NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 2027 NFL Draft CB Rankings (SUMMER SCOUTING!)

Episode Date: August 12, 2026

Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers give you their Top 12 Cornerbacks in the 2027 NFL Draft. Summer Scouting! A huge thanks to our sponsor, Franchise Football League, for supporting today's show! Download the app or play on the web! https://www.franchiseleaguefootball.com/ Save 50% on Franchise League Football with code 'MBFL'! Supporting them supports us. Thanks guys! :) Here's more about Franchise Fantasy League: Everything You Hate About Fantasy Football, Fixed. You won your league last year. Congrats. Then August rolled around and... you started completely over. New draft, new roster, none of what you built survives. Where's the reward for all that work? Every fan has screamed at their team's GM at least once - bad contract, botched pick, letting the wrong guy walk. You've thought it: I could do that better. Franchise League Football is where you get to prove it. It's a contract-based keeper platform with a real salary cap. You inherit a franchise with existing contracts from day one - evaluating deals, hunting waiver-wire bargains, deciding who stays and who hits free agency. Blind-bid auctions set salaries. Multi-year contracts carry real weight. You can even draft college players before they declare, stashing future stars on minimum deals. Add automatic injury substitution, round robin playoffs, and weekly giveaways for high scores, and it's clear why FSGA named it Best Startup Product Experience. Built by MIT engineers. Rewards decision-making, not the luck of a random draft order. Use code MBFL50 to save 50%. Get started at FranchiseLeagueFootball.com or download the app. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel and help us get to 75k subs! It's 100% free and helps us out a bunch. Thanks! WE HAVE A DISCORD!!!!! JOIN HERE! https://discord.gg/AjqamEUyEW https://discord.gg/AjqamEUyEW?feature=description if the link doesn't work for you, just search 'NFLStockExchange' on discord and it'll pop up timestamps: 0:00 Intro 9:27 Rankings Reveal 7-12 / Football Starts Here 11:43 O.J. Frederique Jr., Miami 17:00 Jamari Sharpe, Indiana 21:56 Zeke Berry, Michigan 32:25 Jyaire Hill, Michigan 36:25 Ja'Bril Rawls, Florida State 41:52 Brice Pollock, Texas Tech 46:28 Christian Gray, Notre Dame 52:30 Chris Peal, Syracuse 55:18 Kayin Lee, Tennessee 59:25 Franchise Fantasy League 1:01:23 Rankings Reveal 1-6 1:04:08 Xavier Scott, Illinois 1:09:31 Jalen Mayo, Houston 1:14:45 Zach Lutmer, Iowa 1:18:11 Zabien Brown, Alabama 1:22:39 Ashton Hampton, Clemson 1:28:03 Kelley Jones, Mississippi State 1:35:25 Ellis Robinson IV, Georgia 1:40:15 Leonard Moore, Notre Dame 1:45:48 Outro   Follow us on X: https://x.com/NFLSEshow https://x.com/TampaBayTre https://x.com/ConnorJRogers We appreciate each and every one of you ADDICTS :) For business or other inquiries, reach us at [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Peter Clark is not from the United States of America. He was in the NFL UK Academy. The style he plays at is my cup of tea. You like that? It's a UK joke. No, I got it. No, I got it. I was letting it to marinate.

Thank you. Thank you for the ISO. I've really missed it. I feel like the Joker. Not the Heath Ledger one, by the way. I'd like to sit out for a watch. Jeffrey said we have the cold open. after some technical difficulties.

Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange Show. Trevor Second McCona Rogers and of course the chef with you guys here. We're another positional ranking episode of the summer scouting series. Today we are talking corners. We're back to the top 12s.

We got a big show for you guys today. We're going to go through each of our individual top 12 cornerbacks for the 27 NFL draft heading into the 26 college football season. Anybody who's in the chat live knows that we were, late for being late. You know, we're notorious for being a little bit late. Today we were a lot late.

But it was just due to technical difficulties. And Connor, why am I the only one that gets blamed in the chat? You do. Oh, Trevor can't turn his camera on. Oh, I guess the mic's not working for she forgot to plug it in. How's Trevor late? He doesn't even have a job. Why is it only me?

By the way, I don't even know if the chat's joking that they can't hear us. And I'm just powering through. I don't, I'm powering through. I was laughing that the best far was there was multiple problems this time and none of them were you for once you were fine, you were logged

in, good to go, camera great, sound great, I couldn't get in because my camera wouldn't load chef said that YouTube was a disaster and the stream wouldn't load to start anyway so it didn't even matter that I couldn't get in and here we are we're all and apparently people can't hear you

but I think they're just messing with you at this point And by the way, isn't it nice that our own show is just a humiliation ritual at this point of my bad jokes? It is. Us being bullied for being late. Technical difficulties on and on we go. It's part of the community, you know? You got to poke fun at your friends. At least that's what I'm trying to tell myself, you know.

Yeah, that's the whole point of this thing is to just make fun of each other. There are so many people spamming that they can't hear me, but then a lot of people are saying that they can. So you guys, that is an evil trick. It is an evil trip. You are stressed. You are, when you, when you play jokes like that, I just want you to know. It's not me. It's the chef.

The chef starts, he's freaking out behind the scenes trying to make it all work. So you're not even going after me. Right. It's cruel to do to him. Because you know that when he sees the first, can't hear you. It's like bad flashbacks immediately for him. While you and I sit here and we're like, don't care if you can't hear us. We'll have a nice conversation together.

As long as you're watching, it's your good. true. It's very true. Welcome back. You look like an evil banker. It's a good look for you, but it's, I just want to call it out. That means I have a yacht. So, yeah, you have a lot of things, potentially a helicopter on the yacht. Yeah, it's like I'm going for, you know, you got to, you got a dress for the job that you want.

Obviously, as somebody who doesn't have a job right now, I just want the job where I get a Bond villain yacht. So that's what I'm going for here, growing out hair. We got a slick back like Dennis the Wolf Stanston from Mighty. Ducks D2, the head coach of team Iceland. Everybody who got that reference, kudos to you, one point here early on the show. Icelandic, Norwegian. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, there's a very specific part of the world of the look you've established. You know what? And I'm all right with it. Not sure my wife is, but, you know, for the time being, I'm all right with it. I wasn't going to do the show today. Rufu said it's not the J word for job. Yeah, who wants one of those? Yeah.

It's Jets Bucks Joint Practice Week. Oh, right, we're right. So you were going to in solidarity. And protest. Yeah. And I didn't think it was a good week to do a show. But at the end of the day, we have to do the show. So I just, I can't get enough of both the David Bailey and Ruben Band reports of both of them just being absolute menaces.

Did anyone else practice? I don't think so. They couldn't run practice because of those two, ruining every play. It's kind of what it sounds like. is, you know, which is great. Two of the best players in last year's draft. It's awesome to see him working out already. I read a report just before I popped on to this show that Arville Reese like looks

and acts like a cyborg. Like the guy, the report said, I don't remember whose report it was. I'm sorry, I wish he could give you credit, but I can't off the top of my head. That Arvill Reese just like, he doesn't say anything. He just shows up super early, just lifts extreme weights. He's a badass on the football field and leaves and does it all the next day. It checks out. That's kind of what the scouting report was.

when we ranked him as a linebacker. And yeah, it's been strong for all three of those defenders where I think the early returns are really promising. I can't wait for actual preseason action to see them play. I know. Like I'm not above preseason ball. I love it. Dude, I don't, maybe it's just because the Hall of Fame game was that sick.

But I haven't been this pumped about the first full weekend of preseason football in a long time. And normally we get to this point, right? It's been however many months without live football, you get to the first big week of preseason. You're like, oh, man, I've missed football. I can't wait to watch it. But this year feels even different. I don't know if it was just because of how deep we were in the draft class and, you know, how much bigger this podcast and this community has got it. Like, I just can't wait to see so many different teams and so many different rookies. So I'm actually, I'm actually fired up about the preseason this weekend, even independent of Jeth's box. Me too. We have a lot to do with summer scouting where I think

On this show, we won't be able to cover preseason in that capacity because we want to finish up all these groups or the groups that matter. Yeah. But I do know you and I are going to make a significant effort this season to at least do rookie coverage people have been asking for. Yeah, Ren Dax said, Bain isn't playing tomorrow. Yeah, you're right. He's not playing. He's not playing them tomorrow? No, actually, I have no idea.

I didn't see that, but Ren is, Ren follows the Bucks very, very closely. So maybe he isn't playing tomorrow. scared money. Scared money. Don't you want to compete. Don't want to compete. Don't flew all the way up to New Jersey to just sit around. Isn't that what everybody does, New Jersey?

The vacation state of the world? You know, they call it. Apparently the number two state. Do you see the state rankings recently? Wait, hold on. In what? I just saw it real quick and I kept going. I lived there for nine years.

And Jersey is an underrated state for certain reasons. but it's not number two in the country, okay, folks. That feels like a Instagram, real or TikTok, like rage bait, where they just go, ranking the top 10 states and there's no criteria, there's nothing, and then number two just shows up in its New Jersey and people are just losing their minds because they're like, what's this based off of? And it works, and whoever did make that, their bills were paid for the month. Because that's the world we live in.

It's true. The chat, as you can expect. I mean, it's just on a... They're in mid-season for them. They don't even need the preseason. They're in mid-season for them. That's a little teaser for you guys. You got to make sure that you get in and you watch one of these live.

Okay, we got so many cornerbacks to get to. Apparently, before you hopped in to the room where we record the show. Oh, the room I couldn't get into? Yes, yeah. You were locked out. Yeah. It's like a Zelda temple. Just to record a podcast.

The chef was like, hey, I'm finishing up the last couple of graphics here. You and Connor have like way different people. And I'm like, I know that this is a running joke. I know that this is a bit. I watched 25 corners. How could you have so many people in your top 10 that weren't even on my list? That is pretty crazy. I watched, I think, 19.

And I legitimately ran out of time at the buzzer. Like, I got home from work today. Cam decided to shit his pants twice. So that was like, you know, classic. Yeah, good, good. And yeah, he was like, you got to compete, dude. He was like, that's, you haven't been competing. You got two corners left you wanted to watch.

Well, let's see you navigate this, like a NASCAR pit stop. And, you know, eventually it was just like, there's a couple of depth guys I wanted to still watch that I watch going into the season. And I was sitting there and I was like, damn, I didn't get to two or three more that I had on my list. But I've already watched almost 20. That shows how deep this group was where I'm excited to see the guys you got. to that I didn't. Chats out of line. Yeah, I totally ran the bus over a baby in that scenario.

Okay, let's get to it. 12 through 7. I didn't even wear pants. I think the chef, I think the chef may have changed the animation here, where both of our lists reveal at the same time, so we could have sort of like an immediate reaction for each other's lists here. Like a big bang kind of.

I believe so. I believe so. Well, let's see what he's got. Wow. It is at the same time. Okay. All right. So read your list off.

Read your list off here. Number 12 from me, Jamari Sharp from Indiana. You all might remember him intercepting Carson Beck to win the national title game. 11. Jibrill Rawls, who we both have on here. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Florida State.

