NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 73. Summer Scouting: Top 5 Cornerbacks for 2023 NFL Draft

Episode Date: August 11, 2022

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers continue their summer scouting journey with the cornerbacks The two give you their preseason Top 5 CBs for the 2023 NFL Draft with background info, PFF stats and film notes for each. Plus talk plenty of other corners in the class who are just outside their Top 5s going into the season.

This episode is brought to you by our good friends at NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. I'm sure by now you've all got back into your Sunday routines, but they could be even better. With NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV, you get the most live NFL games all in one place, every game, every Sunday. And you can even watch up to four different games at once with MultiView, one of my favorite inventions of this decade. It's exactly what you need to catch all the action. Make your Sundays more magical. And also, YouTube TV is great. I got it this year.

It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com slash BS, device and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital only games welcome to the NFL Stock Exchange podcast in this episode getting right back to summer scouting it is the cornerback position this is one of the positions in the game where it could be a premium position that could be picked very early in the draft so we're going to take a deep dive looking at this upcoming cornerback class

before they play what could be their final years of college football and what the 2023 NFL Draft cornerback class can shape up to be. You know the drill. Connor and I will give you our top five. Starting at number five, going all the way down to number one, the guys that we think are the best in the class, what they have to prove, what they've proven already, and what we believe they can be as pros in the NFL. I'm Trevor Sycamore. With me,

as always, is Connor Rogers. Let's ring the bell. Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. I'm Trevor Sikama. That is Connor Rogers coming to you guys on a Thursday edition of the pod, which means it's summer scouting time. It's not always going to mean that, Connor. We only got two episodes left. This is the cornerback group where Connor and I are going to give you

our top five preseason corners going into this season. Of course, we're talking about the 2023 NFL draft, so guys who are still in college football. But after this, man, it's just safeties, just safeties. And then we're going to do a big, big board episode, but buddy, I know that's sad to see summer scouting go, but that also means the season is right around the corner. Yeah, man, it's, it's a really good feeling. Honestly, when I was watching these corners that we're gonna go through today I got that really excited feeling of like almost putting the last brick in the wall that like man after we do the safeties we have all our top fives you and I are then gonna work together and make a big board and then

you let it ride into the season and guys are gonna fall out guys are gonna jump in but it just it feels like the end of a part of the show and then you're moving on to where you're actually evaluating performances and games which is a lot more exciting preseason football is here we got a cup of tea of jacksonville vegas but there's going to be a lot of preseason football if you're listening on barely tonight barely on friday yeah whatever that was poor josh jacobs man He's like, why am I here? But yeah, man, it's exciting. Look, I had to do the recap on pff.com.

And recaps are obviously very simple for preseason games. It's funny because normally when you do recaps for games, you have real stats, right? Guys are playing all four quarters. And instead, it's just, I'm looking at my editor. I'm like, I don't know what you want me to write write i don't know who the third good running back is in this game because there probably uh was barely three to to go around so look we've waited this whole time everybody was hyped up for football i don't mean to damper that excitement i think we'll get some real pre-season action game stinks

right pre-season awesome yeah that's okay you you put it correctly right there i just i'm gonna smash retweet on uh it's a stinky game said that hey before we get to corners are the mets still good i'm just checking in i'm getting my baseball check-in right now because i don't i don't really follow baseball until the playoffs i know that makes me like a bandwagon but like it's okay it's you you're forgiven look i have a race shirt on for everybody so it's a good one i'm i'm repping the rays here but i don't really care until the playoffs. So, like, are the Mets still good? Is that still a thing? Brother, the Mets are just rolling right now.

I almost debuted a new Mets hat on the show, but it's not broken in yet. I'm a big breaking in the hat kind of guy, so it's going to have to wait a little bit. But four out of five against Atlanta in our home ballpark, beautiful city field. Jacob deGrom's back. Edwin Diaz has the best. Have you seen at least the Edwin Diaz entrance?

Of course. You couldn't have missed it. You couldn't miss it. You couldn't miss it. It was like stone-cold Steve Austin WWE entrance level good. It's up there. It's just how there's different moments throughout the song of him actually coming out of the bullpen onto the field.

Then when he's walking, then you get the trumpets, and it's like, dude, I feel like I could go out there and get a save for the Mets if I was that pumped up, if you played that music for me as I was walking in. Iconic. Iconic. Actually, it's so funny you brought up Stone Cold. It got me down a rabbit hole of best Monday Night Raw returns or debuts. I watched Jericho's debut when triple h came back from

the quad injury and it had the motorhead song like it's amazing what youtube can do to you all from edwin diaz's entrance when edge comes back for the first time and he's almost like crying like as he's like walking to the arena oh dude entrances are one of the greatest things about sports honestly greatest history is baseball needs more of this i agree i agree 100 wait before we move on before we move on and get into the football you said that you haven't broken in a hat yet how do you break in a hat do you like wear it around the house and nowhere in public for like three days before you actually test it out in the public realm yeah i try i try to do that and then

sometimes i'll just pick it up every once in a while and start curving it because i don't want to sit there for like 20 minutes just destroying this brim so you gotta like pick it up mess with the brim for 30 to 45 seconds put it back down and then you come back around later in the day and do that again it takes a it takes a while to break in a half for me like i have a i think i have a smaller head. As most people can probably tell that watch the show, I wear hats from the 90s. And sure, I like the look, but they're the only thing that fit me.

I don't wear fitted hats anymore. They're just buckets. Oh, can't. Cannot do it. They're buckets. So I have to find hats from a couple good brands out there. So yeah, it takes a while for me. When I was in middle school, high school era, and going to the mall and going to Lids was the thing.

Like, everybody went and got a fitted hat. And that was nightmare era for your boy. That was nightmare era for me. I could not find an actual size that really fit my head. Do you remember what you were close to? What's the first number? It's usually seven, unless you just have an absolute dome.

All right. No, I do not. There's some people that have eights out there, and they are absolute units. I think seven and three-eighths. Yeah, I was the same way. We were the same person sometimes. Seven and three-eighths didn't exactly fit me.

I think that was- Well, the Lids carried none of none of them ever if you didn't have seven and a quarter or seven and a half it's like good luck kids how was i supposed to rep my sports teams in the fitted hat hair just i couldn't do it i couldn't do i'm kind of shocked that that mlb players and it's obviously an agreement you know with's still wear fitted hats. I thought we'd go back full circle where they go back to the snapbacks, but they don't, they still wear fitted hats. And I never thought about that. You don't even have the option to wear a snapback, right?

No. Cause every, I think that you have to be uniform compliant. So I think I'm assuming I've never seen a guy in this era where a non fitted hat, like even Buck Showalter, who's like 70 years old in the dugout has a fitted hat if it was allowed someone would be doing it right now and you know it yeah oh it'd be great i uniforms and sports need a little more flexibility i get why there's rules with it but they need to be a little bit more flexible unfortunately there's two it's it's the money right and we'll get to yeah you're right but like that's the way the money yeah yeah this this this company's making this hats and it's

the official mlb hat blah blah blah just let guys let guys wear then it's on field apparel and then it's 40 more than anything else and you know how it is brother hate it hate it anyways speaking of on field corners yeah speaking of on the field, there's the transition we know and love. That is an ace co-host right there. We're talking corners today. We're talking about our – we'll give you our top fives, as we always do during summer scouting. We'll go from five to one.

