Tale of the Tape: What are the Lions getting in four-star Cristian Driver?
Check off yet another preferred target on Penn State football’s recruiting board for the Class of 2022.
On Thursday, the Nittany Lions picked up Cristian Driver, the 229th ranked player in the nation by Rivals, and the son of former Green Bay Packers Pro Bowl receiver Donald Driver.
The younger Driver chose Penn State over Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M and Wisconsin, earning offers from 43 schools nationally. The biggest question is not what the four-star player brings to Penn State, but rather what position he'll bring it to.
It seems that Driver is a split decision at this point between safety and receiver. So, let's take a look at his skills for both positions and see what might work best for the 6-foot-1, 170-pound standout from Liberty Christian in Argyle, Texas.
Strengths:
Closing Speed/Burst: Cliches are never fun and it’s cliche to say a player is just like his NFL father. Yet Cristian is a carbon copy of Donald in so many ways. The younger Driver is an agile, explosive athlete with a great short-area burst. As a receiver, this means he eats up cushion and can get by defensive backs with ease. As a safety, it makes him a heat-seeking missile of a tackler.
Route Running at Wide Receiver: What would you expect? Driver is a precise route runner with crisp cuts and sudden transitions. He’s super efficient and does a marvelous job creating separation with advanced position skills like head-fakes and shoulder shakes. His footwork is superb and truthfully he was criminally underused in his high school offense.
Recognition & Pursuit at Safety: It’s not just the closing burst that makes Driver a legitimately great candidate to be a safety, but he’s also an incredibly smart player who recognizes routes, formations, and plays. He can trigger downhill to the ball almost before the quarterback is winding up to deliver a pass. That sort of anticipation, plus his speed, make him a difference-maker in the flats as a coverage player.
Agility: Driver is so well trained and fun to watch. His positional skills as both a receiver and safety are married with great, fluid movements that naturally flow to the football. As a receiver, he can cut suddenly and transition his momentum well. As a safety, it’s clear that he can potentially play in the slot and be a versatile coverage weapon who can handle man matchups with receivers.
Related: 10 things to know following Cristian Driver's commitment to PSU
Areas of Development
Top-end speed: Like father like son can have its disadvantages. Driver is a good athlete but is not a superior physical presence nor a top-end speed athlete. He has a recorded 100-meter dash time of 12.03 seconds which is good but not special. The hope is that as he gains muscle mass and has more training he can increase his top-end speed. As an athlete, that’s one of a very small list of things missing from his profile.
Breaking tackles at receiver: Chalk this up as an area we simply need to see more of. Driver is used much less on offense than he is on defense and his ability to break tackles is inconsistent on those plays. With more opportunities, this could be something he could add to his profile going forward. Without great top-end speed, Driver will need it to be a highly effective receiver.
Zone Coverage/Ball Production at safety: Driver is a force as a flat and box defender at safety but there’s not a lot of ball production on his film. Part of this comes down to his usage pattern. He was used so much in spy coverage and floated around the box on film that he didn’t have the chance to show his reaction skills as a safety in deep coverage. He’ll likely never profile as an elite center-fielding safety that can run sideline to sideline, but he needs to show he has the anticipation and ball skills in coverage to make plays with the ball in the air.
Projection:
Boundary Safety: The Liberty Christian defense used Driver similarly to how Penn State uses its boundary safety. Drivers shows the downhill trigger, tackling, and pursuit skills, and has the frame to be a great project at this position. It also would help to have the smartest most well-schooled player operating the secondary and setting the defense. Driver can be all of those things with some promising potential as a man defender.
Boundary/Possession Receiver: I typically don’t root for things to happen but Driver’s route-running skills are some of the best I’ve seen in recent years by a Penn State recruit and I have a soft spot for the position. It sounds like Penn State will allow him to try his hand at receiver so he can pursue his dream of following in his dad’s footsteps. Without top-end speed, Driver will always be seen as a good, but not great prospect in regards to the NFL. However, winning is about more than tangible skills and Driver will have all of the intangibles in his favor to make it work.
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