NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - Early Cornerback Rankings For 2026 NFL Draft (Summer Scouting)

Episode Date: July 26, 2025

Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers continue the Summer Scouting Series for the 2026 NFL Draft by breaking down their top 10 cornerbacks.

Welcome to the opening bell, the NFL Stock Exchange podcast. Trevor Sikamak, Connor Rogers here with you guys for another positional ranking episode of the summer scouting series. Today, what a beautiful time for my camera to freeze. Love that. Love that to kick off the show. Today we are doing corner backs. We're doing the corner back position to really wrap up. I think a lot of the premium positions We still have interior defensive line and tight ends I don't know if we'll be able to get to those and we'll tell you why but we wanted to at least hit corner The podcast is going away forever. No, I'm kidding. People always freak out every time take a break and they're like Yeah, well tell you why because it doesn't exist anymore People always freak out every time I take a break and they're like, is Blackett gonna sleep forever? We're never gonna stop that, dude. Yeah. I'll tell you why, because it doesn't exist anymore. So that's it. Enjoy corners.

All right, Trevor, 10 to 5. Because we declared bankruptcy. So, no, we're doing corners today. We're taking a little bit of, shoot, I'm taking my honeymoon just so you guys know. And we'll talk about that a little bit more throughout the show and at the end of the show, but we gotta get to the football stuff. We're doing our top 10s today. It includes a lot of different things man coverage corners zone corners nickel corners

So a lot of different talking points here that we have on this show Connor. How you doing my friend? I'm good, man I'm really good This is a fascinating group as you and I were talking a little bit before we started recording one of the more wide open groups It feels like some of the guys at the top There's not a huge drop-off to some of the guys at the top. There's not a huge drop off to some of the guys that we will start the show with today. So there's a lot of talent or maybe just a lot of depth. As we talk about a corner,

all shapes and sizes and alignments. I'm good though, Trevor. I'm coming back from a mini, I had about a three and a half day vacation into a wedding. Okay, what'd we do? And I was in the wedding. Okay. I was actually the first, and I think it'll be the only time I was the best man.

And it was a blast. It was a blast. But you know that makes it like a whole weekend. It really turns in almost a three day kind of weekend, which is even better. And it was a decent drive. But you know something we don't talk enough about in society, I think, or question enough is the and I

won't say the company but it's the company that a lot of people use and I'm sure it's pretty standard for a lot of places although the place I use did not require this that you have to return the rental tux the day after the wedding that I have it we don't question how insane this is so entirely I've had to rent two tuxes before for weddings one You did have to do that and the other one you didn't so the other one you got a little bit of grace period Like it was a week. It was like a week after whatever which should be the standard, right? I it's what I would normally expect until you actually start doing this the place I used Didn't require it the next day

and they actually gave, it was in New York City, and they gave everybody a box with a shipping label already. So it was like you had no excuse not to get everything back no matter what part of the country you were, because you know, people flying all over the place. But man, there is no more sorry ass state than when you walk in the day after the wedding with your garbage bag because it's a big black bag. You walk in and I'd been, I'd been, uh, nah, I didn't sleep much. I drove very long back, you know, back home and I will,

and you know, and nobody really ever comes up to you right away. They kind of let you marinate in the front, like yeah, let's let you sit in the AC for a little bit. Are you talking about like a UPS or a FedEx or like at the actual tux place? The establishment where you measure and everything. Okay, okay.

Yeah, and then they always look at you and they go, return or drop off? And I go, no, I just walked in here with this fucking bag and I wanna stand here, sweating out vodka lemonade. There's no chance I'd rather be home in my bed instead. You know, that is, the point of why you're bringing this up, it is definitely not talked about enough, but here on this show, we go where people don't, you know?

We will have the conversation. It's time to vote for change 48 hours 48 all I'm asking is for 48 72 even I'd vote for 72, but I'll settle for 48 right and it's no one's for in the Establishment they're just working for the man. See you know that they're very nice. It's a pretty quick process There's nothing wrong with that. It's just the fact that You got to walk in looking or smelling or whatever It's like with that bag and it's uh, yeah, it's not your finest moment

And you know what the you know what you know, it sucks because you think about you know capitalism You know a little bit of okay who's got the leverage in this certain situation It feels like you right feels like they got all the chips cuz they go. Yeah, I'd fine. We're your own tux then Oh, you don't have one guess you got to play by our rules But you know, but that's not possible because you have to match everybody in the wedding party. That's yeah, I mean So is this don't give you have it's not like you can invest in a tux and be like this is gonna pay for itself Over time doesn't work like that and they go Oh, you need the extra day because you don't feel like coming in when you're tired or hungover or whatever it may be.

20 bucks each day, sucker. Big Tux has gone unchecked for too long. Yeah, I think this is a job for Dan Moore. This feels like a Dan Moore job. This is a Dan Moore job. I didn't say which one, but one of the Dan Moores is going to come in. The more wealthy one.

The more wealthy one, actually. I know there's gonna be an employee in the comments. I'm actually really, really looking forward to it. That either has a good story of when they collect the rentals or they know exactly what it's like. That's the beauty of the attics. There is truly all walks of life that always can relate to these

and I really enjoy that. It's very true. Speaking of the beauty of the Attics, I just wanted to say this. You guys are so wonderful for saying all the kind words about Ryan on the last episode with him, going off to the foreplay pod and doing his thing for Barstool now.

Like just all the comments of everybody just saying thank you for everything that you've done, we really appreciate you guys doing that because Ryan absolutely deserves it. Now a handful of you, I just wanna say a handful of you already reached out to us and said, hey, you know, you got an open producer position, you know, some of you are producers in your day jobs,

some of you do it part time, some of you do it on your own, and I had a couple of people reach out to us already kinda saying like, hey, if you guys are hiring, would love to put my name in the hat So we are working with PFF to do that and I think what they're gonna do is PFF is going to post the job opening that you guys can apply through and We'll be able to and through somewhere on your application Obviously like say that you are a listener of the show because obviously if if you're super interested in doing this

We would love to have somebody who already gets the show already of the show. Because obviously, if you're super interested in doing this, we would love to have somebody who already gets the show, already understands the show. It would be great to be able to hit the ground running with somebody who has been a longtime listener and somebody who just really enjoys the show. I think that that would be great. So anybody out there who is interested in the producer position, if you guys have experience,

I think they'll be posting the job opening. And yeah, I'd love for it to come from the addicts I really would so we'll see what happens there But I just wanted to let you guys know that we were opening all of that up So I think that's all the housekeeping things, you know, we took it we we went after big tucks with big tucks You know, we are on their ass right now the producer thing. And so yeah, let's just get to the corner So we're gonna do our top tens today Connor I watched 29 of these guys. You're completely I'm growing concerned about you

I don't know if this is you banking before your honeymoon Like you know I get that feeling of like I'm gonna be doing a whole lot of not working for a couple weeks I better start, you know over not overcompensating, but really you're hoarding you're like hibernation when squirrels pack their nuts Not overcompensating, but really, you're hoarding. You're like hibernation when squirrels pack their nuts down below. That's kind of, and I respect it, but I watched 15. So. Okay, okay. No, that's a rookie number.

It's a respectable number. The reason why I watched a lot is because, like I've said, I'm trying to create like a bank of prospects to where when we drop the big board at the beginning of week one, it's going to have enough prospects on there where you guys can do seven around mock drafts on the PFFMDS. So corner, it's one of those positions where you naturally have to have a lot because if you go look at the positions that are drafted the most throughout an NFL draft, defensive

back is almost always number one. It's defensive backs, your wide receivers and defensive backs you could have close to 40 of these guys that are drafting between safeties, nickel corners, and outside corners. So I wanted to watch a lot of these players. I'm thankful that I did because funny enough the 29th guy that I watched is top 12 for me. So I'm glad that I actually did that and I swear to God If you watched a guy That I didn't watch this is the real and I watched

29 almost double of these dudes almost I'm going to become the Joker But this will be fun. This will be a fun exercise. You mentioned how even it is sort of in the middle. I have, I do early round grades on a lot of these guys. Now, it's massive subject to change with what's going to happen this upcoming season. But early round grades from round three to round five, so those three rounds, I have 18 corners. They're like within that range of guys who you know Whether they're off zone corners press man corners nickel defenders guys who play a lot of man But they still play off man coverage like there's just a lot where it's sort of hard to parse these guys and you go Yeah, I could see him playing in the league if he lands at the right spot

But also the reason why they're not a little bit higher is maybe there's a little bit more scheme specific not as scheme versatile So we'll talk about all of that as we break down all that good stuff, but we'll do the top tens. And then hopefully that'll leave us a little bit of time to talk about some of those players that you maybe watched that didn't make that top 10 and get to have that conversation there. Cause a lot, there's a lot to get to. So let's go, let's, let's start with you. Let's go 10 to six, read off the 10 to six, and then we'll start to have the conversation with those guys. Yeah, I'll give those five a shout out

at the end of the show because it does feel wrong at not getting to talk too much about them today, but this is just a deeper group, like you said. So 10 for me is Keith Abney from Arizona State. I am gonna lose it. That's unreal, the first one. I'm gonna lose it. That's unreal, the first one. I'm gonna lose it. The first one.

Who is this? How is it? Who is this? Where are you getting your list? This is the time where I wish I actually made up a name. But I didn't even have to. He's real. That would have been an insane troll. I would have respected you so much for that.

