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GENERAL REPORT: GRADE: 6.1
Body Structure: Casillas has a lean frame and does not have much more room to get bigger. He has slender calves with big, muscular thighs, good chest definition, solid arm muscles, tight waist and hips.
Athletic Ability: Casillas has very good foot speed and balance. He shows good change of direction agility and is quick and sudden closing when he locates the ball. He is a player that is lacking in bulk and strength, but not in speed. He is a coordinated runner who plays quicker than his timed speed and has a good burst to roam the field. He is a normal strider who plays with good knee bend, but lacks the strength to gain leverage. He is a decent space player with a good short-area burst. He has safety-like moves, as he can stay on the hip of a receiver throughout the route and also shows good concept for taking angles when trying get to running backs in the flat. GRADE: 6.5
Football Sense: Casillas has a strong grasp of the playbook and knows all of the linebacker position assignments, having experience playing both the strong and weak side. He has the quickness and instincts to walk out in space to cover a detached back. He reacts quickly to what he sees and you do not see any hesitation once he locates the ball. He learns and retains plays well. Even when nursing his knee injury last year, he showed patience waiting for the play to develop and is very good at eyeballing the quarterback. He is also quite effective at getting to runners along the corners, doing a nice job of disrupting the action, especially on wheel routes. He keeps a tight relationship covering receivers in the short area and has the vision and range to track down runners at the opposite side of the field. GRADE: 6.6
Character: Casillas is a respectful individual who comes from a solid and supportive family. He is respected in the locker room and has natural leadership qualities. That is why it was curious the circumstances from his August 2008 arrest. He was cited for driving a moped while under the influence. A preliminary report showed Casillas had a blood alcohol concentration of .15. The legal limit in Wisconsin is .08. In addition to be cited for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, he was cited for having a passenger on his moped and for having a prohibited alcohol concentration. "I know better than that," Casillas said. "This is my fourth year here I know you can't double-scoot. I know you can't be intoxicated while operating a vehicle. That's all on me. I apologized to my teammates and to my coaches. The worst part was I had to break it to my mother. I learned from it. I should never have done it to begin with." GRADE: 5.3
Competitiveness: Casillas is an aggressive competitor who plays with the enthusiasm of a child opening gifts on Christmas. His motor is constantly running and he has no concern for his own safety, if it means making the tackle. He loves to compete and shows it with his solid game preparation. He seems to play consistently in all game situations and is an enthusiastic tackler who will not back down from a challenge, despite strength issues and competing with knee problems in 2008. GRADE: 6.4
Work Habits: His coaches called him a true student of the game. A natural leader, he set a good example for the younger players by showing them that by doing all the little things, they could make themselves better. He stays in shape and takes pride in his play, but needs to dedicate extra hours in the weight room to increase his adequate strength (good weight room numbers, but it does not translate to the field). GRADE: 6.0
ATHLETIC REPORT: GRADE: 6.13
Key and Diagnostic Skills: Casillas is a student of the game and is a very quick reader. He is aggressive getting to the ball and makes good adjustments on the move. He plays with good intensity and a high motor, but his lack of strength and size are concerns, especially when he tries to battle linemen in the trenches. He has good vision and ball anticipation skills, as he is generally in position to make the play. He is quick to react to keys and is the type that will patiently wait on misdirection rather than over-commit. GRADE: 7.0
Playing Strength and Explosion: Casillas has good weight room strength, but because of his size, he will generally get engulfed by bigger blockers. He is a good finesse-type of tackler, but must get more physical in his play to compete at the next level. He is just too undersized and lacks the power to be constantly battling in the trenches. He is best playing on the move, as he is constantly stonewalled in attempts to engage an offensive lineman. He has decent strength behind his hand punch, but gets mashed and mauled when trying to split double teams. He shows good hand extension in attempts to gain separation, but must generate more power behind his arm swipes. He competes with good intensity, but is usually stymied working inside. GRADE: 5.0
