The second former Nebraska football prospect headed for the NFL Combine is expected to be the first Husker off the board come draft day. The only question is how high does he go?
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Overview:
Gerry certainly has packed on the muscle and racked up tackles as a Husker, but the 6-2, 220-pounder had issues with hip movement and getting caught out of position. As you can imagine, this allowed better quarterbacks to pick on Nebraska defenses deep from time to time.
He has solid interception numbers for his time spent in Lincoln, but several of those were served up to him by poor quarterbacks. NFL signal-callers aren’t going to offer interceptions on a silver platter like he’s used to.
Take out a long screen pass charged to him, QBs tallied just 120 yds when throwing into #Nebraska S Nathan Gerry's coverage TY. #seniorbowl
— Josh Liskiewitz (@PFF_Josh) January 28, 2017
All due respect to Josh, take all of Nebraska’s losses away last year and they’re national champions. Yes, Gerry can wrap up well, but the problem is his man can already have picked up a large chunk of yardage before the tackle is made.
If your team needs a run-stopping safety, look no further. Gerry has proven that when it comes to stuffing running backs, he can be your guy more often than not. The problem is that he’s not the full package.
It doesn’t help that if/when he sits down with NFL franchise brass, he’s obviously going to face questions about academic issues that caused him to sit multiple games of the 2016 season.
Drills in Which He May Excel:
The bench press immediately comes to mind. Gerry’s practically all muscle and it wouldn’t be a shock to see him absolutely rock the weights. He also has pretty good hops, so the broad jump and vertical jump could be kind to him as well.
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Drills in Which He May Disappoint:
Don’t expect fantastic speed test numbers for Gerry. His 40-yard dash time may end up costing him a bit. The three-cone and shuttle drills likely end up exposing his lack of fluid hip movement.
A Drill in Which He Must Excel:
If Gerry doesn’t have a quality showing with the three-cone and shuttle drills, then he absolutely has to impress at the defensive back-specific drills.
The problem for Gerry here, yet again, is his hips. He’s going to be asked to do standard man-to-man coverage work and I’m not sure how well he can operate.