2015 Cornerback Prospects

Cornerback isn’t the strongest position in this year’s draft, but there is a decently deep group of players that can be found in the late first or early second round. It is an eclectic group of prospects, bunched together close enough that many of the differences come down to team preference. Stylistically there are a lot of options, and the best fit may depend on the scheme being run.

One more note before we move on, something I feel obligated to add. Of all the positions I have scouted, cornerback is the one I find most difficult. I never even came close to playing this position at any level of football, and it is the one that I have the least technical understanding of. I also have the challenge of the source I use for film, the wonderful website DraftBreakdown.com. They put together incredible videos of each and every prospect, but they are limited to the television angles that cut off a large portion of the game being played by the cornerbacks. There are a lot of plays in which I simply can’t see the top of a route, and I was able to find significantly less footage on these players. I still feel confident in my rankings, but if there is one set to be skeptical of, this is probably it.

Trae Waynes –Michigan State

I’m not as high on Waynes as most people are, but I still have him ranked as the best cornerback in the class. His physical ability jumps off the board, with impressive size and blazing straightline speed. He uses this ability well, as a disciplined and intelligent cover cornerback who can play in just about any scheme. He was very productive in college, and I could see him being worth a top twenty pick in the draft.

The scheme played by Michigan State defensively is rather unique, making it difficult to get much of a read on Waynes. It utilizes a lot of man ideas, but it also makes its cornerbacks responsible for the deep quarters, forcing them to play a bit more conservative than a pure man to man coverage. This played to Waynes’s strength and hid his greatest weakness, his ability to change direction quickly. He allowed a lot of free releases to the inside on slant patterns, but there is no easy way to tell which of these were because he was beaten and which were simply schematic.

Waynes will be best used on the next level in a press man scheme. He is extremely physical and extremely strong, capable of stuffing a receiver at the line. It will take him time to adjust to the stricter NFL rules on contact down the field, but he’s talented enough that he can adapt. At times during his college career he was given the opportunity to play more physical, and he did a good job stuffing receivers and disrupting the quick hitting inside routes that normally give him trouble.

The best thing that can be said about Waynes is that it is impossible to beat him deep. He does a very good job disrupting receivers off the snap of the ball, getting himself in position where he has no trouble running with them. He uses the sidelines to his advantage, leveraging receivers towards the boundary to close down the window the ball can come into. He plays patiently on double moves, never trying to jump a route until he is sure the receiver is turning. And even if he makes a mistake, he has all the speed he needs to make up ground.

Waynes needs development in a few more of the finer areas. He needs to get his head around quicker, but he still manages to do an above average job finding the ball and playing it in the air. It would be nice to see him be more consistently physical as a tackler, and he should probably be a little more patient turning his hips to run with the receiver. Once he gets his hips turned around, he doesn’t really have the ability to turn them back. Top route runners in the NFL will be able to exploit this, selling him deep then beating him underneath. At the very worst, he is an average NFL cornerback, with the potential to turn into a much better player.

Marcus Peters –Washington

Peters is another example of a top quality player who will slide in the draft due to off the field concerns. Unlike some of the others (notably the receiver Dorial Green-Beckham) his issues are not legal in nature. His final year at Washington was cut short after he was kicked off the team due to problems with the coaching staff, the specifics of which are still unknown. This could be a big deal, or it could be nothing. It’s just another awkward variable thrown into the analysis of an extremely talented player.

Peters is by far the most complete and versatile cornerback in the draft. He plays with excellent technique, and he can fit in any scheme at the next level. He can play zone or man, he can play press or bail, and he is absolutely lethal as a blitzer if a coach is interested in being creative. While he doesn’t excel in any one area like some of the other cornerbacks, he’s good enough at all of them that he should have no trouble transitioning into any NFL defense.

His athletic profile isn’t stunning, but this doesn’t appear to hold him back on the field. He has excellent feet that allow him to mirror a receiver on his routes, and he has good enough size that he can body up all but the largest and most physical receivers. His route recognition is superb, allowing him to make quick reads and breaks. He does an excellent job of locating and playing the football, reaching around a receiver to knock it down rather than trying to play through him.

While his lack of top end speed is far short of players like Waynes, it can be argued that his skill in coverage makes him a more desirable prospect. Right now Peters is the better player, and I expect he’ll find greater success during his rookie season. But Waynes’s athletic upside and Peters’s off the field troubles are enough to bump him down in my mind. They should both be first round picks, probably in the top twenty, but if I was in charge of drafting I would take Waynes first.