He's real. He's very real. Before we get into the full breakdown, I'll say why I'm so fascinated by him and why I watched him. As a kid growing up, he was a four time national champion roller skater. Roller skater. That's so... on what wait wait

wait wait wait wait wait I got questions and I don't even know if you can answer I'm probably not what is do you say state champion is that what you said no national champion national champion indoor roller skating speed so it's speed skating it's not that it's not like the WWE slash roller. Have you seen that? Have you seen that, the sport? Where they're like rollerblading in a circle. It's road rash. Whatever it is.

And it's basically, yeah, just like WWE on rollerblades. No, it's not that and it's not a routine. It's just straight up speed skating. Like picture when I used to do the NHL All-Star fastest skater competition like that. It's kinda like that. I gotta check it again, but I'm pretty sure when they've asked him about it,

he went all into football, I think after the pandemic, you know how we're getting old right now, or something like that. Basically he got away from it as he got older, loved football, he's obviously playing corner at Arizona State so things worked out pretty well for him.

What's this dude's name? Keith Abney, A-B-N-E-Y. He is a junior at Arizona State, he is 5'11", 195 pounds and he is my 10th ranked corner for today. Yeah, I bet he is. Go to number nine, go on to number nine. Tell me about another prospect that I didn't watch. You're gonna have the rest of them. Number nine is Chandler Rivers from Duke.

Okay, love it. Love Chandler Rivers getting there. Yep. We're back. Chandler Rivers was actually the 15th guy I watched and he made it to number nine. In fact, Chandler Rivers is number nine for me. Amazing. You just love it. We're a back we're so back. We're back Eight Christian Grey from Notre Dame didn't watch him this I just don't understand What list are you how are you doing this dude? I told you I'm looking at the black market I'm looking at draft buzz. I'm looking at PFF. I'm looking at blesto I'm looking at all of these things and you're getting these kids who that's a fake name Isn't it are you trolling me? No, it's not he's real. He's very real. Oh

Man, I'm telling you I'm on the black market. You are I'm DM. I'm DMing with people I'm I yeah, it's it's real ugly out here You're doing really out here. Hey, I'm trying to piss Trevor off. You got any sleeper corners? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got you. Yeah, you work at this program. Give me a guy I need to watch that you do not tell Trevor about this guy.

If he asks you, lie. I will pay you. I will send you gear, whatever you need. I got a Notre Dame source and I didn't even get this guy on the list. That's brutal right now. It's on me. Yeah, my phone lights up on the nightstand at night

and you know, Kristen's like, who is DMing you at 11.45? I'm like, ah, it's just my scouting watch list. It's the corner back black market. Yeah, yeah, it's the black market. We only text after 11 p.m. And no text after 6 a.m. It's WhatsApp too, you know,

so it's tougher to trace. Yeah, real sketchy. International numbers. Real sketchy. All right, what's this person's name? Christian Grey. Okay. G-R-A-Y Alright, alright, alright. No other name. Got it, got it. Number seven, Dalen Everett on Georgia. I did watch him. Did watch Dalen Everett. Yeah, and then number six, I know you watched, is Malik Muhammad on Texas. This is funny. I have Chandler Rivers at nine, I have Dalen Everett at seven, and I have Malik Muhammad on Texas. This is funny. I have Chandler Rivers at nine,

I have Daylen Everett at seven, and I have Malik Muhammad at six. That is mind blowing, considering not only that you watched 29 players and I watched 15, but also just how you could throw this corner class in a blender and come out with any rankings, and you wouldn't find any of it insane.

Like there's gonna be people that have, I don't know, Keith Abney in the top three, or a Daylen Everett in the top three. Right. And nobody would be like, wow, like, what is wrong with you? That's pretty shocking. This is gonna be a fun conversation then.

It is, and I will say this, there's a lot of guys in the middle of this cornerback class who, um, like I said, it, it, the margins are very thin, but I will say, I think that top eight guys like are the top eight guys. So I'd be surprised if we have a lot of different names. Um, outside of the ones I didn't watch, of course. Uh, but you're gonna have some, but it does make kind of,

it does make sense thinking about you having these watch of course, but you're gonna have some to me. It does make kind of it does make sense Thinking about you having these guys where you do Because there's there's one other there's one other name that I think I'm gonna be a little bit higher on than you are That's in my top five, but outside of that a lot of the rest of the class like yeah There's a ton of names in the middle But I do think the names at the top are kind of very clearly the names at the top of my opinion So alright, you got your 10 guys there. Mine are, I got Tocario Davis at 10.

I have from Arizona. I have Chandler Rivers from Duke at nine. I have D'Angelo Pons who is an outside corner at Indiana. I think he's more of a nickel in the NFL, but I have him at number eight. I have Dailen Everett from Georgia at number seven. I have Malik Muhammad from Texas at number six. So let's start. Let's start with the two guys who I didn't watch.

Let's get into both Christian Gray and Keith Abney. And and I'll obviously give you the floor here since I don't know anything about. Yes, Abney, true sophomore last year. So this is still a young player. He had three picks, broke up nine passes. Like I said, this is a four time national champion as a competitive speed roller skater growing up, which is such a fascinating background for a cornerback specifically, because you think of the required athleticism in terms of movement skills at this position. His transitions

are smooth. There is very little delay when he flips his hips, his fluidity and explosiveness specifically from that lower half, notably that ankle flexion from his skating background allows him to mirror route movements better than a lot of guys. It's just his ability to stick his foot in the ground and change direction and the short area agility and everything that comes with that. He's somebody that once again, he could just match movements in a very, very unique way. He can just routes and the catch point.

It's interesting because I don't think it looks pretty a lot of the times. There's times where it's a little unorthodox. He might not have had a good read on the throw. Like his footwork's not great and he's out of control. Right, he's not have had a good read on the throw. Like his footwork's not great, and he's like, he's out of control? Right, he's not set up the right way, and he just finds a way, because he's so good at staying in the hip pocket

that he's there, that naturally he's gonna be able to make more plays than other guys that allow more space, even if he's not in the perfect positioning to catch the ball or swat the ball. I discipline and awareness in zone coverage. That's what leads to the takeaways. I mean, you grab three picks and break up nine passes as a true sophomore and you're playing the level of competition that Arizona State was playing last year in big games.

I mean, it speaks to the ball skills, but a lot of it is in zone coverage and what's in front of him and his ability to pounce and make a play. And here's what jumped out to me, Trevor, and this is really why I noticed him. He played some of his best football in the college football playoff against Texas. Like that's the game to start with right there. The lights are bright in that scenario. He's from Texas too.

I'm just looking up his background right now. He's from Texas and this is one of those little things that I think you sort of like mark on a scouting report. If a guy is transferring from a school and their new school where he is a starter they play his old school. I almost always pick that as one of the first two or three games to watch of this player because it goes into a college football playoff game, a rivalry game, obviously like a national championship game, a conference championship game where the emotions and there's just more on the line for him, for whoever it is, there's more on

the line just from pride of the players that you're used to knowing that you're coming from that school and everything. So obviously he didn't play at Texas, but I think like going home, I wonder if there might've been a little bit of a Texas tie in there. Did he wanna play for the Longhorns? Did he not get to play for the Longhorns? And now he gets to face off against him. I love that.

I love hearing about that from him. Yeah, so just the natural skills that he has gives you a big reason to believe in him. Some of the things I wanna watch him work on this year, and this is a really young player that's a little raw in certain areas of the position. There's some hard bites on double moves that led to some big plays over the top where he's just a little over anxious or a little too excited to try to make a play on the ball underneath and he bites a little too hard and allows guys to get over the top of him. I think going

back to when things look a little ugly, even though he's able to stop a play from happening against him, he gets caught in the hand fight a little too long. He's a highly competitive guy. He stays in the hip pocket. There's that constant hand fighting, that quiet hand fighting that the refs aren't gonna throw a flag on.

And then it's like, man, you gotta learn the route combination and the depth that the team is trying to throw that it's time to turn around and play the football. Don't get too caught up because the wide receiver can hand fight with you and still see the trajectory of not only the football, but the quarterback's footwork, where he is and when the ball is coming.

But when your back is turned and you're hand fighting, you don't get the luxury that the wide receiver gets. Not to forget too, that the ref is looking to throw the flag on you, not the offensive player. And that's one of the hardest things to learn in this game for a young cornerback. So I don't kill guys for it, especially guys coming off a true sophomore season.

But this dude, he's got such good movement skills that if he starts to understand when the ball is coming his way, those three interceptions and nine passes broken up are gonna turn into five interceptions and 12 passes broken up are gonna turn into five interceptions and 12 passes broken up. And you're gonna be looking at a guy that has shut down skills.

It is already impressive that you're talking as highly as you are about him. And he is still sort of lacking that anticipation, right? There's a handful of guys that I've watched too. I think we'll get to a couple of them. Honestly, Malik Muhammad is one of them where it's like, okay, you've got all the talent

in the world, you're not anticipating things well enough. And there's a couple of guys that we'll talk about later in this show that it's sort of the same conversation. You've got that mirror ability, you have that athletic ability, you've got that strength to you, you can hand fight, but you still just can't give up that quick separation. Because in the NFL, it's a lot easier to recover.

And this is the thing with some of the players that I would say, like a lot of them aren't in my top 10, because it's, if you struggle with recovery speed in the college level, it's going to get so much more difficult in the NFL, so much more difficult where you can sometimes see guys who maybe don't anticipate a route release really well and okay, they'll lose right off the snap, but then they're athletic enough to make up for it and they'll be able to catch up to that player. A lot of times when that happens at the NFL level, you don't really get the chance to

make up for it. You might be able to stay even with them so you could stay maybe a step or two behind, but that's still a step or two behind. So that anticipation part of your game is really important. So it's good to know about Abney. I'll definitely have to watch him. And then Gray, talk to me about Gray, who's a little bit higher in the rankings. Yeah, and the combo is not that different with Gray, ironically.