We'll count down. See how many similarities that we have here. We watched around the same guys. I think there's a couple of guys that I watched that you didn't watch and vice versa. But we'll get a good look at this cornerback class it's obviously a position that has a chance to really be picked high it's one of those premium positions on the defense side of the football that uh when you get a certain type of corner and i think that certain type of corner is a press man

coverage corner a guy who allows you to play the most difficult part of the position, being on an Island, taking out a wide receiver, one-on-one playing on both sides of the field inside and outside. When you get those kinds of players, that becomes an incredibly high valuable position. Now there are corners that comes in, you know, in all shapes and sizes. I know you guys are so sick of me saying that phrase, but it's kind of true. We're just at this point in the NFL there, you might have man coverage corny she might have zone coverage corny she might have guys who uh like to be hybrids playing more safety roles maybe guys who are going to be solely inside guys just these slot players right after that value can depend on what

kind of a defensive scheme you run but i'm curious if we get to any conclusions, because there are a couple of guys that are gaining some steam going into the season that either of us would deem that top 10 caliber kind of draft pick here. So I don't think we're getting to that at number five, but who is your number five corner in this class after watching a lot of these guys

going into college football season? Like a lot of these shows, number five was really hard because there's a lot of guys that can go here for different reasons whether it's you like them as a developmental prospect you like what they are now or you think they're they're poised for a breakout a lot of things along those lines uh the guy i went with here number five is a little bit of everything and that was garrett williams from syracuse a player that let's be clear he has his warts like there's a lot of things he needs to work on but number one Trevor this is just something I have to get off the top he's listed as redshirt sophomore but this is his this is his fourth year so these like COVID listings are just so insane where

he's been there since 2019. He only appeared in four games that redshirt year, obviously. And then so this is his fourth year, but he's a redshirt sophomore. So there is upside with him still, but it's not like, you know, he's a really raw, raw player in terms of where he's at. So you'll see the underclassmen label and you'll think oh okay like yes but he's been there for four years he's been there for a little bit now so all right let's get right into it with Garrett Williams um you know in school Syracuse that yeah we've had like Andre Sisko and and Truliams guys like this in the recent past but not traditionally school we were pulling out these

powerhouse defenders all the time so uh for him to be, you know, near the top of this corner group is a pretty big deal. I look at him, two-year starter already. The most important thing that jumped out to me is he's just smooth. The way he moves, he's fluid. It's very notable. It's in that Adoree Jackson mold where he's very lean and he just looks like an athlete in the position where he's not rigid, he's very lean and every, he just looks like an athlete in the position where he's, he's not rigid. He's not stiff. He's not tight, anything like that. Now, I think that the rest of his game just needs fundamental work. I wrote, he gets a little sloppy, um, slash loss after the line of scrimmage portion of the rep. So there's, there's no hip tightness. So he can flip his hips. He could backpedal. He can get off the line and into phase and stay in phase and stays. But when you have to stay sticky,

he just gets lost at times, whether he's almost indecisive if he's worrying about the football or he's worrying about the wide receiver or he's worrying about making the play. And Trevor, I wanted to note this out to you, where you can find this notable is against your boy A.T. Perry against Wake Forest in 2021, where A.T. Perry's a big receiver and he's going to get physical but he's also credit to him a good route runner and you could just tell that you know Williams is a little overwhelmed at times in that game no interceptions in 2021 he just struggles to anticipate the ball there's not the ball's coming I'm getting making the play like I's not the, ball's coming, I'm getting, making the play. Like, I'm jumping the pass or I'm making a play in the air.

I thought he tackles well on throws in front of him. There was quick hitters and screens. He comes downhill, he wraps up. And only 44 press snaps in 2021. So, I think my overall, that's a mouthful there with Garrett Williams. It's that he moves really well, and guys that are about six feet tall that move really well at corner are often really valued. That's very important.

It's very special. Sure. I just think that next step of having the awareness of making plays in the air needs to significantly improve, and that also Syracuse this year needs to put more on his plate they need to look at him and go man you're a really good player for our program and we have big expectations for you and we're going to ask you to press more we're going to ask you to be physical at the line of scrimmage because we know you have the recovery speed and the fluidity to make up ground if you

need to do that so I I like the player but he's a ball of clay right now but i also think a lot of this is on syracuse to get the best out of him in his draft eligible year yeah he had 297 coverage snaps last year 46 of them came in press coverage yeah it's not much not a lot there's just not a lot of of evidence of him being able to play press. And I didn't hate it. Right. I mean, like you mentioned it. His athleticism is his best trait.

And really good. I think his fluidity is something that was really, really impressed to me. This is the player who could flip his hips very, very well, which means, you know, when you are face up right in front of a guy in press coverage and, you know, he's he's dancing getting out of his stance he's getting into his route whether he's breaking left or right of you depending on what kind of leverage you have if you got to flip your hips and all of a sudden start running with him in one direction gary williams can do that like he i think he could do that really well he so i'll just read the strength and weaknesses that i had for him because i have him at number four so we might as well just continue the conversation because I talk about him. Yeah, it makes sense. I'll just talk about him now. I got him at number four, really fluid athlete. This is my nose for really

fluid and explosive athlete when he was changing direction. He's a very twitched up player. Most of his reps come from off coverage, quarters coverage. But when he plays press man, you can really see how fluid his hips are, how he breaks on that change of direction and how can he can really stay with guys as they start getting into their top speed deep down the field movement skills huge plus for this guy and and i really do hope that i'm with you this is my same plea as well let this guy play press man coverage please at least at least just just get him in the line of scrimmage get him up at the line of scrimmage, get him up at the line of scrimmage, because that's also the area of his game that I think he needs to improve on the most is dealing with physicality. I don't think he was scared of being physical.

There were just times where, whether it happened to be in the contact zone, if he was playing closer to the line of scrimmage or whether it was at the catch point, which you mentioned two interceptions, his first year that he was a starter zero interceptions last year and i think it's because you said that he kind of fails to anticipate the way that he needs to i do think that's an element of it but another element of it is you gotta put you put your big boy pants on when you go in the air right i mean like that wide receiver they talk about it all the time like that's your money like that ball

when that ball is in the air and you're further than the time. Like, that's your money. Like, that ball, when that ball is in the air and you're further than 15 yards down the field, that is your money that you are going up to get. That's how a lot of these coaches put it to these guys to make it a dire situation where they better get the dog in them, to quote TikTok. And that's what a lot of wide receivers, that's the mentality they have towards it.