Jalen Collins –LSU

Collins is less polished than most of the other top cornerbacks in this draft, but he has the athleticism and the skill to be the best of all of them by the time he hits his prime. Though he only spent one year as a regular starter at LSU, in that time he showed himself to be a talented cover cornerback with athletic ability to make him much more. He is big, 6’1” tall and weighing in at 203 pounds, and he moves very well for his size. If a coach can help him clean up his technique, he can become a Pro Bowl level player.

Collins’s length and athleticism give him an edge in almost all coverage situations. Even when he’s beaten on a route, his long arms and quick strides give him the ability to shut down windows as soon as they open. He plays physical on his routes without becoming too handsy, and he gets his head around quickly when the ball is in the air, even if he struggles to find it on occasion. Collins is a prototypical cornerback, the sort of athlete everyone is looking for these days.

The biggest issue is his footwork. He sometimes gets a bit off balance when backpedaling, creating issues when he attempts to change direction and play downhill. He gets beaten a lot at the top of routes, and he doesn’t make as sharp of breaks on the ball as you would hope. He also struggles to stay square, twisting his hips to give receivers leverage on fakes. His speed allows him to quickly close any open windows, but they are still there long enough for well run and well timed routes to beat him.

Collins is raw, but he does enough things well that he can contribute as he learns on the job. He is a fantastic run defender, willing to stick his nose in to stuff blockers when a play comes his way. He is capable of playing a number of schemes already, though like most of the top cornerbacks he is at his best when matched up in man to man. A team near the end of the first round will get good value from him immediately, with the potential to turn into a much better player down the road.

PJ Williams –Florida State

Williams isn’t going to blow you away with his speed, and that (combined with some off the field concerns) have caused him to drop during the draft process. He didn’t measure as big as he played on the field, but he is still taller than most NFL cornerbacks, with far more physicality in his background than almost any player coming out of college. At Florida State he excelled pressing receivers at the line of scrimmage, hiding the issues with his coverage skills by preventing them from getting started on their routes.

Williams is the most physical cornerback available in this draft. College defenses rarely play true press man like they do in the NFL, usually asking the cornerbacks to bail backwards when they line up tight across from the receiver rather than having them use their hands. Florida State is one of the few exceptions, and Williams excelled in their aggressively physical scheme. When he plays with good balance, he has the long arms and overpowering strength necessary to stonewall a receiver before he can get out on his route.

By stopping receivers before their routes can get started, Williams saves himself from having to try to run with quicker receivers. He doesn’t make breaks particularly well, and his pure coverage skills wouldn’t be enough to get him drafted in the first three rounds. He has a habit of turning to run with the receiver far too early in the play, taking his eyes off the quarterback and forcing himself to play off the receiver instead. Because of this he struggles to play the ball in the air, unable to find it until it is already past him.

Williams can be a capable starter at the next level, but to find true success he’ll need a team that will let him play to his strengths. Even as a press cornerback he still has work to do. He sits back on his heels too much sometimes, letting quicker receivers get around him before he can control them. He lets the inside release go too easily, and he doesn’t have the makeup speed to save himself when he gets beaten over the top. The late first round is the highest I could see him going, and I think he’d be a much better value somewhere in the early second.

Kevin Johnson –Wake Forest

 

At the very top I touched on how difficult it is to break down cornerbacks, and of all the cornerbacks I looked at, Johnson was the most challenging. The scheme he played in college was very conservative, asking him to line up ten yards off the ball and play in a deep zone. It very rarely demanded him to use his full talents, and it is difficult to get a sense of how he will succeed in other systems.

If you’re a team looking to play a lot of Cover-2, Johnson is probably the easiest option available. He has more experience in this scheme than any other cornerback in the draft, and he was very successful with what Wake Forest asked him to do. There were a lot of passes completed underneath him while he sat back off the line, but he managed to close off space better than most cornerbacks. He keeps his hips square until the last possible instant, not turning to run until he’s certain the receiver isn’t breaking it off short. This gives him more ability to play aggressive towards the ball, though it does leave him vulnerable over the top when he occasionally gets awkward turning his hips.