Gray, who I have at corner number eight, Abney I had at 10. With Gray, it's a little bit of the same. He's listed six feet tall, 189 pounds. So you're not talking about a massive size difference here. I think it looks, I don't have official arm length for gray. I do have arm length for a lot of these guys. He's one of the guys I don't, it was hard to get that on the black market.

You can't get everything, you know? Yeah. Yeah. The dark web or whatever it may be. You got to pay in Bitcoin to get those. And you just, you ran out. You just didn't have enough. You got to wait for payday next Friday I used all of it on on on deep watch list and didn't get the arm length for Christian Grey He's a guy that plays with length though. This is someone that as a sophomore You know as a sophomore he was a full season starter in 2024 and a former four-star recruit out of st. Louis ran a hundred and two hundred in high school

It's just the fiery, you know the fiery nature he plays with on film that jumped out to me. Competitive, fiery player. I mean, think of Trevor, this team last year, the kind of run they had and how early they lost Benjamin Morrison. Somebody in that, if you're gonna make that kind of run, people in the secondary need to step up.

And this to me was somebody that I thought really, really stepped up. I think, you know, he had three picks, broke up nine passes. He's somebody that understands how to play the ball. I think much like Abney, he is still learning route anticipation. He is still learning hand timing. And something that he struggled with at times

was those underneath route combinations, especially in the college level, where they are trying to get some kind of rub route or some kind of traffic in front of you, and you gotta decide, one, if you don't diagnose it fast enough, am I gonna go underneath or am I gonna go over the top? If I go over the top, well, he's gonna be able

to catch the ball, because I'm not gonna get there in time, but I have an angle to limit the play. If I go underneath, it's a little bit of a bigger gamble, and if this guy gets over the top of me, he's gone. I'm not gonna be able to tackle him, so it's kind of like seeing the cheese and trying to run underneath it's a little bit of a bigger gamble and if this guy gets over the top of me, he's gone I'm not gonna be able to tackle him So I you know, it's kind of like, you know seeing the cheese and trying to run underneath it Those are some things that he's got to work on as well but gray is another guy in this mold where the type of athlete and the size he plays with and the style he plays with

if you and a true sophomore just like Abney if you kind of Season a little bit and start to understand things in front of you and then use your athleticism to capitalize on them, this is another guy that I think would be a really big riser this year. Okay, so I have Tocario Davis from Arizona who's now at Washington, I have him at 10. Do you have him on your list or did he just miss it?

So I didn't rewatch Tocario. I know we talked about him in depth on last year's summer scouting. We did. Yes. And I know he had a little bit of a down year because I watched him during the season a lot. Yes. I didn't rewatch him for this. I'm kind of just going to go in with the clean slate at Washington. You can see what happens. Yeah.

So it was just kind of a strategy thing for this. I am very curious of what he can do at Washington after what I thought was a down year because I was very high on him last summer. So I'm curious what you saw. No, I can understand wanting to have that sort of situation with watching him because I remember watching him in last year's Summer Scouting.

And if I remember correctly, I definitely saw the potential there for him, but I was like, I'm always a little wary on just taller corners because yeah length and size is what you covet at the position but there are so few players that Think about it this way like think about it physically as a corner You want guys who are bigger, right? You want guys who have who have the? You want guys who have the size, but more importantly the arm length,

to be able to match up with, press, hand fight throughout the route, and create disruption at the catch point against receivers in the NFL who are 6'2", 6'3", 6'4", sometimes even bigger. And the bigger corner that you have to go up against that you feel better about it. But you want bigger corners when it comes to weight

because if you are a better athlete at a higher weight that is more alluring because there's just, it's more rare that you have players who are great athletes while weighing a lot more. So all of that is like bonus when you were a bigger player. And Tocario Davis is listed at 6'3", 195 pounds. So 195 pounds is not like he's huge, he's still sort of slender for that 6'3 build, but 195 is still 61st percentile for the cornerback position specifically.

He looks big on tape too. He does. He doesn't look like your everyday corner. He does. Now on the flip side of that though, when you are a bigger corner, you have more body to move. And specifically, you focus on the hips with bigger corners. Because you'll watch some smaller guys and they will be able to, whether it's from a

press alignment or an off coverage alignment, they will be able to flip their hips and put their foot in the ground and run very quickly. Simply because they're not moving as much body. They're not moving as much lower body length and their frame is a little bit smaller. It's more compact. So they have more body control. They have more core strength and it just takes less muscle to be able to do those things. When you are a high waisted corner, especially, which a lot of these bigger, taller guys are,

it's hard to fully turn your whole hips, get around and really start to get turn your whole hips, get around, and really start to get into your longer strides. All of that to say, Ticario Davis is a very good combination of being big, tall, and yet can flip those hips. Now, is it slower than it is for guys who are 5'10, 5'9? Yes, obviously, But you have to take that with the understanding of what their measurables tell you. And for his measurables, DeCario Davis I think can really move.

I think he's really in control out of his back pedals. There's not a lot of panic there. I think he's got adequate top speed with his long strides for the NFL level. He played wide receiver in high school, so he's got that wide receiver background and he brings that to playing quarterback. Almost eight, he almost had a 30% forced

and completion percentage last year, or not in 2024, excuse me, 2023, that good, that best year from him, which was phenomenal. Now, the drawback is, last year his coverage grade took a massive dip. His production on the ball took a massive dip. He didn't record a single interception, I don't believe. And his forced and completion percentage went all the way down to 9%, like it was single digits. And I think unfortunately,

and a reason why I don't hate your strategy of just clean slate here, I think the vibes at Arizona were bad last year. Like I think they, I think a lot of players just started to check out pretty quickly. And Tocario Davis was one of those dudes who I just don't know if he was really playing with a passion that we saw in 2023. And that's why I think you saw much worse grades from him, less proficiency, less efficiency, less production on the ball, all that kinds of stuff. So it really is, and now that he's at Washington, perhaps it will be this renewed sense of competitiveness because I thought in 2023, I thought he was a hell of a competitor. Like even with his, even with his slender build, okay, yeah, like the run defense wasn't always the best cause he was a little bit slender

in, in, in his size. But I mean, he'd give you the competitiveness that you would want to see. He'd take pride in run defense. So all of that was still there for him in 2023. It wasn't really there for him in 2024. And it was more so here. We have a bigger, taller athlete who does move decently well for his size, who has shown competitiveness in the run game that I'm just hoping gets back to that form and plays with that pride

that we now see with him being at Arizona. So that's why he is at number 10 for me. I think it's a really good call and it's gonna be interesting to see that what did he learn from that kind of year, right? And we've had that conversation with plenty of guys from that Arizona program and of it as a whole I mean coming out of that season We had some questions about Savanaya

Maybe not taking the jump we hoped for but then I think he had a really good all-star process for FIDA Obviously had some ups and downs even and all worked out in the end But even Ted O'Rourke and McMillan went through the fire during the draft process the fire right and it all worked out So I think it's a really good call out And I'm kind of excited to see what he could do because I was really excited when I watched the 2023 tape So the next guy did you watch the Angelo Pons from, Indiana? I did not okay, but I've seen a lot of this defense, so I've seen enough of him, but I did not rank him. I know he's fascinating because he's springy and small,

and I wonder if he's gonna be a guy that has a different projection for the NFL because of his size. Yeah, I mean, first of all, I am such a Kurt Signetti believer, man. It's awesome watching how he has those guys play. For him, because a bunch of these guys were JMU guys. That he, it is almost like he brought his entire roster over from JMU to Indiana, and they made the College of Ball playoff with those guys. And we talked about a bunch of them being NFL draft guys last year.

Now we're talking about more of them being NFL draft guys this year. Yeah, Mikhail Kamara we talked about. He scouted these guys and got them to come to JMU before he was in Indiana. I'm just I'm such a Kurt Signetti believer. I am so bullish on that program as long as he is the head coach. And D'Angelo Pons to me is another example of that. So he is a junior this year, he was a true sophomore last year. Now he's listed at just 5'9", 170 pounds.

So that's sixth percentile and first percentile for the cornerback position. I have him categorized as a nickel defender, but he plays outside for them. He plays outside cornerback for them and he is able to do that but he plays outside for them. Right. He plays outside cornerback for them and he's able to do that because he plays it very, very well. He's very reminiscent of Jack Jones in that regard, where Jack Jones was like, man, size wise you are basically only a nickel corner. And yet he was even able to play and have an impact as an outside corner at the NFL

level when he was at New England, when he was at the Raiders. And so he reminds me a little bit of Jack Jones in that regard he was a three-star corner from Hollywood Florida ran track in high school when I say ran track I think that's selling him short he won the state title in the 100 meter and 200 meter as well as the 4x400 relay so this dude has a trophy case full of track accomplishments. He had a personal best of a 10-4-7 100-meter dash, which is flying, especially for a guy who is only 5'9". It has some shorter strides to him. Just tells you how athletic this guy is.

He was a true starter in his lone year that he was at JMU as a true freshman. He started 10 of their 13 games, and then he started 12 of their 13 games last year after transferring over from Indiana He has top-tier quickness and speed I mean, this is somebody who when you see we have smaller corners, right? I just I just talked about the advantages of being a bigger corner when you have a corner who is smaller You have to see elite quickness and elite explosion is D'Angelo Pons has it like he has those two things to be able to check those boxes to be able to play at the NFL level.

Consistent ball production from him. He's got four total interceptions and a forced incompletion percentage of over 13% in both 2013 and 2014. Connor, you remember I said this guy's 170 pounds? Yeah. He has a single digit miss tackle percentage in his career over the last two years, two year sample size.