When I watch Williams go up towards the line of scrimmage come screaming down on a running back or a wide receiver on a screen i don't think he gets scared of that physicality he's just not used to it a lot and and he just he needs to get better at that area of the game he's got to be better at the catch point he's got he's got to be able to not only get those passes uh defense down the field he's got to be able to go up and get that ball over some of those wide receivers to go get those takeaways those are the guys who get paid yes you want the shutdown you want the lockdown corner I think he's got good athleticism and agility to be able to do that but the guys who really get paid the guys who really get drafted high they get takeaways and that's

the next level of his game I think dealing with physicality in that way that will kind of hold the key for him on where he is going to get drafted because i do think that he's got you mentioned him being a ball of clay he's a ball of clay that you really like because that baseline of athleticism is right there for him i just think those two areas really the ball skills playing through physicality and then just he's got to get more reps up towards the line of scrimmage those are those are the things that i want to see from him yeah i found myself really frustrated watching him because and i don't think that's fair on my end because he's still a young player. He obviously is. He's not like playing for a program that has this, you know,

powerhouse pass rush where he gets some of these gifted balls to make a play on the, you know, the chances he gets are definitely would be earned, but it's just not there right now. So somebody that may get our rankings, I have him five, you have him at four, is very intriguing to watch because the level of athlete he is. And if they, I want to see them, and not throw him into the fire

because he's already played as a young player, but like really be like, hey, your time. Like I remember when JC Horn was going into his junior year, that's the end, this isn't what I expected him, but that staff was like, hey, you're gonna you're he asked can i trail receivers can i take away half the field can i do things like can i play press a lot do i have the green light to press when i feel like it's time to press like it's good when guys get that kind of workload because you can evaluate it's selfish of us as scouts but you can evaluate the most of them. Does Syracuse have the same defensive coordinator?

I think they do going into this year. I believe so. It's Tony White. He started in 2020, and he's still the defensive coordinator. That staff's intact. I don't know how much of a different scheme or how much of a different look we're going to get from William. Yeah, a lot of guys don't.

They won't change unless it's near a difference maker that they just haven't seen before. Sometimes the guys still won't change maybe but that's kind of yeah that's my overall thought there's a lot to like with garrett williams i really do think that but i do wonder if the areas that i want to see some improvement of or just you know some extra familiarity with some reps that i think that he can even well round his game better are we going to see that is he going to be afforded to get better in those areas this upcoming season we'll have to see number five for me would you have a five brother i i'm i'm falling for another tcu corner which seems oh boy my my absolute kryptonite it's noah daniels um one of my man he's good when he plays he's good one of my favorite corners of all

time that i've ever scouted was jason verrett i love jason verrett so much i mean i i turned on two games of him and this was early on what jason verrett was the 2014 draft right i think he was i think he was the 2014 draft something right around there that was either my first draft class i ever really scouted or my second one. And dude, I fell in love with his game immediately. And my heart has just been broken over and over again, as he has continued to have injuries throughout his NFL career, because I think that he is unbelievably talented. I think the same, a similar mindset with Noah Daniels, because this is a player who, when I watch him on film, when I watch him, when he is actually out there fully healthy because this is a player who, when I watch him on film,

when I watch him, when he is actually out there fully healthy, it's a player that I really, really like. He's just got an awful injury history right now. And that really sucks. Not only at the college level, but going into the NFL listed at six feet tall,

just over 200 pounds. You know, some places list him at like one 95 TCU actually listed him at, I think like two 10. And I don't think he's two 10, but I think that he's probably comfortably right around 205 and the dude brings a lot of really great size he fills out his frame really well he's very well built but the injury history sucks man uh after redshirting his very first year that he had at tcu as a redshirt freshman played in all 13 games played very very well had a really good coverage grade for pff especially for a redshirt freshman played in all 13 games, played very, very well, had a really good coverage grade for PFF, especially for a redshirt freshman.

I think it was right around 75, which if you're starting as a redshirt freshman, that's an awesome. Anything around 75 as a coverage grade is really, really impressive. Unfortunately, that has been his only complete season that he has played yet in college football. Shoulder injury meant that he missed his entire redshirt sophomore season. Once he recovered from that, he started his redshirt junior season, tore his ACL after five games.

I think it was in the Oklahoma game that he tore his ACL. And then last year, he only played in four more games because he had nagging injuries. I think the knee was the one that I saw that he was battling with the most throughout last season. So this guy has, since his redshirt freshman season, he's played in zero games five games four games and he's had season-ending shoulder surgery which is not good for defensive

players as we have talked about on this podcast he's had season-ending acl injury which is not good for cornerbacks and then last year it was injuries that were still really bugging him so i think this is his sixth year you mentioned like some some covet years which kind of mess it is this is either his fifth or sixth year i think it is his sixth year in college football this year but dude when he's out there on that field even even last year last year he didn't even get a good coverage grade from pff i think last year was his worst coverage grade that he got throughout his entire career i I think it was right around like 60. He was actually like 59.4 coverage grade. And I still liked what I saw on film last year.

No matter what game I was watching, I watched a handful of games of his. And he's just, he's got the size. He's got the explosiveness. He's got the confidence. He seems so in control when you play him up towards the line scrimmage, in press, man coverage. He's confident. He loves being in those situations. When you play him up towards the line scrimmage in press man coverage, he's confident.

He loves being in those situations. And I think that mentality for a corner is also something that we cannot sleep on. Don't sleep on that part. Some guys, when they are playing up close towards the line scrimmage, they get nervous and you could tell they get nervous. Am I going to get beat this way or this way? And sometimes it's not even that they lack athleticism.

They just don't have that confidence about them. Noah Daniels absolutely does. He knows how to get hands on wide receivers. He knows how to redirect him. He knows how to stick right hip to hip when they're breaking from their routes. He's got the athleticism to keep up with guys deep down the field. He's got good recovery speed. He's got great ball skills as well.

This feels like a total package corner, not a perfect corner, certainly after all of the reps that he has missed over the last two to three years, but a guy who gives you so much to love. And the way that Mike Renner put it in his, Mike Renner, PFS lead draft analyst, the way that he put it in his cornerback preview article is, this guy's got day one tape with undrafted free agent injury history. That is the way that I see Noah Daniels as well. And that is why I couldn't do it. I couldn't not get him on this list.

