A few thoughts on Monday’s news…
1. Obviously, the news of Paris Ford’s decision to leave the Pitt football team is not good news. That’s probably a good place to start, lest we fall into any ill-conceived notions that it is a positive for the Panthers to lose one of their best players. Ford has been one of the team’s top-five contributors and producers in the last 20 games dating back to the start of the 2019 season, and when you take his level of productivity out of the mix, it’s not a positive.
We can talk about the value of getting four games (or more) of work for Brandon Hill, but we should be honest about the impact of losing Ford. It’s not good.
2. That said, I’m going to be very interested to see what his future holds. Ford was a very exciting, high-impact player on the field, but he also had some holes in his game, particularly with regards to assignments and responsibilities. He made some incredible plays, plays that maybe nobody else on Pitt’s roster could make, but he offset those with freelancing and moving out of his assignment.
Say what you want about Pitt’s scheme, but I think most coaches would tell you: when somebody doesn’t follow their assignments on the field, bad things can happen.
3. Ford’s backers would tell you that he has elite-level instincts, and that coaches who try to over-coach Ford take away some of his biggest strengths. There might be some truth to that. But there’s also a balance between doing your own thing and doing what you’re supposed to do. The great ones are able to follow their assignments until it becomes time to break off and make a play. Ford still needs to find that balance.
What will be interesting to see is how the NFL views his potential to find that balance. There’s no questioning the upside: he has first-round talent. But NFL scouts will watch the film and evaluate him beyond the big hits and the impact plays, and they will have to decide if he can coached to play more responsibly, to match those big plays and instincts with assignment-based football.
4. There’s also a certain reality about what has happened off the field. He has had some publicized issues, from the academic concerns that kept him from attending Pitt until midway through training camp of his freshman year to a curious absence from the 2018 Sun Bowl to a near-departure in training camp this year (and possibly more such incidents that weren’t publicized). As such, I’ve been told that Ford’s decision to leave the team - or opt out; that’s just a matter of semantics - was precipitated by an incident between Ford and the coaches. I’m sure he had multiple reasons for making the decision he made, but that was part of it, and it’s the kind of story that will find its way to NFL scouts.
That doesn’t necessarily mean those things will sink his Draft chances or drop him to the third day of the Draft or anything like that. It just means that the scouts will have quite a bit to consider.
5. But this isn’t about bashing Ford. He was probably in the top five - or higher - of the most exciting players I’ve seen in covering Pitt for the last 15 years. In terms of on-field impact and “pop,” he was more exciting to watch than Darrelle Revis and probably goes on a short list with guys like LeSean McCoy and Tyler Boyd. It’s really a shame that Pitt moved him to cornerback in 2018; that was an unfortunate decision and a wasted year.
The good thing for Ford is that some of the questionable things I mentioned - on and off the field - are correctable. There isn’t a single negative the NFL scouts will find that Ford can’t make right. And for whatever it’s worth, I really hope he does reach his potential. I’ll say it again: he’s an exciting player with the talent to be great at the next level. It would have been fun to watch him play four or five more games at Pitt; instead, we’ll see what the future holds, and I’m looking forward to seeing him to reach his potential in the NFL.
1. Obviously, the news of Paris Ford’s decision to leave the Pitt football team is not good news. That’s probably a good place to start, lest we fall into any ill-conceived notions that it is a positive for the Panthers to lose one of their best players. Ford has been one of the team’s top-five contributors and producers in the last 20 games dating back to the start of the 2019 season, and when you take his level of productivity out of the mix, it’s not a positive.
We can talk about the value of getting four games (or more) of work for Brandon Hill, but we should be honest about the impact of losing Ford. It’s not good.
2. That said, I’m going to be very interested to see what his future holds. Ford was a very exciting, high-impact player on the field, but he also had some holes in his game, particularly with regards to assignments and responsibilities. He made some incredible plays, plays that maybe nobody else on Pitt’s roster could make, but he offset those with freelancing and moving out of his assignment.
Say what you want about Pitt’s scheme, but I think most coaches would tell you: when somebody doesn’t follow their assignments on the field, bad things can happen.
3. Ford’s backers would tell you that he has elite-level instincts, and that coaches who try to over-coach Ford take away some of his biggest strengths. There might be some truth to that. But there’s also a balance between doing your own thing and doing what you’re supposed to do. The great ones are able to follow their assignments until it becomes time to break off and make a play. Ford still needs to find that balance.
What will be interesting to see is how the NFL views his potential to find that balance. There’s no questioning the upside: he has first-round talent. But NFL scouts will watch the film and evaluate him beyond the big hits and the impact plays, and they will have to decide if he can coached to play more responsibly, to match those big plays and instincts with assignment-based football.
4. There’s also a certain reality about what has happened off the field. He has had some publicized issues, from the academic concerns that kept him from attending Pitt until midway through training camp of his freshman year to a curious absence from the 2018 Sun Bowl to a near-departure in training camp this year (and possibly more such incidents that weren’t publicized). As such, I’ve been told that Ford’s decision to leave the team - or opt out; that’s just a matter of semantics - was precipitated by an incident between Ford and the coaches. I’m sure he had multiple reasons for making the decision he made, but that was part of it, and it’s the kind of story that will find its way to NFL scouts.
That doesn’t necessarily mean those things will sink his Draft chances or drop him to the third day of the Draft or anything like that. It just means that the scouts will have quite a bit to consider.
5. But this isn’t about bashing Ford. He was probably in the top five - or higher - of the most exciting players I’ve seen in covering Pitt for the last 15 years. In terms of on-field impact and “pop,” he was more exciting to watch than Darrelle Revis and probably goes on a short list with guys like LeSean McCoy and Tyler Boyd. It’s really a shame that Pitt moved him to cornerback in 2018; that was an unfortunate decision and a wasted year.
The good thing for Ford is that some of the questionable things I mentioned - on and off the field - are correctable. There isn’t a single negative the NFL scouts will find that Ford can’t make right. And for whatever it’s worth, I really hope he does reach his potential. I’ll say it again: he’s an exciting player with the talent to be great at the next level. It would have been fun to watch him play four or five more games at Pitt; instead, we’ll see what the future holds, and I’m looking forward to seeing him to reach his potential in the NFL.