10, Bryce Pollock, Texas Tech. Nine, Jair Hill, who returned to Michigan. Eight, Chris Peel, who started for Syracuse last year after transferring from Georgia. And seven, K.N. Lee, who is now at Tennessee, but started for Auburn last year. And I'm already excited because your number 12 is a guy that I did not watch. I watched the rest of the guys. Oh, okay. But I did not watch O.J. Frederique.

But I remember him. Yes. He's, I mean, he's been starting at Miami for a while, but really quickly. At least two years, right? Yeah, he's a true junior this year, too. been starting for a while. So I have OJ. Frederique A. Jr. from Miami at number 12. I have Zeke Berry from, it should say Michigan. It says Michigan State. should say Michigan. If I type that in wrong, chef, that's a, that's on me. He was 14 for me. So I think we're going to have some aligning thoughts on him. Okay. Christian Gray from Notre Dame.

I have him at number 10. Jair Hill from Michigan. You know, it's so funny. Our list can differ so much, so many different names. Guys, are you having your top 12 that I don't have in mind, all that kind of stuff. And yet here we are Jair Hill number nine for both of us. Just perfectly sitting there like, yep, Jair Hill. You love the comment. The best corner in this class after we watch nine million corners. Zavin Brown from Alabama. I have him at number eight.

And then Jibrill Rawls from Florida State. I have it number seven. You have a number 12. So I think we'll talk about him early here. But I think we should hit some of the names that aren't in either of these lists. And I think the guys that you have are probably just outside of my top 12 and probably vice versa. But I can talk about OJ.

Frederica to start things off here. So a cornerback from Miami is a true junior this year. Listed at 6 feet, 185 pounds. Former three-star cornerback. His local is from Deerfield Beach. Went to St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the best high schools, not just in the state of Florida,

but in the country. I want a state championship as a senior. Played wide receiver, played corner, and was also a punt and kick returner for St. Thomas Aquinas. Committed to Miami. And then you mentioned it, and you're right, played in 13 games, seven stars.

starts as a true freshman in 2024, 11 games in 2025 with nine starts as well. His full name is Romanos, Frederique Jr. And just goes by OJ, he's junior. Cool name. Yeah, extremely. Sounds like it should be in, you know, like Gladiator, right? Romanos, Frederique. Yes.

I feel like that guy should be a, you know, General of the Felix Legions, you know, to quote our guy. That's an incredible name. So, yeah, OJ, in the state of Florida. It's all coming together. This is, yeah, this is a stock up candidate right here already. He hasn't even played a game this year yet. So I categorize my corners into three different positions.

And I've talked with you guys about this before, and we kind of go through this every time we do positional rankings. I have it categorized in three different ways because my formula for what I weigh. more heavily or less heavily, sort of like going into what I think matters more for different styles of players. And a corner, I have wide man corners, wide zone corners, and then I have nickel defenders.

So nickel defenders, sometimes it's safeties that are in there. Sometimes it's linebackers that are in there now in today's game, but it's also sometimes corners that are more of those inside guys. So those are the three different categories that I have. Frederica Jr. is a man coverage corner. He's six feet tall. He's got good arm length. and he likes to use that length, that frame in press man coverage.

That's really his role. And you would kind of expect that to be the role of a player who is able to start really early on in their college career because man coverage, where it can be the more high difficulty choice of man in zone coverage, it can be an easier sort of segue. It could be an easier way to sort of like start your. career because you're basically just saying, hey, don't let that guy catch the ball, right? I'm going to teach you inside, outside leverage. We'll teach you sort of like, you know, hand punches, whether it's a one arm, whether it's

two arms, whatever, timing. Hey, don't get beat over the top. But a lot of times it just comes down to don't let that guy catch the football, especially if you're impressed. And that's how Frederica got on the field because he really has been proficient at that over the last couple of years. I think he's got good footwork, good balance, which is really important because when you're impressed coverage, you have to be able to backpedal.

A lot of these guys that you'll watch, like sometimes if there are more cover three corners, quarters coverage type of corners, you can get away with being off the line of scrimmage and you'll watch these guys sort of flip their hips halfway and they do a shuffle technique instead of a true back pedal. Sometimes that's preference with guys in their athletic ability and their flexibility. Other times it's kind of what their coaches want them to be able to do to maximize leverage and being able to, you know, jump inside if they really need to or maybe it helps them not get beat over the top, whatever it is. There's a lot of different reasons that you can use that technique. When you're a press man, you got to. You got to.

to be able to backpedal. And I think that Frederike does a good job being able to do that. I think he's got good timing and he's aggressive when it comes to the ball arriving and he's able to really disrupt the receiver and get those past PbUs. My issue with him is if you get even the heaviest man coverage teams, you're still going to have to play zone at some point. And it just felt like he was much less confident when it came to zone coverage. The technique and the spacing was off. He was given too much, he was given too much cushion. was giving up these passes. When he is in man coverage, he's a little bit

grabby. I mean, you kind of have to deal with that with man coverage corners, but he was a little bit more so gravy than you wanted him to be for pass interference. Long speed to me felt like it might be just above average. And when you're a pressman corner, that worries me a little bit with him. But I read that he was kind of banged up last year.

He wasn't as healthy. 2024 kind of looked a little bit healthier than he did in 2025. And it was a long season for them, obviously getting to the national championship. But also want to see more fire and run defense from him. You can tell he takes a lot of pride in the man coverage role, but not as much when it comes to sticking his nose in there and getting around the football when it comes to run defense.

So that's kind of the pros and cons of him, but definitely somebody who I think has the ability to be a starting outside corner at the NFL level in a man coverage system, but would like to see him round out his game a little bit more. Yeah, I mean, also it's going to help him for back-to-back years, maybe not as good as last year, although maybe the front that Miami has is at times going to take pressure off their corners where, you know, obviously they are now Damon Wilson there.

They have good defensive tackles. They have guys that can get home. So it's going to be interesting to see if he can kind of parlay that into some ball production that he didn't necessarily have last year. Yeah. Talk about Sharp really quick because he didn't make my top 12, but he snuck in there at number 12 for you. Jammari Sharp from Indiana.

Yeah, Sharp's. interesting because he doesn't make a lot of mistakes. And in Indiana scheme, he's an outside corner, essentially every snap. But they don't really, they didn't really play man. Like he only, he played, I think, 40 snaps of man coverage last year. So when you watch the tape, there's limitations of what you're going to be able to see. But he was really good at what he was asked to do. He's got good eye discipline.

He's patient. he's smart he's really really competitive and he doesn't allow big plays and obviously the signature moment for him was that interception in the national championship game I believe that was his only interception on the year

so you'd like to see him make even more plays on the ball but he didn't allow a lot of big plays he allowed eight catches of 15 plus yards for somebody that had over 500 coverage snaps and was he was targeted 54 times Like that's low. He kept everything in front of him. I think he does a good job with the clicking close.

I'd like to see him and he's a more slender corner. You could see in that picture, really muscled up, but a more slender, taller, slender kind of build. I'd like to see him be a little bit more physical against the outside run. I think he does a pretty good job congesting the catch point. But the reason I kind of hedged with him is I put him at 12. There's only so much you can do when there's just not man coverage tape. Right. Right.

So like, and I value that a lot. There's going to be guys on this list that we haven't even revealed yet. We're going to, people might bat an eye and be like, wow, you're really high on them. But it's because I've seen already them tap into such a ceiling as a man cover corner as an athlete that I'm believing they're going to develop that eye discipline, awareness, and zone over and the smarts to play zone. Sharp is kind of the opposite. He's responsible. He plays things very smart and safe and sound in a defense that asks a lot of you, I think. But is he going to elevate Trevor to a player that it's like go run around with the

freak show wide receiver on the outside one-on-one? And we'll see if they put that on his lap because he is a red shirt senior. So he's a guy that's now been in college football for long enough and played enough college football. Yeah, I just struggled to know what to do with him for a lot of the same reasons that you mentioned. There's a lot of things to like about him when it comes to being a wide zone corner, somebody who's going to play a lot of off coverage, who's not going to let the big plays get over top of him. He keeps everything in front of them.

You know, when we say that these guys, like, aren't press coverage corners, which, by the way, Bryce said juice press for OJ with the style that he plays, which is... That could be really nice. Yeah, that's... Maybe quit your day job, Bryce. That's a 500 club member right there, Bryce, showing up.

Making his presence known in the chat. That's five big booms for me. I think that shit passed. But we'll throw him a couple big booms. So with Sharp, he does play that style where even though it's off coverage, some people might look at it and say like, ah, you know, he's giving everything up. There's so much cushion. There is still an art to technique and spacing where you can warrant a lot of no throws.

And I do think that that Jumari Sharp does. that. I just, the reason why I don't know what to do with him, Connor, is there weren't a lot of instances for him to showcase speed like you mentioned. And I felt like what I saw was like average or below average for the NFL when it came to explosiveness and speed. But the dude ran a 10, 6, 9, 100 meter dash in high school. I know, it's tricky. I do think he's still more of a 4-5s. Yeah, I think he's more of a four or five's though. I'm more in line with you. That's what I saw on tape.

I just did not feel like he was explosive enough on tape. No, and that might explain why, you know, once again, going back to the Natty interception, you watch the tape when he's playing off coverage and he's really, really sitting on the quarterback, you know, and kind of like just waiting. He breaks on receivers adequately. But there aren't the,

Two or three, oh, man, like he undercut that throw and he could go the other way or he just missed the pick. It's a lot of challenging the hands. And it's because, like you said, Trevor, he's just not a dynamic explosive athlete. Yeah, yeah. I think we see him the same. He just missed my top top 12. Zeke Barry from Michigan. You want to just hit the Michigan guys that we have here?

Because I got one and then we got. We might as well. It's nuts. Their whole secondary could be drafted to the NFL. Yeah, I think that, so I didn't know a ton about the corners. Like, I knew about the safeties, didn't know a ton about the corners. Didn't know anything about Zeke Berry, to be honest with you. But this was definitely a pleasant surprise I was going through this exercise.

So outside corner of Michigan, red shirt senior. He's 511-185. So that's, you know, 41st percentile in height and 19 percentile weight. So he is a smaller outside corner. corner four star cornerback from Pittsburgh California. And there's a Pittsburgh in Kansas? I would bet that there is a Pittsburgh in more than 17 states. Let's see.

Let's fact check that. God, that could be that could be a horrible call. How many Pittsburghs are there? There are roughly 20 to 25 in the United States. California, Kansas, Texas, of course, these are without an age, where the Pittsburgh has an age. That's true. That's true. Yes.

Because this is Pittsburgh without an age. Yes. Do you think they still say the Berg, no matter which one you're from? Or is that not cool? Yeah, probably. Now probably. Probably. The kids probably say it.

Like if you're from the Pittsburgh in New Hampshire and you meet you meet somebody while you're on business in California and they go, oh yeah, I'm from the burg. But you never tell them you're from Pittsburgh, New Hampshire. Or is that cordial? Or even worse, you just say, where are you from? Oh, I'm from Pittsburgh. And they go like, oh, cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My aunt lives in Pittsburgh.

