NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 138. Early Cornerback Position Rankings For 2023 NFL Draft

Episode Date: January 19, 2023

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers give you their updated cornerback position rankings (post-regular season) for the 2023 NFL Draft. The two talk about their rankings in the preseason, things that have changed since then, and give each their new Top 5 rankings for the position.

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It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com slash BS, device and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV. NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital-only games. Welcome to the NFL Stock Exchange podcast. In this episode, we're getting back to positional rankings with the cornerback position. It's early rankings, but we've got our eyes on about 10, 12 guys that we've been able to study so far in this class. And we have for you, the people,

our updated top five cornerback rankings. Guys that we love, guys that we think could be risers in the process, and let me tell you, it's a deep cornerback class. So there's a lot of guys to love, but especially at the top, we kind of geek out about a couple of these guys. I'm Trevor Sycamore. With me, as always, is Connor Rogers. Let's run the bell. Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL

Stock Exchange podcast. I'm Trevor Sikma. That is Connor Rogers joining you guys for the final time this week, but it's an exciting episode. We're here to rank our early 2023 cornerbacks for the 2023 nfl draft we say early because they're still you know two and a half months where we're going to watch a lot more of these guys we each got about 10 of these guys ranked right now so it solidifies an early top five for us we took a look at a lot of guys that we've had in mock drafts in the past some guys that have been right on the fringe, and even some players who we've heard, hey, this guy might go a little bit higher than you think from reliable sources. So we got eyes on a lot of these guys,

but I'm excited to rank them here on this show. Connor, how are we feeling today, my friend? I'm good, man. This was a process. This took extensive work getting through this corner class. I mean, it's really good. It's really deep. It was,

it was not one of those that you could watch seven players and you come up with a top five. It was one that, I mean, you really need to go 10 deep and there's a couple of guys outside of that, that could still easily be NFL starters. That's how deep it is. And it's got premium talent. It's got projects. It's got guys that will probably be long-term starters in the NFL that go outside of the first round. So this show took a ton of ton of work. It was much different than tight end to me. It felt very running back ish where I'd watch the ninth guy and go, man, some years, this guy would be the fifth guy. So I had a lot of fun with this group. I think rankings across the board and the draft community with this group are going to be wildly all over the place because the guys that I mean, Trevor, you and I did a corner show over summer.

So we do have a baseline to draw back from. But guys I've seen ranked in, you know, the number one or number two spot throughout the entire year. I felt like I maybe didn't share that opinion. So I'm really excited for this one. Yeah, no, this is going to be a good one. Corner is always, it is like running back. I was going to say that if you didn't, where you can watch so many of these guys and depending on the style of player that you're looking for, if you're a team that plays a lot more cover three, a lot more off coverage, more press coverage,

more man coverage, right? Depending on how aggressive your defense is and what your defense coordinator is looking for, you could have a totally different order for a lot of these players. But the good news is, is that no matter who you're going for i do think there's a lot of different guys to choose from this feels like a very deep cornerback class i'm excited to kind of revisit this in even february march april when we watch a lot more of these guys

when we got big yeah we got like 20 of these guys under our belt for games that we watch and we kind of get to reorder this because we know that corner is one of those positions where rounds one through seven and even undrafted free agents these guys get to be impactful players throughout the entire draft so it's important to get a lot of eyes on it but uh we each got well you got a little bit more than 10 i got 10 that i took a look at so we got a handful of guys that we are really excited about. On this show for the format, we're going to go five to one. So we'll keep the anticipation, the suspense towards the end as we count down from our top five to our number one corner.

But if you guys have listened to the ranking shows before, you know that we'll talk about guys that we've got ranked sixth, seventh, eighth. We'll make sure that we give a shout out to we've got ranked sixth seventh eighth we'll make sure that we give a shout out to a lot of these players but uh buddy if you're ready i will give you the floor you can start off at number five here absolutely so i tried to uh 2022 wide receivers this thing and have a 5a 5b but i did choose i did choose you can't do that yeah okay all right no i didn't i didn't my take here is number five for me is keely ringo from georgia okay but i don't think he's a better player right now than number six

in clark phillips i really don't okay part of scouting as everybody knows especially a corner corner more so than a lot of areas, is projecting and betting on traits. And because if not, you'd have a ton of five foot eight corners that are incredible in college go in the first round every year. And that's not a direct hit at Clark Phillips or anything like that, who I think is going to be a really good NFL player. And I really liked and he's been a favorite of mine since summer. And he only helped himself this year and I if I was taking a player to play today I think Clark Phillips is the

better player but if I was taking a player long term there's still a lot of reasons to believe in Keely Ringo who's probably been you know just the poster boy of a prospect falling over this last month I would say it really since the ohio state game where everybody turns on national tv and cj stroud went after him and he had a tough game probably the worst game i watched of him on film but when you package the entire thing and this is a player we really liked over summer trevor there's still some really good aspects of ringo as a prospect i mean he's he's got size. He's six foot two. He's probably going to weigh 200 pounds. He's got speed. He's rumored to run sub four, four. When we get to the combine, we'll see if he can get there on the season. He surrendered 42 catches

on 78 targets for 552 yards. That's a lot of yards. It is a lot of first downs, only one touchdown in 2022. He did have two picks and here's the good thing. One was against Hendon hooker. Another was against Will Levis. So he's picked off two guys that are looked at as pro quarterbacks. Here's what I wrote about Ringo and I have my summer notes under it to compare it this year. I wrote, and it looked like a different player to me this year, not always the best way, but gives away free releases too easily he gets himself into trouble immediately he finds himself in recovery and panic mode a lot and i just think he's too talented of a player to constantly be playing that way i thought he's very inconsistent in his timing of initiating

contact disrupt routes and he easily played it got played by head and shoulder fakes he just overreacts to those kind of upper body fakes by targets. I thought his compete level went up to a totally different area in the red. As soon as he got into the red, I saw a player locked in a layer that a player that did not want to touchdown given up on his resume. And I really, really liked that. I thought it spoke to his competitive character. His man coverage skills, though, are significantly lacking. I thought he was much better in zone where he could use his eyes and keep everything

in front of him. Even when he had his roughest game against Ohio state, his effort level was extremely impressive. There's one key play where he chases somebody down from the far side of the field, from the backside. And I just, I love his effort and I think the raw talent is there. And that gets me to the summer notes where you look at this guy, former five-star number four, overall prospect in his recruiting class.

