Andru Phillips scouting report: Exploring the Kentucky CB's strengths and weaknesses

One of the top-1000 national recruits in 2020, Andru Phillips saw the field his first two years as part of a talented corner room (four total tackles), before becoming a part-time starter in his third season with the program. He started four games in 2022 and all 12 he was available for in ’23, combining for ten pass break-ups but no interceptions.

Details: 5-foot-11, 190 pounds; RS JR.

Breaking down Andru Phillips' scouting report

Andru Phillips: Kentucky v Florida

Man-coverage:

• Plays with low hips and low eyes in isolated coverage, gaining ground with ease as he’s locked in on the hips of the receiver
• Very balanced with that wide base and patiently waiting for receivers to commit to the release in soft press
• Counters the hands of opponents well in order to deny them stack-position against him on vertical routes
• Doesn’t look uncomfortable covering slot receivers with a three-way go, recognizing any drift during the stem, sliding in front of and attaching to the target as he tries to release the opposite direction
• Rapidly gets his cleats into the turf and is explosive in short areas to counter the break
• Takes excellent angles and maximizes his reach when undercutting routes in off-alignment
• Hit the second-best mark for the vert (42 inches) and third-longest broad jump (11’2”), along with running a 4.48 at the combine

Zone-coverage:

• Playing capped over the top of vertical routes, Phillips has some highly impressive moments of looking back for the ball and attacking it in the air
• Quick to react to any deceleration of the route he’s playing over and closing that gap on deep in-cuts, yet he’s also shown on several occasions that he can run with guys to the post in quarters and break up those passes
• Not scared of receivers blowing by him in cover-three as they release down the sideline and his eyes are inside to make plays on other routes in his vicinity
• However, when he that space is cleared out and he needs to man up the wideout, he seems to have no issues flipping around, locating and instantly attaching to the target
• You really like Phillips’ ability to peak back at the quarterback on those assignments and quickly close ground against easy-access throws in front of him
• Closes down into the flats and on crossers in front of him in a hurry and eliminates free grass for pass-catchers
• When lining up in the slot, Andru Phillips was asked to bail into the deep half occasionally and did well to position himself between vertical routes
• Does well to elongate the path of receivers and working around traffic to get out into the flats and eliminates options for the quarterback

Run defense & tackling:

• Ready to punch somebody in the chest when he keys on the run from off-alignment
• Does well to press through the inside pec of receivers and get involved on tackles with the ball coming his way
• Showcases that sudden explosion to shoot past receivers trying to secure (stalk-)blocks in space with the ball coming his way
• Willing to dip underneath bigger bodies getting out in space to lead the way and funnel the ball back towards the rest of the defense
• Quick to diagnose and trigger downhill against screen passes
• Aggressively wrestles down receivers in space instead of allowing guys to drag him for bigger gains – only surrendered 212 yards after the catch on 55 completions against him over the past two seasons

Weaknesses:

• Accumulated very little ball-production without a single interception during his time at Kentucky (ten PBUs on 1105 career snaps)
• Certainly quicker than fast and may be considered a slot only by some teams, with just under 100 snaps in true man-coverage to evaluate him based off (according to PFF)
• Will allow easy-access throws in cover-three on hitches, due to having his eyes inside and continuing to gain depth without vision on the wideout
• Surrendered career-highs in completion percentage (67.2%) and touchdowns responsible for (four) in 2023
• Simply doesn’t erase enough space to the ball-carrier and gets too far over his skis as a tackler, which is why he missed 19 of 92 attempts over the past two seasons (20.7% miss rate)

Andru Phillips' 2024 NFL Draft projection

Andru Phillips: Eastern Kentucky v Kentucky

Andru Phillips is a player I put my stamp on early on during this draft process. This is a guy who played inside and out at a very high level in the SEC, shows great patience checking receivers at the line of scrimmage, but also possesses great click-and-close ability for a match-zone based system, plus then he’s an absolute dog in the run/screen game.

I’d say he has average long speed and without any picks to his resume, he may drop all the way to day three – although he did haul in a pass vs. Missouri last season, where he was right there in the receiver’s hip-pocket on a fade.

I personally have Andru Phillips firmly inside my top-100 overall prospects and think he can start on the outside in the right system, although I thought his best tape came in the slot. In part that’s because I want him closer to the action vs. the run, but I also want to take advantage of his short-area burst to match him up with quick-footed receivers trying to find openings for what otherwise would be easy completions.

Andru Phillips absolutely needs to clean up his tackling, but not in the slightest do I look at it as any lack of strength or toughness.

Grade: Third round