Patriots 2022 Draft Profile: Terrel Bernard Could be Perfect Draft Addition to Revamped LB Room

Against the inside run: Bernard lacks great bulk and strength to consistently take on blockers. His lack of size, play strength, and short arms lead to struggles with playing through contact. He has good gap discipline but struggles to consistently fulfill his duties because of struggles with taking on blockers. If he cannot take them on, he does display wiggle and short-area quickness to avoid climbing blockers and fill lanes inside. He does not consistently sink his hips and play behind his pads. This leads to shoddy tackling because he does not have the playing strength to compensate for poor technique when defending the inside.

Against the outside run: Bernard has impressive range and speed to go sideline to sideline. He takes good angles to the ball. While struggling against inside runs, Bernard is a very good tackler when it comes to the outside runs. He consistently wraps up and does not go for the big hit. His burst and closing speed stifle any runs to the outside by the RB. He does an excellent job working through trash well. Read and reacts quickly with no wasted movements.

Pass Rush ability: Bernard’s very good closing speed pops up on film when he is asked to blitz the QB. Bernard’s burst and acceleration makes QB’s rush through their progression and get the ball out before being sacked. Bernard is not an advanced rusher by any means, as most of his blitzes were free blitzes. He tends to just throw his body into the blocker. He does some of his best work as a looping blitzer. If he could learn some pass rush moves and create a pass rush plan that would really add to his value as a prospect. His lack of height and small target area could give taller tackles fits if he learns the nuances of this part of the game.

Pass Coverage: Bernard is such a fluid athlete that he can flip his hips and run with his man in coverage with ease. He provides sticky coverage sticking to the receiver’s hips like when players used to use Stickum. He displays very good closing burst when the ball is in the air. He drops into his zones quickly and has good route recognition, taking away the more explosive option in high/low concepts. His lateral agility and range are off the charts for a LB. For example, against Iowa State in 2020, Baylor ran a Cover 2 play. Bernard was able to use his ability to flip and run to get back into the hole in the zone which in Cover 2 it is the seam in the middle of the field. The QB thought he had an easy throw but decided to go elsewhere once Bernard filled that zone. Brian Urlacher had to do that a lot in Chicago under Lovie Smith. Can stop and go quickly, as well as change directions. Bernard covers a lot of ground and at times can be mistaken for a safety due to his slender frame for the position. When he gets nervous or out of position, Bernard can get handsy in coverage. This needs to be cleaned up to avoid drawing penalties at the next level.

Awareness, Smarts, Versatility, Durability: Bernard has poor eye discipline when it comes to diagnosing play-action passes. He consistently bites on them. In college, he could recover quickly due to his ability and the speed of the college game. At the NFL level, everything happens much faster, so this must be something he works on going forward. Overall, he has the smarts to sniff out run plays. In the passing game, he reads the eyes of the QB often, allowing his pass rush more time to hit home while the QB is busy patting the ball looking for options. Vocal linebacker, Bernard oversaw the front seven of Baylor’s defense constantly barking out orders and getting his teammates in the right position to be successful. Baylor ran multiple defensive schemes and Bernard lined up primarily as a nickel backer but has experience covering in the slot as well. He does have some injury history as he suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in 2020 and a foot injury that allowed him to redshirt in 2017.

Bottom-line: Modern-day linebacker with that hybrid linebacker/safety size-speed. Bernard is exactly what the NFL is looking for as the passing game gets increasingly prevalent each year. Bernard early on in his career could use a space-eater along the interior of his team’s defensive line to allow him to stay clean and maximize his ability in the run game early on. As he hits an NFL weight room and nutrition plan, he should get stronger. A captain of a talented and fast Baylor defense, Bernard can step in right away as a nickel backer (most teams are in nickel anyways) and be a demon on special teams’ coverage units. As he develops, Bernard should gain more base defense reps and his snap count should go up each year. Highly productive (had 2 separate 19 tackle games in 2020 and tied a Sugar Bowl record with 20 tackles to go along with 2 sacks this past season), Bernard has so many similarities to former Colts linebacker Cato June and Current Eagles Linebacker Kyzir White. I expect Bernard to be selected anywhere between late day 2 to early day 3 in the NFL Draft.