He red shirt in 2020 2020 because he was recovering from off-season surgery but i mean this dude was a big deal coming out of high school uh a really special talent and got on the field pretty early he played 200 snaps in press coverage in 2021 even when he had the national championship game that was pretty rough in the early going he had the pick six in the fourth quarter i thought he ran vertically better in 2021 as well so with ringo i look at somebody that the nfl isn't like this anymore like you can't just say a guy's a cover three corner because there's no team in the nfl that's just saying hey we live in cover three and you're going to challenge it nobody nobody does that anymore even right guys that have come off the Carroll scheme like Robert Sala have adapted to playing quarters and man with cover three but I

think Ringo will be fine in cover three in the early going what you don't want is to draft him into a aggressive man scheme early and leave him out on his own where he's really going to be in trouble early on because I think he has the measurables and the speed to develop in that area it's just not ready yet Trevor where the guys I have ahead of him they just put out much better tape this season so I have Ringo at four so this is kind of easy um we can kind of transition here and I'm sure we'll kind of we haven't really been too far off on a lot of prospects so I'm sure we'll kind of ping pong around but I'll just get my thoughts on ringo even though he's number four for me i do see him pretty similarly to the way that you do you love the measurables i mean him being six foot two 205 to i think george's got almost at 210 he'll probably be a

little bit lighter than that but still man i mean like this dude is big and he is strong and when when wide receivers try to it's funny like you watched all different shapes and sizes of corners for an exercise like this. And when a wide receiver will go to shove a different corner, you know, sometimes, sometimes we'll give them a little bump. A lot of times, you know, they're flying back a little bit just because they're lighter in weight. You get a wide receiver that goes up and tries to shove Keely Rinko. He didn't move that far. You know, he's just, he's just a bigger, more dense corner. And you mentioned some of the background, five-star cornerback.

You said, you mentioned he could run in the 4-3s, laser time of a 4-3-5 back in high school at the Rivals five-star challenge to win the fastest man competition back in high school. And this is somebody who's been playing a decent amount for Georgia, especially over the last two years for this national championship run. And, you know, I think that you made you made a really good point. He's not as anticipatory and in control as you really would want him to be as a press man defender. I think that press man's where he's going to end up in the NFL. I mean, his, his size, his strength and his speed, somebody's going to draft him wanting

him to be that style of corner. But right now I do believe that he has more reliability as more of his own guy, just because you're right. There are times when he'll line up in press up towards the line of scrimmage and the wide receiver will get into their release and Keelio just like he'll he'll put the hands up and it's almost like sometimes he totally whiffs or like he totally misses misses the target point and then all and then like oh okay then he's playing catch up from that point on and thankfully for him he's big enough strong enough and fast enough to where he can play catch

up in a lot of ways he's got fantastic recovery speed but he just felt whether it was the footwork whether it was the hand placement whether it was flipping the hips at the right time he just didn't feel as in control and i think his athleticism makes up for that a lot at the college level and i still think it will aid him in the nfl but it's tougher in the nfl you've got to be even more precise you've got to be more confident you've got to be able to anticipate at a really really high level and that's something that was missing from ringo's game that is a big drawback for me and i couldn't put him any higher on the list than four even though he is such a uniquely gifted athlete those are the kinds of players that i like to bet

on you know guys with guys with his measurables his size but there are fundamentals to where him being out of control definitely worried me there's a there there is a lot to like physically from him and like you said when he is really clamping down really focused and when he is very consistent in where his hands need to be where how how quick he's chopping his feet when to flip his hips things like that you get a damn good corner you get a guy who could stay hip for hip with wide receivers no matter what kind of route that they're running especially if it's getting vertical he can blanket a lot of guys but that out of control nature definitely worries me a little bit especially because i'm with you i don't think a lot of teams are

predominantly going to let this guy just play zone if he's going to get drafted high he's going to get drafted high with the thought of we are going to develop him into a press man type of corner we've got to be able to rely on him in that regard and he's a little bit far away so i like the way that you matched him up with clark phillips clark phillips is also my number six guy so he's very close to this as well but i like how you put that if you've got to draft somebody to um be close to a completeness of their game right the the the final picture is almost fully painted clark phillips is kind of that player but i do believe that it's the allurement of what uh what

keely ringo maybe could develop into it's going to be the reason why he's going to be drafted higher here so i think i thought you made a really good point i echo a lot of that with ringo yeah man i mean it's it's funny how guys can get painted right where we watched ringo over the summer and we saw tools to work with and a guy that's played a lot of ball for a young player and he's played it he's played in high impact games games that really, really matter. And the thought was, if this guy takes the next steps, he will be the next top 10 pick at corner. And I don't think Ringo really took those steps this year. No. But that doesn't change that he's still really young.

He has played well. And he has tools, tools that a lot of guys won't have. So I think what buried Ringo, like Ringo didn't have a bust of, like, I don't look at Ringo. Ringo didn't have the same hype coming into the year as a Stingley, but I don't think Ringo had the same kind of like come down or anything. Like it's not that it's just that other guys surpassed him because they were so good.

And we're going to get to that on this podcast where if Ringo was drafted as a top 10 pick he's given responsibilities that are really really tough that I don't think he's ready for if Ringo is drafted at the top of the second round or the end of the first round and he's given a little bit of time well that's a risk that's probably worth betting on so that leads me to this Trevor who did you have right behind him at number five so I had Deontay banks for Maryland at number five. Did you have him in your top five or was he right outside of it? He was outside of it,

but he was in my top 10 and a player that I did get to watch pretty early in this process that, I mean, he's long, he's got press tools. Their teams are really, really going to like Deontay banks. So Deontay banks, red shirt, junior from Maryland, six foot two, again, 200, 205 pounds. That's what they've got him listed as. He is definitely a press man corner kind of a player. He's only a three star corner from Edgewood, Maryland. As a freshman, I got a little bit of background information on him just from his time in Maryland.

As a freshman, recorded 28 28 tackles had an interception two pass breakups maryland only played five games that year due to the covid season um and then in 2021 he suffered a season ending shoulder injury in the second game of the year so it was kind of up and down for him but this past year when i turned on the tape of him overall grade of a 72.0 pff database coverage grade of 73.1 he had one interception 13 forced incompletions played 630 snaps on the outside and just 13 in the slot so this is a outside exclusive kind of a corner had one solo stop and zero missed tackles actually on the season is what we had him with connor i really liked him like Like he, as a blanket coverage outside player,

I thought he understood things so well. You know, I watched the Ohio State game. I watched the Wisconsin game. I watched a couple of other games. And even against Marvin Harrison Jr., man, I felt like, yeah, okay, Marvin Harrison got the better of him a handful of times, but he was ready for it.

I thought he had a great blend of size, speed, and fluidity, most importantly. Sometimes you get these taller corners and they're very high-waisted and it takes them a little while to flip the hips. They can't exactly put the foot in the ground and get where they want to go. That hurts them when they have recovery speed, getting vertical, and it also hurts them when they're clicking and closing, trying to change direction in short areas. I didn't really see that issue with Banks. In terms of like a pure cover corner, I thought this guy did it really well.

