. Stamps is a player who won a national championship on the junior college level before joining the Kentucky football team, where he went on to start all 12 games at safety, logging 56 solo tackles and snaring 4 INT’s. He has good speed, and uses it to blitz the QB well. He has above average tackling abilities, almost always bringing the ball carrier down with authority. Stamps has very good catching ability as was displayed in ESPN’s top plays of the year when he made an impressive one handed interception. His coverage abilities do need to improve, both zone and man, though he isn’t asked to cover a lot at Kentucky. If Stamps does improve this year, particularly his coverage skills, he should be on the radar in a not so deep class of safeties, though he likely won’t be rated the #1 or #2 guy in my estimation.
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