An in-Depth Look at Miami Dolphins' Most Intriguing Selection, Tony Lippett

[DKphin]

Let's go back to the beginning with the former Spartan: Lippett was born July 2, 1992 in Detriot, MI, and was a 3-star recruit in high school. While his high school career saw him play as a dual-threat quarterback, he would commit to Michigan State in East Lansing and play wide receiver.

Tony Lippett NFL Draft 2015: Scouting Report, Grade for Dolphins Rookie

Only it wasn't as cut and dry as him coming on campus and becoming a wide receiver. He would redshirt his freshman year in 2010, and in 2011 he made five starts at cornerback, recording 18 tackles, 0.5 for a loss and deflecting five passes.
It was a nice start for Lippett, who was on his way to becoming a player that Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio called "one of the greatest players in Michigan State history."
Lippett's redshirt sophomore season saw him play all 13 games at wide receiver, and in 2013 he'd do the same.
He'd be back at cornerback in 2014, a position that he had not played in more than two seasons. Despite the lay off, he recorded four tackles and four pass deflections in his three games starting at cornerback against Rutgers, Penn State and Baylor.
He even blocked a punt against Baylor in the Cotton Bowl, a game where he played on special teams as well.
While doing all this, he still led the Big 10 in receiving en route to winning the conference's receiver of the year award.
Lippett being able to play on both sides of the ball, as well as his 6'2", 192-pound size earned him comparisons to Richard Sherman on draft day, but at Michigan State's pro day, his collegiate head coach offered another comparison to him: former Carolina Panther Chris Gamble, who Dantonio coached while he was an assistant at Ohio State.

He’s not going to get beat deep because he’s got two or three inches on most people, very long arms, and he’s got great deep ball judgment. I would equate that with Darqueze [Dennard] and the only other guy, because he was a wideout, was maybe Chris Gamble. He [Lippett] has that kind of size and that kind of ball awareness.
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That awareness comes through no matter what side of the ball you see Lippett play on. You won't find a lot of film online of him playing cornerback, but his ball skills come out as you watch him play receiver.
At first, Lippett wasn't too crazy about playing cornerback, but as he explained to MLive.com's Kyle Austin, he's warmed up to the idea: "I wasn't really for playing corner right off the bat, but as process went on, I was more open. I started to watch Richard Sherman film, and then I watched it more, numerous times."
He also added, "I look forward to the opportunity of showing the team what I can do as a corner," and Dolphins fans are looking forward to seeing what he can do.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...lphins-most-intriguing-selection-tony-lippett

 

[cash]

makes me sick they are using him at corner....... he's a complete WR already

 

[TKAllDay]

Let's do this

 

[Blake the great]

I swear he looks more like a WR than a CB.

 

[rrrrphin]

It sounds like we drafted a football player...shocking

While physically talented, he is not off the charts gifted by any means.

He cold make the roster as a special teams ace as well. I also wouldn't be surprised that if he cannot break into serious regular playing time that they might try to add 10-15 lbs onto him and create a true ball hawking FS.... he sounds like a true competitor -you never know

 

[Austin Tatious]

This is the pick that had me scratching my head the most. Lippett's not athletically superior, except that he has that height. Miami likes versaitility to the point that we force feed it where it actually isn't there (think Dallas Thomas at tackle; others cross-training at spots where they are ill-suited). The fact that he has skills at corner and receiver and has bounced around can be taken two ways. One way is that he really isn't that assertive at anything in particular. I mean, if he were really that good of a corner when he started out there, they wouldn't have screwed around with switching him to wideout. At wideout, he got on-field performance numbers, but there are tons of kids that come out of the B1G with decent numbers that don't amount to squat at the next level. Recall the kid from Iowa and MSU just a couple of years ago that we had thread after thread on because they had numbers in college on.

I like the kid's height and maybe he develops into something, but I have him as a shot in the dark. We need height at corner and we took a stab, like throwing at a dart board as others have said. More realistically, this is a position we will go after hard next year.

 

[ANUFan]

He looks good as a WR...