Competitive toughness can be difficult to quantify, but prospects who have it always stand out. With his 2024 NFL Draft scouting report, Louisville CB Jarvis Brownlee Jr. boasts one of the most distinct competitive mentalities in the entire class. How does it translate on film?
Jarvis Brownlee Jr.’s Draft Profile and Measurements
- Height: 5’10 3/8″
- Weight: 194 pounds
- Length: 31 1/4″
- Wingspan: 75 1/4″
- Hand: 9″
- Position: Cornerback
- School: Louisville
- Current Year: Redshirt Senior
Someone tell Brownlee he’s 5’10”, 194 pounds — because he does not play like it.
Even as a high school stud in Miami Gardens, Fla., Brownlee was known for the physical edge he provided at the CB position. That edge earned him offers out of high school from SEC titans like LSU and Florida — as just a three-star recruit.
Brownlee stayed in Florida but left the Miami area. He’d originally committed to Miami but decommitted late in the process and signed instead with the Florida State Seminoles. He redshirted the 2019 season and then broke into the defensive rotation in 2020, making his presence felt as a playmaking threat.
In 2021, Brownlee had his best statistical season yet, amassing 51 tackles, two tackles for loss, two interceptions, three pass breakups, and a forced fumble. However, ups and downs on the field and NIL complications that resulted from it led to Brownlee’s transfer to Louisville.
Brownlee’s volatility still showed up at times with the Cardinals, but overall, his move farther north allowed him to unlock his best play yet. In 2022, he racked up career-highs in tackles (66), TFLs (2.5), and pass deflections (12). And in 2023, he returned as an imposing defensive presence.
Louisville CB Jarvis Brownlee Jr. has DOG written all over him. 🐶#GoCards | #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/Bslac5WJYs
— Pro Football Network (@PFN365) April 13, 2024
Brownlee eventually earned an invite to the Senior Bowl, where he impressed onlookers with his trademark competitiveness and matching ability.
His NFL Combine numbers weren’t elite — a 4.54-second 40-yard dash and a 6.94-second three-cone among them — but he assuredly has enough functional athleticism to find a role, and you can’t teach his mentality. What does his composite profile look like?
Brownlee’s Scouting Report
Strengths
- Compact, low-to-the-ground CB with efficient mass and underrated play strength.
- Explosive, twitched-up mover with hyperactive energy and rare corrective quickness.
- Has the smooth sink, swivel, and hinge fluidity to match WRs as they stack transitions.
- Natural mover in side-saddle with enough speed to track horizontally and vertically.
- Can quickly shift from pedals to kick-slides to vertical trails to match WRs in off-man.
- With his snappy lower-body motion, can suddenly plant and drive on in-breaking routes.
- Ultra-competitive two-phase defender who functions as a gnat in press and at stems.
- Launches into contact as a press-man defender, imposing physicality inside WRs’ frames.
- Can use targeted jams and jabs to squeeze WRs against the boundary and limit space.
- Has shown he can use arm bars to wall off WRs and high-point boundary 50-50 balls.
- Feisty and stubborn playmaking threat who matches physicality and is hard to displace.
- Surges downhill in RAC support with ravenous energy, playing beyond his frame.
- Able to violently latch and deconstruct run blocks, occluding outside running lanes.
- Can instantly recognize screens and wash past boundary blocks with bristling speed.
- Has the versatility to play the boundary or the slot with his movement style and tenacity.
Weaknesses
- Is slightly below-average size overall, with middling proportional length.
- Isn’t an elite size-adjusted athlete and can lose a step against more explosive WRs.
- Doesn’t quite have the high-end long speed to minimize vertical separation consistently.
- High-energy motion can yield an uncontrolled matching technique in press-man.
- Sometimes widens his base too early, locking his hips and allowing WRs to capitalize.
- Over-aggressive nature can lead him to bite on double moves and get burned downfield.
- Discipline in zone and off-man can improve, as hasty triggers can be used against him.
- Physicality can span to extraneous hand usage past the contact window, inviting flags.
- Sometimes holds and tugs at WRs to maintain positioning at the catch point.
- At times, can be late to get his head around and track the ball on the vertical plane.
- With his lighter frame and smaller wingspan, can’t always effectively wrap on tackles.
- Will likely need to weather volatility early in his career and be receptive to NFL coaching.
Current Draft Projection and Summary
Brownlee grades out as a fringe top-100 prospect in the 2024 NFL Draft. He could field interest as early as the mid-to-late Day 2 range, but he’d be an exceptionally good value acquisition early on Day 3 of the NFL Draft.
NFL coaches will swoon over Brownlee’s competitive mentality. In every phase of the game, Brownlee fights — whether it’s fighting to deconstruct a block in support, fighting to keep leverage, or fighting to maintain positioning at the catch point. And he’s more explosive than his testing would indicate.
Brownlee’s unending combative energy is unique to him alone. When combined with his elite short-area twitch and energy as a mover, it makes him a force to be reckoned with. Within that profile, he quietly has impressive coverage variability, reaction quickness in man coverage looks, corrective mechanics, and ball skills.
The unhinged aggression that Brownlee plays with can be a double-edged sword, particularly in coverage. Often, off-man and zone-coverage looks necessitate discipline, which runs counter to Brownlee’s opportunistic, over-aggressive play style — sometimes to a fault.
It’s not necessarily that Brownlee is a notorious big-play hunter; rather, he’ll need to learn how to channel his relentless motor better. His “all gas, no breaks” competitiveness is an extreme positive for an NFL defender, but there are times in off-man and zone where the glass case must stay over the big red button — at least for a few microseconds.
Nevertheless, if Brownlee can rein in that aggressive, authoritative mentality on a situational basis, he has the functional athleticism, coverage variability, elite corrective mobility, support voracity, and stubborn positioning as a playmaker to grow into a quality starter with boundary and nickel versatility.
All the 2024 NFL Draft resources you need — the draft order, the top QBs, the Top 100 prospects, and the full 2024 Big Board — right at your fingertips at Pro Football Network!