Corey Ballentine: The Good, the Great, and the Ugly

Corey Ballentine’s NFL journey started incredibly turbulent.

Ballentine was a Giants’ fifth-round selection in 2019 out of Washburn. On the night he was drafted by New York, Ballentine and his best friend Dwane Simmons were shot, Simmons fatally.

What should have been a time of excitement and joy for Ballentine turned tragic as, in addition to having become acclimated to a new environment, he also had to deal with the grief and trauma of that tragic night.

To his credit, the young man showed an incredible amount of resolve and was able to make the Giants’ roster while seeing significant snaps down the season's stretch.

Ballentine, who is more of a boundary cornerback, played the majority of his time in the slot after Grant Haley hit a wall. He played 279 snaps out of the slot, and only ten wide.

Playing the slot was a difficult task for Ballentine, not only because he didn’t have a full off-season with the team, but also because the position isn't a match for what he does well (plus it was a position he didn't play much of in college).

Nevertheless, the young Division II product showed some good traits on tape beside a toughness and resolve, so let’s dive into some of the specifics.

The Good: Explosiveness

Ballentine caught the Giants’ eye at the 2019 Senior Bowl, but he also performed well at the combine.

His athletic ability far surpassed a typical prospect coming from a Division II program. Ballentine had solid size--5’11" and 195 pounds-- and had a solid three-cone drill at 6.82 seconds (70th percentile), a very impressive broad jump of 135” (98th percentile), and a good vertical jump of 39 ½ (87th percentile).

His lower body explosiveness that was on display in Indianapolis was very evident in his 2019 film.

Ballentine is playing over the No. 3 receiver in the 3x1 set, tight to the end man on the line of scrimmage (EMOLOS).

The Giants show a blitz to the weak-side of the formation, but Lorenzo Carter bails and takes the middle of the field zone match.

Dallas’ protection shifts towards Carter, while Ballentine and the middle linebacker attack the interior gaps away from the protection. Ballentine squeezes through a block to hit Dak Prescott as he releases the pass.

Ballentine’s lower body explosiveness, highlighted by his burst, along with his acceleration, really comes to light on this rep. His athletic ability surpasses many other cornerbacks, and that says a lot about a player coming from a small school.

He belongs in the NFL--he just has to work on some things, which will be discussed later.

Here is another clip against Dallas. Ballentine struggles at the top of wide receivers' breaks and is always a bit slow to react, but I want to bring attention to his athletic ability in jumping to make the tackle in full stride here.

The vertical route from Witten acts as a rub against Ballentine, opening the drag from Randall Cobb even more.

I don’t love the separation that is given to Cobb, but I do like how Ballentine can explode into a full force jump, while moving, and make an open-field tackle as he does above. It’s just another testament to his raw athleticism.

From 21 personnel, the Bears ran a play-action rollout to Tarik Cohen (No. 29), acting as the bluff-capper from the play-action side of the formation.

Ballentine trusts his run/pass keys and follows Cohen into the flat. Watch how he cuts Cohen’s angle off to the sidelines, only surrendering a minimal amount of yardage.

Anyone who watches the NFL knows the type of explosiveness that Cohen possesses. Ballentine was able to utilize really good angles while leveraging his excellent athletic ability to stop the play from being a big gain.

The Great: Aggressive Tackler

His mechanics aren’t always excellent, but he puts all his effort into making aggressive tackles. According to Pro Football Focus, Ballentine ranked second (54th in the league) among New York Giants’ corners, behind Grant Haley, in tackling.

This play looks similar to the play above, except it’s a play-action roll-out to Ballentine’s side against Adrian Peterson, No. 26.

Ballentine stays on the inside hip of Peterson, and he doesn’t give him enough space to turn upfield once the catch is made.

If you look closely, Ballentine does two sound things. First, he fully wraps up Peterson in space, and second, he initially swats the catch point to force an incompletion.

These are very simple aspects of playing cornerback, but young players tend to overlook them. Ballentine did not, and he made what seemed like an easy open-field tackle against one of the more physical running backs in the league.

In Week 9, Dallas attempts a play-action rollout to Ballentine’s side while the Giants are in a Cover 3 type defense.

Ballentine is being high-lowed by the Dallas passing attack, and he drops to a depth to take away Cobb’s route, which allows Jason Witten to come open in the flat.

Ballentine and Witten are running straight at each other, and the young corner aggressively goes right for the knees of the aging tight end.

Ballentine readjusts his angle, squares up, and explodes low to force the tackle of Witten. It was another good example of open-field tackling and athletic ability, albeit Witten’s athleticism is in decline.

Another excellent aspect about Ballentine is how he disengages from receivers blocks. Far too often, we see corners getting dominated by wide receivers blocking, but we didn’t see much of that against Ballentine.

Steven Sims, No. 15, doesn’t do a good job positioning himself in the play above, but Ballentine doesn’t even look at him to disengage from his blocking attempt.

Ballentine keeps his eyes on the motion, the full-back, and the running back Chris Thompson. He uses his outside arm to fend off Sims and puts himself right into the alley of Thompson, while making a strong low, wrap up, and tackling the ball carrier.