I did. The big issue with him for me, not a lot of ball skills. Like when the balls come in his way, he's clearly playing the man. And he had one interception this past year. He had no interceptions the couple of years before. And in fact, he's only got two interceptions total on his career. So if you want this impactful ball hawk, who's got a nose for the ball,

who's always looking to attack the ball in the air, looking to undercut things, go make it theirs, get themselves a turnover. He doesn't quite have that mindset. I don't know if that's ever going to show up for him. But when it comes to just simply covering the guy in front of you you telling deontay banks that's who you're covering he goes okay and he handled players in man coverage as well as some of the best guys in this class so that's kind of where i fell with him that's's why I had him at number five, because in terms of cover skills, he probably could even be higher on this list.

Like in terms of pure cover skills, I could have had him above TeeDlee Ringo, but it's the lack of ball skills that I'm a little bit hesitant about. Do you develop those? Because they are very important. You continuing to get those forced incompletions, you turning some of those PBUs

and recognition plays into interceptions. That's a big portion of how impactful that you could be as a corner but man from a from a pure coverage standpoint thought the feet were quick thought the hips flipped well for a guy who's six foot one six foot two um i thought he was strong at the catch point i thought he was uh really nice when when timing went to get in and out of the routes with with wide receivers he was able to stay hip to hip with guys he plays very well the sideline understands and utilizes the boundary of the sideline very very well so i was just super impressed with his overall coverage ability

i just wonder if those ball skills are ever going to be there yeah and that's the big question and he's an interesting guy because he before this year hadn't really played a lot in a couple of years you know the pandemic hits. In 2020, he only starts three games. Junior year, you brought up the injury. He played two games. He started the first two games, and then he had the season-ending shoulder surgery or injury.

I don't know if he – I'm assuming he got surgery. So you're looking at a two-year stretch from 2020 to 2021 where he made five starts. It's not a lot of football for this guy. But as a freshman in 2019, he made five starts it's not a lot of football for this guy uh but as a freshman in 2019 he made eight starts and had some promise there when they played some young guys so it's it's a question that we we don't know if the ball skills will come he did force 13 incompletions but like you kind of hinted trevor it was more of he's just blanketing guys rather than constantly finding the football and making that play. But is that enough?

That to me, that to me is enough as an outside number two corner, somebody that you trust to run vertically down the field, somebody that you trust, depending on your scheme. A lot of schemes obviously aren't moving their corners around, so that might not matter. But a ton of experience and press. I mean, he had 360 coverage snaps this year. 190 were in press. He did give up the four touchdowns. You saw teams challenge him with timing in the red zone.

It goes back to your point about trying to find the ball because the ball can come out quicker in that red area and they went after him. But I never looked at him and go, this guy's lost. I thought between the 20s, he was highly competitive. So I'm with you. A player that didn't make my top five, but a player that I liked,

he fell into that opening rant about there being day two starters in this draft. And I think that's exactly what Deontay Banks is in round two. Yeah, I think I had an early second round grade on him. That's probably where I would have him as well. Yeah, I think late first, early day two is kind of the way that I labeled it here with what he could be. Who'd you have it for? Cam Smith. Cam Smith from South Carolina. way that i labeled it here with with what he could be uh who'd you have who'd you have it for cam smith uh cam smith from south carolina we talked a lot about cam over the summer and he kind of carried that over into this year he kind of took the jc horn route at south carolina where

he's a vocal guy that wants to trail plays with a lot of energy plays with a lot of heart um cam this year allowed 18 catches on 38 targets for 211 yards 12 first downs and two touchdowns uh i believe one was the jaylen hyatt actually with one interception and seven forced incompletions i know he the one game i watched it in its entirety from front to back sometimes i jump around with these uh with these corners but one game that you had to watch from front to back was against tennessee he shadowed jalen hyatt in the slot which was a very interesting challenge to me uh for cam somebody that i think will you know ideally play on the outside at the nfl level but had no fear of trailing hyatt all the way into the slot and he battled through that game i thought it

was the toughest performance of the year he was credited for seven catches on 10 targets and a touchdown in that game. But I also thought he played better than the number of sound. Love his competitive fire and confidence. Trevor, he throws his body around. He seems to be loud. He seems to be very into the game. He seems to have the confidence of a number one corner and wants the responsibility of

that number one corner. I thought he had good foot speed. I thought he could turn and run down the field. Really good in matching wide receivers in terms of being sticky in their route breaks. I mean, he's not the biggest guy, and don't get it twisted, he's not J.C. Horn. I know he's listed 6'1", 185. Maybe I'm off on this.

He looks more a shade under six feet tall and around 180 to me on film i don't really buy that and that matters a lot in this class because there's a lot of corners like ringo and banks that are really 6-2-200 that's a big difference so but as a as a man cover corner i like what i saw from cam smith i think he's very sticky i think he could run with defense uh with good wide receivers inside outside and he's somebody that he didn't blossom into the star that a lot of the hype was around in the summer, but another one of those guys in the back end of this top five

that is going to be a starter at the next level and plays with a lot of confidence. So you and I talked before we recorded, and I said there's a player who I watched who's getting top five corner hype that I put under the microscope that I just did not love as much. And that is Cam Smith. I have Cam as CB7 right now. eval for me is going to depend on the combine because for as much as he plays at the same football program and with the same demeanor as jc horn he's not jc no he's not jc horn jc horn

jc horn was almost six foot one jc horn was 205 pounds and cam smith's probably going to be just around six foot and like 185. And the 20 pounds that JC Horn has on Cam Smith show up in certainly strength and athletic ability. I don't know how athletic Cam Smith is. I really don't. They played him in off coverage way more than I thought they were going to. And in fact, the Tennessee game and the Clemson game, I wanted to make sure that I watched those games because down the stretch,

those are the two biggest games in South Carolina played in those two games. They've got cam playing 15 yards off the line of scrimmage against jail and Hyatt. They gave Hyatt whatever he wanted and he just dropped the, he dropped the ball like three times. Right. And if you're anywhere close to what jc horn was you're up close i now i but he's not he's just not he's right and and that's and that's the thing but i'm saying that to say not that not

that you said he's jc horn because you're not but you're gonna read a lot of what he wanted to be talk about jc horn and camson and here's the thing. Mentality wise. He is like, like look, man, the drop your nuts line that came after the Tennessee game. The post game was incredible. Like this dude,

in terms of confidence of a cornerback, this is a dude that you absolutely want on your team. I just don't know how good of an athlete he is because even in those times that he's got to, that he's a little bit closer to the line of scrimmage and he's got to turn and run if he is not hooking the hip or if he is not turning his shoulder and bumping the wide receiver while he then takes his momentum into trying to carry them he he doesn't turn and flip and cover these guys they're blowing by him and so i'm like man

all of a sudden you watch a handful of snaps like that and you go, are they playing you in off because you can't keep up with college wide receivers? Because they ain't going to get easier in the NFL. And that's when it made me think of, when I go back to a lot of people comparing him to JC Horn, that 20 pounds that Cam Smith doesn't have, that's 20 pounds of athlete, muscle density, muscle fibers, quick twitch, long speed, explosiveness, flexibility

that I just don't feel like shows up in Cam Smith's game. So love the mentality. I mean, he will throw every pound of his weight into trying to bring guys down for tackles. He'll get up in your face and he'll jaw with you he is competitive in the red zone he brings a great mentality for the cornerback position but i can't i can't draft somebody highly at corner that i question how much of an athlete they are so the combine is going to be huge for my eval of Kama Smith. Cause right now I felt like South Carolina scheme was protecting him from

getting exposed in certain areas. A lot of people might say like, yeah, he look, they matched him up against Jalen Hyatt all game. They did match him up against Jalen Hyatt all game. And he was 15 yards off the line of scrimmage. And it was kind of the same thing with Clemson. They play Clemson and God, who is zero? Which wide receiver is zero?

