Urban Meyer explains what Andre Cisco brings to the table
Jacksonville waited to address its need at safety until its pick at the top of the third round, and though it missed on a player like TCU’s Trevon Moehrig, it came away with one of the draft’s top safeties in Andre Cisco.
A big-time playmaker in college at Syracuse who totaled 13 interceptions in his 24 games, Cisco likely would have found himself off the board much earlier were it not for injury concerns. He missed all but two games in 2020 with a season-ending lower-leg injury, and he missed three games the prior year due to injuries, as well.
But the Jags took the risk in selecting Cisco with the 65th pick, and it seems coach Urban Meyer is thrilled with what he brings to the table, drawing several lofty comparisons to players he coached in college.
“Well, I tell you what, he’s a guy we just all fell in love with,” Meyer said. “Before that injury, he’s — I had Malik Hooker at Ohio State — and he’s the best overlap player I thought in the draft. We used to call Reggie Nelson the eraser, he makes a lot of things right. Best ball skills we felt in the back end of the draft. We had a couple incredible Zoom calls with him. Great background, great character and if he wasn’t injured, I think that was a value pick. We’re real pleased with that.”
Cisco wasn’t the only selection the team made with some risk involved. Offensive tackle Walker Little from Stanford, the team’s selection at No. 45, missed nearly the entire 2019 season with an injury and chose to opt-out of the 2020 season.
He said the decision to pull the trigger on guys who had been out of action so long was a bit difficult for him, but he’s pleased with the potential upside of the picks.
“(It was) Very hard and I needed help with that, to be quite honest,” Meyer said. “We had to do as much intel as we could, but if you look at sheer talent, I think the two guys Walker and Cisco, yeah it was really hard. I’d much rather have those guys in, spend time with them, but the good thing is we have great connections with Cisco and we had great connections with Stanford and Walker Little.”
The quality of this draft class outside of quarterback Trevor Lawrence will largely be judge based on how some of the riskier selections like Cisco’s work out. But if the injuries prove not to be an issue, Jacksonville may have landed a very good starting safety in the middle of the draft.