I couldn't not talk about him here on this podcast. But we got to see a fully healthy year from him. And even if we do, man, all 32 NFL GMs, the question is going to be exactly the same with him. But certainly hope for his sake and for everybody's sake in college football because he's going to be exactly the same with him but certainly hope for his sake and for everybody's sake in college football because he's going to be a hell of a fun prospect to watch that he is healthy this upcoming year me too rooting for him rooting for a full season a healthy season above all else a healthy process that he's in the senior bowl or

the shrine game uh in a big combine it's just you know I Trevor everything you said I I'm with you I love the tape I love watching him play him and know, Travius Hodges Tomlinson, the corners there at TCU. I like watching them. I've been watching them for a long time. Um, but the, you know, if you're, you know what I say on this podcast, if you're hurt in college, you're going to be hurt in the NFL and it's, it's harsh. It's not fun. don't say that to me connor don't say that to me it's nice when the one percent you know people that break through that prove you wrong but the 99 it's tough it's really tough um so i'm glad you brought him up though because he's one of the more intriguing or more polarizing players on the defensive side of the ball in this class

fully healthy i'd probably have him one or two i'm Yeah, he'd be a no-brainer top three if he's healthy. Yeah, yep. So, number four for me, my favorite corner I watched while doing this exercise. Not the best. Hold on. I was going to say, well, hold on. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

What does that mean? He's number four. That's just the way he plays. Is your favorite number number four, and you just like to slot him in that spot? No, no. Do I have to rethink every ranking we've done yet on this show that your number four is actually your number one that would be quite the mind trick after how many scouting shows we've done so my my explanation for that is at the nfl level there will be limitations with this player but at the college level, he, I love the

way Clark Phillips, the third place from Utah. I mean, okay, now he's listed. Let's pull him up here at five, 10, one 85. I don't think he's five 10. Maybe he's one 85. He's, you know, just a smaller player. I wrote down 5'9", 180. Sure. That's what I wrote down. That's what I wrote down. Yeah, I think that. That would be my, if I was a betting man,

that's where I'd throw my money. The number four cornerback in his recruiting class. So this is a former four-star that there was expectations. Don't make a mistake. How does Utah develop these guys? This dude's supposed to be good. Explosive compact corner with inside-outside versatility. He does play on the outside a lot.

He also does play on the inside. I'm going to look up how many exact snaps he played. I believe 130 were in the slot off the top of my head, and then I want to say over 600 are outside. Of the games that I watched, he basically played everything on the outside. So I watched UCLA that they used him on the inside, probably because I would assume Kyle Phillips would be some of the reason for that in that game, if I remember correctly.

But either way, he plays on the outside more than he plays on the inside. I like that he does both at the college level because the reality is, unless he's a DJ Reed kind of player who's a five foot nine outside corner in the NFL, a really good one. He's going to play a lot of inside at the next level, can flip his hips and has lateral agility for crossing routes. Very impressive to see him run with a guy on shallow crossers all the way across the field. He'll close quickly to tackle on quick hit throws uh he made a play in the rose bowl off of his man he was on whoever it was because the rose bowl out of the ohio state guys were probably sitting down i know obviously jack jackson smith was in the game that's who he

he chases was a harrison smith's kid probably i would think so sorry mar it Harrison Smith's kid? Probably, I would think. Sorry, Marvin Harrison's kid. Marvin Harrison's kid. What did I say? Harrison Smith's kid who would not be playing for Ohio State. No, not wide receiver. No. So, Trevor, he made a play off of his guy, a chase down play, from the back, a strip before the goal line.

That is just remarkable. The speed to chase down Jackson, the ability to punch the ball with a perfect angle. And that play really is the summary of this guy is that he is he's all gas. He is a player that is smart. He's a player that's tough. He's aggressive. He's fundamentally sound. I really, really liked him him and it's this sad annoying statement of i think this guy has a chance to be trent mcduffie next year is he there yet no he's not but the guy that oh he's you know 5 10 or smaller oh he probably has short arms oh you know all these

things but he's just a defensive back that plays football. Wherever you put him, outside, inside, I think he can handle some kind of safety role. This dude is just aware, he's fast, he's explosive, he's twitchy. I really, I'll tell you what, Trevor, I hate that I had him at four. I honestly had him, I thought about having him at two. Wow. But I just, you need to evaluate what he can do at the next level in all this, even though we're a year away.

And I just think there will be some limitations, but he's a hell of a college football player. I enjoyed watching Clark Phillips, but I don't have him in my top five. Are you concerned about his athleticism at all? Because when I watched him, I did not think that he was elite of an athlete enough to make up for the lack of size maybe not elite but the damn good one a damn good one i like clark phil i love the mentality i think that he's his i understand completely what you said now that this guy is your favorite guy in the class because he is he is a lot of fun he's a lot

utah defense they rub off on each other. Oh, yeah. And it's not like that Devin Lloyd's gone. They have a lot of dudes. His teammate who was hurt last year, Travis Broughton, is a damn good player. They have a safety. That defense is something, man. It's the coaching.

It's the attitude. I love the way they play. Man, I just, there were a couple of times when i was watching his film where i was like okay you gotta get to the spot you gotta get a spot you gotta do any just any he was not able to get there quickly enough and i you could if you were if you watched me watch film you could have seen me like wince because i i love the dude there's so much that he brings to the game that's a lot of fun. And I think that he could be a fantastic, like, new-age nickel defender. You know, almost like what's Chauncey Garner Johnson's measurables?

Because I know – Oh, he's at least six feet tall. Is he tall? Is he taller than that? He's, like, oddly a pretty big guy the way you put – oh, it's okay. I know his weight is higher, but I know he carries. So he's actually five 11 to 10. Okay.

So he is bigger in that regard. Cause when I watched, when I watched Phillips, I was like, can this guy just be this safety nickel hybrid defender? Cause I think that he's so smart and he operates in space really well. You can tell, you can watch in his tape that he's like baiting guys.

He's baiting. Okay, throw the ball, throw the ball, throw the ball. I'm in the right spot. And he really messes with the minds of quarterbacks. When you put guys in that hybrid position where they can play a little bit further off, they can play safety at times, you give them that freedom to really manipulate how a quarterback is seeing the field and what's going to be open. And I think that Phillips, I love that aspect of his his game and i would just love to have more of that so i was

kind of thinking in my head how do i get more out of that because if i'm worried about him as an athlete on the outside then i'm not going to want to put him in the slot i watched what the tampa bay buccaneers did with um mj stewart when he was coming out of unc and they put mj stewart in the slot because they had faster guys longer guys that that could play on the outside and mj stewart was not athletic enough to play outside corner in the nfl that gets magnified a lot worse nowadays with how much offense is really manipulate slot defenders if you are liable as an athlete in the slot. So maybe I've just got PTSD from watching MJ Stewart struggle in the slot, but I was like, okay, this guy, he's built more for the slot,

but I'm already having athletic concerns. I know I haven't met four, not in the top three. Okay. Limitations. Yeah, I had my athletic limitation questions with with clark phillips and i would love to be wrong i hope that he certainly shows me that he is an athlete enough to play the cornerback position whether it's outside or inside because a lot of the rest of his game is a lot of fun number three for me is uh cam smith the corner from south carolina and i

think a lot of people have Cam Smith in their top three. I've even seen some people who really like him enough to be their CB1. I know I was reading, doing some research for Cam Smith, and somebody asked him at spring, it was either at spring practice or during summer camp, what he thought of PFF ranking him number two. I think he's the number two corner going into the season. And Cam Smith, verbatim, bullshit.

That's it. That's what he said. He said bullshit. And then he said no cornerback in the country is better than me. And he's like, throw on the tape. You know, he's very, very confident, which you love to see the corner. I absolutely love that. As somebody who works for PFF, I absolutely love that answer.

