Shavon Revel Jr. Doesn’t Score First Round Grade

There’s a lot to like about East Carolina cornerback Shavon Revel Jr., and there are a handful of concerns that are just too much to ignore on his 2023 and 2024 game film.

Revel missed most of the 2024 season with a torn ACL suffered on Sept 20. Per Yahoo.com, the injury would require surgery. This setback came on the heels of Revel having groin surgery in the prior off-season.

A torn ACL is a big deal.

“There must be an understanding he may not be ready for the start of the regular season as he rehabs from his injury,” according to pantherswire.usatoday.com.

If you read most of what’s out there on Revel, who declared for the 2025 NFL Draft on Nov. 22, there is little said about his recovery timetable as draft media is making a strong push to get this cornerback selected in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft.

CBS, 33rd Team, Pro Football Network, Bleacher Report, SB Nation, Fox Sports, SI, Draftwire, Sporting News, USA Today, The Athletic, Pro Football Focus, Yahoo, and NBC Sports have all mocked Revel into the first round since the date of his injury (nflmockdraftdatabase.com).

Revel has also accepted an invitation to the 100th East West Shine game on January 30, which Dane Brugler described on Twitter X as a “great opportunity for face time with NFL teams.” That’s because as Brugler added on this Nov. 27 post Revel is “still on the mend from ACL surgery.”

Who did he line up against?

Revel was a three-star JUCO transfer (247Sports.com), which tells me he didn’t dominate at that level of competition.

He has since put up decent numbers at East Carolina against the schedule he faced there. Revel defended 15 passes and had three interceptions in 20 games while facing only two top-25 teams (No. 2 Michigan and No. 23 Tulane in 2023).

What stands out is he didn’t face any elite “NFL type” of receivers.

The level of competition is a piece of the evaluation puzzle.

How did Revel look on film?

Revel is a physical and sticky press-man cornerback through and through. These are corners that come right up on receivers pre-snap and are assigned to stick to them like glue, one-on-one.

It was almost impossible for the receivers Revel lined up against to beat him on deep straight-line vertical routes.

However, Revel did show slight rigidity while changing direction and he tended to be a little too hesitant reacting to the ball in off-man and zone coverage, often arriving after the damage had been done. Off-man coverage is when cornerbacks line up a few yards off their assigned receiver pre-snap and are assigned to cover them one-on-one. In zone coverage, defenders are assigned certain “areas of the field” to defend instead of being locked up one-on-one.

Revel also had a tough time catching the ball.

He had no problem getting involved in run support.

NFL Projection

The problem is nobody knows what the post-injury version of Revel will look like until he puts on an NFL helmet.

That scares me, especially at cornerback.

All I can do is make an educated guess while being mindful of the demands of the position. NFL cornerbacks are on an island. It’s a position that involves the ability to make split-second reactionary changes of direction, which will require Revel to do so on his surgically repaired knee.

Best advice to teams who play a press-man defensive scheme?

Mitigate the risk.

#28 Shavon Revel 6-foot-3, 193 pounds

Daniel Kelly’s Final 2025 NFL Draft Grade: Second-Round (I wouldn’t select him)

M (MEDICAL RISK)

Projected by 46.9% of the NFL Draft Community to be a first-round pick as of December 21, 2024 (nflmockdraftdatabase.com)

2023 game film evaluated: Michigan, Gardner-Webb, Rice, SMU, and Tulane (click to view games watched to form this evaluation)

2024 game film evaluated: Norfolk and Old Dominion

2025 NFL Draft Scouting Report (Pre-Injury)

Aggressive corner with long arms and good straight-line speed. Put on a clinic vs. SMU (best game). Light on his feet. A mix of press and off-man coverage assignments with limited zone exposure. Uses hands. Likes to impede receivers. Excellent job maintaining inside-out leverage on straight-line vertical routes. Has get up and go. Tends to provide too much cushion in off-man. No burst or additional recovery speed once he falls into a trail position. Looked average blitzing. Tends to come in high when providing support.

Final words

It’s premature to label Revel as the next Quinyon Mitchell (Eagles cornerback).

Daniel Kelly is a former NFL Scout with the New York Jets. He was hired on the regime which featured Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, Scott Pioli, Mike Tannenbaum, and Dick Haley. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief for First Round Mock, and has written for Sports Illustrated (Lions, Jets, and 49ers), NFL Draft Diamonds, and Yardbarker, as well as a featured guest on ESPN Radio and Fox Sports Radio. For more information about him visit his website at whateverittakesbook.com. Follow on Twitter @firstroundmock.