School: Ohio State
Year: Sr
Position: CB

Physical Attributes

• Height: 6-2
• Weight: 194
• RAS: Incomplete
• 40 Time: 4.48

Rankings

• Joe’s Ranking: 5.6
• Consensus Position Rank: 9
• My Position Ranking: 12
• Difference in Ranking: -3
• Tier: 7
• Projected Round: 6

Games Watched

• Texas ’24
• Oregon ’24

Ryan’s Notes

Positives

• He is one of the more experienced corners in this class who has seen it all over his time at Ohio State including a title run.
• He is a smooth mover through space with a tidy backpedal.
• Burke has an adequate understanding of route combinations to stay patient between them

Negatives

• Weak at tackling with an inability to even drag down receivers he has 20 lbs on. This is exacerbated against running backs who he has no chance against.
• Burke gives up run defense leverage too by failing contain, he did this too often to call it a mental mistake.
• Gets caught flat footed all too often including biting desperately at some double move set ups.
• This is found in his off-man coverage too where he has almost no feel for matching route speeds or reading when the receiver is going to drop anchor and turn.
• He was absolutely abused by the Oregon receivers, every single one of them had a big catch on him in a game where he gave up 3 touchdowns.
• Despite testing around average his play speed is well below that and his recovery speed is non-existent.
• Listed as a press corner but he gets manhandled at the line.
• He loses his balance when changing direction and takes false steps which should not be happening at his level.
• Denzel is certainly maxed out in terms of athleticism and offers very little upside.
• His zone turns are untidy, too slow and he loses significant amounts of ground when attempting them. This also tells me his hip speed is poor.
• He waits far too long to attack his keys, he can be in isolation to the wide side of the field and he still waits for the quarterback’s arm to stop his drop.
• Fails to fight through blocks and keeps himself out of the play.

Ryan’s Summary

Overall I don’t see Burke as anything other than a squad role player who can exist as a body to be used should you be put into a bad spot through injuries. He seems already maxed out in teams of coaching as his movement techniques are well established but he just doesn’t have any kind of athleticism or natural game breaking skills to apply these techniques to the game itself. He is borderline undraftable with how poor some of his tape is, in fact across the games I watched I was barely able to find a single redeemable quality. I see Burke as a litmus test to see who actually watches film and who goes by testing a reputation because he was well regarded but is now falling off the bottom of draft boards, his fall reminds me of fellow buckeye Shaun Wade who went through a similar career arc.