I love that he's able to take pride in that and really has a chip on his shoulder. Drag Trevor's ass. Yeah, yeah. It was me personally who made the ranking. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Six foot tall, 185 pounds. Four-star cornerback from Blackwood south carolina interesting note weighed 170 pounds coming into college in the next year they had him listed 177 185 he said he wants to

get up to the low 90s of course using the peanut butter and jelly late at night strategy he wants to get up into the low 90s probably going to play comfortably he hopes around 185 and i think that that's important to his scouting reports and pff stats for cam smith just to put in perspective how good he was last season smith earned a 50.0 pff grade in zone coverage in 2020 he allowed opposing qbs to complete 69.2 of their passes to receivers an average of 22.9 yards per catch. That was in 2020. Last year, Smith's PFF grade jumped all the way up to a 79.6,

anywhere in the 80s for coverage. It's really, really impressive. And he allowed just 42.9% of his passes thrown in his direction to be completed. Also nabbed two of his three interceptions in non-man coverage role. Strength and weaknesses. Strengths obviously has a lot of confidence to him as you can hear from the quote long fluid corner who primarily plays on the outside for the game cox defense seems to be most comfortable in off coverage but has plenty of reps

in man coverage as well coming from that will must champamp aggressive defensive style. What he played in 2020 was more of that man coverage role. You saw not so great coverage stats. He was clearly not as comfortable as he was being able to have a lot of freedom to play that off coverage, to play a lot of different leverages, to have a little bit more freedom in coverage. And he's just been a lot better being an off-zone corner. Familiar with the roles and spacings in cover three and cover four has the length to play as a press man corner maybe not the overall athleticism when i get into

weaknesses he's not afraid of contact but he isn't imposing or dominant at the point of contact whether it is the catch point or getting off the line scrimmage although i think that he is more aggressive more comfortable with physicality at the catch point i really do which is more aggressive, more comfortable with physicality at the catch point. I really do, which is more important. I'm cool with that. Can be unreliable when tackling due to some weight, strength concerns. The long arms, you think, okay, he can wrap guys up. He's got a long tackle radius, but sometimes that lower weight, that thinner frame really gets the best of him when he's coming in for tackle. He can at times feel a little bit too conservative in off coverage.

Maybe that has to do with some athletic limitations which is kind of what i figured would be the case but a smart off coverage corner and i think that definitely has a role especially in certain kind of defenses when you get to the nfl a lot of defenses they'll play a little bit more off uh play a little bit more uh zone coverage than they do man coverage but of course he gives you the physical profile to potentially switch it up so you don't have this isn't this isn't a physically limited at least size scheme deficient guy if he can be the athlete that we want him to be if he's a little bit more maybe if he gains some weight he's going to get some more speed in there as well he's going to gain some more muscle he's going to be a faster overall athlete then you're talking about a guy who might be scheme versatile but as of right now i'd probably

peg cam smith as a off coverage guy i'm not so sure you'd want him to hang in man coverage a lot so those are my thoughts on the uh the south carolina corner you know what i'll pull a trevor here and i'll piggyback off of you because I have Cam Smith number two. Okay. And you had him number three, correct? Yep. I mean, I am one of those people that really wanted to have him number one. And I'll get into why I didn't because the only way to do that is to talk about the number one player and how many things he can do and what I think he can do going forward.

But man, Trevor, this dude is cocky. And I didn't know that story, by the way. Like I wrote this down just watching him play. I didn't know the story where he was like bullshit. I'm not like he's cocky. He's a lanky patient corner with ball skills and patience and ball skills go together like peanut butter and jelly, man. It's just one of those things where if you're a corner that has that, you're going to play for a long time as long as your legs will allow you to. People keep giving you chances.

They keep giving you chances because they're like, oh, the light will come on at some point or the ball will find them. I wrote, he'll fire his hands into wide receivers at the line of scrimmage, doing his best JC Horn impression. I agree with you. I think that he's not this lights-out press corner yet, but there was a couple of reps where I watch him and I go, man, when he throws them, there is no 70%, 80% plays. It's 110%.

I'm throwing my hands, and there was one play I watched, and I forget who it was against, that he threw his hands to press, and then he sliced in to tackle the running back on the carry. And I was like, wow, that means there's a lot of transition in the brain as well. But he went from press coverage to slicing in. And man, it's one of those things where I think a great player at a program really does set the tone for the guys after him. And I don't know how much, obviously, J.C. Horn was with Cam Smith, but even if they weren't together one-on-one a ton or for years, there are coaches or there are other guys on the team that it just sets a precedent. And when I watch Cam Smith play, I go, you know what? He's not as talented as JC Horn,

but I respect how much he wants to be JC Horn and how much he molds his game around JC Horn, how confident he is. And I wrote, there was no fear getting involved in run sport. I do agree. Like when you're that lanky, you're just, sometimes you're going to bounce off guys. Like you're just not meant to be, you know, you're not tackling like a linebacker it's just natural it's called force uh physics not my best class in high school uh you need that part yeah experience of both both in press and playing off his man this is probably the corner besides number one that i think will be given the most from his staff this year in the country,

that they're going to let him do what he wants, which is, you know, me and you, top guys across from him, right up in their face and say, I'm going to be here all day. I'm going to get hands on you. I'm going to run with you. I'm going to get a little physical down the field, but I'm not going to, you know, show my cards too much. I'm going to hide it and really try to get away with things. get a little physical down the field but i'm not gonna you know show my cards too much i'm gonna hide it and and really try to get away with things so he he got a lot more comfortable being physical

doing like bump and run stuff and at the catch point as the play went on like i feel like that that is where he was able to mask a lot of that and you could see that he was which makes me think that if he gains some more weight like right if he gets up to those low 90s and can play anywhere even at 185 close to 190 with some new strength in him then maybe it won't take as much of his full strength to get hands on guys the line scrimmage or it won't take all of his full strength to really get in there and get in somebody's legs and wrap up to get a tackle so i think that if he can successfully do what he wants to do and get a little bit more weight on him, a little bit more strength on him,

then yeah, I think he's shown that he is comfortable being physical. He just hasn't had as much strength as he's needed to to kind of complete that strength profile in his game. And I think that's really important for him because I don't think he's going to be an elite sprinter, some kind of elite tester or great athlete. Right, right.

And that was my worry. Yeah, that was had i couldn't have him at number one um i don't think he's gonna be some kind of elite athlete i think he's gonna have to really rely on the physicality he has mastered a little bit of that when you get outside of the five or ten yards i'm gonna bump you with my hips shoulders and forearm and elbow instead of grabbing and it's an art it's an art you get away like the refs should not call that it's it's it goes back to being physics of body to body and who's got the mass to do it and i think when he gains that mass that you keep alluding to it's definitely going to take his game to a new level but i want to get to my number two um after cam smith who was number three and i'm number two no cam smith was number two i gotta go back to number three yeah that's what i need i don't want to forget that

eli ricks was number three for me so i had um cam smith ahead of eli ricks but i don't want to leave him in the dust here six foot two 190 a player that we've fortunately gotten to see a lot of already for such a young player a former former five-star out of IMG Academy. So when you see that former five-star. Brandon Florida, baby. Yeah, when you see that, yeah, fake school, but not really. When you see powerhouse for athletes, when you see that former five-star. I'm going to count it for my hometown.