He does something similar against a much bigger receiver in Allen Lazard, No. 13, below.

Lazard is a biscuit or two away from being deemed a tight end, yet Ballentine is unphased by his blocking attempt, which isn’t positioned all that well.

Ballentine is on the No. 2 receiver Lazard, and he reads the outside flow of the play. So he presses the outside shoulder of the receiver in an attempt to box the run inside.

Ballentine extends, makes contact on the breastplate of Lazard, and flows outside to force a tough angle to turn for Aaron Jones. Ballentine ends up shoving Jones towards the sideline and taking a stiff arm, but his ability to beat these blocks pop off to me on tape.

We see it again here. Allan Robinson, No. 12, who is one of the better blocking receivers in the league, engages Ballentine in space, but hardly affects the young corner.

Cohen catches the bubble screen and attempts to work outside, but Ballentine meets him near the sidelines and doesn’t allow him to get back inside.

This is a very strong play on a second and long from a young player like Ballentine. He made a few huge tackles in that Bears game; unfortunately, he was picked on and surrendered 12 catches on 14 targets for 188 yards and a touchdown.

The Ugly: Coverage at the Top of Breaks

I honestly don’t think this is an athletic issue but is instead more of a technique, timing, and confidence issue.

Ballentine struggled to defend receivers out of their breaks--it was almost like he wasn’t trusting his instinct and was questioning what he was seeing.

Far too often, he was a step behind when he should have been covering a break, whether that be a hard or soft break.

It came to light against the Bears, when Chicago drove down the field and repeatedly attacked Ballentine in the slot by putting either Anthony Miller, No. 17, or Allen Robinson in that position.

First, let me apologize for the inconvenience that is Soldier Field’s All-22, but we can still make out the coverage lapse.

Ballentine is too high in his backpedal, and it affects his ability to turn without a hitch. If you watch carefully, at the top of Miller’s outside break, there’s a very subtle hitch in the turn of Ballentine to the outside.

His base becomes wide, and his outside foot is way too far upfield, rather than being angled towards the sideline, which would assist him in exploding in that direction.

That little angle/turn hiccup gives enough time for Mitchell Trubisky to put a pass in stride on Miller. Sadly, this happened far too often for Ballentine.

Here we see him over the No. 2 again, this time it’s Robinson. The veteran receiver manipulates Ballentine, who is again too high, with an outside double move that gets Ballentine’s hips turned.

This is a tough route to cover in man, but Ballentine avoids getting embarrassed and stays in phase right out of the break.

Ballentine then allows Robinson to separate and gain depth in his route, while he falls underneath the route. This allowed Trubisky to throw Robinson open, and it maximized his ability to pick up YAC.

Ballentine will be coming into the screen from the left side against Cobb, and again he does a poor job staying in the hip pocket of the receiver.

Cobb’s stem is horizontal. Ballentine allows himself to get sucked too far inside, which allowed Cobb to gain depth and flatten his route towards the sideline, which created more separation against Ballentine.

He doesn’t stay on top of the route, and he puts himself into an undesirable situation. Luckily for Ballentine, the throw was late and inside from Prescott, which resulted in an incompletion.

Kudos to Ballentine for playing hard through the whistle and ensuring that it was incomplete, but the young player must do a better job closing width on horizontal routes.

We see Ballentine in the slot again, and he gets his hips manipulated by the inside angled stem of the No. 2 receiver. Ballentine is about 5 yards off the receiver, and he starts to turn his hips off the stem a bit early.

Once that happens, the receiver turns outside on a pivot type of route. Ballentine becomes off balance as he tries to recover, and he overshoots the receiver breaking back inside, which surrenders extra yardage against the defense.

Ballentine gets put into a tough spot in the clip above; he’s tasked with guarding star wide receiver Devonte Adams, and Adams easily creates separation with a double move.

The Packers come out in a stack, and Ballentine is tasked with the underneath receiver, which happens to be Adams. We can see Ballentine stay with the initial stem well, but as he moves closer to where he anticipates the catch point being, he loses the leverage outside.

Adams stops his inside break as Ballentine reacts upon it, but it takes Ballentine a bit to slow himself down and recoup to go outside and make the tackle. This is a tough play for Ballentine to make, but his man coverage stickiness isn’t excellent, which is to be expected from a rookie player with a truncated training camp.

Corey Ballentine showed a lot of promise in his rookie season, especially when we consider all the tribulations the player had to overcome once he was drafted. Ballentine’s athletic ability, tenacity, and tackling capabilities will secure him a spot on the 2020 roster.

He must improve his man coverage ability, and I believe he will; he was misused in the slot and is more of a boundary corner. With the uncertainty of DeAndre Baker, Ballentine may have a shot at realistically starting outside along with James Bradberry.

I feel Ballentine is best suited outside, and it would assist him with the two way go decisiveness that he struggled to comprehend in the slot. He has the athletic traits to be a good cornerback; he has to work on technique, timing, and lowering his pad level. These are all things that Jerome Henderson can teach the second-year player.

(Video clips via NFL Game Pass.)