What's the theme about all of the Signetti guys? They all punch above their weight. They play their ass off. Figuratively and literally. All of them. Yes. It's like you're not supposed to be that good or be able to supposed to do that and you do it. All of them. Every single one. He is one of the few corners that I watched regardless of size who has a single digit miss tackle percentage over a two year sample size. And he's doing

it at five nine one seven and that's why they won't take this guy off the field and that's why he was an immediate starter for them. So you know the size he's an outlier in his size the shorter arm sort of impact his ability at the catch point which is why again I'd kind of rather have him be in the slot because you go up against some of those smaller wide receivers. I just think that the way that he plays the game, he is so feisty and he is so smart, he is so explosive. All of that is fantastic right now at the college level.

Really the only question is how much might it start to struggle for him when he gets to the NFL? Because again, for a guy like Jack Jones, he had moments where it didn't matter. He was basically similar size when he went to the NFL, and he's had at least one year where he was phenomenal. He might have had a couple in there. So you can do it. It can't happen. You're an outlier. It's hard to bet on outliers consistently. But man, D'Angelo Pons, there's just, there's so much good that he brings

and his tape is so much fun that whether it's as an outside corner or as a nickel defender, I just, he's an NFL player, man. I think he's an NFL player. I'm excited to watch and rank him. Just those guys that punch above their weight and they got the play speed to make up for some of the other physical attributes they don't have. It's fun to bet on those guys.

It is. And it's fun to watch that defense. I'll tell you that right now. Yes. Yeah. Again, I'll watch every Indiana game as long as Kurt Tignetti is the as the head coach there because I know we're getting some dogs everywhere on the field. Okay, we got Chandler Rivers. We both had him at nine. Dailin Everett, we both had him at seven. And then Malik Mohammed, we both had him at six. Let's start with Chandler Rivers and then we'll just work our way down and then we'll be able to get into the top five. So talk to me about Chandler Rivers who you, as a ball knower, have him at number nine. Chandler Rivers, man, he... All right, so let's get it out of the way of why you're not going to see a lot of hype for him or why all these, we're going to about to say so many great

things about him and yet he's still number nine here. Trevor, I have him at five eight and five eights, one eighty four with sub thirty inch arms. Whoa, he is 5 8 5 and 5 8 maybe you could stretch and get to 5 9 Wow because they got them listed at 5 10 what 85 Yes, they do. I have a sheet with them that has 5 8 and 5 8 and 184 29 and a half inch arms Okay, so he's a smaller corner. Significantly smaller.

This dude is just a hell of a football player. All around, in everything he does, watching him play. He's got ball skills, he's sticking coverage, he's hyper aware, he gets his head around to make plays. He wants to play the football in the air. I mean, he's coming off a season where he had three picks, broke up eight passes, returned one for a touchdown, forced two fumbles.

I like the way he plays away from coverage. Just trying to be stout against the run, trying to make plays, gang tackling, a fiery energy guy, a smart guy. You can move him around a little bit and then where i almost look at him like can he play like some form of not only nickel but can he do some safety things at the next level as well with how aware he is and his ability and zone and he and this is dude that's played a lot of football now i mean the previous year he had a

pick he broke up seven passes he brought one back to the house. You turn on the tape though, with Chandler Rivers, man, and specifically there was a stretch for him last year, SMU and Miami, back to back. It was week nine and week 10. And it just felt like he was a gnat around the football every time they went after him. I have the numbers up now, just the Miami game alone,

they threw at him six times. He allowed one completion for eight yards. And it just felt like he was a nat around the football. This is somebody that I've never met him, never talked to him, don't know anyone at the Duke program right now. I would guarantee this dude just lives in the facility when he can watching film and all the things we talked

about at the top, gotta get better understanding of route anticipation, gotta get a better understanding of what the offense is trying to do with rub routes and hand timing. He checks all those boxes already as a college player. He's just a smaller corner that teams are gonna have some cold feet about that, but it's interesting because this guy just got paid and played a similar role

for Duke Defense once upon a time and now just got paid by the New York Jets. Michael Carter was once upon a time, this safety corner hybrid at Duke was a incredibly smart player. He was very, he is very, very small for an NFL defensive back. He fell till day three on the draft.

He's been the jet starting nickel and got a massive contract that he earned because he's played his ass off. And he's the smartest guy on the defense every single time he lines up on Sundays out there. It's, you know, it might seem like a chalky comparison where Rivers coming from the same program, but I saw a lot of those similarities. The word for me that I kept coming back to when watching him is just in control. Like there's just not a lot of things that ever really fooled him. And

no, look, he's limited in his size. He's limited in his eyes he's limited in his length and I don't even think he has the best twitch in the world right and you're talking about a guy who's like 5'9 it may be and 185 pounds like that's still a smaller corner if he's 5'9 even that's 6th percentile and 185 or just short of 185 is like 18th percentile. So he's a smaller corner. And I just mentioned if you're going to be a smaller corner, you got to kind of be quick and explosive. I think he is athletic enough, but I don't think he's like super twitchy for being five

nine. And yet I don't really see him get beat a lot because he always knows where the ball is going. He always knows about against the pass, against the run. Have you, did you, did you mention his like diverse high school athletic background or no? No. So this is just one of those guys that is just a natural athlete at everything that he does, okay? He played both wide receiver and defensive back for the varsity high school football team, obviously. He also played basketball as a junior and a senior and won a state championship

in basketball and he was also a runner-up in track in the long jump and also had a near sub 11 100 meter dash. So like the guy was just a phenomenal athlete all around at the high school level and I think that he brings that natural athleticism into how he plays the cornerback position. They have him play as an outside cornerback. He plays a lot of man coverage stuff. I categorized him as a man coverage defender, but I say in my write-up for him, my early write-up, is like, I think he could play left corner,

right corner, or in the slot. Like, I think he can do all of those things, and he's just a player that you want in your secondary. I think that he is better than this player, but again, like a Christian Isian from Tampa, where he went totally under the radar. He went undrafted. He's this nickel slash safety type of player that just ended up being a dog because he anticipated everything so well. And he played his ass off of every single snap, and he's able to stick around the Buccaneers and be a versatile depth defensive player.

I think Rivers is better than that. Like I think Rivers is much closer to a mid-round, maybe late day to type of draft selection, but it's sort of that conversation of one of those guys that could just do a lot of different things for you in your secondary, despite maybe not being the biggest player in the world. So Rivers, the very first sentence that I have for his scouting report that I wrote for this summer scouting is, Rivers is an easy watch. And it is. You just enjoy watching him play the game and play that position. Yeah, it's the perfect way to write it up. He was the last guy I watched, so I watched a lot of tape.

You know, guys panicking or being in a bad spot or penalties or bad technique. Watching him as the last guy, I was waiting for the shoe to drop. And I'm like, you saying he's in control is the perfect summary because that's what it felt like across multiple games. So I was like, and this dude, he's got the play experience to match it up.

And I'm really looking forward to see what he could do in his final season because he'll probably be overlooked because of his size and everything along the lines of that. But he's not in this house is right. The polish is real. Dale and Everett from Georgia. Kick off Dale and Everett since I kicked off Rivers. Okay, so Dale and Everett starting outside

cornerback at Georgia, six foot 190 pounds is what he is listed at. He is a senior going into this season. I remember I actually watched him and I can't remember if I got a full scouting report on him before he said that he was going back to Georgia, but he was draft eligible last year. As they were getting towards the SEC Championship,

the college fall playoff, he really started popping a little bit and I was like, oh, okay, they got another guy that they gotta watch in their secondary. So he's got legit size to him at six foot 190 pounds Do you have official measureables for him? Is that far? Yeah, it's it's pretty accurate No, six feet five eighth inch and five eighths of an inch. So he's about six one one ninety three Yeah arm length 31 and five eighths long arms long enough arms. Yes, that's good

Well arm length is adequate and he sort of looks and he looks the part when he's on the field. You see it in the pants. He was a former five-star recruit, went to IMG Academy. He's from North Folk, Virginia before he transferred down to IMG Academy. He was a unanimous top 50 recruit in that 2022 recruiting class. Played mainly on special teams his first year. Started all 14 games in 2023 and started all 14 games again last season. Like you mentioned with the long arms, body type is exactly what you would want it to be for an NFL corner. It's the perfect blend of he's tall enough, he's long enough,

but he's also got that athleticism to him as well. The hips flip pretty quickly. He could play in man coverage very comfortably and confidently. The footwork is very quick off the line scrimmage to mirror a lot of different releases that wide receivers might have, even if they're trying to give them a little hesitation

or fake them out, he can normally mirror them pretty well with good footwork there. He's got the frame to be physical throughout the route, throughout the catch process as well, so he could disrupt that, especially with those longer arms there. When it comes to, oh, I should say the acceleration and the body control I think are very good.

I think he could be useful as a blitzer because of that because he's able to sort of get across the face of some offensive linemen as well. So he just brings you a lot of the baseline of what you would want for an outside press man coverage corner. That's the type of player that we're talking about here. Anybody that, now obviously no NFL team just lines guys up and press me in coverage all the time. You gotta be able to do a handful of things, but.

But they should. There's not correct. Yeah, yeah. If it was a real football. If it was a real game. Yeah. Real coaching staff. Now you breathe on a wide receiver and it's a flag.

We're gonna play cat coverage every single play. You guard that guy, make sure he doesn't catch the football. Did you watch like highlights from 2001 and these corners just have both their hands on the throat of receivers. It's awesome. And it's awesome. Just turns into a, it just turns into a, man, I was going to say a Dudley boy highlight, but we brought that up to Dudley boys before. What's another one? Well, when Andre Johnson gave Corlyn Finnegan the business. It's basically that, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

My goodness. It just fits fights. He threw him around like it was his little brother. The top speed, I feel like is adequate for him. It's not great, but I think it's- It's not great. But I think it's adequate. I think it's adequate for him.