I can't remember. I can't remember which one zero is, but it was the same thing. They're playing them anywhere from like seven to 10 yards off the line of scrimmage against these slot guys against two of the biggest games. These are two of the biggest games that you're playing all season.

And sure they want, I think the most competitive guy may be against the best receiver, but at the same time, the scheme is protecting them a little bit. And I just, I didn't see maybe against the best receiver. But at the same time, this team's protecting him a little bit. And I just, I didn't see Cam Smith the same way that I thought I was going to. And he is somebody who, like I said, I love the approach to the game,

but I got to see what he runs at the combine because right now I'm a little bit skeptical. To be fair to him, and maybe I'm wrong on this, I didn't really think he was playing with that much talent around him on that defense to be honest with you they were okay like I sure I didn't see the rush constantly getting home I didn't see him getting all this help as much as he was playing off I mean if it's just I wonder if you put Cam Smith on a program and yeah I get it South Carolina won eight games they had a solid season but if you put Cam Smith on on a program and yeah i get it south carolina won eight games they had a

solid season but if you put cam smith on a program that's making a run for the playoff you know what does he look like then i i just i i wish there was a little bit more around him is how i came away with it and wonder and you bring up a good point like where do you draft a player like cam smith because everybody has him going in the first round and right i'll position this like this i like cam smith obviously more than more than you the two corners i have at one and two i would take them in the top 10 and then it starts to get to a tier where these three guys in the back end of the top five, I'm looking more at the back end of round one. I would take my corner one and corner two in the top 15, top 12, you could say.

12, yep. And then I would take three, four, and five anywhere for the rest of the first round round i think back half of the first round that's that's how i have it tiered off right now all right so let's get to number three okay who for me i don't think people will be too surprised by this is joey porter jr ah yes was he number three for you he was indeed number three yeah so joey porter jr you guys know the pedigree, the length, 6'2", 190, 82.9 coverage grade this year. He only allowed 15 catches on 30 targets.

I swear half of them are in the opener against Purdue. In Purdue. I swear. Half of these targets. Which was also a good coverage game by him. He just played so many damn coverage snaps. Purdue threw the ball so many times. I'm going to look at how many attempts Aiden O'Connell had in that game.

Oh my God. But continue, continue. So he only gave up 15 catches, 30 targets, 143 yards. Didn't surrender a touchdown. Forced 12 incompletions. He also did not have an interception. And he didn't drop any interceptions but he also didn't create any interception chances for himself long arms the jam and disrupt at the catch point he's very effective in press i thought his play speed was

very average and when he loses trust of that play speed to the second going into the third level of the field, he grabs right away. Right away, he grabs on. Good recognition and downhill speed against screens. But this is the weird thing. He has great recognition against screens. He gets downhill to make a play on them. The outside run game, I saw him lose the ball carrier plenty of times like just lose

the ball carrier and listen you could never just say it's the corner's fault for a big play because the d line he got through the d line and the linebackers but like he is solely responsible from a play being a 10 yard play to like a 25 to 30 yard play because he he takes the wrong fit in terms of jumping inside or he just loses the running back so that was kind of strange and something i guess that will grow as he gets older because he is a young player redshirt junior this year for penn state but here's the thing with porter he's long i don't think he'll run particularly well but he will run good enough for his size. Good enough for his size.

He is highly competitive at the catch point. He is a corner that you could match up with big wide receivers that are trying to get over the top because he does disrupt at the catch point. There are guys that I watch that were just average there. He's very good at getting in on guys' hands, arms, and doing it in a legal way. I don't think he anticipates throws enough to ever make a big interception kind of play.

I don't think he has above average speed where he's going to get, when he gets beat at the line, which is hard to do against him, it's hard to get off the line against him, but when he gets beat off the line, which is hard to do against him, it's hard to get off the line against him, but when he gets beat off the line at the NFL, he's going to get called for penalties because he does grab on in a way that disrupts the routes beyond 5 and 10 yards.

We said that about Sauce, and Sauce didn't really get called for that this year, but he's not Sauce. Sauce ran really well. He's not going to run as well as Sauce. He's not as big as Sauce as much as he's big. The Porter's a really nice player, but he's wasn't in that upper echelon where I saw a freak show out there. I just saw an average number two corner that I would still take in the first round because that's very valuable.

And I think matchup dependent, he can be really important when you see, when you need somebody to go out there against the Drake Londons of the world, this is the guy that you want out there. But if you think you can move Porter around the field or you think he's going to match up with Stephon Diggs and the more twitchy, shifty kind of outside wide receivers that play inside and outside, that's an area he's going to struggle.

So I liked Porter, but I didn't love that he was lacking the big play yeah you just got to understand i think what he is right he is a big long press man corner who just like you said isn't an alien right sometimes you get these guys who are built the way that he is and they have alien-like ability because of how athletic they are, how smooth they are. And they just kind of transcend that mold of player. And you can just go, shoot, you can play this guy against anybody in any scheme. It doesn't matter. He'll be able to cover them.

And Joey Porter Jr. is very scheme-dependent. He's got to be a press man guy. He's got to be able to get hands on players in line scrimmage. He's got to be able to get physical within the contact window. But the thing is, Connor, if he doesage, he's got to be able to get physical, physical within the contact window. But the thing is Connor, if he does that, he's really damn good, right?

So he might not be as versatile as maybe you want other players to be, but if you have a vision and if you have a defense, it's going to say, we're going to play you in a press man role outside. We're going to let you get hands on receivers. We're going to let you be physical in the contact window, and we're going to let you play to your strengths he i think he's going to be a good corner in the nfl i really do i really do so that's kind of the way that i look

you mentioned it he's a little bit too grabby yeah i think that when and this is just kind of the nature of the beast when he is trying to punch off the line scrimmage when he's trying to disrupt the beginning of wide receivers routes if he does not get his hand where he wants to in the target point to really push them off and keep his balance and then stay in the hip of them then yeah there's some guys are really going to make him pay for it and then that's when he's got to recover and he's got to get a little bit grabby with it and that's when you're going to see some of those penalties occur so just because of the nature of how he plays the position it's going to be a more penalized player but i think that's okay i was still really impressed with like you said how competitive he is um how he used physicality to his advantage i thought he'd

get called for penalties more to be honest with you there was a couple where i was like okay right and i think that he just like good whatever i, whatever. I think he gets away with it because he understands his style. And as weird as this might say, there's a little bit of a smoothness to it. So you're going to live with the good and the bad with Joey Porter Jr. But like I said, as long as you are a team that puts him in that kind of position, I think you're going to like what the output is. I really do. I think he's a good player. I have him at that kind of position. I think you're going to like what the output is. I really do. I think he's a good player.

