Scouting Jets UDFA defensive back Javelin Guidry

Over past month or so, we’ve been providing an in-depth scouting report for each of the Jets’ undrafted free agents. We continue today with defensive back Javelin Guidry.

The 21-year old Guidry, who is listed at 5’9” and 191 pounds, played college football at Utah and was a two-time all-Pac 12 honorable mention. He started 25 games and intercepted three passes in three seasons with the Utes.

Background

Guidry attended two high schools in Texas and one in California, where he was best known as a track athlete. He eventually opted to play football at Utah.

In his freshman year, Guidry made four starts as the team’s nickel back and recorded 31 tackles, four passes defensed and an interception.

His role increased in his sophomore season, as Guidry started nine games and recorded 41 tackles and an interception. He also set career-highs in passes defensed (nine) and tackles for loss (2.5). He was named as an honorable mention all-Pac 12 selection.

In 2019, Guidry started a career-high 12 games and posted a career-best 48 tackles. He again had one interception, adding six passes defensed. Once again he was an all-conference honorable mention.

Guidry opted to enter the draft as an underclassman but ended up going undrafted despite an impressive performance at the scouting combine. The Jets signed him as an undrafted free agent, guaranteeing him $47,000.

Let’s move onto some more in-depth analysis of what Guidry brings to the table, based on in-depth research and film study.

Measurables/Athleticism

Guidry’s combine performance is basically unprecedented. He ran 4.29 in the 40-yard dash and posted 21 bench press reps, making him the only person in combine history with a sub-4.3 40-time and over 20 bench press reps.

His speed is unquestionable as Guidry once ran a 10.13 in the 100 meters and won a state title. He finished sixth in the Winter 2019 US Indoor Championship in the 60 meters, having earlier qualified with a time that was the seventh-fastest in the world that year.

His strength, on the other hand, is less certain because it doesn’t really show up on film despite the solid bench numbers.

Guidry doesn’t have great size or length and didn’t perform the other disciplines at the combine.

Usage

Guidry has primarily played in the slot during his career at Utah and that seems most likely to be his role at the NFL level due to his lack of size, but he would also have the range to potentially play safety.

In high school, Guidry played on both sides of the ball. He was also a productive running back.

Coverage skills

Guidry has the speed to stay with anyone on a deep route and possesses quick feet to change direction. However, he will tend to rely on his speed too much by reacting to the receiver and then banking on his ability to recover. This can lead to some negative plays.

His coverage numbers have been pretty solid overall, though. He’s given up a 67 percent completion rate when targeted, which isn’t bad for a slot corner. He gave up just 10 yards per reception, only six touchdowns in three years and no plays of longer than 40 yards.

As a freshman, Guidry made an instant impact in a rotational role. He returned his first career interception for this touchdown.

Guidry shows an ability to stay with his man and then make a play on the ball on this crossing route.

In all, his film gives the impression of a player with good tools who is crying out for some more detailed coaching to try and sharpen up some of his flaws.

Ball skills

Guidry has shown an ability to make a play on the ball with good hand-eye coordination and timing and, as noted, he does have good recovery speed. In all, he had 19 passes defensed in college.

He has trouble when he faces an athletic receiver and doesn’t have the time to recover. On this play, for example, he doesn’t have time to get his head turned so he can make a play on the ball.

Although he never had more than one interception in a season, Guidry showed some nice hands on this play.

Tackling

Guidry has had decent production with 120 career tackles over three seasons and a good ability to close on ball carriers to bring them down.

He does have a habit of hitting rather than wrapping up at times, though, which is something he’ll need to clean up at the next level. He did reduce his number of missed tackles from six in 2018 to three last year, though.

While his range is obviously good, he will occasionally take bad angles and can overpursue at times.

Guidry displayed some good technique to rip the ball loose for this forced fumble.

Physicality

Guidry displays some good physicality and competitiveness at times, but will take it too far on occasion. He had eight career penalties, including four last season. Three of those four were for defensive holding, including two in the Utes’ bowl game.

On this play, Guidry loses his man and clatters into him for a pass interference penalty as he desperately tries to recover. The receiver made the catch anyway.

Guidry can make some good hits as a tackler, but sometimes has issues getting off blocks.

Run defense

Guidry hasn’t contributed much as a run defender, with just a couple of stops each season. However, he shows a willingness to come up and make plays in clean-up.

He’s become better at avoiding blocks over the past year or so. On this play, Guidry is able to work his way through heavy traffic to get to the ball carrier.

Blitzing

Guidry might blitz once or twice a game and had a few pressures or hits each season. However, he only had one-half sack, which came on this play.

With his sprinting background, he could be effective in terms of bursting off the edge to close and make a play.

Special teams

Special teams will be important for Guidry as he tries to make the Jets and he’s had experience in a number of roles in his career so far, albeit with modest production.

As a freshman, Guidry was mostly used to rush punts or as a vice on the punt unit, but he worked as a punt gunner in 2018. Last season, Guidry played on the kick coverage unit and recorded three tackles.

He also had some kick return experience in high school but didn’t do this at Utah.

Instincts/Intelligence

Guidry shows some good abilities to read and react, such as on this play where he’s one step ahead of what the offensive is running.

If he can make quick reads then this enables him to get out in front of blocks and mitigate the fact that he lacks the size to shed them.

However, scouting reports note that Guidry will get caught out in zone coverage from time to time, so it will be important for him to get comfortable within the Jets’ zone-heavy systems.

Attitude

Guidry is considered to have good character and leadership abilities. He has considerable competitive drive and focus. It was particularly impressive that he put up such a good bench press number at the combine without sacrificing any speed. That was testament to the amount of work he had put in.

Injuries

Guidry hasn’t had any injury issues so far in his career. He played in 41 of 41 games while at Utah.

Scheme Fit

As noted above, Guidry will most likely compete for a role at the slot cornerback position with the Jets.

We’ve previously noted how the Jets appear to be targeting personnel who are well-suited to a zone heavy system in their secondary. Guidry has played some zone coverage but needs to develop his awareness and positional sense.

He hasn’t been a teammate of or been coached by anyone currently in the Jets organization.

Conclusions

Guidry will immediately be one of the best athletes on the roster and the team will take a close look at him to see if they can harness those abilities.

He has plenty of rawness to his game and will have to be considered a developmental project in the short term, but hopefully any issues that he has are fixable.

He will be an interesting player to watch in preseason, but ultimately it may come down to how much he can contribute on special teams as to how long he sticks around.