And they start talking. She's a huge Steelers fan. And you're just like, uh-huh. And you don't even correct them at all. Sadly, I have a very recent story like this that I am ashamed. to tell. Okay, let's hear it. So, I was out to lunch two weeks ago. I don't know if this is an Isocare. I'm embarrassed by this story. I was out to lunch two weeks ago. Yeah, with a good friend. And he got up when we were about to leave, I think, to hit the bathroom. And there was this old guy.

The restaurant is on the golf course closest to where I live. It's a good restaurant. All right. So a lot of the guys on a weekday coming in there are, you know, just played 18. Of course. So is this old guy, really nice fellow sitting by himself at the table next to us. And as I'm grabbing my keys in my wallet to, you know, pack up and go, I have my badlands hat on. My badlands podcast that I do for the Jets, you know, on the Jets. I mean, this guy's probably 70 years old. He just starts talking about Badlands, the place.

not understandably not knowing that this is a hat for the podcast I do and he's going on and on saying how beautiful it is how awesome it is and like he he he read I let him go for like four minutes I'm not cutting off this old guy and finally he goes when did you go there and I I didn't have the heart to tell him like this is just I didn't have the heart to be like this is just a podcast or and I told them like, I just like the hat. Because you know what? That's the best answer. Because I thought you were going to start being like, oh, man, I went there, you know, last summer.

Dragging it's the worst thing you could do. That's the worst thing you could do. Or it's just entertainment for you. And that guy gets to. Yeah, but that guy gets to go around and be like, God, I just met somebody who's really bad. He liked it too. Oh, man. Yeah, right. So that's the danger of saying I'm from the Berg.

And people start talking about PNC Park for 20 minutes and you're like, I'm at New Hampshire. Yeah, yeah. So lesson learned for you kids out there. I know it wasn't my S-tier story in my arsenal of stories. But I had to get that one off my chest for the public. Hey, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. So Zeebary, who obviously, you know, deceives people and tells him that he's from Pittsburgh. He played both running back and defensive back when he was in high school. not only was he a track and field athlete, also a baseball athlete.

You have the stats? I don't have the baseball stats. No, no, I don't. I don't know what this. I don't know what this exit Velo was, you know, like, I don't. Launch angle? Yeah, I don't know what it's like, the launch angle, you know. They got so many stats at baseball now.

I'm like, I mean, baseball savant. We need a football savant level. I feel like, I feel like we got. We got some... There's stuff. There's stuff. There's stuff. I'm not going to give it away too much, but there's stuff.

We're getting there. Stick around there. So played in two games. He committed to Michigan, so he's always been a Michigan man. Played in two games, redshirted his first year. Played in 11 games the next year, mostly on special teams. Played in 13 games with five starts, seven in the slot. And, oh, no, it was 13 games, but seven he started in the slot.

Five, he started out wide. And then last year, he started 11 games as well. He's going to be a little bit older. be 23 years old on draft day and he'll be 24 his rookie season. So, you know, the red shirt senior tag figured that he'd be a little bit older and he is. But there's a lot to like about how he plays the game. I think that even though the height and weights a little bit smaller, decent build to play both inside and out. And he's got the experience to be able to showcase that as well. Has a ton of special teams experience. So if this guy is going to be somebody who's going to be

more of a day three type of a pick, you want to draft those guys and be able to play on special teams too. So I like that from him there. All of his experience. how much playing time that he has gotten. I think it's given him nice handwork when it comes to press coverage, when it comes to sort of hand fighting down the field in routes. When the ball's getting there, he knows that a time it very well. One of the better run defending corners in the class. He has the passion to be able to do it,

and he has that mentality and the technique from his days as a special teamer. You don't want him in press a lot, but I think he's pretty feisty. I have him listed as a wide zone corner, but if you're lining him up in press, I do think he's pretty well-rounded in his game. I think that if he's in a true back pedal, shorter stride length just doesn't cover a lot of ground. It can be difficult for him.

Long speed feels kind of average at best. But the way that he defends the run, how he approaches the game, the special team's background that he had, and I think that he's just a natural mover as an athlete. I like Zeke Berry a lot more than I thought. This is a high floor type of a player, maybe a lower ceiling, but a higher floor type of a player

who I think it stick around the league for a while. So big fan of his and for sort of, what he is is his own corner, but excited to watch the Michigan secondary this year, now that I know these two guys as well. Michigan Secondary is loaded, kind of an interesting competition there for how they're going to use them between Zeke Berry, Jair Hill, who would talk about Snowden Smith and, of course, their safeties. He's the smallest of their, actually no, Smith is the smallest of their corners, but they're almost the same size.

Zeke Berry, to me, Trevor, you know, because he has really versatile experience. In 2024, he played so much slot. Last year he played primarily outside. I hope they kick them back in this year. I'd be okay with that. I think it fits how he plays more. He's super scrappy. I like his play speed. He's got a good nose for the ball.

We've now have enough tape on him playing inside from two years ago and outside last year. I think that there were times to me on the outside. His aggressiveness. would get him a little bit of trouble on that island on the outside. He'd really be aggressive on double moves and things of that nature. And I just think a lot of his strengths will play to playing the slot. But we'll see how they use them. I have the baseball stats, by the way.

Do you? I do on max preps. I don't know if they're fully updated. All right. What do we got? What have we got? So his senior year, actually, oh, maybe he stopped.

Maybe he didn't play a senior year because this looks like, his varsity stats from his sophomore year was the last time. And he only appeared in, he played a lot as a freshman. He appeared in 23 games. And then his sophomore year, he appeared in four. So he probably scaled down the baseball. So he's a quitter. I don't know if he's a quitter.

I'm just kidding. They probably were like, hey, you're going to play in the NFL one day. You're a four-star corner. Why don't you come to spring workouts instead of playing baseball? Right, right. And then Trevor Sikkimakal called him a quitter on NFL. El Saki Shage. Guy with no job calls

somebody who's about to be in the NFL acquitter. Obviously, my dog wouldn't happy. Is that the new dog? Or is that more? No, no. That was Marvel. Marvel's still establishing who's the king of the castle. Yeah, he's, someone's probably,

God forbid, walking on the sidewalk, the public sidewalk next to our house. Can't have that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Absolutely cannot have that. He is, he is Gandalf the Grey, that you shall not pass. That is him when you are coming by the home.

All right, I'll let you talk to the people about, oh yeah, people in the chat are asking new dog. Yes, my wife and I adopted another dog. Was that like a bad spoiler by me? No, no, I just haven't talked about it on the show. Yeah, we adopted a new pup. I don't know if Tyler would have pictures of her. I will send Tyler a picture of her

and we'll get her up on the show so you guys can see her. But we got her from the Humane Society here. in Charlotte. And her name is Roo because she looks like a kangaroo and she hops around everywhere. I love that. Yeah, we're a very cute dog. Awesome of you guys for adopting. We're in the trenches with the crate training and puppy training and everything. We're truly, you know, up every basically 90 minutes, two hours in the middle of the night to go out. It is. I don't got to explain it to you. You got a kid. So that's, that's, that's tougher. That's tougher than a puppy. but yeah but I'm growing out of the phase where you're probably up more at night than me at this point

that's a puppy and is it wild undertaking there's a lot going on a lot going on in this household yes i'll let you start and talk to the people about uh jire hill from uh from michigan okay so another michigan corner hill is your prototypical outside corner where we've seen zeke berry play inside and outside hill is six one and a half 189 from his spring measurements um he started 22 games over the two years. So he's been a staple of this Wolverine secondary and for good reason, honestly. You see right away the listed height and I think he's got the speed to match to that. So that height speed combo on the outside allows him to kind of open up and get vertical with the wide receivers that he covers. I love how he trusts his legs. That was the number one thing that

stood out to me on tape. So many of these guys are in the phase, especially when you're asked to play man coverage, they get into the. mold of, I don't know if my speed is going to play this deep into the play and they start either grabbing or, and it's one of the hardest positions to play in football. They don't turn their head around and they try to play through the hands, which I feel like some guys might be being coached to do with how much I see it at the college level now over and over again. And it doesn't help that feels like every team has receivers that run 439 in this era. Jair Hill, really, that's a, that's a something he can.

stand on that how much he trust his speed at his height. I think he played big and big games. Watch the tape against Ohio State and Washington last year and you think of the receivers on those teams, I thought he played really, really well in those games. And that means something when scouting corners. You can go watch them have three interceptions against, you know, an FCS school or whatever it may be. But when it comes down to it, you know, when you're going up against receivers that you

would see in the NFL and you hold your own, it means a lot. Now, and you could probably. I tell this from the numbers there, and I think it translates to the tape. I find him in position very often where he should finish more plays. Like he's there. Tackles? No, what are you saying? Sorry, ball in the air.

Okay. Ball in the air. Okay. Now, speaking as tackling, he is so cautious against the run. Yeah. And it, I like him. I think he's good as an outside cover man. He's got to dial it up against the run a little bit more.

There's just so many. plays to the outside where he might try to undercut it or he'll like do the lun the upper body lunge but not the dive and just kind of whiff and it's like i get it man it's hard in this conference but you got to get in front of the car crash sometimes because even if you miss somebody's going to come clean it up behind you yeah but when you do the standing lunge it doesn't slow down the ball carrier at all and i saw a lot of that and i hope to see that improved this year but If he cleans that up a little bit, like this is a starting outside corner at the next level in my view. I agree. I mean, he's got the long legs, but it's, I mean, his oily hips, as they say, to be able to turn and run, naturally can sit low, good center of gravity in the back pedal.

Great length when he lines up in press. Great length when he goes to, you know, make contact with the ball in the air. Long effective arms for those PbUs. I think he's got a really strong amount of like pride and competitiveness in coverage. Like when it comes to the coverage matchups, like he, he plays with an attitude that you love. Doesn't play with that same attitude when it comes to kind of run defense and tackling, which I wish that he would round things out a little bit more. But you kind of see his picture there.

I mean, him being elicited, he's 6'1.5, 190 pounds. I mean, he's got a lean frame. So a lot of times when you get these longer, leaner corners, they don't, they don't love hitting. They don't love tackling. They just don't want to do it. Like, it's, it's, their, their body type's not as dense. And so I feel there's a little bit of that with Hill, but, man, there's so much to like about him from a cover corner perspective. And, yeah, I agree with you.

I think he could be a starting out, a outside, outside corner of the NFL. I want to hear you talk about Jibril Rawls. Yeah. A player I really, really like on tape. You have him ranked higher. So I'd like to, I'd like to hear about him. Yeah. So I have Jibril Rawls ranked seventh.

Where did you have him? 10? Oh, 11. 11th. So he is a redshirt junior going into this season. He is listed at 6 feet tall, 173 pounds. So obviously the weight is worth noting there because that is first percentile for corners in the NFL. He's a former three-star corner from Pensacola, Florida, played offense, defense, and special teams when he was in high school.

