Summary

Jermod McCoy (20 years old) is a cornerback who began his college career at Oregon State (2023) before transferring to Tennessee in 2024. In his most recent season in which he appeared (2024), McCoy emerged as Tennessee’s top perimeter cover defender, with 44 tackles, 4 interceptions, 13 passes defended and allowing a stingy 45.9% completion percentage when targeted. His 2024 performance earned him All-SEC recognition and elevated his profile as one of the program’s most dependable coverage pieces, building on his developmental foundation from Oregon State prior to the transfer. McCoy has maintained solid academic standing and is widely viewed as a competitive, detail-oriented defender whose confidence, preparation habits, and practice intensity have drawn praise from coaches, with no publicly reported significant off-field incidents. Teammates frequently point to his resilience and short-memory mentality at the position as indicators of strong makeup and professional approach. From an injury standpoint, McCoy’s 2025 season was derailed by a significant Torn ACL knee injury during offseason training in East Texas that kept him out of action, making his recovery and long-term durability a key evaluation point moving forward.

Strengths

Lockdown: Uses long arms effectively at the line of scrimmage to jam and crowd receivers early in routes. Comfortable working the sideline and using it as an extra defender.
Fluid Hips: Opens and flips smoothly, allowing him to stay in phase on vertical routes or transition inside on in-breaking routes with ease. Displays the burst to close space if initially beaten off the line.
Ball Skills: Tracks the football well downfield and times his hands to disrupt completions. Reads quarterback eyes and positions himself to squeeze throwing windows.
Goldfish: Plays with confidence and challenges receivers snap after snap. Has a short term memory and won’t go into the mind blender if he allows a play.

Weaknesses

Durability Concerns: Missed the entire 2025 season due to injury, raising legitimate questions about long-term health, recovery, and sustained durability. Some teams may drop him lower on their boards due to the fear of the recent unknown.
Eye Discipline in Zone: Eager to bite on a double move, but fortunately has (had?) the recovery chops to get back into phase quickly.
Grabby Pattys: Physical coverage style can flirt with penalties if hand usage isn’t controlled.
Perimeter Prowess: Needs improvement disengaging from blocks and finishing as a wrapper in run support. Also limited in his ability to blitz from an island.

Outlook

McCoy projects as a long, fluid boundary defender with twitchy change-of-direction ability, competitive ball skills, and the recovery speed to stay attached vertically, giving him starter upside on the outside. He fits best in press-man and match-heavy zone schemes that allow him to use his length at the line, disrupt timing, and carry vertical routes, while still having the awareness to function in Cover 3 and quarters looks. Having not played football in over a year makes McCoy’s value difficult to pin, but most likely he ends up selected by a team in the first round who just can’t pass up on his mouth-watering potential.

Pro Comparison: Jaycee Horn

Team Fits: MIA, DAL, LAR, NYJ, TEN

Report written by Filip Prus