I have him at number three as well. I'm trying to think if there's anything that you didn't mention that I had in here. The zero interceptions, but 13 forced incompletions. I wanted to make sure that we mentioned that. He only played five snaps in the slot this year. He's just not a... He's living on the outside.

He is absolutely living on the outside. I also want to say this though, for as much as he, for as much as his bread's going to get buttered playing as a press man corner, I liked his anticipation of his vision in off coverage. Oh yeah. He's got good eyes. I thought he saw things really well. I think he processed the field really well. I think he baits quarterbacks really well.

And so there is a little bit of versatility there, I guess, to contradict myself in a little bit of ways, I think he processed the field really well. I think he baits quarterbacks really well. And so there is a little bit of versatility there, I guess, to contradict myself in a little bit of ways. But I don't think he's the kind of athlete that you want always in that situation. So that's, you know, you obviously got to throw the curveballs in there, of course, because you can't just play. It's not Madden. You can't play the same kind of coverage every single play.

You've got to be able to mix it up a little bit. But I think he has the anticipations the instincts and the high iq to be able to do that even when you would look at him and say all right maybe not the best athlete if you're deploying him in this realm if you're if you have him as an off coverage guy i think he makes up for it with his instincts and anticipation so i did i i liked him he's number three for me i think he's a starting outside corner in the nfl you just kind of got to play to his strengths. And I do think he'll reward you for that. I think so too. Some of watching him reminded me of a bigger version of Jalen Johnson coming out of Utah.

The way that it would jam, disrupt, similar to the way they played the ball. I like Porter's going to come in and Jalen's only had one interception in his NFL career, but he's also been solid. So I think he was hurt this year, but I'm going back to 2021 where I thought he looked good. So yeah, I mean, Porter might have a cap ceiling in terms of ball production, but it's going to be a really good every week player for you in terms of limiting wide receivers from making special plays happen by the way hold on by the way

67 passes from Aiden O'Connell in that opening game that's nuts I said 50 67 67 passes I swear I think that game went over 14 times That game went to overtime, I believe. But it's just an insane amount of coverage snaps that he had in that first game. But I think that was also one of his highest-graded games, which makes sense, just because there were so many reps that he had to cover. They kept trying them. Didn't really go anywhere.

Two-and-one, I think, is going to be the same for us, just like three-and-one. But, yeah what'd you who you got a number two Christian Gonzalez um I mean from Oregon a guy that I had some questions about over summer when I watched him he transferred from Colorado to Oregon I thought he really put it together this year at Oregon I mean everybody knows the deal with Gonzalez he's six foot two he's 200 pounds I've been telling you he's gonna to run in the 4-3s, I think. I wrote in my notes, he is a create-a-corner build.

If you were building a corner, this is what you want them to look like and to run and move like, and it's very natural. He allowed 39 receptions on 64 targets for 495 yards, which is a lot of yards this year, and he was credited with giving up three touchdowns but the film is just really really good he had four interceptions he forced nine completions he has that rare combination of size and athleticism i thought he found the ball a lot this year that was something that i didn't really see him do as much

coming from colorado at oregon i thought he did a good job finding the football 176 press coverage snaps out of his 419 total coverage snaps. He's got such good deep speed, Trevor. He can turn and run down the field with huge strides, and he's only getting better. I thought the one thing I really wanted to see more from him in coverage, I think he can crank up the physicality at the catch point just a notch or two. There was a lot of, you see it on the stats, right, that he gave up 495 yards this year, gave up the 39 catches. Why I like Gonzalez so much, despite those numbers, plenty of those plays, he's right there to make a play on the football.

He just has to be a little bit more physical. It's almost like he did not want to get penalized, so he was playing the ball almost to a tee where there are times where you can play the hands, play through the hands, punch out the ball, disrupt. And I think the right coaching at the next level is going to get him there. He made such big strides from Colorado to Oregon

that if he stays on this trajectory with his raw physical gifts this guy is a can be a really really special talent and I think somebody's going to really bet the house on him because there's just not a lot of guys this big that can move like that that play with the type of demeanor he's not as loud as a Cam Smith or as loud as our number one, but he's a good low wrap-up tackler, and he can cover a lot of ground to the sideline. It was very impressive, his ability to consistently tackle. There was not a lot of times where he looked dumb or he couldn't come to balance or he just doesn't have the physicality to make the play. He goes low. He comes in hard. He comes in clean. He comes in clean.

He's got good technique. So he's a really reliable tackler against the run, against screens, against short passes. He covers so much ground. Gonzalez is really good. He's a really, really good player. And he's going to be a top 10 pick in this draft. Because when you have those kinds of traits matched with highly competitive film. And I thought he had a tough week one against Georgia and he just completely rebounded from there and got so much better throughout the

season and so much more confident. And he's the type of dude that I think he can trail. I would have no problem playing him on big slot tight ends in the slot. I have no problem matching him up with number ones on the outside. Gonzalez really grew on me this year. He's good. He's really good. I agree with you. I think that there is a strong possibility that he is CB1 off the board because they just don't make many corners like this dude. He moves unbelievably well.

He is a smooth criminal in how he is flipping those hips and wherever a wide receiver is going, it feels like he can match. And he can mirror. He is, man, I think the patience, the lack of panic in his game is beautiful. Straight line. Yeah. If a wide receiver is just gearing up to give it their all vertically down the sideline, he's just like, okay, all right, I'm going to gear up.

I'm going to flip the hips. I'm going to gear up. I'm going to get my hand on you. We're going to turn. We're going to look for the ball. It just felt like there was not any panic in his game, which is something that is so important. I thought his confidence in press coverage

and his instincts in off coverage were fantastic. This is a totally scheme versatile player you mentioned the inside outside versatility i mentioned just a different coverage assignment oh and that he has he can be impactful for you no matter what i mean this is a guy who you mentioned really ramped up the ball skills this year that's an area of his game you were really looking for that to be the case and he absolutely did it in such a big way i mean mean, that interception, oh, who was it against? There's an interception where he's going up the left side of the sideline and the guy's getting vertical on him.