Redshirt, his first year at Florida State, played in 11 games in 2024, started seven games last year, but he missed the rest due to a shoulder injury, which we'll go into not only the weight profile, but kind of how we'll talk about him as a corner in a second. I think he's got adequate height and length to be able to play on the outside at the NFL level. The frame, despite being listed at 173, like, he looks decently, like, filled out and dense. Like, 173, I thought this guy would be skin and bones. And, like, he's skinnier. He's leaner of a player.

But it's not as bad as I thought. And I think that he could play with a good amount of strength despite being, 173. He is a natural mover, very fluid in his hips, despite, again, like being a longer and leaner player. A lot of times when you get these guys who are long and lean, they just really struggle to flip the hips. They really struggle to change directions. Sometimes the footwork is slow and it's clumsy. That's not at all the case with him. I think he's got really nice acceleration, really nice top speed. And the agility and the lateral movements are just as impressive as the linear movements from him. He loves to come down.

and tackle with a purpose. Passionate, despite that lighter frame, the good burst also allows him to be an effective blitzer and coming downhill on shorter routes or swing passes into the backfield. Like this dude will come downhill. He is competitive. The negatives, very lean frame.

Obviously, I mentioned the size and outlier for the NFL level. Although I think that he loves to come down and make some big hits. He leads with the shoulder a lot. He wants to, he wants to hit, he wants to madden hit stick you instead of really wrapping up as a form tackler. He needs to protect himself more. So again, tying into the fact that he missed seven games last year due to a shoulder injury,

you are listed at 173. I can't have you, as much as I love the mentality to want to get involved and flying downhill. I don't want to coach that out of you. I can't have you just going full reckless abandon and just. leading with your shoulder at 173 pounds. You're going to break your collarbone. You're going to separate your shoulder.

Like that stuff, like that's just, that's going to happen. And he already has one shoulder injury. And I think this is a really talented, unique, good outside coverage player. But long-term durability is something that I'm thinking about with him. Because the talent is there. I really do believe that not only could this guy be a starting outside corner at the NFL level, he could be a fan favorite.

he can be a coaching favorite with how passionate he is about playing the game. He's just got to make sure he protects himself a little bit more. So you don't want to coach that competitiveness out of him. But I need a little bit more self-preservation there from him because I wanted him to play in the league a long time because he's a lot of fun. I'm with you all the way. The first line of my scouting report was high energy presence on the field. And I didn't really write that about anyone else on this group as the top note. it's tricky one, right?

Because yeah, you know, he's listed 173. I think his spring weight was 173. Now, if he has a shoulder injury, you know, obviously that is going to completely cut off a lot of the weight work you could do, especially upper body work you could do in the off season where fully healthy on the right weight program, can he get to 185?

But at the end of the day, for me, it's just that is this tape the 11th best in this group that I watch? No, it's better than that. Is he one of the more likable players in this group? Easily. I mean, I loved him. And he's a player that I find myself rooting for because, like you said, the passion shows on the field.

Yeah. But then there is the cut back the emotions of scouting and add in the projecting of scouting. And there are not red flags. That word is a connotation. with off-field problems. It's a yellow flag and orange flag. Like, it's just something to, you know, monitor here.

Hurdles of things that just don't work. And 173 pounds, when you also been hurt already at college, often kind of carries the same exact problems into the NFL. So if we get to the process and Rawls has a good year, he's healthy. At the combine, he's 185 and the tape is just as good or better. It's going to change the conversation. But I had to put him at 11 right now because, he is a little harder to project to the NFL because of that situation.

I just loved watching him. Love to watch. Easy tape to watch. Easy player to like and root for and you'd want in your secondary. Okay. Can we go back to the ranking here? Who do we want to hit next? I think we should probably hit...

You got Bryce Pollock here from Texas Tech. I watched him as well. He's not in my top 12. But since he is in yours, I'll let you sort of set the table there for him. Yeah, I'll be quicker on Pollock. for me, this is someone that you're probably going to see pretty wide-ranging opinions on because he had five interceptions last year. And when you watch the interceptions,

like this guy as a roaming ball hawk in zone coverage is legitimate. I mean, if you hold the ball and start to stare down targets and he's kind of reading you on the back end, he has real closing burst and the ability with soft hands to finish. plays. He does. He'll make you pay. He was targeted 79 times in 2025, which at first he might be like, God, why are they just going at him over

and over again? Though for the most part, he held his own, and the way they play schematically, he did his job of not allowing big plays. I mean, he allowed nine catches of 15 plus yards. But this brings me to the fact of why he's at 10 and why I have a little bit of reservation thinking

he's going to be a riser in this group while, like, I just kind of talked glowingly about Rawls, who's at 11, but why Rawls can be a top five to six corner in this class. I mean, he played less than 100 snaps of man coverage. Yeah, they just don't ask him to do it. They just don't ask him to do it. And then, honestly, you watch the tape, he's super aggressive on routes in front of him. And when he's wrong, he just grabs. He just latches on.

I don't think he's got the long speed to keep up. Because he's never impressed. He's never in man. And I think that that might be a long speed. See, I see like Nemo Sports goes, Bryce Pollock, disrespect. He's arguably the best zone cornerback and run defender. And that's fine.

But guess what you've got to do when you get to the NFL? You have to have the legs to play man. Maybe not 40% of the game. Right. But, and I have him a corner 10. So like there's a lot of zone corners that might have some speed. limitations or grabiness to kind of coach out of their game, that'll be drafted in the third to fifth round.

But that was one to me where I watched him and I was like, man, the big plays are awesome. He did a good job limiting a lot in front of him. But I felt like there's also a reason they're playing this much zone that kind of leaked out the more you watch and you watch some of those penalties kind of rack up. So this, I think Pollock's a perfect example of why I have my cornerback ranking. split the way that I do because to me he's a very scheme dependent type of a corner. And if you were a team that plays a lot of off coverage cover three or quarters, like I think he's going to be for you.

My little early sort of like bottom line for him is Pollux a classic off coverage cover three cornerback who has a damage control style of keeping everything in front of them. But that lack of explosiveness and long speed could severely limit his potential impact in the pros. And I think that you talked about how many catches he gave up. We didn't give up a ton of yards probably, I'm guessing, but he's probably giving up a lot of catches because he's keeping everything in front of him. And if that's the style of corner that you kind of want on your team, if you are much more of a, hey, we'll play a lot of heavy zone and we'll pick our spots where we want to be aggressive, he could be a fit for that sort of a defense. But he's not going to be for everybody.

And I think that the teams who are going to ask you to play in Pressman, even a decent amount, might not have him as high. on their board. So it is that damage control type of player, but I'm with you, especially now. Like we might get to January and February, like we've talked about with many positions throughout the summer scouting series.

A summer scouting grade and an outlook is different than a January and February outlook. We might get to a place where six months from now, Pollock just simply is such a high floor player that you go, hey, what you see is what you get. don't care. Like he's he's going to be an NFL player in the right scheme. But right now, I think there are too many other players who I think have potential to grow in higher impact ways that I have a little bit higher on this list. So definitely a player who I can understand why you like

him and somebody to monitor again throughout the season to see what kind of impactful play we'll get from him. But right now I felt like it was a very conservative play style from him that I saw last year. All right. Let's go back to the rankings here. I didn't have Christian. Christian Gray in my top 12, I've watched a lot of him. So you should probably break him down. Sure. And then we can kind of go to the higher end of this class, I think. Sure.

Christian Gray, Notre Dame. He's a senior this year. Six feet tall, 195 pounds at 61st percentile in height, 62nd percentile in weight. So he's built like an outside corner at the NFL level. Former four-star cornerback from St. Louis, Missouri. Also a track guy as well, ran the 100 meter, ran the 200 meter. played in 12 games as a true freshman started 15 games in 2024 as a true sophomore started 10 games

last year but a hip injury caused him to miss a couple of games there. I think he's a very toolsy cornerback, height, weight, length, movements, all of that stuff I think you really play in the pros. This guy has a NFL level frame and he's got really good movement skills with it. There's not something where I watch him and I go, oh yeah, okay, because he's a little bit bigger of a corner. I don't think the feet move is fast. I don't think the hips turn is fast.

I think everything really is there for him. He has the tools that you want to start as a outside man coverage corner. Decent tackling strength from him. He's got a willingness to come downhill and help and run defense. He's got reps all over the field. I watched a couple of games from him last year. I mean, he is a field corner. He's a boundary corner, left, right, slot.

They moved him all around. So Notre Dame has a lot of confidence in the coverage ability that he has. I think the issue with him, and the biggest, I guess, like, negative or weakness in his scouting report right now is he just has some bad whiffs. Dude, like, he just has. Yeah. And you watch him for five plays and you go like, damn, like this kid's got talent. Like, this is a really, really talented player.

And then that sixth rep, it'll be a bad read on the ball. Like when it's coming, it'll be a bad read on the route. it'll be a bad read on where the ball carrier is going and the angle to the ball carrier. And if he would just mitigate some of those, I think this is, I mean, he reminded me of Jamel Dean in that aspect where Dean is this bigger, longer, athletic corner. But there's a reason why Jamel Dean doesn't have a lot of career interceptions. It's just because like the reads on stuff aren't as quick and precise and instinctual as you would want them to be. but he's got the size, length,

and athletic ability to still start in the NFL and be affected. So that's kind of the realm that I look at gray right now and just if we've got more consistency from him, there's a top 100 pick type of a player. I just think from the way that he is built and the way that he moves. But if not, yeah, I mean, it'll easily be a day three guy that could have gone in the last couple of drafts and there's a reason why he still here as a senior.

But yeah, that was my overall thoughts on him. I think he's got the tools to play in the league, but just not the consistency right now. Definitely a Tulsie player. I was really disappointed with the film last year. Just so many penalties. And you mentioned the whiffs, Trevor, that led to those penalties or touchdowns.

He's somebody that when you watch him at his best, you're like, why can't this guy be a top 10 corner in this class? But when you watch him at his worst, you could see why they went out and got DJ McKinney from Colorado, who is probably going to play on the outside with Leonard Moore. and then Gray will probably play inside. And that's a chance for Gray to have a better year than he did last year. Like I said, I didn't get a good year last year and give Notre Dame a really good secondary.

I like McKinney even more than Gray. And now they're all going to be in the same secondary with a guy that obviously we think we're going to talk about. Probably is one of the best players in this draft and more. So yeah, I think playing as a unit and playing in a place that he might be more comfortable should help him this year bouncing back from a tough year. Nemo, this is a great question. So I'm glad that Nemo asked it. How much of a minus do you give college cornerback two is when scouting?

For example, Leonard Moore was the one who was dealing with wide receiver ones. And I'm not spoiling anything. We'll obviously talk about Leonard Moore a little bit later in this show. I don't really see it as a minus. I mean, obviously you think about it, right? Because you know the other team that they're going up against it. There's a star wide receiver that you know is there. And, oh, okay, they're not matched up against him nearly as much.

Yeah, you take that into consideration, I think, in the same way that you sort of take into level of competition, right? Where you look at a player who might be playing at just like an FCS level and you say like, all right, well, if I'm projecting you to the pros, you better really be dominating or you really better be showing me some pretty good reps against lower competition because the competition is going to jump once you obviously get to the pros. So I think it's just another level of that conversation with him. So I wouldn't say that it's an immediate negative.

