On Friday night, Rutgers Football cornerback Max Melton was selected in the second round with the No. 43 overall pick by the Arizona Cardinals.
With that being said, let's take a look at how Melton got to this point.
MELTON'S RECRUITMENT....
Rutgers became Max Melton's first offer in his high school recruitment as he earned the scholarship back in June of 2017 from then Head Coach Chris Ash. All things sounded like he would end up on the banks, as his older brother Bo Melton was already on campus as one of the program's top wide receivers. However in the end, Ash had some serious struggles and the program tanked a bit, thus leaving Melton to look elsewhere for his recruitment.
Melton would eventually then go on to commit to Purdue in July 2019 and it seemed like he was all in on the Boilermakers, that was until about a two weeks before National Signing Day, Rutgers would go on to hire Greg Schiano, secondary coach Fran Brown and the duo would go all in on trying to flip Melton and they did just that last minute. He flipped on December 11th, 2019 and would go to sign with the Scarlet Knights just a little over a week later. The rest was history.
MELTON'S TIME AT RUTGERS....
The South Jersey native spent four seasons on the banks appearing in 43 games (40 starts), while accumulating 111 total tackles (81 solo), 8.5 tackles for loss, 22 pass deflections, eight interceptions, four fumble recoveries and one forced fumble.
He also earned several honors such as 2023 Honorable Mention All-Big Ten (Coaches & Media), 2022 Honorable Mention All-Big Ten (Coaches & Media) and 2021 Fourth Team All-Big Ten (Phil Steele).
Melton was a multi-year starter for the Scarlet Knights and had a pretty solid career as a cornerback, mostly as the team's top cornerback at times going up against some stiff competition and he had some challenging moments at times, but in the end
WHAT DOES MELTON BRING TO THE NFL?
Greg Schiano on Max Melton “I think Max has all the tools to be a really, really good cornerback in the NFL. He can play inside, can play outside, he’s a good special teams player, he just love football and he’s just a good person. When you take all that into account, then you know that he’s got an older brother already playing for an NFL team, I’m sure that makes them feel very comfortable with Max.”
Lead NFL Draft Anlayst for PFF Trevor Sikkema on Melton: “Another corner who I want shoutout as a deeper corner in this class and that’s Max Melton. He’s someone I really liked going into the season, but an up and down year on tape. Then he goes to the Senior Bowl, I get to watch him up close and personal, I loved how he looked in the slot. Man I thought even last summer, I said this guy’s got some inside / outside versatility to him. Then he goes to the combine and he obviously blows it up athletically and to me that was it, I’m back in baby and back where we were in the summer. I like Max Melton a ton.”
NFL Analyst Bucky Brooks on Melton: “The Rutgers kid, what you like about him is checking the boxes along the process, but I also like that he was coached by Greg Schiano. You can say a lot of things about Greg Schiano coached DBs at the NFL level, so he knows how to coach defensive backs. We’ve seen a number of Rutgers players come into this league and have success, so I feel really good about what he’s been able to display. You talk about standing on the table for him, I’m standing on the table for him.”
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