The guy thinks he's got a beat. And just like cool as can be, he just comes off the line of scrimmage, gets the hands where he needs to be, tracks it, flips the hips, head turns around, boom, all of a sudden, there he is. He's walling the guy out, and there's the ball. I also, speaking of wall guys out i don't think i saw a player in this class utilize um inside outside leverage and utilize the sideline nearly as well and as masterfully as he did he he understands so much of why okay if if i have

inside leverage on this wide receiver why do i have inside leverage on this wide receiver why do i have inside leverage on this wide receiver this is what i am taking away this is what i am making difficult this is how you know if you're flipping your hips to the outside and you go into cover three mode and you're kind of saving shuffling while they're getting vertical he is squeezing these dudes to the sideline he is taking away the area in which they can cut back inside in which they can get vertical too far vertical on him he's not he doesn't allow these guys to cross his face he understands where his help is where his help is not he is just a such a smart corner even beyond the great build that he has he plays this position so well the patience the confidence it's all there i'd love

what i saw from christian gonzalez and i agree with you and he's gonna be top 15 pick guaranteed and if i was a betting man i would say that he's probably going to be cb1 off the board although it's hard to find much wrong with the guy who we're going to talk about at number one as well it is i think teams are going to starting with the lions at six and working your way down is where it's going to start for Gonzalez. It really is. I mean, unless, yeah, I think so. I'll let you start with number one. I've taken a lot of the spotlight for most of these guys have gotten a start.

Number one is awesome. You and I have texted about this guy a lot. We have kind of slowly teased that this was going to be the case with our mock draft situations and talking about this player here and there, but Trevor, take the floor for the number one corner in the 2023 NFL draft, Illinois cornerback, Devon Witherspoon.

I'll start out by saying this. This is one of my favorite corners I've ever scouted. Same to be honest with you. This is one of my favorite corners I've ever scouted. Same. To be honest with you, this is one of my favorite corners that I have ever scouted. A little background on Devon Witherspoon. A zero-star recruit coming out of Pensacola, Florida. Didn't start playing football until his junior year of high school. As a senior in 2018,

he was the Pensacola Journal Defensive Player of the Year after recording 74 tackles, seven interceptions, and had two touchdowns on the season. He was also a standout high jumper and part of multiple championship relay teams in track, including a Florida Class A 3A state runner-up finish in the 4x100 relay. So this dude is athletic. Now, the grades coming out of high school weren't where they needed to be. That's ultimately why he was not recruited heavily and why his college career kind of started a little bit rocky. He actually started classes at Hutchinson Community College before getting his final SAT

score that made him NCAA eligible in order to move to Illinois. So he was able to get to Illinois and as a freshman, played in all 13 games, starting three, I believe they were the three at the end of the season that he was able to start and he climbed his way up from the very bottom they they gave him special teams duties right away and he he he he gave that his all then they gave him a little bit of defensive work you know coming in a relief you know coming as a rotation guy and he gave that his all and he eventually became a starting quarterback corner at the end of that year he has only gotten better since time has gone on the measurables

six feet tall 180 pounds we will get to that a 92 overall grade this past year with a 92.5 coverage grade absolutely insane production four interceptions on the season 20 forced incompletions zero touchdowns allowed played 626 snaps on the outside, 109 snaps in the slot, had five solo tackles in run defense and only missed two tackles on the year. This man only allowed 22 total receptions for 200 yards on 425 snaps this year. Connor, another stat that I like that Mike Brenner points out, when in press coverage, he gave up one catch this year. One.

That is it. I don't know if I've ever seen a corner click and close as fast as Devon Witherspoon. I can't remember over the last at least like four or five draft cycles of a guy who was able to put his foot in the ground and absolutely rocket at when a wide receiver is breaking on their route and the timing of when the ball is arriving.

What'd you say? I'll tell you who. The last one was Jair Alexander. Jair is a... You texted me this last night, and I agree. I thought you'd jump out of your seat when you responded to me. He is twitched up like Jair Alexander, who, guess what? Again, one of my favorite corners that I've ever scouted is Jair Alexander.

This dude, Devon Witherspoon, is so fantastic. Incredibly quick to trigger downhill. He is so aggressive. Heibly quick to trigger downhill. He is so aggressive. He is so in your face. I think he's a really explosive athlete when changing direction and when opening up to cover guys vertically. Connor, the thing that I love the most about Witherspoon, and actually maybe this is something,

this is also the thing that I love the most is also the biggest question mark I have about his game. He anticipates and explodes on where he needs to go so fast. I think he's guessing. It's almost like I think he's guessing because in my mind, I'm like, there's no way you knew that quick and that decisive, that explosive to get where you needed to go. But it happens so often that I can't say that he's guessing. There's no way anybody's right this much if you're guessing. Yeah, exactly.

It's just unreal elite anticipation of where the ball is going, how to get there, and how to make the most impact on the play. Now, he can be a little bit over bit over aggressive at times just because he is so athletic i've seen him over pursue on certain angles a handful of times but there's so much good to his game you you live with that you live with that all the time he is 180 pounds so that's ultimately why i think christian gonzalez is probably going to get drafted ahead of him because people are going to look at him and be like, okay,

six feet tall, 180 pounds. That's pretty light. Now he hits just ask Sean Chivers, the, the Indiana running back. He hits that 180 pounds, like a Mack truck.

And he brings it every single play, but six feet tall. That's about the 62nd percentile. I looked it up for corners in the NFL. So that's not too bad. 180 pounds. That's like the 12nd percentile. I looked it up for corners in the NFL, so that's not too bad. 180 pounds? That's like the 12th percentile for corners. That's just a really light cornerback.

So measurables might get in the way of him being drafted higher or lower, I should say, than his tape deserves. But this is a man coverage player. This is a zone coverage player. This is a point and shoot. Who's the wide receiver? One on the other team. Okay, you're not catching the ball kind of corner yep that attitude yep that this is the kind of player that we were talking about is one of my favorite corners that i have ever scouted

and he is he was easily my cb1 in this class i'm with you i'm with you all the way i think he's a special player and i think that number, when you look at the weight, I think if you need to counter somebody using that against him, Denzel Ward came in at 183. I saw Denzel Ward when he came to play, when he was with Ohio State, came to play against Rutgers. I mean, he was probably playing at 178 during those games. So I don't know how much teams will use it against witherspoon but i think

i do agree with your point that gonzalez will get the bump because of that because he's just so big and so yeah so man i mean his demeanor his attitude every coach is going to fall in love with devon witherspoon every single one they're going to want to coach this guy he's a leader he's a he barks a lot but he backs it up and you love it baby you said the hits I mean he puts every pound of the 180 pounds of force into his hits he loves playing the run I've seen him come all the way across the field to make plays he's you you the way he can click and close he can put the foot in the ground and get downhill and coverage i'm like you said i'm watching this guy versus mesh routes where you're like okay there's nothing to him

there is clearly traffic in the middle you know a mesh route obviously it's got two dig routes going um or not dig routes two drag routes going opposite each other to hopefully create a lot of traffic in the middle one of the defenders if it's man coverage they can't get through all that so then one of the wide receivers get open devon witherspoon almost like loves seeing mesh because he's like hell yeah you guys think i can't keep up with this guy guess what i'm gonna stay in his hip the whole time i don't know i've seen very few corners even play the some of the toughest routes to defend better than Devon Witherspoon has.