Still, I think sometimes, even though he's got the footwork to be able to mirror, sometimes he lacks the anticipation. This is one of those guys that I brought that up with. He was not as interested and as prideful in run defense as I would have liked for him to be. The miss tackle percentage was a little bit higher. Too many missed tackles in 2024.

So I thought that that was a bit of an issue for him. You could tell he's more comfortable in man coverage. He's more comfortable getting the call and just saying, hey, don't let that guy catch the football. Because even when he plays, you know, like bail technique in a cover three, I noticed that more savvy wide receivers were really getting into his blind spots

more easier than they should. Like he wasn't squeezing to the sideline as much as he should have. He wasn't,'t you know his eyes weren't exactly where they needed to be and there were a couple of times where I watched him in in cover three where he's shifting out of out of press and maybe it's before the snap maybe it's at the snap and he's starting to shuffle and he's leaving way too much space for them to get behind him get into his blind spot and then there were times where these receivers would totally get into his blind spot. And then there were times where these receivers would totally get into his blind spot.

And then when they do, when they got to where his back is, he'd take off because he doesn't want to get beat vertically. And then he'd look to his left or his right, whichever side the sideline was on, and the receiver had hit a comeback route. And now all of a sudden, there's four or five yards of separation. So sometimes he yielded a catch, sometimes it didn't.

But he's got to play with a little bit more anticipation there. And just overall, I just felt like he was a very fiery competitive player when he was in press man coverage. And then when he wasn't, whether it was through run defense or even like off zone coverage assignments, he just wasn't quite the same player. So we've got to get that same competitive player all the time. And I think you've got a guy that same competitive player all the time and I think you've got a guy who really is built for the NFL level. It's a good call

out. Consistency was my biggest problem with him. Yeah. I mean he gave up 15 plays of 15 plus yards and that might go back to the speed being average-ish. Like you said, the run defense, you just look at him on the field and you watch how he plays receivers at the catchpoint You go all this guy is physical and nasty But it didn't always carry over to the run game and I think you turn on the Texas tape specifically he wants to hurt you and he's playing through the hands and it's you could see the receivers be He wants to hurt you when he's playing through the hands and it's you could see the receivers be extremely disrupted when he arrives and fights through the catch point. So they move them around.

You brought up the special teams experience all the going all the way back to 2022 before he became a starter the last two years. They play him at outside corner a little in the slot in the box obviously still special teams as well. So yeah, it's looking there's a good outlook for Dale and Everett because of all the different things he could do in coverage specifically at his size. Yeah, I agree.

There's just a very, it's hard to think. Like even with this tape exactly the same. Like if he was declared last year, third round at worst I think, just because of how he is built, you know? And it's just a matter of how much higher can he go up on that draft board? Yeah. In my opinion, uh, Malik Muhammad Malik Muhammad is six for both of us before he's dig into our top five corners here. So, you know,

I've seen some lists that have Malik Muhammad is a top three cornerback. So I don't even have him as the number one cornerback going into the season, but you and I actually seem to think of him very similarly here just outside of the top five. So I started out with Dale and Everett, you talk to me about Malik Mohammed. The good news is about, you know, some of his issues is that some of it can be worked out of him with development because he started last year every game as a true sophomore. This is a former top 100 recruit about six feet tall 188 pounds

Not officially verified height and weight, but I wouldn't be shocked if that's right where he's around He does not look small on the field at all I wrote down adequate height and length at outside corner You could see the short area quickness and the agility against those short and intermediate routes He uses that reach to play physical at the catch point. My biggest shortcomings with him, Trevor, is really they're kind of connected together. Is one, how are things gonna be

when he's the man in this defense, right? Because no Jaday Baron. No Jaday Baron, and don't forget, you know, Andrew Bakuba was a really, really nice band-aid on the back end of that defense. Not only was he incredibly intelligent, pre-snap for everybody, he was somebody that knew how to help everybody out as well.

So, and that ties into Malik Muhammad's shortcomings right now where I like the athlete, I like the size, and I like how he competes at the catch point. There are a lot of times in isolated coverage or single coverage where I know he is not slow, but guys get vertical on him because he struggles to anticipate when they are hitting the gas

and when it's time to open up and run. And that carries over to the pre-snap route, like his pre- pre snap and route awareness Is just that total work in progress where he did he did not know what the offense was trying to do most of the time He's just so Gifted and talented and how to support and cast that can help out a lot too That he was able to be a totally fine starter last year as a true sophomore So this is gonna be a big jump for him this year.

Yeah, look, I think that in his current state, to me, he's closer to a second round pick type of a corner than he is somebody that you would be drafting in the first round, but like you mentioned, I'm glad that you started the conversation like this. The, what is needed of him to become that first round corner is all fixable. And it's and I think that it's all there for him because you mentioned the athleticism. I totally agree with you.

There were times where I remember writing down it's like, you know, I think that his recovery speed and top speed is adequate. And yet there were way more plays than I thought. Not that there were like hundreds or anything, but there were more plays than I thought For where he's getting beat vertically and oh yeah, this is a guy who he's got a track background He was a 4x100 relay 4x200 relay and a 4x400 relay guy And he was sometimes the anchor for those 4x. He's not slow at all whatever team right I mean like he he is a fast player, but there were way more Right, I mean like he he is a fast player, but there were way more Plays where separation was yielded vertically than I thought was gonna be the case and you hit the nail on the head

He does he lacks a little bit of anticipation right now And this upcoming year is gonna be a big year for him when it comes to anticipation It felt like he was getting antsy that he was trying. I don't know maybe trying like jump route something now. I will say I that he was trying to, I don't know, maybe trying to like jump route something. Now I will say, I thought he, what was his weight? 188 is what he was listed at? I think it's what he is listed at now. Yeah. I don't know what he played at last year,

but I thought he played at a noticeably small weight where he got pushed around a little bit, even though he had the long arms, he put the arms in the chest of a wide receiver, wouldn't really do anything. They wouldn't really knock him back. They weren't really pushed off their route much. So I wonder if some of that lack of anticipation maybe comes from him being a little bit over aggressive to try to get a little bit more of his body into it, play with a little bit more power. I'm not sure, but there were more instances

of that than I thought there were going to be because The positives man you mentioned the arm length that he plays with you mentioned the athleticism as a baseline for him But very high forced incompletion percentage didn't have now This is another this is another sign of not anticipating things as well as he could He had an 18.5 percent forced incompletion percentage last season, which is a very good mark zero interceptions. The difference between a lot of forced incompletions and actually getting interceptions is the half second that you turn your head around earlier.

You know, it's the extra little bit of in control that you feel where you can put yourself between the wide receiver and the ball. You can get your head around, you can get your hands up, and you can get the interception. That's the difference. That's another piece of evidence towards him needing to anticipate things a little bit better. So there's a lot of things that he does well, but I just felt as though a little bit of technique, a little bit of lack of anticipation, and those things are really all that's sort of separating us from a guy who could be talked about sort of is that?

as a potential first-round corner Totally. Yeah, I'm with you. We see wait we see These guys eye to eye on a seems like it which I'm kind of excited to well There's again one the top five is gonna be I think I think I'd be very surprised if it's not very different But we'll see You're saying that it's gonna be more I think, I'd be very surprised if it's not very different, but we'll see. You're saying that it's gonna be more of the same, like we're gonna agree? I don't think our rankings will be as, like we had three of the five at the same exact spots there.

There's one player that I don't know if you may even, maybe even watch, because it took me a little bit to watch him, so we'll get to that in a second. That's what I'm wondering. We gotta talk to the parents out there and ask them what their child's future success looks like for them, right? Because it's an important question and how you can help them achieve that, whatever that looks like. Maybe it's them owning their own business.

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Wow, another Colorado hater. Yeah, yeah. The army grows stronger by the day. I feel like I'm gonna be a little bit lower on DJ McKinney. I've seen him higher on lists and I can understand why he is higher and I will let you go off King with him at number Five but I'm a little bit lower on him. So you tell me and the people why I'm wrong. Go ahead McKinney six feet tall only 181 pounds which will

bring me to a Very important concern or weakness for him in a second, but we'll start with the good Last year full-time starter in this secondary three picks broke up nine passes The heightened speed at outside corner is you know box checked box checked no problem there I think in zone He looks calm. He's patient, he's aware, he's an easy mover. Everything with his movement skills matches the test. And then obviously considering who he's coached by this isn't shocking but it's nice to

see after so many guys struggled with this he has plus awareness when the offense is trying to get a rubber out and clear some space and he knows how to either work through it or call out a switch with the guy next to him. And that was impressive to me at this level because like I said, I saw a lot of guys get picked on that way. To me, just what matters most with McKinney,

I think he's a very sticky cover player with smooth movements to match wide receivers. Here's the problem and something that has to get better or he will not hold this ranking. He's got to add weight on his frame and it's not just so I don't see in the excel sheet that he's 181 pounds. He gets outmuscled along the sideline. He does. When receivers are going, oh I'm one on one and it's me and you along the sideline, there's no safety coming over to help, I'm gonna be able to kind of basketball box you out

or body you along the way. And he gets pushed around by that. And this is one that I think will improve once again because of the coaching there. The timing of his jam is just all over the place right now. He moves so well that it doesn't kill him all the time. But there's times where he throws the hand and it was like, it might've been time

to open up and run already. And now you're in trouble. So I think that's gonna be coached up out of him naturally, but if he doesn't get stronger, he won't grow into the prospect that I think he can be. That's the big thing for him right now. Yeah, I think that, I think we see him somewhat similarly.