Lateral Pursuit/Range: Casillas has very good speed and athletic ability to make plays sideline-to-sideline. He sifts through trash and has a sudden burst to close. He can knife through on the block, but can be stopped when he is contested. He demonstrates lateral quickness and has the burst to slip through tight areas. He flies around in pursuit and shows the range and change of direction agility to get in front of the ball carrier to make the tackle in space. GRADE: 6.7
Use of Hands: Casillas usually plays on the weak side, but shows good hand usage to reroute receivers or disengage from smaller blockers. He is active with his hands and gets good placement, but does not generate enough power to control an offensive lineman and makes only passive swipes attempting to shed blocks. He lacks natural hands, but has good leaping ability to get to the ball at its highest point, doing a nice job of extending away from his framework in attempts to snatch and pluck the ball (will usually whiff, resulting in a pass break-up rather than a theft, though). GRADE: 6.2
Tackling Ability: While Casillas throws his body around and plays with abandon, he lacks power behind his hits. He is a sound wrap-up tackler who has some explosion on contact, but doesn't have the strength to make an arm tackle inside. He is effective in his backside pursuit, and compensates for marginal power with his ability to generate a burst to slip off and avoid blockers. He struggles to shed, but plays under control. GRADE: 5.8
Run Defense: Casillas shows good take-on ability matching up with a lead blocker, but when challenged by the bigger linemen he will run around the blocker or take a wrong shoulder and lose leverage. He needs to do a better job of breaking down in space, but can pursue and chase the outside run back in when the play is away from him. He makes good attempts to fill the holes quickly, but gets pin-balled by the offensive linemen due to strength issues. He has a decent feel inside the box, but has to take good angles to elude, as he cannot stack or control. He might squeeze a tight end every now or then, but it is useless for him to attempt that vs. an offensive tackle or he will be mauled. He shows a good motor and quick burst to get to the sidelines and plays faster than his timed speed. GRADE: 5.7
Pass Defense: Casillas is very alert to the quarterback when dropping back in pass coverage. He has more than enough speed to blanket the tight end and runs tight on the hip of receivers during wheel routes downfield. He anticipates the play well and shows good urgency coming up to impact on underneath routes. Due to a lack of bulk and because of his impressive timed speed, some teams might even look at him as a strong safety, where his lack of strength playing in the box would not be an issue. He has the quickness and the change of direction agility to run with backs and tight ends up the seam and has the speed to get depth in his pass drop. He is flexible and fluid working in space, showing the vision and ability to play under control. He also shows good hip snap to accelerate quickly coming out of his backpedal. GRADE: 6.7
Zone Defense: Casillas shows the instincts and good anticipation skills to jump the route or play the ball. He is very aware of patterns developing and comes off the ball quickly to gain position and handle the receivers on crossing routes. He shows good zone drop awareness with above average pattern read ability. He also shows a good burst to close. GRADE: 6.6
Pass Rush and Blitz: While he gets good blitz acceleration coming off the edge, his lack of strength will see him get washed out on plays, unless he gets a clear lane into the backfield. He has no power to generate an inside pass rush and has to rely on his speed in order to gain any type of advantage. He tries to use his hands to create separation, but does not have the power behind his hits to do so. His only redeeming quality is to use his speed in order to get a chance of making the play around the corner. GRADE: 5.5
Compares To: JARRAD PAGE, Kansas City -- If Casillas is moved to strong safety, his value to an NFL team will probably be much higher than as a weak-side linebacker, where he will be limited to just Cover-2 schemes. He has above average speed for either safety or linebacker and shows excellent sideline-to-sideline range. He plays faster than his timed speed and has a natural feel for tight ends, wide receivers and running backs in their routes. He plays with good instincts and makes plays in space. He will try to fill the rush lanes with no hesitation, but the results are marginal as he is generally mauled by the blockers due to a lack of playing strength. He plays under control and has a short burst to close and plays with good awareness working in the zone. He lacks natural hands for the interception, but he generates good acceleration coming out of his backpedal.
OVERALL GRADE: 6.14
--Report by Dave-Te' Thomas
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