Yeah, I think he makes his teammates better, too. He's in a secondary that his two teammates are going to the senior bowl as well. Sidney Brown, the safety, and then Jertavius Martin, who I watched for the show. Their slot corner. I thought he made those guys a lot better. He's a communicator. His fire kind of rubs off on everybody. He's the type of player that can play inside.

He can play outside. He can trail guys all day. He loves playing against the run. Guys will rally behind him. I mean, if he was six feet tall, 200 pounds, I think he'd be a top five pick. I really do. I really do.

If he was 200 pounds, his floor would be Detroit at six. Yeah, there you go. That's it. Yeah, his floor would be Detroit with the potential of, I mean, yeah. Insane. He's that kind of player. And I had a feeling we would both agree on that. I'll say, though, you know, I know, I know I, you guys did the,

it's just football segment outside of me, you and Renner. I haven't seen a lot of, a lot of love for him as the top corner. And I, I been warning on this show. I think the pendulum is going to swing that way. I just think it's like this players are built one way, but when you sit down and watch the tape and you project the measurables at the combine, which are the size isn't on his side,

but he's an explosive athlete. He's going to run really well. When you project all of those things, I mean, Witherspoon does not belong in the backend around one and mock drafts. He just doesn't. He belongs in the top 15 consistently. No,

no. Look, if you, if you see a mock with witherspoon anywhere past i'll i'll just be safe and say 20 uh it's it's wrong or it should be wrong it should be wrong should be wrong that i'm gonna say it there so witherspoon fantastic so i just to recap a little bit here my five through one i had dionte banks from maryland at five keely ringo from georgia at four joey porter jr from penn state at three christian gonzalez from oregon at two and then

devon witherspoon from illinois at one connor who was your uh five through one yeah so five through one for me we were pretty similar on this and i said five was really close but keely ringo gets the nod because of ceiling over Clark Phillips's floor right now. Cam Smith at four, Joey Porter at three, Christian Gonzalez at two, and Devon Witherspoon at one. I'll say this. I really, really liked Emmanuel Forbes, Deontay Banks, and DJ Turner outside my top five. I really, really did. I think all three are starters that get drafted on day two, and that's not even getting into a lot of the senior bowl corners as well, who are going to outside my top five. I really, really did. I think all three are starters that get drafted on day two. And that's not even getting into a lot of the senior bowl corners as well, who are going to be drafted around probably later day two,

I would say instead. So this is a really deep corner class. I think teams are going to have really tough conversations of, do we take the premium premium cut in Witherspoon and Gonzalez with top 15 picks, or do we try to find starters and get other positions of value in the first round? But the tier for Witherspoon and Gonzalez to me was drastically different than everybody else,

where in a class where there's some talented quarterback, there's some talented pass rusher, there's a hell of a lot of talent at corner, these guys are going to go really early and they're going to go off the board really quick. Let's give a shout out to a couple of these guys that we had right outside of the top five, a guy that caught my attention that you mentioned kind of just outside of this

and rounding out your top 10 was Emmanuel Forbes from Mississippi, Mississippi state. Sorry, Ole Miss fans don't come after me. There is no player in the country that had more ball production than this guy did. Yeah. And you know, he got a little help, but he did get a little help. You watch him. It's so funny. me there is no player in the country that had more ball production than this guy did yeah and you

know he got a little help but he did get a little help but you watch him it's so funny but he also had some great plays 13 interceptions over the last three seasons is absolutely nuts uh whether you're right place right time or not i think that that's that's crazy but uh talk to me about emmanuel form so it's just an overall view of him and kind of what you thought of him. Sure. So they have on his bio that his six career pick sixes are the FBS record, which blew my mind. I don't know why I expected that to be higher,

but that's a hell of a lot of pick sixes. Very impressive from Forbes. He's played a lot all three years of college, 14 total picks throughout those three years of college. Like we said, six have been brought back to the house. He played 641 snaps at outside corner this year. 104 of them impressed, so an outside corner. Three-year starter who just turned, he's going to turn 22 this month.

He did have six picks. Three of them were on tipped plays, so some luck there. But he also had nine more incompletions, and he had a pick six where he jumped a Will Levis screen. That was one of my favorite plays I watched out of any corner in this class. It was fourth and two, and my man said, I'm all in. He took all of his chips and pushed him in. If he overruns that play or if he's wrong, it's probably a touchdown.

But instead, he makes, he jumps the screen and takes it back to the house on the road. Very wiry build with long legs. So comfortable running vertical with wide receivers. Teams challenged his tackling and physicality. They looked at him and they're like, all right, there's the wiry guy on the outside. Let's screen game him to death. He competes.

He has his struggles with physicality because of his build, but he competes. He rolls the dice. There's not much fear to his game. And I wrote down one fun fact he has 10 brothers and sisters so emmanuel forbes man i feel like when you grow up with that many siblings you just have that competitive dog in you because you just fight over everything so i really liked watching him i really like his uh demeanor i think he he'll put on a little bit of weight but he's wiry he plays the ball i thought there's a play

where and i forget who it's against i actually i gotta write this down and go back but it's a scramble drill and he's running with the wide receiver for like 30 seconds and i'm like that is wildly impressive so the ball is gonna find forbes at the next level is what i came away with even factoring in a little bit of luck this is just a dude that this is the style of he plays with the ball is going to find him. I think he's a second round pick. And I think in typically a normal corner class, he would probably sneak into the back end of the top five,

but this is not a normal corner class. I do like, I do like Emmanuel Forbes. His build is extremely worrisome to me. He has some of the skinniest legs i've like ever seen a corner um mississippi state lists him at six feet tall 180 pounds illinois lists devon witherspoon at six feet tall 180 pounds and when you looked at these two dudes are not the same next to each other you'd be like okay somebody's lying here i went back and i looked up emmanuel ford's recruiting profile and at one point i think it's during his junior year in high

school he was listed at like 150 so there was another point where i think his senior year he was listed at 165 i don't even know if this dude's 180 um because he is he just is so skinny now he didn't get bullied as much as i thought he would for a guy who might be like 170 175 but you i you got to put more weight on the lower half in the nfl you just have to you've got to be able to anchor a little bit you've got to be able to put more strength on so that is an area where i was watching him and i agree with you you, he was in terms of a cover corner. I really did like him. I thought he was a good cover corner. There's a lot of things to like, but I did, man, the weight is just,

it's hard for me to see him staying at this weight and remaining successful at the NFL level. So I do think that he needs to add a little bit of weight. Can I talk about Garrett Williams? He's built like Levi Wallace. That's who. Yeah. Now, yes, please talk about Garrett Williams? He's built like Levi Wallace. That's who was on the Steelers. Now, yes, please talk about Garrett Williams because I know our Syracuse fans,

they will hold us accountable when we don't talk about the Orange. I liked Garrett Williams. Yeah, I mean, it's just an unfortunate situation. So he tore his ACL earlier this season, and that's a bummer. He's six feet tall, 190 pounds. You got to factor in the ACL injury, but man, I liked him. If you play a lot of off coverage,

this is your dude, but he's got so much confidence as a cover three or quarters player. Who's playing an off coverage, great recognition for routes. Uh, when you give him the ability to keep his eyes on the quarterback. And I think he could click and close really fast. I thought that was very evident. He's able to close the space between him and wide receivers very quickly as an off-coverage corner. I thought he had really impressive feet for a guy who is six feet tall. I thought he was very in control at all times.