It just all depends on kind of how you're playing against the competition that you're going up against. So that sort of goes into a little bit of like, man, I saw a lot of good from Christian Gray, but I also saw him have some bad whiffs. And so you just kind of like take all that into the equation. By the way, Jay said first live, what's up, everybody? What's up, Jay? Glad to have you, Jay.

Yeah, welcome to the party. Hopefully you stick around. Joining us here. You had two players, I think that were left on your list that we didn't hit yet. Do you have Zavon Brown in your top six? No. Oh, okay, so I guess we got a couple of things. So we're going to have a different one.

Did you watch him? Yes. I just had to look at my list. I did. I have a lot of notes on him, actually. Wait, no. Oh, no, I'm lying. I do have him in my top six.

Okay. I was like, damn, I thought I was... You say Zabin. I've been saying Zabian. Oh. I might be wrong. Is it Zabian? I thought you said Zabin.

I'm like, I don't know. I was like Zabin Brown. Yes, he's in my top six. Okay, all right. I was like, why do I have so many notes on this player? Zabian's even... Zabian's cool. cooler anyways.

I hope that's how you pronounce it. I don't know. We're going to have to get to the bottom of this. But yes, we can wait to talk about him. He was absolutely in my top six. The chat's asking for you to talk about Chris Peel from Syracuse, though. He did not make my top 12, but I know a lot of people are fans of his game, the cornerback from Syracuse. Yep.

I'll pull up my notes on Peel, who transferred from Georgia started all last year for Syracuse, really good size. His spring measurements are actually 6-1 and 5-8s-206. Whoa. So he's gotten even bigger now, which is awesome for an outside corner. Sheesh. Yeah, he's a big corner. Size, length, enough speed.

Like, I didn't watch him like, hey, he's a really big corner, but can he run? He's fine, running. Very smooth in his back pedal, rarely panics. You know, how many times can I say this, though, with these corners, dominant in zone last year. Dominant. Yep. I want to see them put more on his play in man coverage this year because I think he could do it.

That's why I ranked him at eight rather than like, you know, I've talked about some guys lower than this where I'm like, they're not having them play a lot of man and I get why. When I watched Peel, I was like, no, Peel should be doing a lot more of this. He should be weaponized as one of if not your best defensive player. Yeah, we are going to weaponize Chris Peel on our Syracuse defense. I need to relax.

Oh, man. Get this guy a rail gun. You just need to chill out. Where's the noob tube? Chris Peel, the noob tube of Syracuse's secondary. Give this guy some akimboed silenced P90s with Commando Pro. There is. Shout out, Call of Duty.

Not a lot of bad tape for Chris Pell last year. I think it's more of just unknown of kind of why it'll have them in the top 12th. I look at how he moves. and his length and everything. And then I'm like, why is he playing eight yards off and allowing? And he was good at it. And he was good at it. Because I have him listed as his own corner.

And I'm like, all right, he's good at it. Yeah. I mean, I think a really high end zone corner. But unlike some of the guys I have lower than him that are also in that bracket, I think he has a ceiling in man coverage that I'm excited to see them tap into. And the other thing is with his traits and how well he moves. I do want to see him make more plays on the ball. Sure.

I think he could break up more passes. I think he has the skill set to haul in a couple of interceptions. But Chris Peel's a really, really good player. I think he's gone a little bit under the radar because of he played in Syracuse's secondary. But when the NFL looks for, you know, checking boxes, almost 6-2, well over 200 pounds, well-built, and he's going to run just fine and doesn't make a lot of mistakes, doesn't panic. I think he's somebody that teams are really going to like. Last one here in this group.

Let's hit Cain Lee from Tennessee. It was in Auburn for three years. You got him here at number seven. I have him truly like just outside of where my top 12 is. Because there are things to like about this player, but you have him a little bit higher. So I'll let you talk about C and Lee here. I feel like this is the guy of all the players I watch and ranked

that when I wrote him down at the end of it, I was like, okay, this is the guy I'm kind of sticking my neck out. Yeah, yeah. Having him at seven, I would say so. Yeah, I sat there and I went through the film a couple times because I was like, okay, this feels kind of like a take. And I don't mean to do that. And you think right away, all right, not a ton of ball production. He's 510 and a half in the spring, 186 in the spring.

So he's not the biggest corner. But man, is he explosive and fast? And he just doesn't allow people to get away from him often in man coverage. he doesn't and he plays man coverage now there are a couple times where i don't know why he'll lose confidence and grab when he doesn't get he's so fast and explosive that he's used to getting his head around and making a play on the ball or ready for the ball that the few times he doesn't he he's grabbing and it's like no you're still in position you don't have to but he's such a good athlete that those times you could see he was a little uncomfortable but what

Why I have him seven is he was the player of this, like this tier of player seven through 12 that I was like, I could see a defensive coordinator looking at him being like, go follow that guy. And we're going to ask you to play isolated man coverage a lot today. And I think he could do it. I just think this is a really, really good athlete. While he's shorter, he has an NFL body in terms of the muscle on his body. And he has good pound for pound strength at the catch point to kind of. to congest receivers.

I think he's a very talented man cover corner. I love the athleticism. I agree with you there. I think he is a pro-level, springy, twitchy type of an athlete when it comes to acceleration, agility, and top speed. He's listed at,

I think they have him listed at 190. I think his spring measurements were 510 and 5'8s and 186 is what I have here. I don't know if he's put on a good amount of weight to get to that 186, but he looks slender. Like he has a very slender build to him, very low body fat percentage, and I just think that he gets pushed around too much to play man cover to the pros.

Yes, and that's what really worries me, because as a cover corner, I think the guy could be sticky. But if you're asking him to play like up in press, I just think he's in his current state, I feel like he'd just get out muscle to the pro level. So I wonder if he's more of like a twitchy sort of slot defender. I can see that.

But then I don't, is a guy who I already have sort of lack of strength concerns, people who have listened to me over the last couple of years in the show know that I don't love just kicking those guys inside because when you're inside, you're close to the line scrimmage. You get to defend the run even better. Sure. You're part of the run.

You're part of run defense. So that was why I did not have him on my top 12 is I also see him as a true pro-caliber athlete in basically every way that you would want a corner to be an athlete. Just worry, there's a little bit too much of a lack of strength there with him. Yeah. Tennessee, they've developed corners, man. I'm excited to see peanut butter jelly at midnight type of a summer for him. I hope it was for sure.

Hope it was. Did we get through? Oh, okay. Well, we did get through everybody. Yeah, because we're going to wait on Brown. We're going to wait on Sabian Brown, and we have everybody else who is there. So before we reveal our 1 through 6, though,

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All right. Oh, before we get to our one through six, if you've enjoyed this podcast or anything else, the chef knows what's coming up. He knows it's coming up. He already had the transition before we started. If you've enjoyed this show or anything else that we've done here on the NFL stock exchange show, we'd love for you to be subscribed to the podcast. We have a lot of fun.

We'd love for you to be a part of the addicts. come back, hang out with us every single show. Soon enough, Connor, I will be going live two times a week. And then really, I mean, we're talking about everything in season. We're obviously updating the big boards, the rankings, everything throughout the college football season. Then when it's trap season, man, that's where the fun really begins.

So come hang out with us for the NFL season. We would love for you to subscribe. Still in the March, the 75K subscribers. So we would love for you to be a part of the family and help us reach that goal. Appreciate you guys. Somebody at the chat said, Connor feed picks at 100K subscribers. I mean, you do what you got to do.

I don't want to speak for you, but I feel like that's got to do it. It's not a huge ask for 100K subscribers. It's not a huge ask. Small feed guy? Small feed. Let's do it. One through six.

One through six. How many players in your one through six? Oh, okay. All right. So you read your one through six. There's a fast. Because there is a player that I did not watch. Okay.

So. How do you not have Xavier Scott in here? I'm going to get to it. Who was like my favorite player last summer? Six is Zach Lutmer from Iowa. Didn't watch. No idea. No idea.

Who Trevor didn't watch. Madden generated name. Five, Ashton Hampton from Clemson. Okay. Four, Kelly Jones, Mississippi State. three zabian brown from albama all right all right two ellis robinson the fourth the four yeah from georgia yes and of course number one leonard more nondon so i have zabier scott from illinois at number six who was your boy no longer cast aside apparently cast aside to the wayside makes it feel really bad

death by exile i have zabier scott from illinois at number six i have jaylon mayo from houston at number five, who I cannot wait to talk about. Anybody who saw my tweet sort of teasing this episode that there is an under the radar or sleeper prospect, if you want to call him that, guy that can't wait to talk about. It's Jalen Mayo. We'll talk about him in a little bit. Ashton Hampton from Clemson. I have him at number four.

You have him at number five. Kelly Jones from Mississippi State. I admit three. You have him at four. Ellis Robinson, the fourth, at number two. And then Leonard Moore at number one. So we agree with the top two, but then some different names here. We got to talk about Xavier Scott.

We do. Xavier Scott, who I absolutely loved last summer and still think is an awesome player. It's just when you have that kind of injury and you basically miss all the year, I don't, I kind of just wait and see. Did he have a Liz Frank injury? I think so. I mean, it was. I read that he's good to go.

I read. Well, I think he's been practicing. Yeah, I read that he said, just chop off the foot. give me a bionic leg and we'll be good to go and they're like okay yeah yeah we can do that we can do that yeah this player going back to the 2024 tape he was freaking awesome

like ball of energy makes plays everywhere ball skills tough I'm just in wait and see mode before I throw him back into my corner rankings of is he healthy and is he the same so

that's kind of where you know and it's It's brutal that he was robbed of last year because now he turns 24 in December. So, you know, it kind of leads to he's going to turn 25 during his rookie season. That's fine. He got heard. It happened. But he was someone I thought if he had a really strong year last year, I thought he could have been a first round pick. Dude, I still, before he had the foot injury, the tape at the beginning of last year, like, I watched the Duke game from last year.

And I was like, yep, there he is. There's Xavier Scott. Of course. Still love him. I mean, the competitive. competitiveness is off the charts. 5 foot 10, 195 pounds. I have him as a nickel corner.

Like he plays, he plays inside and out, but I feel like he's going to be really well suited to be a nickel at the NFL level. He just has the ideal mentality to be around the ball at all times. Totally. And when you have a nickel corner,

somebody who's playing in space, you need somebody who wants to be near the football. And he absolutely is quick decisive movements, heads on a swivel at all times in zone. You'll watch him in like spot zone coverage. And you'll just see. He'll retreat a little bit. and then it's just left, right, left, left, right.

