I've looked at a lot of tape of Quinton Coples and I do not see an underachieving player. I see an underachieving defense, and a system that unlike a year ago did not necessarily put him in position to collect all the big plays by putting him closer to the ball. Their ability to cover the quick passing game was just not there, and there's not much Quinton can do about that. You look at the Mizzou game, that's what you see...the Mizzou offense hitting up the UNC defense with the ground game and quick passing game. If Mizzou tried to run at Coples, unless they isolated him and forced him to make a two-way decision on an option, he swallowed the ball consistently. And even though most of the Mizzou passing game was all quick game with the ball out in 2 seconds, which he couldn't do anything about from his End position, he did find a way to make a high impact play closing on James Franklin and hitting his arm as he threw, which caused an interception.
Hoops and I debated about what Coples was going to show at the Combine. He didn't think Coples would show as well at the Combine as Jason Pierre-Paul. I believe he will, and he already appears to be having a better Combine.
To be fair, I don't think hoops realized Pierre-Paul showed up to the Combine as mediocre as he did. But that in itself is part of the problem with the JPP comparisons. People are contaminated by hindsight on Pierre-Paul. They remember him as a high motor player that didn't take plays off like Coples is often accused of doing. That wasn't really the case. They remember him being super explosive at the Combine. There was infamous footage of him doing a series of handsprings on the field once, but his Combine showing was just sort of "good" which highlights another aspect of JPP's draft stock that goes unremembered which were the consistent rumors that originated out of the South Florida locker room that JPP was not a leader, and was a slack off worker.
Similarly, you've got this picture people like to paint of Coples as a guy who doesn't want it, who takes plays off, lax effort, etc. It's a typical accusation levied at unusually large, unusually explosive players. I'm not phased. I saw Jason Pierre-Paul overcoming his demons, and I see the same with Coples.