I'm going to count it. Hey, man, take it. People forget you're a powerhouse podcaster from img academy a five-star podcaster so i mean this is these are big-time athletes that come out of here it's no secret i think everybody listening to show involved in scouting is aware of that freshman starter in 2020 so for those really unaware eli ricks uh played at lsu his first two years and now transferred to alabama not a bad situation to be in when Alabama wants you. Freshman starter in 2020, had four interceptions,

took two back for touchdowns. He's just a big boundary corner. You look at him and you go, man, you're going to live on the outside. You're going to bump and run, guys. You're going to be able to make plays on the ball because you're just long. You've got these tentacles for arms. Excellent length with long strides to cover ground.

A little tight in the hips. A little tight in the hips. Can get turned around on the deeper routes. I think he's one of those guys that when he doesn't have to worry so much about the long speed over him and constantly running with guys and just keeping everything in front of him, being able to use those tentacles to make plays, everything's great. I think that when he's asked to do a lot of running and lateral agility in terms of flipping his hips and a lot of running and lateral agility in terms of flipping his hips and a lot of different a lot of different routes and bigger route trees he can you could start to see him spinning a little bit once again it's a really young guy that's playing in the sec as soon

as he got to college it's really tough to do comes downhill with force and fire last thing i wrote it oh and i wrote strong jam when they ask him to be physical in coverage. I do think we'll see a lot of that this year. Last thing I wrote, does he have the lateral agility to be a force in man coverage? I was not able to answer that at this stage of his career. If the answer is yes, he'll be a top 20 pick. If the answer is no, probably looking at more of a round two kind of guy. Well, I have him at number one and i get it i just said he can go on the top like dude i get it no i so i have him i have him at number one which means uh your number

one and my number two are the same um so we'll get to keely ringo in a second but yeah look is it kylie or keely i thought it was keely ringo i heard a broadcast call him kylie and i was like what oh but it looks like keely when it's written oh oh panic alarm maybe it is all right well what i'm when i'm talking about eli ricks i didn't even think to look this up i didn't even think that it was a confusing thing uh while i am talking about eli ricks you can try to scramble to go to a YouTube video to see a commentator saying something about Ringo. All right, so Eli Rex.

Conor did a good job of kind of setting the table of what he does well. 6'2", 190 pounds. It's prototypical size for a corner. Maybe you'd want corners to be a little bit bigger. Maybe he can even put on a little bit more size. But being 6'2", he's got the size. He's got the length profile that you absolutely love to see former five-star quarterback from California started his career at LSU. Now at Alabama started seven games and got four

interceptions during his freshman campaign in 2020, extremely impressive, especially for a school that is known for his defensive backs. Like LSU is for Rick's to be able to come in and start and play right away and play really well. I think that's, that's, uh, that's really important. And that's, that's really impressive to see landed him on the third team, all American list, second team, all sec list from the associated press, uh, during the 2021 campaign, he had 11 tackles, uh, but he also played in just six games before his season was cut short due to a

shoulder injury. Not exactly great. Some PFF stats. In his 227 press coverage snaps over his career, Ricks has allowed only six of his 21 targets to be caught for just 121 yards while generating three interceptions and five forced incompletions. That is incredible production from the press man coverage alignment that means that you are dominating the targets that are going to your man when you are in man coverage and i think that speaks volumes and that is the most important thing about eli rakes the scouting report and why i think that he is so good why Why I have him as my number one corner. Very easy

to see why this player was a five-star coming out of high school. Reading my notes here on him now. Mix of athleticism and length are pro caliber. Comfortable and confident in press man coverage. Can mirror in coverage very well. Played a lot of off coverage against Mississippi State, but I would say that that probably wasn't his best use of skill set. He's going to be much more of that man coverage, close to the line of scrimmage kind of a player. Fast, fluid footwork. Thought that he could be a tad overaggressive at times, but I didn't think that it was totally egregious. I did not have the athleticism concerns that you did. I thought that the footwork was great. I thought that the hips moved plenty well. I thought he could open it up, and I thought he could run with a lot of guys.

And so I did not see that. Perhaps we get into next season, and certainly he's going to be a starter for Alabama. There are going to be a lot of different shootouts with some good offenses, as they probably are going to be another college football playoff team again upcoming. He's going to have plenty of tests. And you and I talked about this in the pre-show

when we were actually talking about Ringo and you were like Ringo played in so many big games over the course of the season it was easy to find a handful of games where he's going up against good quarterbacks good wide receivers just good passing attacks overall you've got good good tape to weigh him against and I think that that's going to be the case for ricks as well we're going to know what kind of a player ricks is at the end of the season and from what i saw at lsu now he's going over to alabama he's getting the he's becoming another db in the db tree of nick saban man i think that the sky is the limit for this guy i really did not have the full-on athleticism concerns that you did and if if he is a limited athlete, we're going to know by the end of the year because he's going to be in a lot of games in which that might be glaring.

They might have to hide some of that. But as of right now, man, I got full confidence in him. I think he is one of the most talented players that we have scouted so far in summer scouting. Wow, you really like him. Yeah, I really do. I think that he is an extremely talented player i really do i really liked him uh once again i i do i just had the hip to heighten his questions and i'm you know i didn't walk away from this corner class and go man you know there's

a dude in here so i'll get to number one i guess um who can be a dude he He's just not there yet. Redshirt sophomore, Keely Ringo. I found the pronunciation. That's... Nailed it. Broadcasting no-no. So, 6'2", 205, timed in the four threes, former five-star, and was the number four overall prospect

in his recruiting class. Not bad. Pretty good place to be. Not bad. Pretty good place to be. Not bad. Pretty good place to be. Red shirt in 2020 as he recovered from off-season surgery. So he got to school at Georgia and was a red shirt coming off an injury.

And then when he starts to play, this is where I got. Patient and aware in off coverage. For a young player, I did not see him biting on double moves. I actually saw him not buy a double move, stay patient, and backtrack to make the interception on the throw down the field. That was wildly impressive. 200 snaps in press coverage in 2021. Zero fear.

Georgia, and now Georgia up front, we know the kind of powerhouse they are, but they didn't have any, they trusted this dude. They really did, and they threw a lot at him as well, And he held his own strong wrap up tackler that gets to ball carriers and he comes to balance. He breaks down, he comes to balance and makes the tackle. And, and well, there's just certain fundamental things with him that I was so impressed for a young player. And credit to Georgia, but credit to the kind of athlete and kind of talent this guy is and the kind of worker he is considering he had to miss the 2020 season

because of that offseason surgery. He can run with the best even when initially beat. And that's just so important. I mean, even if he's not really 6'2", Trevor, say he's 6'1", 200 pounds, and he might be 6'2", he looks big. The fact that he can run like this, if you are a 6'2 corner that runs in the 4-3s and you run in pads, you're it. Like, you're going to,

even if you have little things to work on, you're absolutely going to be a big deal in the draft. I wrote, he had a very Trevon Diggs national championship game in 2021. He gave up a lot of catches and yards, but had a pick six in the fourth quarter. Alabama really went after him. They looked around the field.

