The last scouting report I posted was of South Florida safety Nate Allen. Well one of the safeties competing with Allen to be among one of the early second round safeties to come off the board is Georgia Tech's Morgan Burnett.
So today we welcome in "BirdGT" of From The Rumble Seat - SBN's Georgia Tech blog - to discuss Burnett. Some of his Combine figures are below (though his 40 time is from his Pro Day because he didn't run at the Combine) followed by Bird's take on Tech's safety.
Morgan Burnett
Height: 6'1 3/8" / Weight: 209
40: 4.42 / Arm: 31 3/4" / Hands: 9"
Unlike his predecessors at Tech (Ravens safety Dawan Landry and Giants safety James Butler), Morgan Burnett's game is speed. He is lightning quick and breaks on passes like it's nobody's business. The Tech safety racked up 14 interceptions over his three year career at Tech because he had enough speed to react to poorly thrown footballs and the hands to nab the errant throws (see here).
A common knock on Morgan Burnett was that he was a liability in the running game. This is hogwash. Burnett's plight in 2009 was a bad defensive line and an injury plagued linebacker corps. By the end of the season, teams could run all day on the Georgia Tech front seven. Morgan Burnett never quit, however. He tallied 58 tackles in run support out of his 86 total tackles. In fact, Burnett led all defensive players for Tech in total tackles during his three years at Tech with 235 tackles (just short of 6 tackles per game). He never backed down from an opposing running back, tight end or wide receiver.
Teams fearing that Burnett isn't physical can rest assured that he wasn't afraid to lay the wood in 2009 (see here).
And finally, Burnett's abilities will probably be limited to special teams initially in the League. He played on Tech's kick coverage units as a junior. He tallied several tackles on coverage and even blocked a field goal attempt by Duke.
Thanks to "BirdGT" for putting this together.