Name: TJ Tampa

School: Iowa State

Year: Senior

Position: Cornerback

Measurables: 6007 189 9 5/8” hands 32 1/8 arms 78 5/8” wingspan

Combine: (Pro day) 4.58 40, 4.07 short shuttle, 6.97 3-cone

Stats:

Courtesy of Sports-Reference.com

General Info:

Tampa was a three-star recruit from Saint Petersburg, Florida, where he played both defensive back and wide receiver and also played basketball. He chose Iowa State over Georgia, Maryland, Wake Forest, Cincinnati and Rutgers. As a freshman he played mostly special teams, collecting just five tackles from scrimmage on the season. In 2021 Tampa started five games on the season and put up 18 tackles and three PBUs. The Florida native started every game in 2022 and had his first interception, and he also forced a fumble at the goal line against Iowa. For his final season he started every game again and was named First-Team All-Big 12 and Third-Team All-American. The former Cyclone sat out his team’s bowl game, and was not able to participate at the combine due to a hamstring injury he sustained training for the combine.

Positional Skills:

Strengths

Tampa has good size (he played around 200 pounds) and long arms; that show up on film. He can play some in the slot. The former Cyclone plays with some pop in his pads and will lay the wood on some receivers. Tampa plays a physical brand of football and will take on blockers and either defeat them or slip past them. He has quick feet that allow him to change direction smoothly and easily. The former three-star plays hard most of the time and doesn’t give up on a play. Tampa is at his best in press man and likes to get his hands on receivers. He has even taken some snaps in the box and due to his size and physicality he could probably play some there as well. He also has experience playing bail technique, which is used sometimes in the NFL. Tampa also does well at staying in phase with the receiver and not giving the quarterback any window to throw to, you can see this by his low target and completion rate (only 49 targets and 51% completed). On film he has shown he can press with either one arm or two. In coverage he shows to be calm on film, and does not panic. Tampa has solid leaping ability to knock away passes. The Florida native is not easily fooled by double moves, hop steps or foot fires. He also has a short memory and does not let the previous play affect him.

Weaknesses

His deep speed is somewhat lacking, and you can see that in his 40 time. Tampa did have some struggles with tackling this past season missing 10, because he developed a bad habit of ducking his head and going for a kill shot/shoulder tackle instead of wrapping up. His aggressiveness can cause his to overrun or leave gaps open in the run game. Iowa State did not play a lot of zone, so Tampa is lacking some experience there. The Florida native does have a tendency to rise out of his back pedal and play too high. When a play goes away from him or there is a pile, he will stand around occasionally. Like most corners that like to press and get their hands on receivers he can skirt the line at times and could get called for some PI’s in the NFL. His timing when trying to jump to bat away a pass can be off sometimes.

Fit with the Packers:

TJ Tampa is a solid fit for Green Bay’s new defense, because he is a big, strong, man-cover press type cornerback which fits Hafley’s scheme almost to a T, the only thing he is lacking is the speed they prefer. Despite his slow 40 time he doesn’t play that slow and the poor time is probably due to not being 100% from his hamstring injury, but even still his speed on film is probably in the 4.5 range which is average. Looking at his size you would think he is this big stiff outside corner, but he’s not, he has the quickness of a 5’10 180-pound corner and you can see that on film when he has faced quicker receivers. It was a small sample size, but Tampa can play some ‘big nickel’ in certain packages, but even with that he will primarily be an outside corner. The former Cyclone is more of a shutdown corner than a play making corner, think Mike McKenzie. He is not going to have a lot of interceptions, but will have a decent amount of PBUs. If he can improve on those small things he could be a really solid starting corner in the NFL.

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