“Checking the Tape” is a weekly series that highlights the Ole Miss football team’s offseason acquisitions. Whether it’s coaches, transfers or recruits, sports writer Owen Pustell goes in-depth and analyzes each individual. This week, Pustell takes a look at transfer cornerback Zamari Walton.
Height/Weight/Position: 6’3/185/CB
2022 Stats: 36 tackles, 7 PBUs, 1 INT
Strengths:
The best trait I saw from Walton in film was his ability to stick with receivers on vertical routes.
He’s a naturally long player at 6-foot-3, and he uses his arms to disrupt route runners and carry them upfield. He does a great job of bracketing his man against the sideline and not allowing enough separation to tempt a pass.
Walton also has generally strong footwork. He rarely allowed WRs to get inside of him with their release and did a good job matching footwork to avoid getting caught out of step.
For his size, Walton does a pretty good job of reacting to breaks. His naturally high frame can make it difficult to stick with players, but he generally sticks well to in-breaking routes. There will be times Walton gets caught standing up and simply can’t drop his hips in time to react, but that usually comes with a player of his style.
Weaknesses:
As seems to be an issue with every Ole Miss transfer, Walton is not a particularly good tackler. His slender frame means he doesn’t get good “pop” on contact, and he is prone to miss on RBs when coming up to the line of scrimmage. Walton does not engage blocks violently and can get caught up on WRs blocking on the boundary.
Walton would become lockdown on deep balls if he were able to turn his head around with better timing. Though he is usually locked onto his man, his head rarely turns towards the ball, which means that he can get picked on and is vulnerable to soft pass interference calls.
The only receiver I saw that really gave Walton trouble was Johnny Wilson at FSU. Wilson is a size anomaly listed at 6-foot-7, 235 lbs. Walton struggled to be physical with Wilson and gave up some receptions, but I doubt that there will be another matchup like that.
There are some cases of Walton getting caught with poor eye-discipline in zone coverage, but Georgia Tech played mostly man coverage so that was not a prominent issue.
2023 Outlook:
In my book, Walton is currently a favorite to start next season. His size makes him a great match for taller WRs, and he does a good job keeping QBs’ eyes away from the sideline. Players who can take away a section of the field (in Walton’s case, the numbers to sideline) free up other defenders. By funneling QBs to the middle of the field, Walton gives safeties more freedom to jump routes and occupy the post area.
Fun Fact:
Walton comes from a football family. His cousin, Reggie Nelson, was a first-round pick in 2007, while his other cousin, Joe Cohen, was a fourth-round selection in the same draft. Walton is also academically driven as he was a member of the ACC academic honor roll.