I am just more of, I've got to see him play with better technique and press. Because I think he's a press man corner, right? I mean, when you're six foot two, when you have the length that you have, and when you can turn and run, when you can open up the hips and turn and run and be sticky vertically down the field

with that kind of length, you're a press man corner. Like, I really, I don't want you to be an off zone corner. Like, I just think that it's taking away from a lot of the value that you have, especially since if he's not super strong, then you're not always going to be at the catch point if you're an off zone corner. So I want him to be a pressman corner. And I thought that there were too many times where I could see that there's the Deion teaching there of, you're right, I think that he is an aware cornerback. But there were too many times when I felt like I was watching him in press where,

you know, sometimes this was also an issue for for him not only was the punch timing and the punch choices getting him in trouble I think throughout the season but also he wasn't mirroring his feet with his hands when he was punching like there were times where he'd be flat footed like he'd be square with the wide receiver and it's almost like the feet would just like stay where they are and The ball would be hiked and he would like he would just put the arm out It's like no you got to kind of you've got to kind of shift your feet a little bit you got to stay light on your feet because you got to stay balanced as your as you're punching something in press and When he would do that

It's almost like he was lunging and then that made it way too easy for wide receivers to club, like swim around it or two-handed swipe around it. And then he's immediately just in recovery mode after that. So the reason why I am lower on him than I think a lot of other people are is because I think he's got to be a press man corner to achieve the potential that we want him to have. And in order for him to do that, like he's just got to be so much stronger is

definitely a word, but also just more sound in his technique. And if he takes that leap this year in his technique and he's way more confident out of that press alignment, definitely somebody that will go up my rankings and somebody that I think the NFL is going to be very interested in because that length and speed combination is something that's very alluring. But I need it to be alluring as a press man coverage corner. And I think there are too many things technically that he does not do well enough. And I'll say this too. You know, what was his interception total last year? Three. It was three last year. Because those are

the only three of his career. I don't know if you watch those specifically Christmas gifts like this is what happens with a lot like a lot of these guys you gotta watch them all just Christmas gifts. I mean he the quarterback is just handing him the football. It's it's if I remember correctly I couldn't even necessarily give him right place right time kind of like credit for it I just horrendous throws and again I don't say any of that to take anything away from McKinney But I think if somebody comes to you with this argument and goes well, you know, you have the three interceptions last year It's like okay the context of the interceptions does matter here for a player like that. So anyways, I'm a massive hater

Whatever. That's fine. I still think you'd be a starting quarterback at the NFL level I still think he has a ways to go before he gets to that point. So we will see this year That's the purpose of the the final draft eligible season here So what'd you have a five? So the guy had a five. I'm wondering if you watch this player Did you watch Thaddeus Dixon who played at Washington and now he is going to play for Belichick at UNC. Nope. I really enjoyed Thaddeus Dixon. So he is a red shirt senior, okay? He is somebody who I think I'm just planting my flag on that I think I'm going to be higher on than basically anybody else going into the NFL season. He's listed at 6'1, 185 pounds. Um, he played running back in high

school as well as defensive back. And he was a sprinter in high school. Now he committed the Long Beach city college, which is a Juco out of college. He played there for two seasons. Then he transferred to Washington, played in 14 games in 2023. And then he started 12 games for the first time as a full-time starter in 2024. He's got one year of eligibility left. So he transferred over to UNC to play with, to play her in her Belichick for 2025. I think that he has the ideal frame to play as a starting outside corner back at the NFL level. I think he looks and plays way bigger than his 185.

Like there. So I have his updated weight. It's 195 Okay, that makes he's six. He's six feet tall and a quarter So he's a tiny bit shorter than 6 1 okay, and he's he's up to 195 right now with 31 and a quarter inch arms That makes way more sense for him because I remember watching his film and I'm like this dude ain't 185. 185 and 195 when you're watching corners at the volume Trevor and I are watching corners you you just start to know it. Yes. Like you turn on the tape and you're like that guy's slender that guy is filled out it's

crazy how easy it becomes. And the reason why I know that he was bigger than 185 is because when he triggers downhill and he's, you know, either making contact with the receiver when the ball is arriving or he is going to make a tackle like in the flat, something like that, he does so very confidently. And when you have corners who are listed 185, a lot of times, hey, you know what? It's a violent game. And if you're corners who are listed 185 a lot of times hey You know what it's a violent game And if you're tackling a guy that's 220 who's moving and with moving with good velocity And you're only 180 185 pounds guess what it's gonna hurt And you've got to like mentally get over the fact that it's gonna hurt when you put your shoulder into this dude

But when you're 195 it's a little bit different of a story You got an extra 10 pounds of muscle on you And you've got in you're more dense and you can more confidently go after guys and put the shoulder on him and be a more reliable tackler. That is what he is. He has some excellent reps, triggering downhill to make contact with wide receivers or ball carriers that are either coming out of the flat or outside zone rushing plays. So I think that he's got a high potential for run defense there.

He is a very competitive player he always wants to be where the ball is I remember watching what was the first game that I watched it was I was the Oregon game or the Indiana game one of those two was one of those two games were the first one that I watched and three played I think I'm like three plays in and he's the opposite side corner and there is a run to the other side of the field and the second he sees that it's a run to the opposite side of the field you know some corners like hey teammates got it I'm not gonna I'm not gonna get there anyways and you know what it's probably true they're not wrong but Daddy is Dixon he put his foot in the ground and he just sprinted straight over now he

didn't even get to where the ball was he got to where the linebackers were but I went okay you give a shit like you like you very clearly care and that attitude permeated throughout the rest of his tape where when he did have opportunities to get involved, he did, especially as a tackler. Something else that I really, really liked about this player, Connor, he played shadow coverage. They put him against the number one wide receiver on the other team and said, cover him. Left is a lot. Field corner, boundary corner, left, right, slot, didn't matter. Cover him. And the thing that made that most impressive is, again, I'll go back to those first two games

that I watched of him. Indiana, he played shadow coverage against Elijah Sarat, who we really like. Yeah, he's a really good player. He's a hell of a football player. Worst game of the season. One reception, 12 yards. Daddy's Dixon guarded him almost the entire time. Then they play Oregon. Guess who he's guarding? Tez Johnson. Completely different wide receiver. Completely different body types. Completely different skill set completely different body types completely different skill set and they said go shadow coverage Ches Johnson now He had more success against Elijah Surat because it's a little bit more in his wheelhouse naturally than he did against Ches Johnson Something that was a nice little

I would say lesson teaching point against Ted Johnson is Johnson's Phenomenal with his wide receiver releases. He'll throw a lot of different stuff at you. He'll give you a split release. He'll give you a diamond release. He'll give you a little hesitation, a little two step and then cutting back to the inside or even the outside. He'll do a lot of different things. He can win off the line scrimmage very well.

And there were a handful of reps where Dixon just was not ready to anticipate exactly what Johnson was going to do. Now he could keep up with Johnson once he got into his round up the field. If he was in his hip pocket after the release, he normally shut him down completely. But if Johnson was able to win off the line of scrimmage, it was tough for him to recover because Johnson's so quick. So he has to be a little bit better and he needs to continue to study wide receiver releases.

But so much of the rest of his game to start in the NFL is there. Competitiveness, overall size and weight, willingness to be a good tackler, somebody who wants to make an impact at all times, he's got the long arms to him, he's competitive at the catch point, he's great triggering downhill, he's good in man coverage, and you can use him on the outside and in the slot as a shadow coverage man coverage defender. So much of that was very, very impressive to me. I don't think that this guy is being talked about enough and

I hope that Bill Belichick uses him as an ace in their secondary this season. Man, that's the kind of stuff that really fires you up because just not a lot of college guys have that put on their plate and thrive in that kind of role. Shouldering that kind of responsibility necessarily. So he's somebody that I will be watching after this because it sounds like he is well deserving of being in your top five. All right, we got our, I just realized that we got

our different guy out of the way here at number five. I have to think that we probably have the same four names here. I don't know. Oh. We'll see. I don't know, I'll say this, because I was going through this process. I started it before I went on vacation

and I finished it when I came back from the wedding. There are so many damn names at corner in this class. True. It was, it's kind of become wide receiver in a way. Where you could just, you could watch 20 guys and you're like, I still didn't even finish to get close. So, number four for me, I will be shocked if he's, I know you watched him.

I'd be a little surprised if he's not in these next four for you, Damani Jackson at USC. Oh, I did watch him, but no, he's not in my top 10. Okay, that's, okay, so that's probably, we have another different one. Unreal athlete, though. Yes, and you know, it's funny. You're betting on the big athletes here.

I can't blame you for it. I can't blame you for it. Yes, I have kind of, over the years at corner, know exactly what has worked for me. Damani Jackson, what was funny though, we talked about him last year on Summer Scouting, and I transferred over those notes into next year's doc, and I did not like him at all

when I watched him last summer. And obviously he transferred from USC to Alabama. He is six feet tall and three, three eighths of an inch. OK, so, you know, not too far away from 61, 191, 31 inch arms. He's just a well-built guy. Oh, you only have him at 191. 191 is what I have. Bama's got him listed at 201.