He's a willing and aggressive tackler. I just love the aggressiveness and the mentality that he brought to the position. He's very quick when it comes to changing direction. I think that bodes really well for a guy who you give him a little bit of space, keep things in front of him. He is the kind of player who I could definitely see, you know, cutting a bunch of routes, being a guy who goes and gets interceptions because of how well he can move in that regard.

You got to recover from the ACL injury. We got to see what his athleticism is like then. I don't think he's going to do anything during the pre-draft process, so we're not really going to get an answer to that. No, that would be real. That'd be quite the accelerated ACL recovery. But I liked him, man. He exclusively plays in off coverage.

He's not a press corner. So if you're like, oh, six feet tall, maybe give me a press guy. He just doesn't have a lot of experience in it. But in those opportunities where he had to go up for interceptions, I thought that he looked like a natural athlete going up at the catch point. I think he has good ball skills and I was impressed, man. I, I, I was just, I was more impressed than I thought I was going to be because I don't see anybody talking about Garrett Williams,

but if we get a fully healthy Garrett Williams back, I really do think this is an NFL caliber corner and he's going to find his way onto the field somehow. I thought his ball skills this year looked phenomenal. They really, really did. And it's a shame that he gets hurt because you get buried. It's just the nature of the game. When you get hurt, you get buried in this process and you can't test and you're left

with limited film from that year. So probably a guy that goes on day three. And if he can sadly fully recover back to the player he was he will overachieve from his draft slot yep i agree with you 100 anybody else you want to shout out before we get out of here man this this group is i mean when we circle back and do our final rankings there's going to be a boatload of draftable players from this group i know today we talked about our top fives we talked about forbes dionte banks talked about Forbes, Deontay Banks. I didn't talk about DJ Turner too much, who I did really like in this process. I guess I'll

close the book with that one. Jalen Jones, actually from Texas A&M, former five-star. He was dealing with a couple of different injuries this year and just never really made plays. He was just rock solid, but kind of a recruit that people thought would be, you know, we thought we'd be talking about him with Christian Gonzalez, that kind of level of player. And it's just never really reached that level of his college career. Probably looking at round three or four for Jalen Jones out of A&M, kind of a surprise declaration for me. So this corner class has it all, man. It has it all. It has its projects. It has its injury guys. It has its stars. It's got starters on day two of the draft.

It's a really, really deep group. And it was an exciting one to watch because I was super, super impressed. You didn't have to look very hard to find talent in this group. All I'm telling you is, when Devon Witherspoon gets drafted, y'all better head to Mojo and put some damn money on the line because this guy is going to be an absolute star. Witherspoon gets drafted, y'all better head to Mojo and put some damn money on the line because this guy is going to be an absolute star. Mojo is the all new sports stock market that lets you guys invest in your favorite athletes and cash in on your passions. You can sign up right now on the Apple app store to get your first stock for free, which if you get in on these guys early

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so download mojo in the apple app store to start turning your playmakers into money makers you must be 21 years or older to use mojo and located in new jersey to make trades if you've got a gambling problem help is available at 1-800-GAMBLER. Visit mojo.com for more info. The NFL playoff action continues. We're obviously talking about it plenty on this podcast, and we're one step closer to Super Bowl 57. But for the divisional round, we want you guys to check out DraftKings Sportsbook,

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Still up money-wise. Had a little bit of losses lately, but we're going to hit the right bets for NFL Division. I almost said wildcard weekend, but divisional round weekend. And we're going to make sure that we get back on the saddle.

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Anything non-cornerback related before we say goodbye to the people for the weekend, Connor? Man, no. It's mock draft season. We're here. More teams get added to the group every day. I thought the quarterback show was really fun so if you miss that in the middle of the week i know sometimes it's easy to miss the middle of the week shows we did landing spots for all the quarterback needy teams

reactions are always truly hilarious it's um it's mayhem i mentions i'm an idiot i said aaron rogers to the jets and you know you light your own mentions on fire when you do that on you brother i mean listen i take responsibility for my actions. I am a man of honor and integrity. So I think that's it for me. We've had a busy week here. We stacked one of the deepest groups, maybe the deepest group in the entire draft. Yep.

We got a new quarterback for every quarterback needy team. We did a mock draft. We did. Like, what more does anybody want here? We need a new quarterback for every quarterback needy team. We did a mock draft. We did. What more does anybody want here? We need a vacation. We need a vacation, and we're not even close. And we're not getting it until the end of April. OBL Alabama.

Hell yeah, baby. Senior Bowl. That's right. I am very excited for the Senior Bowl coming up. It's going to be a good time. It's going to be a real good time. We will be there. We will have shows for you guys.

Practice reports. You name it. a real good time. We will be there. We will have shows for you guys. Practice reports. You name it. Always a good time. All the good one-on-one drills. All the good watch this guy get in the first round now because he burned a guy who didn't have deep safety coverage in a one-on-one drill that's favored for the wide receiver. The clips of the wide receiver release that's like eight seconds long.

Get wrecked, son. You should get wrecked. I told you that corner sucks. And they're like, get wrecked, son. You should get wrecked. I told you that corner sucks. And it's like, oh, boy. And then you're standing out there. The rain's just coming up from underneath you, like Forrest Gump said, in the Vietnam scene. It's just, hey, I love it.

I'm not even talking like with any kind of jest here or any kind of, you know, anger. It's genuinely very funny. I will close this. Last year, I see Trevor walk into the first practice, and he had just arrived from Vegas, and he had literally, I don't think, slept yet at all. No, we did not.

Classic memory. Classic, classic memory. My goodness, man. But you know what? You persevere because when you're 6'5", 230, 240, 250, your body stores energy better than most humans. This is very true. This is very true and a great way to end this podcast one baby appreciate everybody listening let us know what you thought

on this episode and what you think of the cornerback class if you're watching on youtube uh hit us up in the comment section on youtube if you want to hit us up on twitter at tampa bay trey at connor j rogers hit us up on instagram as well just let us know what you think of our analysis of the cornerbacks what analysis you have in the cornerback position and how you see this one stacking up. Appreciate everybody listening. I'm Trevor Sikama. That's Connor Rogers. Thank you for listening to the NFL Stock Exchange podcast. See you guys next week. Outro Music