But the question remains, how does Johnson transition to a man to man scheme? He had a few plays each game in this coverage, and he usually did a fantastic job tracking the receiver across from him. He has the strength to knock players backwards with his initial punch, and his lateral movement skills give him the ability to match a receiver break for break. He plays the ball well in the air, making sharp breaks and leading with his long arms to swat it to the ground. The sample size isn’t large, but there is reason to believe Johnson can be more versatile on the next level.

There is a lot of uncertainty facing Johnson with his transition to the next level, enough that I have to knock him below the top four cornerbacks. But I feel strangely comfortable saying he’ll be a quality player, if he doesn’t quite have the upside of some of the others. He does a lot of things well, and a smart coach will be able to adapt to use him even if he can’t make the transition. With the right players around him, he can be a crucial part of a high caliber defense.

Byron Jones – Connecticut

Jones is this year’s premier example of a late riser. After playing only seven games his final year due to a shoulder injury, he didn’t even receive an invite to the Senior Bowl. He was on nobody’s radar until the Combine, where he put together one of the most astonishing performances I have ever seen. With good size at 6’1” and 199 pounds, he pulled off a 44.5 inch vertical and a 12’3” broad jump. Just for reference, the previous best broad jump in the history of the Combine was 11’7”. Jones flew eight inches past that, setting a world record in the process.

The athleticism got people’s attention, earning closer looks at his film. He didn’t have a chance to show much his senior year, and what he did show was promising. He is very strong pressing at the line of scrimmage, capable of knocking a receiver backwards with his initial punch. His athleticism translates onto the field, where he has the speed to run with anyone and the length and leaping ability to shut down passing windows. This is not just an athlete drawing the attention of scouts and writers. This is a genuinely talented football player.

That said, things have been taken a little over the top. Jones is still far behind the top cornerback prospects when it comes to actual football ability. He doesn’t stick to his receiver at the top of the route as players like Waynes and Peters do, and he is easy to beat off the line if he can’t get his hands on the receiver. His recovery speed allows him to cover up a lot of mistakes, but he does get beaten over the top on a regular basis. He doesn’t play the ball well in the air, and he has a habit of panicking and grabbing opposing receivers.

Jones is not ready to step into a starting role in the NFL. It will take him a year or two to harness his potential, with the risk that it may never happen. He is even more boom or bust than someone like Collins, with upside that only mildly exceeds someone like Waynes. The talk of him going in the mid first round is a massive overreaction. He would be a good pickup sometime in the second, and anything before that is a gamble not worth making.

Ronald Darby –Florida State

 

There’s been a lot of buzz around Darby in the buildup to the draft. A strong performance at the combine and several loud voices in his favor have pushed him up many boards, to the point where some seem to believe he’s among the top three cornerbacks available. Watching his tape, however, I just don’t see it. He is clearly a smooth and fluid athlete with long term potential to build on, but he needs a lot of work on the basics of the cornerback position before he’s ready to succeed in the NFL.

Darby is a good athlete, as evidenced by his success at the combine. He isn’t the biggest of cornerbacks, but he plays long, covering a lot of space thanks to his burst and quickness. He can close down windows by breaking downhill, and he can challenge the ball over the top with a sensational 41.5 inch vertical. His greatest strength is his fluidity, smoothly transitioning from playing straight up to running alongside a receiver. He doesn’t lose speed as he turns his hips, and it’s difficult for a receiver to just run past him.

The problems arise when you judge him as a cornerback rather than an athlete. Like his teammate Williams, he was asked to play a lot more press coverage than most college cornerbacks. Unlike Williams, he didn’t have much success using his physicality to alter routes. Quick receivers can beat him off the line, and he rarely stops opposing players from winning inside. He doesn’t leverage them towards the sideline, giving quarterbacks wide windows through which to throw the ball.

Some of his mistakes are purely mental, the sort of thing that can be corrected with coaching and repetition. His route recognition is subpar, and he takes too many risks guessing where the receiver is headed. In zone coverage he doesn’t ride the receiver through his zone, and he spends a lot of time standing in no man’s land. And despite his impressive burst and leaping ability, he rarely makes plays on the ball when it’s in the air.

Darby’s athleticism gives him decent potential, but his upside isn’t significantly higher than the other cornerbacks available at the top of the draft. Best case scenario, he becomes an above average starter a few years down the road. That alone probably wouldn’t be worth the top twenty pick some people want to spend, and there is enough uncertainty that I wouldn’t want to invest in him before the middle of the second round.