I mean, that these are usually early spring weights, I believe. at Alabama you'd be surprised how quickly guys could put on ten pounds of muscle, but that's It's probably somewhere in the middle of that. I'm like that's I might just write down 195 for him Yeah You know he was a man. We've talked about this before but it's good to rehash for people that are new to summer scouting He was a massive recruit coming out of Mater De high school. Mm-hmm massive I know he had the season ending knee injury in the opener of his senior year of high school But he was a huge deal goes to USC his first two years at USC transfers to Alabama

And he's a starter in his first season at Alabama last year Grabs two picks breaks up up seven passes. The tape to me was a different guy. What in 2023, he got picked on a little bit. He played 11 games and six of those games, he directly allowed 40 plus receiving yards in those six games. Last year at Alabama, he plays 13 games. He only had three games where he allowed 40 plus receiving yards. He was just dialed in on a snap by snap basis more utilizing his size and speed for an outside cornerback. And I thought he showed, and this isn't a surprise going from USC to Alabama, significant improved play strength as a route disrupter. When you're giving up 40 plus yards

Basically, it feels like every other game or more guys are going after you for a reason They feel like they can get off the line of scrimmage and that you could your timing routes and they could take shots over the top of you I Didn't see a lot of that last year I saw a guy that learned how to use his size and disrupt routes with his upper body and that was something that once again He significantly struggled with in previous years at USC He knows how to use those 31 inch arms now to disrupt at the catch point. He's slowing down routes He's already a fast player and he's got enough arm length to break up passes

So Damani Jackson is someone to me It's it's been a little bit of a slow burn. This guy coming out of high school was supposed to be a superstar. And I didn't think he lived up to the hype early on, and maybe some of that was, hey, I had a knee injury at the end of high school, and it slowed me down a little bit compared to the hype. I'm believing in the hype from what I saw,

the transformation he's made in his first year at Alabama, where I think he's in for a massive second year at Alabama. Yeah, I mean, just as an athlete, unbelievably impressive, right? Somebody that I think he's in for a massive second year at Alabama. Yeah, I mean, just as an athlete, unbelievably impressive, right? Somebody that I think the NFL, this guy's, I'm not saying that like he's teetering on the edge of like being draftable or not, but like at a high school, the NFL would have drafted this guy, you know,

like with like no college tape because of how he's built. You mentioned he's just shade under six foot one, 190, 195 pounds, whatever it ends up being he was a five-star corner well built 195 you look at yes you look at him and you would know he's a football player traps on this dude phenomenal like like yes Tom Hardy and warrior type of type of traps yeah UFC fighter, his headshot is, oh, you play strong safety or outside linebacker. Yeah, yeah.

And it's like, no, I play outside corner. And I think that's the alluring part about him. He was the number two corner in that 2022 recruiting class. He was number five overall player. But it's not just the size, it's the explosiveness. 10.25 100 meter dash. That is nuts. That tied the California state record in high school.

It's ridiculous. It's just crazy. Now he misses his senior season with that knee injury. So you mentioned some of his background there. The only thing that I, and I do agree with you a lot of, again, similar to McKinney, and I think I'm just harping a little bit more on,

as an athlete, he is so very clearly a head and shoulder above most of his competition, which if that's the case in college, you draft those guys anyways, because you just kind of have them figure it out at the NFL level. But I think when he loses right now, he loses with guys that are more technical. And that becomes an every rep occurrence when we get to the NFL.

So when I look at him right now, I have zero doubts about the type of athlete that he is to play at the NFL level. But some of the weaknesses I have and what I watched from last year is he's overly grabby right now, which I think just comes from lack of experience. It just comes from lack of anticipation. But he is when guys get a little bit more technical on him, when they're, you know, putting some hesitation into their releases or their route breaks. You know, he has a tendency to bite and then he'll get grabby. So then you get a lot of penalties. And obviously that's not good. Um, he has some false steps and sort of

misdirection steps out of press again a little bit just because it's maybe that lack of anticipation from him. And then for whatever reason, I thought he was a strong tackler when he was committed to tackling, but there were too many times where he was almost like hesitant as a tackler. And I want him to play more with his ears pinned back. I want you to have the green light. I want you to play more free. And it just felt like he was, he was kind of, it felt like he was thinking a lot last year and I would love to see him play a little bit more free this year. Um, where technique was more second nature.

And I think if you get that, you're going to get a really high ceiling football player, but right now I felt like he struggled with technical receivers Little too much for my taste to put him in my top 10 Although I certainly see the ceiling that you're talking about there for him. Yeah, I'm really excited about him this year I thought he made life very difficult on a more consistent basis last year Which is what I was hoping for him when he transferred initially. So I think, man it's a position at the NFL level where you got to be big and fast more often than not. Yeah. You do.

And I know it's very very baseline, it's almost too simple, but Damani Jackson is big, fast, and developing now as a cover corner. And the NFL will always take chances on those players. It guarantees you that sort of draftable grade. Now does it always mean that you're gonna be a good corner at the NFL level? No, but it certainly means the NFL is gonna take a chance on you. Did you watch Jalen Kilgore from South Carolina?

I did not, and here's why. I will, but what is he? Yeah, yeah, that's the question, right? Which, okay, go ahead. I just want to hear your entire take on him. It is easier for me to put him in this show because like I have said to people before, I am breaking down positions

in a more detailed manner this year. I have a category specifically for nickel defenders. So I have wide manned cornerbacks, I have wide zone cornerbacks, I have nickel defenders, I have box safeties and I have coverage safeties. So I have those five positions for defensive backs. It's not just corner free safety, strong safety. I have it broken down into those other details.

And to me, Jalen Kilgore is a Nickel defender like that is what he has been in South Carolina. That is how he is built He's more of the strong. He's more of the safety type of that's what I'm talking about Yes, and so he's not he's not Chandler Rivers go like no projection at the next level This is more of a guy that I was like I'm watching him with the safeties with the way they and he's not the Angelo Ponce Right, and I'm talking about all of these guys as specific nickel defenders, but the positions that you play are the same position. You just might play it differently given your strengths.

And so Jalen Kilgore is different than Chandler Rivers. He different than D'Angelo Ponce. He's different than those guys, but he is somebody who I watched and won. I wanted to talk about nickel defenders in this episode. One, because I don't know if we'll get the safeties before we get to the big board and But he is somebody who I watched and one, I wanted to talk about nickel defenders in this episode. One, because I don't know if we'll get the safeties before we get to the big board and two, because I think there is more crossover from corner to nickel defender than there is safety to nickel defender.

I think as a whole. But anyways, Jalen Kilgore, True Jr., South Carolina, six foot one, 211 pounds. That's what they've got. They've got him listed at which, you know, reads more like a safety. He was a four star safety recruit when he was coming out of high school, standout track athlete, 11, six, 200 meter dash.

He had a 51, seven, one 400 meter. And he also had a long jump of 23 feet, seven inches in which he won a state championship. Also played basketball when he was in high school so multi-sport background. Shout out to the people in the comments that always say that I point out the multi-sport background. He damn right I do and I'm gonna continue to do so. The thing about him is as a nickel defender, as sort of that apex defender, phenomenal downhill athlete.

You know sometimes you get these nickel defenders who, if they're more of the corner family genus, I don't know what to call it, tree, I don't know what the categorization there is, probably butchering that, but if they come from that corner family tree, there's a good chance they could play some press for you because they'll play press on the outside, they could play press there when you're coming from that safety family tree a lot of what you do is that apex and nickel defender is your off coverage a good amount because you kind of want to almost be this like pseudo linebacker somebody who can match up against tight

ends somebody who could fly into the backfield and there's just a better chance that you're carrying more weight so it's tougher to flip the hips and run vertically. So you want to give yourself a little bit of a cushion so you play a little bit more off. He plays more of that off coverage role but man he can trigger downhill quickly. Like whether it is a run to the B or the A gap or whether it's a screen to the outside wide receiver.

I mean he is flying down. He's a really good downhill athlete. Plays with a ton of passion, very eager to make plays. I feel like everybody on that South Carolina defense was last year. I think he's got a ton of positional versatility with his size and speed combination. And he has a career miss tackle percentage of just 10%. So almost single digits against the run, because this is another thing that I have to point out. A lot of times, people will look at outside corners and they will say, huh, you're too small to play outside corner at the NFL level.

Let me kick you inside. And that can work. Obviously, we've talked about a couple of players, Chandler Rivers, D'Angelo Pons, who we think could be able to do that. You only get to do that if you could defend the run because you have to think about it. When you are a slot defender, you are closer to the line of scrimmage. You are closer to the run fits. You have to be able to fit the run. It is why I loved Cooper DeGene and why I had him as a top 10 player in the class two years ago, Because I believe that not only could he be an outside cornerback, that if you wanted to move him into the nickel,

he would be excellent for you because he can defend the run. That is something that Jaylen Kilgore can also do very, very well. Now, there are times when I think he's a little too much of an ankle tackler, where he'll just dive at the ankles, but there are times when he's not, where I think that he is not that. But he's playing so fast, He's triggering downhill so fast. Sometimes he tries to let speed and momentum be his friend and have that advantage, you know, dive at the ankles and he'll just try to trip up ball

carriers just to get there a little bit sooner. Sometimes I'd wish he dial back to speed a little bit, be able to be a little bit more of a reliable tackler. But like I said, sometimes he goes through the, I wrote down, he had enough ankle tackles to where I wrote it down for him. And yet what did I just say? 10% missed tackle percentage against the run. That's a really solid number. So he still lend that technique, do things pretty well for him. And I think that he could be an even better nickel defender with a little bit better anticipation, like we've talked about there. And he's just a true junior. So this to me is a, uh, people

say apex predator. I've got him as a true pure apex defender. And that's how I feel about him. I feel like he can sort of troll that second level and that slot position where he could just be a chess piece for you. That's how I view Jalen Kilgore. I really do feel like he's got that potential first round versatility to him.