And he's just, he's waiting to see what routes are going to come into his zone, where the quarterback is looking, and he just combines all that stuff so well. He's not hesitant at all to completely flip the hips, turn on the jets, and run a certain way. I think the play, I think the 2024 tape from him was better. We didn't get much action from him in 2025, but I watched some of the 2025 stuff. And the 2024 stuff, he was a, just a ball of energy. from the slot and in the secondary, just everywhere. 2025, it's, it's, it's almost as if he like,

he shotgun too many Red Bulls before the game. It was a little bit too chaotic. It was a little more, the energy was more unorganized in 2025 than it was sort of harness and a little bit more disciplined in 2024. Did you think that? I thought, because it's almost like he, he had heard the hype that he was basically the next Witherspoon. Yes, yeah, yes.

of that defense. Yes. And I'm telling you, everybody that's listening this podcast long enough, and you brought it up, Trevor, like 2024 tape,

this is a player, one of the players I was the most excited for going into last season. Yeah, I think you had him as a top 20 player going into the season. Very high. Yeah,

you loved him. And like you said, he was good, but there was, it was almost like he was trying to do too much. Yes. And then he got hurt, and it wasn't,

like he sprained his ankle. Right. He was like, no, the season's over for him before it really ever started. So I think the long speed, if you want to play him as like a true corner, yeah, the long speed might be an issue carrying vertical. But to me, you're just, you're going to play him more as that nickel defender type of a role.

And I don't think it's going to be that big of an issue, especially for how he's able to play in space. So just I love the urgency, love the competitiveness that he plays with. I hope he's fully healthy. He's a hell of a player. Yep. So, you know, he, so I have him in this list and he is, he's a nickel back. I was, I went back and forth with putting a Don Schuller on this list as well. So Schuller is a safety at Notre Dame.

And he's a bigger safety. He is 6 foot 205. Well, not a bigger safety. He's like a bigger sort of like secondary player if you're playing him in a slot. Notre Dame plays him everywhere. They'll play him deep. They play him as a strong safety. They'll play him in the slot.

But he's much better when he is downhill and he's closer to the line of scrimmage. is something that I love about him and where I actually think he's going to thrive the most in the NFL isn't in deep coverage as a safety. It's as a man coverage tight end eraser at the next level. And I think that that sort of like chess piece type of a player to really match up against tight ends in the slot is going to be pretty impactful as we start to see a lot of tight ends get drafted a lot higher and with how much it feels like 12 personnel and 13 personnel are really rising. I think a guy like a Don Chuler's value is going to go up for what he could do there. But ultimately, I didn't rank him in this episode because I was like,

ah, he is much more of a safety than he is a corner. So I'll probably talk about him when we talk about, um, safeties. But that's another player who I do like for a lot of reasons why you would want a, a stronger, bigger nickel defender who's close to the line of scrimmage. And that's the problem is after what they've done in the portal, like he's going to have to play safety, truly. So, uh, so Scott at six for you. Yep.

I did watch Mayo, and I'm really glad to see you have him on here. Dude. He was the guy that when, you know, when you got to bump down the list that we're going to show and I send a chef, I was like, this sucks that he's not going to be on my 12. Yeah, yeah. It's like a ball of potential right now for me. So take it away. Jalen Mayo was the last player that I watched last night.

He was the 25th corner that I watched last night. And I'm very glad that I did. So he is a red shirt senior. He is listed at 6 foot 1, 190 pounds. He was a zero star cornerback from Hampton, Virginia. And he has since said, he's like, look, I had some interested from places, but like my grades sucked. Like, I wasn't the student I needed to be. He got zero offers because his grades were so poor when he was in high school.

And he's sort of admitted that it's a big regret of his there. He walked on at Virginia Union, which is a D2 school. Redshirted his first year, started every game in 2023 and 2024. They won back-to-back CIAA championships. He then transferred to Stephen F. Austin in 2025, where he played opposite Charles Demings, the guy who got drafted in the fifth round last year. So that's what's nuts. When you watch the Stephen F. Austin secondary, you're like, oh, they have NFL corners.

And I think Jalen Mayo is better. I thought so too. I was watching specifically the Stephen F. Austin versus Houston game from last year, which is, you know, funny that Mayo is now at Houston. Well, Houston was like, we want that guy in the portal next year. Excuse me, yeah. No, I do not think that that's a joke. Like, I think that there is, that is 100% believable that they went against him and they said,

definitely. If that kid hits the portal, we are immediately offering. They were on the broadcast and they were talking about like, oh, Deming's like, that's their NFL corner, their NFL corner, their NFL corner. And, you know, hand up, I had no idea who Jill and Mayo was at the time. I was watching Charles Demings. And I like Deming's last year a good amount, but I like Mayo even more.

Long and lean frame. He is hand fighting beautifully with receivers the whole time. Out of press, throughout the route, at the catch point, everything. He is such a nuisance with his size and his length. Second show in a row, I'll mention it. The gas meter, full. is full gas

g a s gives us shit that meter is full for this dude at all times he is a great competitor he wants to help and run defense anything that's being asked of him any assignment he's going to do it um with his all and i think he brings a lot of passion to the game focus and discipline in his shuffles back pedals there is no you sometimes you watch corners and sometimes i don't blame sometimes we're really talented right they're like i come i i'm the man you know like i i i don't All right, cool. Like try to get by me. We'll see what happens.

And they play a little bit loose, right? Sometimes there's a little looseness that comes with some confidence of playing corner. Jala Mayo locked in whole time. Just, I mean, he is so disciplined. There are so few wasted steps, wasted movements. He's almost never second guessing himself. He's got great instincts. He's got great technique.

Really good spacing whenever he's asked to play in off coverage. He can be smothering in press man. I certainly saw that in that Houston game. really good football IQ as well. The long speed. Yeah, I think that's going to be the big question with him being a press man corner. Do you have the long speed to keep up against some of the top wide receivers at the NFL level? But this guy has the frame.

He's got the length. He's got the play style, the mentality and the want to. He's got the football IQ. So much is there for him. And I think he has such a bright future to potentially be. that's starting outside man coverage corner as long as the long speed part of all this checks out. So a guy that I did not know anything about, the very last player that I watched. But shout at to Jaywack as well.

Jaywack does a great job covering football and the NFL draft as well. I know he was in the chat earlier. I don't know if he's still in the chat now. But he called it. When I tweeted that out, he responded to he's like, Jalen Mayo. And I was like, damn, all right, he got me. I'm not going to say it on Twitter because I can't give it away. But shout out to Jaywack, who nailed that.

one but um yeah jalen mayo is is a favorite of mine going into this class clearly with having him at number five overall yeah i'm i'm pretty confident he will be an all-star game invite yes 100% yeah that and and you know when you go from the road he's had this will be his third school and he's transferred up each time you know d2 to stephen f austin to houston to houston is a guy that can capitalize off an all-star game environment and you know ben lees making a great point in the chat mayo is better than butter for a grilled cheese cheese. That's actually facts. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I hope everybody, I don't think everybody knows that, though. All right. Well, hopefully they do now. Now you get to go try that, everyone. If you learned

anything from the cornerback rankings episode, it's Mayo for your grilled cheese. Okay, talk about the are the Iowa guy. What's, who's this? Zach Lutmer? Yeah. Uh, six foot and eight, 203. The, hey, can we use AI to clone Cooper DeGine? I mean, they don't even hide it. The way they use them. It's hilarious. And, you know, he's, he's an elite athlete from the state of Iowa. Incredible. It's, it really is incredible. Riley Moss, um, you know how everybody jokes around like the, the white cornerback room, the white team or whatever the running joke was and how it's like, well, we got Cooper DeGine and Riley Moss. Well, this guy might be coming for the spot. I mean, he is. Now, it goes back to the conversation.

of he plays the slot for them. He plays a lot of roles, but they like what he does from the slot. That's why I played over 400 snaps in the slot. 125 in the box, 76, you know, on the line of scrimmage is that it gets listed as a D-line role, and then 119 an outside corner. So you turn on the tape,

shock, tell me if you're shocked, physical, tough, hyper-aware, you know, defends the run, quick game screens, runs through blockers, gets downhill. I discipline to read quarterbacks, finishes plays by being a ball hawk. Like when he really sits on a read, he does a really good job finishing plays. He hits like a strong safety. And I know this is the kind of everybody's going to have the combo of like, is this a safety?

Is this a nickel? Like I think this is a corner. Now he's a nickel corner, but he's not a strong safety. That's why he's not safe for the safety show. He plays nickel corner. He gives some ground to Shifty wide receivers. He actually, though, what was interesting was I thought his in-game agility, there was times where I'm like, ah, he didn't really like,

his lateral agility, he kind of got beat there on intermediate route, but he's a freaks list guy. And I read this after I watched him, because Feldman just released the freaks list. So this is from Feldman. he said this offseason, he showed off his elite agility by clocking a 381 second shuttle time, setting a new record for Hawkeye D'Bs. And he writes, you know, you think of like Cooper to Jean, Micah Hyde, Desmond King.

Yeah, that would match the fastest shuttle time ever recorded at the NFL Combine, which Brandon Cooks ran in 2014. He also jumped a 41.9 inch vertical and squatted 575 pounds. This guy is... I'm in. I got to watch the tape after this. He's a full-on DB. But in a league that's looking for those more physical, smart, tough, do-it-all slot defenders,

he fits the bill. Really, really good tape. He's in for a big year. Iowa has done it again. They are trying to now clone their slot defenders. I think the league will take all of the Cooper de Gene clones that Iowa can possibly pump out. So I got to get to his tape right after this to make sure that I get him on the list before I finish out my summer 200 big board. I'm trying to get the 200 before the season begins.

That'd be a cool mile soon to hit. But let's talk about Zabian Brown. Yep. You've got him at number three. I got him at number eight from Alabama. So you got him a little bit higher. I'll let you kick him off. Here, the cornerback from Alabama, true junior as well.

So somebody who could still be growing a lot into how he plays. And there's a lot to like about the player, given the size and how much better you think he could get. That's right. Is that he's just on a really, really strong pathway right now. He's got the size. You know, it says right there that both interceptions last year were pick sixes. He had three interceptions. One of them was like a hundred yard pick six, right?

The Tennessee one. I don't know if it was exactly 100 yards. There's a long way. I mean, it was right at the goal line, and he jumped it and went the other way. I love his speed. That's why I have him ranked so highly. He's got really, really good play speed. He can run, and this is in the SEC, he can run with whoever's in front of him.

For a young corner, doesn't panic, really trust his legs, doesn't get grabby. And you see the, you know, the listed weight there. But he's really involved against the run. Hyper aware against the run. wants to throw his weight around against the run. Yes. And so this is somebody to me, like a little bit of a do-it-all player where he's a true outside corner because of his speed

that he can match up in man coverage. But I was impressed with what he was able to do as a run defender as well. I think the things when you talk about how young he is, Trevor, and I'm glad you mentioned that, because I wrote down more weaknesses than you'd expect for CB3 on my list. But there are things that I believe he's going to be coached up and develop over time. he needs to disrupt routes with physicality more.

He's so fast and so athletic that he can just try to match movements a lot. And it's a gift and a curse because if they kind of teach him how to balance that out and disrupt routes and bump routes and keep that athleticism rolling, he's going to be a real problem. Because there's going to be guys that are going to try to play physical and you're going to have to match that. You can't just always try to match the movements, especially in the NFL where there's so many timing concepts. I think in zone, and this goes back to being a young player, he'll second guess his instincts and reads where he's just, he's kind of unsure.

