Bobby Okereke, Rock Ya-Sin, Chase McLaughlin Named To Pro Football Focus' All-Rookie Team

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Rock Ya-Sin | Cornerback


Per PFF: "Looking at the season from start to finish, Ya-Sin hasn’t had a smooth ride to a spot on the All-Rookie Team. A 55.0 coverage grade through the first nine weeks of the season set him back, but we saw improvement from the Temple product as the campaign wore on. From Week 10 through the end of the season, Ya-Sin picked up a 76.1 coverage grade while allowing just a 67.7 passer rating into his coverage. That’s the kind of performance the Colts expected when drafting him in the second round, and it’s what they’ll look for next season."


As the Colts' first pick in the 2019 draft, Ya-Sin was thrown right into the fire. He played more defensive snaps than any other Colts player (853), and although he had some up-and-down moments, he has given the team clear reason for optimism.


Ya-Sin started 13-of-15 games and produced 61 tackles (two for loss), one fumble recovered, one interception and five pass breakups. PFF charted him as allowing 36-of-56 pass targets (64.3 percent) for 555 yards (15.4 avg.) and just 3.7 yards after catch per reception. Among all full-time NFL cornerbacks, he was tied for the eighth-most penalties (nine), but also was tied for the seventh-most "stops," which PFF considers to be failed plays by the offense. Ya-Sin also had the seventh-best tackling grade among cornerbacks (82.2).


PFF's No. 46 rookie played the third-most snaps in the NFL among rookie cornerbacks, earning the sixth-best grade, and totaling the most stops, second-most tackles, ninth-best catch rate and opponent passer rating (101.4).


"He had some really good moments, and he had some ugly moments," Ballard said about Ya-Sin. "Let me tell you what I love about this kid: he's exactly what we thought he was gonna be in terms of grit and toughness. I mean, holy crap, you line up 16 games, man, and we lined him up and asked him to play some great players. All he does is work, he just works... Good day, 'I'm gonna keep workin'.' Bad day, 'I'm gonna keep workin'. That's why he's gonna get better."


A good example is in a couple of late-season matchups in which Ya-Sin held high-end receivers DeVante Parker and D.J. Moore to zero receptions on four targets, breaking up two passes.


"I thought in the Jacksonville game, he gives up the deep shot where he got stacked and shouldn't have gotten stacked, but saying that, I thought the last part of the season he played pretty well," Ballard continued. "He was getting better and ascending. It'll be a big offseason for him. But no, we're happy with Rock. We're happy where he's going, happy how he's growing. That's hard for a rookie now, firing him in there the way that we did."