They were not afraid to go after him. They were not afraid to go after him. He had a tough first half. And I thought he did not look scared in the second half. He even made a play in the red zone over the middle on the ball and broke up a would-be touchdown. And I was like, man, up a would-be touchdown.

And I was like, man, for a 19-year-old in the national championship that's just been the guy. They're just torturing him the first time. They were trying to. They were trying to be like, okay, that's the guy that we're going after because the front is going to kill us. And, you know, Darion Kendrick. There's so many other players. Louis Seen. NFL players go lore on this defense. They at Ringo the young gun and they went after him and he didn't lose his confidence in the second half and I think that that might have been his

toughest game of the season the national championship as a redshirt freshman sky is the limit for him because of the size the speed speed, the ball skills, the patience, the tackling, the fact that he gets to go up against incredible talent in the SEC. And even on his worst day, he still had the resiliency. And if you are going to play cornerback in the NFL in this league with the awful rules in this era that are all geared towards offense and wide receivers and turning it into seven-on-seven football every single year, if you have the mindset that you can overcome a bad week, a bad rep,

a bad half, a bad quarter, whatever it is, and you have that kind of raw talent, I think he's going to be really, really good this year. You had a little venom in your voice there. I hate how – did you see this? Speaking of this, that they want to emphasize illegal contact this year did you see that this week come out did they win oh yeah the national report that they're telling the officials who everybody screams at and i get it but they're they're doing what they're told to

do the fact they want to put an emphasis on illegal contact this year the game has changed and it's gone too far the other way it's gone too far the other way. It's gone too far the other way. And you know how you know that? Because if you asked a, not a casual, a pretty serious NFL fan to name seven lockdown corners, they couldn't do it because you can't be a lockdown corner in this league unless you're a super freak, like a total alien. So it's, I don't like hearing things like that.

We should ban passing. You go back, just run the ball. Wayne T. Only run the ball. No forward passing. It should be nine offensive linemen, one quarterback, and one Nick Chubb behind nine offensive linemen. That's pure football.

That's God's football. When you die and you go to heaven, the second you get through the pearly gates there's going to be a big park is it going to be like a big big like heavy it's going to be a gabriel park or something right and there's going to be a gridiron going on and it's just going to be nine offensive linemen fully lined up against nine defensive linemen and then two linebackers right behind him every super bowl of the last seven years is a Mickey Mouse trophy. And if you go to hell, it's just seven on seven.

It's just seven on seven. Everybody's got 45 armbands on. There's seven officials. There's two on each sideline. There's two out in the field. There's two behind. There's one sitting in a drone overhead watching. And he's just got a's got a set like a

what do they call it uh that they used to wear in the wild west they keep the bullets in but it's flags flags in them and he just throws them out oh yeah i don't know what it would be called i don't know what it man i haven't played red dead in a while it's like it's just like a cross you're like a cross body thing you know like it's like a cross body yeah you got the bullets it's yellow flags people have no idea where we went with that but just no imagine though a ref in like a sitting in like a little like a child swing but it's a drone it just hovers over the field i guarantee we get there no we're gonna get there now we're gonna get that robots you're definitely taking over the referee world we're just gonna bring him on for umpire and drop in baseball yeah oh yeah well that's a yeah that's all right so

keely bring you mentioned how much he played uh how much he played made coverage but he also played a decent amount in off coverage as well or at least in um at least in off zone coverage when you look at his snaps 515 coverage snaps last year 213 in press coverage so a lot of them right in press coverage so you like that that he is able to do that but he also had plenty of experience in a variety of different coverages i thought he played all of those really really well long athletic corner who could play in a variety of different coverages is comfortable and experienced in press not just with space of the line but in the contact window as well. Uses the sideline as his extra defender constantly. Understands the squeeze technique when you're in cover three,

which is, of course, you're basically playing with your back to the sideline. And if the guys are trying to run behind you, you're trying to squeeze them, right? You're trying to cut them off using that extra defender, that sideline, so they can't get up the sideline and past you. It's a way that you can do the Saban shuffle, is what everybody calls it, right, where you get out of your stance and you're opening your hips up towards the quarterback

so you can keep your eyes on the quarterback, but you're continuing to squeeze your butt towards the line of scrimmage, angling how you retreat, how you shuffle back to really make sure that that guy can't get vertical on you. So I thought that he showed a great understanding of that, was really in control in that area when't get vertical on you. So I thought that he showed a great understanding of that was really in control in that area. When he was playing that technique of coverage,

closing speed is obviously top tier. You talk about a guy who can run a four, three, five, the closing speed. It's all going to be there. Not afraid to play physical either. Something that I really liked about his game.

Something I'm really glad that you highlighted. Anytime you get a quarterback who runs somewhere in the four threes, you tell yourself, Oh, okay. But you know, they don't want to lay hands on somebody. They don't want to get physical.

That's not the case with Keely Ringo. I think that he is certainly down for it. Weaknesses. He's young. So that goes, he's really young, but what, from the tape that I'm judging him on does not look in control at all

times, despite the elite athleticism. That was something that was a little bit, I did not expect to see something like that for a player that is as athletic as Keely Ringo is. I did not, I did not expect to see him as out of control as it seemed like some of those reps were, especially when it came to breaks in offensive or in wide receivers routes i felt like he could he got turned around more than i thought that he was going to sometimes he'd just do like he wouldn't be opening up his hips and keeping his

eyes towards the line of scrimmage he'd do like the full spin turn you know where he turns his back to the line of scrimmage he did that look so sometimes sometimes you have to as a corner right sometimes like the game of football is very fast, and sometimes doing that full spin is your best route to where the ball is going. But he did it a lot more than I thought that he was going to, which is kind of like, okay, you need to be a little bit more in control so you're avoiding those situations a little bit more. Has a tendency to give up separation in the breaks of the stems of receivers when they're getting into their routes.