And it's like, no, you had it. He's just because of the athlete he is. He's more comfortable playing in man coverage right now. But he's going to grow into that do it all kind of corner. And yeah, there's some deep touchdowns he allows from peeking in the backfield, watching the quarterback too long. But it's not because of his legs. It's never be like, he got outrun there. It's like, no, he was watching the quarterback too long.

Young cornerback problems. I just see a ceiling for this guy that's really, really promising. I have a little bit more speed concerns than you do, but maybe it is a, maybe it will manifest as more of like an inexperienced thing than necessarily a speed thing. Because I'd see him, you know, like, I'd see him get beat or give up separation or like something like that. But maybe it's less of a, he's not capable of doing that as an athlete.

And maybe it is just more of a, he's a true junior going into this season, and that's something that he gets better at. But they asked him to do a lot. I mean, he played cover three. He played cover four. He played cover two. Like, they, they asked him to do a lot of different stuff. So he's already got a lot of really great experience.

He was listed at 185 last year. Now he's listed at 195. And I felt like there were times when he would get moved a little bit easier than you would expect. But if he's 195 now, I don't think that's going to happen nearly as much. I agree with you. I like the willingness as a run defender. It seems like he wants to be technically sound and how he's a wrap-up

tackler as well. So there's a lot of good things going for Brown. I think you're just the reason why he's a little bit higher on your list is you're leaning more into the, of course, like what he can become and understandably so. And I'm more hesitant of like the, okay, like let's see it this upcoming season. Let's see it from him. And I just have, I'm a little bit more hesitant to see maybe like what the reasons were for the catches that he gave up. Maybe some of the big plays he gave up. Do we see less of that because it was less more of an experience issue for him? Or do we see the same and it's more of a hey like are you as good of an athlete as we think that that you can be so um i think we just see the starting point of him a little bit different

but he's one that everybody's going to be watching because i think he's got an NFL ceiling to him for sure uh ashen hampton we should definitely let's hit hampton and then we'll go kelly jones and then robinson and more here so ashen hampton from clemson built like an outside corner that you'd love to play in man coverage he is also a true junior going into this season six foot two two hundred and five pounds dude in his spring height six three and a quarter get out of here he's just he's going to be six foot seven by the time he's in the league six three six three and a quarter what's clemson doing undershooting this guy hi yeah it is questionable wow yeah weight weights the same

So he's a former three-star corner from Tallahassee. He went to Florida State University High School, which is hilarious given that Florida State and Clemson are rivals. Yeah. And that he did not pick Florida State, despite being in Tallahassee, he goes to Clemson. Man, that's a miss because this guy's a hell of a football player. I know.

Played both wide receiver and corner when he was in high school. Also played basketball, though under the stats. He looks like a, he looks like a nine points, four and a half assist game kind of a guy. Small forward time. So he played in 14 games as a true freshman, got four starts, started all 13 games last season. Obviously now this is his true junior season. Fantastic size to play cornerback in the NFL. I mean, I thought he was six foot two, two hundred five pounds.

And you mentioned he's even a little bit bigger than that. Frame makes him pretty strong for run defense and tackling. Like when he, you know, is lower in the shoulder and when he's getting in on run defense, like he knows how to do it. It doesn't look like, oh, he's got to put his whole body into it. He's got to be an ankle tackler or anything like that. Like, this guy can make it happen and run defense. To me, what I really liked about him, Connor,

they obviously played him a lot in press man when you have that body frame. Like, it makes sense. He dictated so many reps. I mean, when the ball was snapped and he puts like one arm out to stab and press or maybe it's a two-handed, like two-handed punch, whatever it is, like the wide receiver is getting jolted back. Like the wide receiver is getting jolted off of whatever their release was or whatever the beginning of their route is. He is the one who is dictating.

So strong. The route, right? And so, like, that definitely stood out for him, again, being that press man coverage type of a corner. Very competitive player, including those hits and tackles. Like I mentioned, good fluid movements at a press and his back pedal and his shuffle, which you don't often see for guys who are that size. I mean, I had at 6 foot 2, 205 pounds, I had him listed. that's 92nd percentile height, 91st percentile weight.

And he's even bigger than that now. So you love to see a guy who's got that athleticism and that natural movement skill there. I think that this is a strange issue to have, especially for a player who I think is as good as he is. But did you notice he almost like allowed separation to happen because he just wasn't on his toes? as much.

Like, there were moments where I'm watching him and I'm like, I know you're athlete enough to cover this guy and not give up this throwing window. But it's almost like he's a step behind because he's just a little on his heels. Like, he's just not quite on the balls of his feet ready to go one way or the other. And I just want somebody to be like, hey, just stay on the balls of your feet. Like, just stay like bouncing, stay ready and be able to put one foot in the ground and go with a receiver because I think he could be even better. he'd be even more of a blanking quarter if he does that.

And that kind of goes into like, I thought the footwork was a little slow for him, which I'm with you. Can happen when you're a bigger corner. But I think he's a good enough athlete to where that doesn't need to be the case with him. So if we get somebody who could teach him to be a little bit more light on his feet, we're talking about somebody who's got a lot of tools to be a starting outside man coverage corner in the NFL. And somebody who the NFL is going to be salivating over because of, the size that he has to draft him in the first round.

It's a good shout by you. I just wrote down that his transitions to match those quick movements look slower in man coverage. But I blamed his size. And I think you're right. You can't just blame it all on the size. It is kind of how he positions himself with his footwork. Man, he is strong as hell.

Physical as hell. And I loved watching him against the screen game, where he looked like a strong safety. Yeah. Yes. Yep. His dad is the head coach at Arkansas Pine Bluff. Oh.

Yeah. Which is funny. Imagine when Ashton was in high school. And I looked at. I couldn't see if they, like, I guess he just don't even offer him. You're just like, yeah. Yeah, dad. You don't got a chance.

I'm too good. The future is now, old man. That is really, that's got to be a hilarious Thanksgiving. That actually is funny. That's a good point. So although I think his dad's been the head coach since 2003, so maybe that didn't even time up. But yeah, Ashton Hampton,

he's just a gigantic corner and he plays to his size, which is so important. Yep, yeah. If you're at a pressman coverage type of a scheme, you're going to love this player. Yep. Kelly Jones from Mississippi State. Holy smokes.

I think my favorite watch. I agree, man. Yeah. You know, it's funny. I'll put myself on blast here. So you don't hear that every day. So I have to. You can only be transparent and lean into it if the situations like this come up.

So anybody that doesn't know, my wife works for SEC Network. And they had their SEC media days a couple of weeks ago. And I remember her texting me and she was just like, hey, what do you think of Kelly Jones for the NFL? And I remember watching Kelly Jones a while ago. And I was like, yeah, 6-4 type of a corner, like a big corner, but I felt like he kind of like struggled to turn and move. And he wasn't as confident and all this kind of stuff. And I was just like, honestly, supersized corners a lot of times, they're just not my cup of tea. Like I just, I think a lot of other people sort of fall for like the bigger corners.

And I'm just not super about it. And I remember her responding. She's like, wow, hate her. and I asked her later. I was like, why did you ask me about Kelly Jones? And she's like, well, I was about to do a segment. And they were going to ask me like somebody to keep my eye on. And she's like, I've heard so many great things about Kelly Jones from everybody in the program.

Like they rave about who he is as a player and a leader and all that kinds of stuff. And she's like, I just think that he's super talented. And I was like, yeah, okay. I was like, I just, again, like that's just normally not my type of corner that I go for. And then lo and behold, you know, a week and a half late. we're starting the cornerback watch and i watch kelly jones and i go god damn she knows ball you're like do i double down do i dig in do i put my reputation as a draft analyst on the line to dig in and not admit fault with my wife but at the end of the day the tape won out at the end of the day

uh my wife knows ball and the tape wins out so like we mentioned for Alyssa and her scouting. Massive, massive win. I mean, she always knew ball. That was never in question. Knows more the ball than me, very clearly. Six foot four, 195 pounds is Kelly Jones. Four-star cornerback from the state of Mississippi.

Played quarterback and defensive back when he was in high school. Redshirted his first year, started four games the second year, started all 13 games next year. Connor, I'll let you talk first about him after my story there because you said maybe my favorite watch, I agree with you. Yeah. This kid can cover, man. This kid can cover. Well, he clearly found something last year too because, I mean, yes, the size and the length is incredible. But going back to weaponizing corners, how you utilize that in coverage is so important because it could just mean absolutely nothing.

Like, remember, this is going way back, but I remember the run where teams were like, yeah, there's a giant corner in this class that can run a little bit, like just take them and see what happens. It was like Keith McGill, Stanley, Gene Baptiste. We actually saw that return last year with the Washington guys,

who I thought were pretty good players, not to take away from them. But this guy in film, Monster Year and Man Coverage. Yeah. Monster year. Yeah. He was targeted 18 times when in man coverage last year.

He allowed two catches, two. And it's not just one of those things where you look at the analytics and the numbers. You watch the plays. And he is just smothering his assignment. Yes. It's like they can't even, they probably don't even know the ball is there half the time. He congests the catch point so much.

Even when he's going back to, He's one of those guys where he can turn around and make a play on the ball, but he's also mastered. I'm so much bigger than most of these players and have better length that when I'm not turned around, I'm going to crowd the catch point without getting called for a penalty. I'm going to smartly congest the catch point. They're not going to finish the play.

And you talk about utilizing that height. His big strides unlock recovery speed. He's going to chew up turf differently than the 5 foot 10 corner when he has to open up and run against a vertical route. Yep. And I go back to what you said when Alyssa first asked you about him. There are times where because he's so big and he is fast, his transitions are naturally a little slower.

A little slow. And when he did not have nearly as much confidence as he did at the end of the year and even going back to 2024, that's a lot of what I saw with him. But man, I mean, he is, to your point, like, with that confidence in man coverage now, he's a different player. He is so much fun to watch.

The recovery speed is good for his size. You mentioned the stride length is incredible there for him. He's way lighter on his feet than I thought a guy at 6'4-195 pounds is going to be. He's such a fiery competitor. Yeah. I just, there is, I have here in my notes, he might be the best cover corner in this class outside of Lennon Moore.

I'm with you. I think he, I think he really might be. Yeah. In terms of just like, I need somebody to line up and play man to man and not give up a pass. Kelly Jones is so good at that. And it feels like it, I don't want to say it came out of nowhere, but it surprised me of how far along he is at that.

I agree. And now it's just, are you a playmaker? You know, are you going to be a complete player? And can you thrive in zone as much as you thrive in man? But he's really talented. I think he's just not being talked about enough in this class at large. I'm with you.

I mean, with him being just more of a longer, more, slender build seems weird for a guy who has the size overall size that he has. But like, he has a lean frame. So, you know, like block deconstruction can be a little bit tough for him. Like getting off blocks of stronger receivers can be a little bit tougher. He can get a little bit grabby just because, yeah, that's kind of the style with playing man coverage. But goddamn, man, again, you just want to have somebody in this class where you point to the other

team's receiver and you say, don't like. let him catch the ball. Kelly Jones goes, okay. And he's got the tools to be able to do it, physically and mentally. And so I'm a huge fan of his. I think he's got first round type of potential to him. I love thy neighbors in the chats. Connor, do you get Sauce flashbacks?

