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D.J. Turner, a top 500 recruit in 2019, appeared in four games on special teams in his true freshman and sophomore years each at Illinois. In 2021, he took on a starting role on defense, picking off two passes (one returned for a TD) and breaking up another seven. Last year, he broke up 10 passes along with one pick and a scoop-and-score, making him a second-team All-Big Ten selection.
D.J. Turner II, Michigan
5-foot-11, 180 pounds; senior
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Positives
+ Michigan tracked him at 23.07 mph on their GPS, which would’ve been the fastest of any player in the NFL over the last two years, and he backed that up by running a 4.26 at the combine
+ Light on his feet and pretty easy in his redirection, even if he’s turned the wrong way momentarily – over 400 career snaps in press
+ Possesses the short-area explosiveness to squat on routes in off-man and get to the hip pocket of receivers just after their break
+ Playing up closer to his man with outside leverage, if guys release inside on him, Turner makes sure to establish contact with the near-shoulder and maintain that throughout the route, while sticking to crossers in impressive fashion
+ Has the athletic feet to mirror releases and use some stack-coverage, where he’s playing with his eyes on the ball to not get penalized
+ Hips can be oily or snappy depending on what’s needed to play man from different alignments and countering different body types
+ Quarterbacks throwing the ball late his way may regret it, because of that quick burst to undercut receivers – He did so in very impressive fashion on a pick-six against Maryland in 2021
+ Shows the speed to carry legit deep threats down the boundary, such as Michigan State’s Jayden Reed on a couple of occasions
+ Gains a lot of ground in those three-quarter turns after widening the receiver’s release and sinking underneath them with vision on the quarterback
+ Stays true to his deep zone responsibilities and doesn’t bite on the underneath route, while the slot receiver pushes vertically
+ Has the make-up burst to be in suboptimal positions as the safety communicates switch calls to close the distance to the receiver being passed off to him
+ You see him sink with corner and deep out routes and still race up into the flats in time to shut down throws to the back just as they’re trying to turn upfield
+ Using his ability to click-and-close with the liberty to read the quarterback’s release in cover-two, he can be very dangerous in the quick game
+ Displays the awareness and fluid hips to disrupt the catch point on deep out routes when he’s leveraged that way and has to play over the top
+ Lined up in the slot on several occasions in the Penn State game of 2022, shadowing Parker Washington
+ Was targeted 71 times this past season, but only surrendered 33 completions for 408 yards and two touchdowns, while picking off one pass and forcing 14 incompletions
+ Comes up and shuffles inside under good control near the point of attack in the run game
+ With how quickly he shoots downhill against screens, you regularly see receivers just get a hand on him as he blows by
+ Showed his speed on a crazy chase-down tackle against Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford in 2022
+ Was used much more regularly as a blitzer in 2022 and was able to create some disruption that way
Negatives
– Does not enforce his will against receivers and re-routes them to any extent, without a repertoire of jams/stabs to reach for
– Physical receivers can bump him off track as they attack his frame and create angles for the ball to arrive as they step into his space on curls
– Allows some receivers to attack his blindspots in quarters, instead of maintaining his outside leverage and staying ready to flip his hips
– I’d like to see him be more aggressive with crowding the catch-point
– Does work to disengage from blocks, but he’s not really the type of physical player to be very successful in that regard and more of an ankle-biter as a tackler
In terms of short-area quickness and top-end speed, Turner stands above the rest of the group. He’s an elite athlete at a position where that is as big of an indication for success as anywhere on a football field.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t yet play with the kind of demeanor that we see from the very best corners in the league. Disrupting route development and the catch-point are areas you don’t really see him be scrappy. Therefore, I don’t want to see him get matched up with those bigger alpha receivers.
But as a piece to counter smaller guys, who scare most DBs with their electric movement skills, this is somebody capable of sticking with them one-on-one throughout games, playing inside or out from on- or off-alignment to great effect.
Grade: Late second / early third round
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