He keeps his feet moving moving but just doesn't anticipate or dictate that next change of direction as well as he could be by being a little bit more sticky in coverage and that's what these are areas where i have faith that he can get a lot better because i've seen him play physical he could play physical at the line of scrimmage he could play physical and run defense but when he is retreating sometimes with wide receivers and they put their foot in the ground and they change direction, whether it's a post or an in or an out or something, sometimes I see Ringo, it's almost like his hips,

it's like he's dancing, like his hips are going one way or the other, and he just doesn't anticipate the break the way that he should. And then when he doesn't anticipate the break the way that he should, he's giving him a little bit too much separation to the point where then he can't dictate the turn with a little physicality a little bit of a bump and i just want to see him clean that up a little bit more because this guy is absolutely athlete enough he's comfortable with being physical enough to stay in the hip pocket of some of these receivers a little bit more he has you mentioned the term ball of clay earlier in the podcast i feel like he is another one who he has all of this ability to him it's just not as honed in as it

could be right now so maybe that'll get better with reps mentioned how young he was as a player but that's why i had him number two ultimately and not number one i know a lot of people have ringo at number one going into the season but that's why I didn't have him at number one because I didn't feel like he was as in control as confident as Eli Ricks was ahead of him I felt like Ricks played with that chip on his shoulder that motivation that wearing his emotions on his sleeve that that that confidence that you want to see from a cornerback Ringo can get to that point he's got the ability to certainly play with that kind of confidence. I just didn't see it as much as I did with Rex

and as much as we could with Ringo moving forward. Yeah, I mean, listen, I thought this group was one of the more wide-open ones that we've done when I look at our evaluations. I think Ringo, there's been huge expectations on him for a long time, and same with Rex. There's huge expectations on him for a long time. And same with Ricks. There's huge expectations on him, and he's played at a high level already as a freshman. And then you have some of these guys, like a Clark Phillips that was a big recruit, but is playing at Utah, so maybe as many fans and draft fans aren't familiar with him yet.

Garrett Williams, Syracuse. We're not used to watching corners at Syracuse every year. I know they've had a couple recently. And then Cam Smith, who is truly a guy we need to see more football from. So, it's an interesting group. Anybody else? Not in the top five? You want to give a shout out to?

Yeah, I mean, there's really the, I'm excited to see what they can make with 2022 kind of guys. Two that stick out to me. I mentioned to Travis Broughton from Utah because he was hurt for most of last year. So when you watch the Utah secondary, you get to watch a couple guys that could be NFL players. And then I want to see what Joey Porter Jr. at Penn State can do this year.

The redshirt junior 6'2", 190. He's had some flashes when I've watched him. I want to see him take his game to the next level this year. And I really think he will. I would kind of bet on him finishing as a top five corner in next year's draft class or fringe kind of guy there. Those are the two that I had to get in. What about you? Storm Duck would be the other one that I wanted to bring to the table. And if anyone has never heard the name Storm Duck before,

no, I'm not making that up. That's an actual college football name. It's one of the best names in the country. So good, Storm Duck. He is a corner for unc and um he would he would have been sixth here for me six feet tall 200 pounds but he's it's it's the same situation with noah daniels where we just have not seen enough of storm duck he has been hurt over the last couple of years and it's just been one injury after the other that he has

been having to work through to get back on the field and be on the field consistently, which we haven't seen yet. I'm hoping for another fully healthy year because when he's on the field, I mean, I feel like there's a lot to like. He plays with a big time physical profile to his game,

not afraid to get hands on guys at the line of scrimmage, loves to dictate where wide receivers are going in their routes. And he's got good enough athleticism to keep up with him. He's going to be a consistent guy who's going to be able to stay hip to hip with guys running nine routes down the line of scrimmage, especially in the pros.

Okay, maybe not, but he's a strong, confident corner. And he's somebody that I'm looking forward to seeing this year. Back in 2019, when he was just a true freshman, he allowed only 25 of 47 targets to be caught for just 295 yards to less than 300 yards total. total earn him an 81.3 coverage grade as a freshman as a true freshman he got himself an 81.3 coverage grade so i think he's got a lot of ability really confident in himself just hurt man who has hurt a lot the last couple of years and god how often was that the freaking story of this class sucks man it's

like there's so many guys that should be in this class that should be in the NFL already. Yeah, I think that if Storm Duck would have had health on his side, if Noah Daniels would have had health on their side, we wouldn't even be talking about him right now. They'd be in the NFL. And maybe that's still on their path. Maybe they're going to be day two guys in the end

because I think that their talent certainly warrants it. But I wanted to give him a shout out because him and Noah Daniels are right there for me, number five and number six. As players that have a ton of talent to them, they just got to stay on the field. They got to get health on their side. They got to get some luck.

And I'm certainly hoping they do. All right, man. We are almost at the finish line. Next week, we will do the safeties. One position left. It's crazy. Yeah, we're not going to do the specialist. I'm sorry for the big, you know, kicker, long snapper.

You're not doing long snappers? No, I think I'm going to wait until the winter to dive into that. We'll have, we'll get a couple in on the show. Not going to do it this summer. Hey, long snapper. Wait, how many long snappers got drafted last year? I think one. Did one?

Let's see. Over, under, one and a half. What are you putting it at? Under or over? Under. Under. Okay, you're saying under. You're a coward.

There was a lot of kickers and punters taken. Long snapper, long snapper, long snapper, long snapper. Wait, where is it? Oh, no, did we not get one? No, we had to get one. Wasn't that... Wait. I went.

I took the under. Hold on. Wasn't last year the year that, like, one of the long snappers got a call? I didn't. Wasn't there a long snapper from Pitt? That got drafted? I thought he was trolling them. Oh, no.

I don't think we got a long snapper last year. We're mixing up years at this point. Oh, no. I know before now i gotta check what was it oh no 2021 only eight long snappers have been drafted since 2015 oh son of a gun yeah it was thomas fletcher that's what i'm thinking of when matt will call him yeah yeah and Cameron Cheeseman, which is just the greatest long snapper name of all time. I thought Thomas Fletcher was this past year in 2021. Man. Alright, you win. You pick the under.

Yeah, but I was wrong. I thought one was taken. No, it's fine. It's good to be humble on this one. This is the official podcast of being humble. Bullshit. Just two 6'4 four 240 pound guys talking about it's my favorite bit it's my favorite bit all right so uh monday we got another mock draft monday coming for you kind of rounding out the summer schedule of what we're doing here

if you missed last monday's episode we went through and we we we went back and forth snake draft style drafting who we think is going to lead the nfl in receiving yards so if you miss that on monday that's what we had this past monday not set in stone what we're doing this upcoming monday because there's a couple of ideas that we still have on the schedule but there's only so many mondays that we have left before we really get the season kicked off so uh we're gonna kind of get a little powwow here normally on fridays we do a little powwow between us and the producers and we'll choose it but it'll be a very entertaining one we got to bring the noise of course because we only have a few left but then one week from now

safeties safety group round out summer scouting and then we're gonna get to our big board our top 50 big board it's exciting times man great time to be us i mean it's great time to be yeah great brother when's not a great time to be us oh god just you said on the heat the heat the humility podcast yes not a good time to be us that's yes that is the lesson from this show so i'm out of words dude corner class i used all my words i'm excited for all right uh our monday our monday draft and i'm sure we'll get off we got so off script with the the fact that we should you should only be allowed to run the ball in the nfl going forward our nfl street league you could do that yeah right but not in real life in heaven and in nfl street which are actually two of the same things going forward. Our NFL street league, you could do that. Yeah, right. But not in real life in heaven and NFL street,

which are actually two of the same things. All right, everybody, we're going to take the next couple of days off because Connor's used all his words, but we will be back with you on Monday for a great mock draft Monday episode. I'm Trevor. That is Connor.

This has been the NFL soccer change podcast. Thank you.