And he does stylistically play a little bit like Sauce. Where sauce was ahead of him, and Sauce didn't get enough credit for this. Sauce at Cincinnati was phenomenal from an eye discipline, instincts, awareness, and zone. So, so good at that. I don't think Kelly Jones is there yet. zone, but how they are physically and how they line up in man and their long speed, definitely. Yep. Yeah.

Hey, it was fun. It was a very fun watch. Somebody in the chat said, yeah, that's why your wife has a job and you don't. Correct. Oh, God. Yeah. Correct. Correct.

That's good. The real ball nowhere in the house. 100% employed. Let's go to Ellis Robinson the fourth. Our number two corner here, which we see eye to eye on the red shirt sophomore. from Georgia. So he has one year as a starter, and that's about it.

But man, it was good last year. So he's listed at 6 foot 180 pounds. Do you have updated measurements for him? I think that's the latest. He's only a redshirt sophomore. So I don't know if they have like scouting services. It would have heightened weights on him. I don't think he's in the speed and grading portion of it,

but I don't think they updated the height and weight. Okay. So we'll go off of 6 foot 180 pounds. Former 5. star cornerback. I can see why. Attended Iona Pratt before transferring to IMG Academy. Played both corner and wide receiver when he was in high school.

Won a state title as a sophomore again. I owned a prep before he transferred over to IMG. Redshirted in 2024 and he started 12 games as a true, well, I was not a true sophomore actually, a red shirt freshman last season. There is, for a player who is as young as he is starting in the SEC, see this kid, the baseline that he set last year is really, really encouraging. Definitely. Comfortable and fluid, sitting his butt down in press,

back pedal for true man coverage reps, good arm length for press coverage as well. The frame doesn't look frail or too lean at 180 pounds, so I wonder if he's a little bit bigger. That's why I wondered if that weight measurement was a little bit old because I feel like when I watch him, it's like, I don't feel like you're undersized for a player. And yet 180 pounds would be eighth percentile in the NFL. So obviously on a much small.

I agree with you. Twitchy movements, good change of direction, good body control, good explosiveness. Ideal mentality as a run defender from a corner. Love the way that he approaches. And you know what? This is a Georgia thing. When you play for Kirby Smart, especially with Kirby Smart, being a defensive back, that's what he was.

That's what he played. You better play defensive. back the right way or you're not going to get on the field. And that's why when we have these guys who are true, like top 50 first round type of secondary players from Georgia under Kirby Smart, I pay attention because you're getting on the field early. And if you're getting on the field early, I used to say the same thing about Nick Saban.

If you get on the field as an underclassman for Nick Saban as a defensive back, you are doing something right. And I think the same about Kirby Smart in that program there, just the guys that are coming through. Very fired competitor at the catch point, run defense. physicality, whatever it is. I think he can get pushed around a little bit at that lower weight. Even though he doesn't look super frail,

it gets still, you know, get moved a little bit, and that's when you see that 180 pound weight sort of show up on film. He likes to lay the big hits, Connor. And I think that's cool. Might get him in trouble if he's, you know, trying to swing for too many big hits as a corner. I think he's,

whenever they asked him to play from the slot, he struggled a little bit. It just wasn't nearly as confident as when he's on the outside playing man coverage. And I just think he needs a little bit more time to anticipate things when he's asked to play zone. But man, the man coverage stuff, going back to what I was talking about a little bit earlier in the show, to be able to say to a young player, don't let that player catch the ball and defend the run the way that Ellis Robinson defends the run. Oh, man, it's just to have a red shirt freshman be able to put out tape like that is really, really cool and very encouraging.

Without a doubt. I mean, we see eye to eye on him all the way. I thought he was smart. I mean, and smart at such a young stage of his college career against high level competition. Physical, pound for pound strength, puts himself in the right position against both the pass and the run.

Fearless in terms of, man, did I love turning on his tape after watching a couple of guys that didn't do this? And I think they weren't afforded the opportunity to do this. I love turned on his tape and seeing him right under their chin at the line of scrimmage. Like, all right, you're going to catch these hands and I don't I'm not afraid of you running over me like getting over the top of me

he brings that physicality to the catch point makes an effort to get his head around on the ball that's why he's in position I know what you're saying about the big hits but I saw a lot of times where he was balanced and controlled as a wrap up tackler so I think it was the spirit of the moment sure and I'm cool with that honestly me too hey man that's the game yeah but I saw enough in control moments where I'm like, oh, he knows how to play discipline football. So he's a very easy player to like and a player that the arrow is, we've talked about a lot of corners today where they might be kind of what they are, and that's still a really solid NFL player.

Ellis Robinson has a chance to just keep ascending. I agree. I agree, especially for him only being a redshirt sophomore going into this season. That leaves number one. I mean, easy, peasy, man. Leonard Moore, you say it's easy peasy here. True Jr. going into this season. a lot of people say that if he was draft eligible last year,

he would have been easy CB1, and it would have been somebody who was drafted in the top five. And when you watch his tape last year, hard to argue with that too much. So I started with Ellis Robinson. I will let you start here with Leonard Moore. And we can kind of have the conversation a little bit after we explain it to sort of like what he's all about,

like, hey, how high do you draft the player like this? So I'll let you kick it off here with Leonard Moore from Notre Dame. I mean, to put it in perspective, If he was in last year's draft, he would have been in the conversation to be the number two pick in the draft. Now, I'm not saying he would have been, but he would have been in the conversation. You'd have to discuss it with your scouts and everybody in that room because the synopsis for me is the highest praise you can give a corner. My synopsis, I've tried to write one-liners in summer scouting. More is a big, fast, shut down man cover corner that can live on an island.

Yeah. You just don't get one of those in every draft. Yeah. Where it's like he's got the size, he's got the speed, and he's got the man coverage skills. He's physical. He has started 20 games between his true freshman and sophomore seasons. Which is incredible.

Incredible at a program like Notre Dame. Stride length, foot speed, his transitions are smooth. You just don't see a lot of separation against him because of those transitions in the footwork. He's another guy like Ellis Robinson. he congest wide receivers at the line of scrimmage. He doesn't have any fear of them getting over the top of him because he trusts his legs.

He can travel with top targets, even when they're playing the slot. He can kick into the slot. The way he mirrors routes and finishes plays with natural ball skills is just beautiful to watch on tape. This guy's a star. He's an absolute star. And now that we're getting the point of summer scouting,

I feel like I've written that down about Jeremiah Smith. I wrote that down about maybe even the top two pass rushers and Colin, definitely Colin Simmons, my number one, but what Dylan Stewart could be. Yeah. Now I wrote that down about Leonard Moore, where I'm sitting around, I'm like, damn, this draft class is looking pretty damn good right now, like, even just getting away from the quarterbacks, that's all anyone ever talks about. Yeah.

Leonard Moore is one of the reasons this class could be special. I mean, if I'm nitpicking with this guy at all whatsoever, okay, he naturally tackles a little bit high because he's a bigger, taller type of a corner. All right, that's kind of to be expected a little bit. the speed well above average. You know, is it top tier for a corner? Like, is it tier one? Maybe not it's tier one.

But he's plenty fast, especially with the long stride length to him. Being a taller corner, sitting down in a back pedal is a little bit more of a chore. He loves the shuffle technique because it allows him to stay so in control of the entire route and really shut guys down. But the list of even potential,

and like the things that I was listing there are like nitpicking. It's not even like total negative. This is just, like, oh, okay, like, let's try to think of things that are not elite with Leonard Moore. And those are the things that I come up with because the rest of it, I wrote it down. Just the overall speed for his size, the confidence in which he plays, the ball skills, the route recognition, the IQ, the anticipation, like everything is there for him to be a top tier type of a corner, a CB1 in the NFL and somebody that is worth a top five selection,

a top three selection, genuinely, I think that is, that is where he can go. So to me, durability is the only issue. And I can't remember what he was listed at last year. But I think 197 is a good amount of weight that they put on him. And I was talking to some people within the Notre Dame program and they're like, yeah, I mean, like he looks good. Like the body looks good. Like he's put on more weight. He's put on more strength.

He looks good. So it's hard to find negatives to talk about this player. And you don't want to get too over your skis with it with a player who hasn't even played in the pros yet. But yeah, I mean, you mentioned it now that we are through all of those positions, we're through edge rushers, we're through corners, and we're through wide receivers. You could throw a quarterback in there as well. But like even what I like a lot about Arch Manning, to me, Dylan Stewart, Jeremiah Smith, and Leonard Moore.

are guys that you take number one overall in so many different draft classes. And they're all in the same draft class. And I think that that's what makes a lot of this really special is kind of who's at the top and how good these guys are. Perfect way to say it. I mean, man, the Notre Dame secondary is just silly this year. The Michigan secondary. There are some stacked groups, but, yeah, this guy is a star.

Like, when coaches watch him, they're going to be like, he can be our CERTAN, he can be our Christian Gonzalez. Yeah. That's what you're going to see with Leonard Moore, is that level of comp. And don't for a second think it's hyperbole. Yeah, yeah, it's really not. I hope he's, I hope he has a fully healthy season. I hope he looks just as good as he has looked over the last two years,

because I want to talk about this guy as highly as we can. going into the 2027 NFL draft. We would love to hear from you guys. Look, corner is a deep position. We know that there are corners that we didn't even get to mentioned here on this show on this list. We saw some in the chat, but we would love to hear from you guys as well in the comment section of the show. Let us know who we still need to watch,

who we need to get on our radar to make sure that we have on the list before the season starts so we can make sure that we're talking about those guys that you guys think are going to be future NFLers that are playing the cornerback position in college right now. Like we mentioned, would love for you guys to be subscribed. Part of the addicts here on NFL Stock Exchange. Help us get the 75K subscribers before the season begins. And also to just hang out with us every single time that we go live because we're having a lot of fun here throughout the summer.

And like I said, in the middle of the show, we'll soon be going live twice a week, which I'm pumped for. Joining you guys twice a week, twice the shenanigans. Covering college football, NFL football. Of course, the NFL draft, all that great stuff. We see some super chats. super chats that we will get to here in the after the episode portion of the show. But for anybody who's not watching live, Connor, anything else before we get out of here?

I see so many comments asking about BYU's Evan Johnson for good reason. We are probably going to talk about them during the super chat portion. So tune into that because there's a lot, like Trevor said, there's just a million corners in this class that we're going to try to cover throughout the entire year. And if you're missing the super chat portion of the show, we have the fan Fridays to kind of come out at the end of the week that you guys can make sure that you catch it on there. So if you're watching live, stick around for that part of the show. But for The Chef, Behind the scenes, making it all happen.

For Connor Rogers, I'm Trevor Sikkimus-State. Thank you guys so much for watching. This episode of the NFL Stock Exchange Show, we'll see you guys next week.