NFL Draft film room: Zone or press, Revel Jr. can do it all

Diving into what the East Carolina cornerback could bring to Las Vegas

Especially after releasing Jack Jones over the weekend, cornerback will be one of the Las Vegas Raiders’ biggest needs heading into the 2025 NFL Draft. That should put East Carolina’s Shavon Revel on the Raiders’ radar since the former Pirate is considered one of the top corners in the draft class.

While a torn ACL suffered in September kept Revel to just three games last season, he fits new head coach Pete Carroll’s ‘type’ at cornerback. The soon-to-be 23-year-old has plenty of length at 6-foot-2 with 32⅝-inch arms and, while the knee injury kept him from testing at the NFL Combine, he shows plenty of speed on film.

Also, Revel displayed some impressive ball skills in 2023 with 13 passes defended in 12 games, helping him lead all AAC cornerbacks with a 45.2 completion percentage, according to Pro Football Focus. He also managed to record three interceptions in two years, including two in three games last fall, and surrendered a 43.8 completion percentage during his college career.

Given the numbers and the fit, let’s see what Revel could bring to the Raiders.

Revel’s technique needs some fine-tuning generally speaking, but he has impressive athleticism to make up for it and build on at the next level.

The clip above is from the 2023 campaign and he’s playing as a deep third defender in East Carolina’s Cover 3 call while Michigan has the tight end run a corner route into his area. Revel doesn’t get enough depth initially, partially because he’s too high in his backpedal, and nearly gets caught staring in the backfield.

However, the cornerback is good at reading the quarterback’s eyes to anticipate throws in zone coverage. So once J.J. McCarthy starts his throwing motion to the tight end, Revel flips his hips and shows off some athleticism to get the PBU. He’ll need to clean this up at the next level, but the anticipation and movement skills are something to work with.

Here, we’ll get another great read from the cornerback to make a big play that helps change the momentum of the game.

The Pirates are running a three-deep, three-under fire zone where Revel is responsible for the deep third. The receiver he’s lined up across from runs a drag route that, typically, he’d pass off to the defenders on the other side of the field.

However, the Pirates have a line-of-scrimmage linebacker dropping into coverage who gets fooled by the flea-flicker, which leaves the drag route open. The good news is Revel recognizes he doesn’t have any threats coming into his area and reads the quarterback’s eyes.

So, he goes beyond his responsibility to cover the receiver on the other side of the field and undercuts the route to step into the passing lane. Finally, Revel finishes the play by coming up with the interception and turning what should have been an easy first down for the offense into a defensive touchdown.

Part of what makes Revel an intriguing prospect is on top of the zone coverage clips above, he’s also shown a handful of quality reps when playing press man.

In the play above, he does a decent job of using his hands to help force the receiver out of bounds on the go-route. While the wideout recovers and gets back in the field of play, the corner has the speed to stay in the wideout’s hip pocket while playing a trail technique.

Finally, Revel does a great of recognizing that the receiver is looking for the ball, turning his head to locate the ball in the air and making a nice snag while fighting through contact to come down with the interception.

While the pass isn’t accurate enough for Revel to show off some ball skills this time, this is another quality rep in press coverage. He’s lined up across from the point man against the stacked receiver set and quickly gets his hands up to disrupt the wideout’s route.

That helps Revel force the receiver wide or toward the sideline and sit on the curl route, suffocating the receiver and leaving little to no room for the quarterback to complete the pass.

This time, we’ll see a similar rep with a few subtle differences.

Revel is in press coverage against a go route again but plays it differently than the previous play. Here, he doesn’t try to jam the receiver on the line of scrimmage and instead plays soft shoe press coverage. That allows him to stay on top of the receiver which, combined with using his hands around the five-yard mark, allows him to cut off the go route.

The quarterback tries to take advantage of the one-on-one matchup anyway, but the receiver is forced to play defense at the catch point as the cornerback comes up with another PBU.

Finally, Revel could afford to add some strength to help get off blocks, but he shows a willingness to contribute in the running game, especially when it matters most. He put a handful of quality goal line reps as a run defender on tape, the one above being a good example.

Old Dominion is in 21 personnel and runs a read option out of a flop formation (meaning the tight end on the line of scrimmage is ineligible) with no receivers out wide on Revel’s side of the field initially. That forces the cornerback to play on the line of scrimmage and the linebacker follows the receiver in motion, pulling a defender out of the box.

Post-snap, the Monarchs have split-zone action in the backfield and the quarterback keeps the ball, attacking the area the linebacker vacated. That means at least one defender needs to step up and make a play to prevent the touchdown, and Revel answers the call with a good form tackle for a gain of one yard.

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Overall, Revel is still raw and needs to improve his technique but has the size and impressive movement skills to become a good corner at the next level. Especially with his ball skills, the East Carolina product reminds me of Trevon Diggs coming out of college, who quickly developed into a two-time Pro Bowler and All-Pro for the Dallas Cowboys.

Revel’s knee injury complicates his draft stock, but he should be ready to go for training camp as his doctor sent a letter to the NFL during the combine saying as much. Considering the former Pirate is currently projected as the 39th player overall on NFL Mock Draft Database’s consensus big board, don’t be surprised if he’s taken with pick No. 37.