Cedric Gray 2024 NFL Draft Profile

Cedric Gray 2024 NFL Draft Profile

The 2024 NFL Draft profiles continue to fly at you, and the next one up on the docket is North Carolina’s Cedric Gray. In a weaker Linebacker class, there is room for Gray to make a name for himself, but he will be fighting an uphill battle early on in his NFL career. He may have been a production machine in college, but what does his draft profile look like? Let’s talk about it.

Gray, a former four-star recruit out of North Carolina, committed to play for the Tar Heels in 2020 and did not see significant playing time until his Sophomore year. He was all over the field for UNC, totaling 364 tackles over three seasons, including five sacks this past season, six forced fumbles, and five interceptions. The QB rating when he was targeted was 72.8.

Cedric Gray is as sure a tackler in this class at the Linebacker position. It shows by the crazy high volume he put out in college. Three years of starting experience got him a pretty high football IQ, acting as the general for the Tar Heels defense. Moves well laterally, using solid footwork to change direction. He’s got good enough speed to be an effective QB spy, but has promising upside in pass coverage, specifically in zone. Five sacks a season ago is also huge for him.

He had a real chance to improve his stock at the NFL Combine, however, he put out a bit of a dud performance. Does not do a very good job in man coverage, specifically against running backs. Tends to be a little overly aggressive against the run, not having full knowledge of run concepts, leading to him taking the wrong gaps. We saw this UNC defense let up a fair amount of big runs against them, and it was set up from the second level.

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If this was a stronger Linebacker class, we are talking about Cedric Gray being a mid-to-late Day Three pick. However, thanks to this class being very light, he receives a fourth-round grade from me. NFL teams likely won’t get a quality LB if they miss out on the top two, but maybe some of these later guys can turn into nice special teamers while they learn the ins and outs of the NFL.

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