During the offseason, we'll be taking a close look at Philadelphia Eagles players of interest who are currently on the roster but we may not know a lot about just yet. In this edition, we'll take a look at third-year cornerback Kelee Ringo.
The Eagles traded a 2024 third-round pick for a 2023 fourth-round pick in order to select Ringo, and Howie Roseman was sure to note from the outset that the team would allow Ringo plenty of time to develop behind the scenes.
"We felt like this was a 20-year old kid who was a good kid, tremendous physical tools, and we really had an opportunity to develop him," Roseman said on Day 3 of the 2023 draft. "He doesn't have to come in here and be a superhero. He can learn. We think we have tremendous veterans at that position who can show the way, and he can come in in a role where he's learning, and there's not a lot of pressure on him, and he can develop."
Ringo played just 234 snaps in the regular defense as a rookie, and 127 defensive snaps in his second year in 2024. He was the CB5 behind Darius Slay, Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, and Isaiah Rodgers. And if the Eagles needed someone to fill in for DeJean, it would be Avonte Maddox.
With the release of Slay and the losses of Rodgers and Maddox in free agency, Ringo has an opportunity to make a major climb up the cornerback totem pole, possibly into a starting spot. Is he ready?
I watched all of Ringo's 2024 snaps, and there weren't many targets. PFF had him down for 4 catches for 64 yards allowed on 7 targets. I'm not sure I would even agree that he was targeted 7 times. I think they dinged him for a couple catches in the holes of zone coverage. Anyway, I cut up nine noteworthy plays.
Coverage
To begin, he wasn't often targeted, because, well, he had sticky coverage. I really liked this play against the Ravens' Zay Flowers. Bottom of the screen: The Ravens are running sort of a double pick on Ringo, which he fights through, and then accelerates to catch up to Flowers. Lamar Jackson eats the sack.
I also liked this coverage in the red zone vs. Darius Slayton. Again, bottom of the screen:
Just generally speaking, in watching all of Ringo's snaps, receivers weren't getting much separation on him, which came as a mild surprise, as that was a concern area coming out of college. There was little doubt that he could run vertically down the field with fast receivers and match size with the big boys, but could he match routes against shiftier receivers? I was encouraged by what I saw in his ability to mirror and match.
Here was a near pick-six on a ball that did come his way on a comeback:
And an INT (by CJGJ) on another ball that came his way when he had blanket coverage deep down the field:
One of Ringo's other concerns coming out of college was route anticipation. Here's an example of good route anticipation. Top of the screen:
And here's one where he gets turned around while in zone coverage on a good route by Chris Olave.
Tackling
Ringo is one of the best gunners in the NFL. He's 6'2, 207, and jacked. One of the strengths in his scouting reports was that he was a physical tackler, which we have seen on special teams so far. But in the regular defense, I came away kind of disappointed by his effort as a tackler. I'll get to that in a second.
Ringo can deliver big hits when those opportunities arise. Here's a decent, measured hit on Tyrone Tracy.
And here's a play where Zack Baun pushes a Browns RB into Ringo, who more or less serves as a brick wall.
So, you know, he can tackle. However, there were too many times where he seemed content to watch his teammates make tackles while he kind of hung out on the periphery. Here's the most egregious example:
Overall
Can Ringo cover? That's what matters. And in my view, the 2024 tape is limited, but I was encouraged by what I saw. And certainly, if Ringo is going to have a bigger role, teammates and coaches aren't going to stand for the "tackle watching," so it's only mildly concerning that we'll see much of that going forward.
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