And I can understand sort of waiting to watch him with the safeties, cause I get it, the body type's a little bit more towards the safety. But as that nickel defender, that's where I've got him. And I think he'd be versatile for them. And I think he'd be versatile at the NFL too. All right, so we have been different at both five and four. And I still think I have one more name that I don't know is gonna be in your top three, and I would imagine.

And I think I know a name that's in your top three that did not make my top 10, I think I know a name that's gonna in your top three that did not make my top ten I Think all right, but number three number three. I don't I don't I could see you having in your top three AJ Harris from Penn State Oh, yeah, yeah, okay. All right AJ CB one for me. Okay, so this was this was not the player I'm thinking and I and I gotta say I gotta apologize to Max Chadwick because earlier when we recorded today, we're recording this show on Monday and we're releasing it for you guys on Thursday to stay on schedule.

But we recorded the PFF NFL show today and he was asking me about the cornerback rankings and I actually said that somebody else is CB1. And then before we recorded, I was like, you know what? Let me watch a couple more games with both of these guys because it's really close. And I ended up coming away with AJ Harris as my CB1 in this class.

So go ahead, intro AJ Harris. Yeah, I mean, he's your number one corner. So I'll let you talk. And I, it's, I mean, I think he is every bit as good almost as my number one corner. These top three, I like a lot more than the rest of the list. I'm gonna be honest with you.

Like I, I think it's a big pool that's wide open what guys do this year, but these three, AJ Harris, I mean, he started 15 to 16 games for Penn State last year, it's true sophomore season, he's a former top 50 recruit, he had some five star rankings, he had a lot of four star rankings. Fun little note about his background from military family,

so after he was born in California when he was a baby, moved to Germany, he grew up in Germany until he was nine, came back to the United States. 6'1", 184. He was a freshman at Georgia, by the way, and then transferred to Penn State, which is kind of fascinating. I mean, just goes to show you like,

I'm sure maybe it was play time, you know, whatever it was. Ultimately Penn State gets an incredible transfer. Size and athleticism, man. Size and athleticism with AJ Harris. He's tall and he's a 6'1 guy that moves like a 5'9 guy, in my opinion. Like that's what it comes down to.

And sometimes the explosive athleticism for me stands out when he sees things so well in front of him and you see that springy click and close the trigger downhill It's impressive how shot out of a cannon he could be and when his click and closes Covers a lot of ground gets out of the gate in a hurry and is really explosive that way and Penn State knows What kind of weapon they had because they use them in a versatile way Like you see him playing outside you see him in the slot you see him in the slot, you see him in the box. They have matchup with tight ends in big games

because of his size. They like to get creative with them. Things I wanna see grow from him this year, not much ball production last year. The one interception he had, this goes back to something you brought up earlier, he was just standing there and you could not believe the ball appeared in his hands.

It was one of the worst throws of the year and he was like, okay, great. So the one interception that counts, but it's really a little bit of luck, a lot of bit of luck. He's another one of these guys, I think, that he gets caught in between of disrupting the route with his upper body and opening up with his lower half to run vertical.

And that's when guys get a little bit of space against him But just the raw ability of this player Trevor at his age with his size and his athleticism And what we already saw from him as a true sophomore for a big Penn State season I was wildly impressed with him. He I think that he's got the mold of a first round corner. I really do. He's got- Like a number one corner on an NFL team. Is what he looks like.

100%. That's the ability wise. 100%. I mean, whether it was in press man assignments, off man assignments, off zone assignments, like whatever it was, I felt like he had the athletic ability and the instincts to be able to play all those types of coverages very very well his Mistackle percentage is okay, but he's got some of the best solo run stops of any of the cornerbacks

Especially the outside cornerbacks that I watched I mean he will trigger downhill very quickly and you know I was talking about with Jalen Kilgore like Kilgore will fly downhill and sometimes he's just diving at ankles a little bit too much. AJ Harris will fly downhill and he will put his shoulder into your hip. Like he will tackle you. And that's what I, I mean, I love that mentality from him there. I also wrote down the ball production. Would love to see a little bit more of that. Just 11% forcing completion percentage over the last two seasons. So you'd love to see a little bit more of that. Just 11% forcing completion percentage over the last two seasons. So you'd love to see that get up a little bit better. And again, that comes with better anticipation, but long speed to cover vertically, the foot quickness and the body control to be able

to stop on a dime and cover any route that's, you know, an in-braking route or a comeback or something like that. I just think that he is, he has built like a starting outside cornerback at the NFL level. And honestly, the, the shoot, I actually didn't do this. I could have done this with ultimate, but the one game that was really bad from him was that SMU game. And I don't know if you remember this, Connor,

that SMU, that SMU game was his lowest run defense grade, he had a 28.5 run defense grade. And he had a 52.6 overall grade and it was one of his lower coverage grades of the season. It was 20 degrees that day. And you could kind of, after watching two games before that and then watching the SMU game, you could tell tell like he was cold. Like he was just, he was so damn mean. The Dolphins need a CV1 so badly so AJ Harris is actually on the table for them that is

not a joke but I just remember watching the SMU game and like he just looks like he's like miserable. He looks like it's so cold he's, I don't want to be doing this. I got to be doing this, but I don't want to be doing this. And so, um, I thought that that was funny there, but there's just so much that he brings to the table that, uh, that you absolutely that you absolutely love. So, yeah, he's the,

the raw talent like transpiring to success in the field last year and. Okay, I got it, okay, I got it, really quick. So if you include the SMU game, his overall grade is a 78.9 and his run defense grade is a 69.9. But if you take out that SMU game, his run defense grade goes all the way up to an 80.2. That's probably the best run defense grade of any outside corner that we watched. The only problem is the NFL plays in December and January.

Look, I'm not saying, I'm not saying, I'm not saying, I'm not saying, I'm not saying, you might play a game in February, even though it's indoors. Can't play in cold weather because at Penn State, like it gets cold in Penn State, but I just remember that game was like bitter cold, extremely windy, like that would suck for anybody to play in. It doesn't represent the majority. Yeah, but I did think that that was funny if you take that game out. What a fantastic run defender he also is with a lot of really impressive solo run stops.

So he's three for you, he's one for me. So he got a two now. I don't think you have this player in your top 10. I really don't. If it's somebody I didn't watch. No, I think you watched him. I don't think he's in your top 10. Xavier Scott, Illinois. Xavier Scott was the player that I was talking to you about who is the 29th player that I watched who I then put just like just outside of my top 10. Okay, so you do like him.

Dude rules. He absolutely rules. I get a little bit of athletic question with him, but. No, there's a lot of. But there's a lot of. But. There's a lot of questions. And this is me having him as CB2 is my biggest, like risk of some, I just risk, stupid word to say.

He's your. He's my boldest take of the summer. He's your Armation Thomas. He's your Armation Thomas. I have found my Armation Thomas. Yes. Yeah. I have found my R Mason Thomas. Yes, yeah. I don't think he's, and I have team grades on him already and nobody has him in the first two days

of the draft right now. I feel like if he declared last year, I think he'd get third round consideration if he would have declared last year. I don't, but maybe. No. Maybe I just wanna believe. Maybe I just wanna believe.

Yeah, and I do believe he's 511 198 He's got 31 inch arms Which good arm length had that size? Xavier Scott man This is you got him in 198 Yes, let's go love that Yeah, love that okay. Yes keep going. Okay. Yes. Keep going. Sorry.

I had him at 190 because that's where they have him listed at. But I love the fact that he's a little bigger. He's just an incredible playmaker, man. Incredible playmaker in this defense. They, when they lost Devin Witherspoon, they looked at Xavier Scott and said, we are gonna ask you to just wreak havoc on the back end of this defense for us

You look at the last two seasons He's got six interceptions 17 passes broken up a pick six and two force fumbles So excellent ball production over the last two years last year. They played him 443 snaps in the slot 255 at outside corner 46 in the box and 24 at free safety His quick trigger downhill with the pre and post snap awareness and

You know his ability to diagnose and dissect He is a demon jumping underneath throws reading quarterback size an absolute demon His anticipation on short and intermediate or routes allowing him to break on the ball is the best in this class in my opinion. It's the best in this class and when the the dna like notification for me, the alarming thing that said everything about this guy. When teams throw screens on his way, he is a maniac trying to mess up screens.

If he understands, I can't get around these blocks. It's drawn up where they're taking me out of the play, and I can't be a hero right here. He takes them on with a full head of steam like an absolute psycho that the player behind him has the free lane to the ball carrier. If it's two guys, I'll take them both on. If it's one guy, I'm going to charge as hard as I can that the ball carrier has to go where my help defender is. He's just such a smart, high energy, nose to the ball, 120%

every play kind of guy. My biggest concern with him, my biggest concern with him is that injuries have just been a part of his career so far. He tore his meniscus and partially torn his ACL in the 2023 season finale. And then he had an ankle injury that bothered him in 2024. And that ankle injury has carried over his spring a little bit so far in 2025. They're just, and I think it's partially the way he plays When you're not he's not a big guy. He's not small, but he's not this six foot two

210 pound corner with 33 inch arms. He plays like a safety Honestly that plays corner, but he's built like a standard corner He's been banged up and I hope that his playstyle, he can stay healthy with his playstyle. But if you want somebody to fuck up the game, quite frankly, this is a guy that at any moment can absolutely ruin the game for the opposition. I don't know if I've ever seen a college defensive back be the reason why a team wins a game like he was in that Kansas game.

I mean, single-handedly, he won the game. He single-handedly won that Kansas game. He had a pick six, which went into scoreboard. I think they won by six, didn't they? So he had a pick six in that game. I believe he had another interception in that game. They did win by six. It is funny.

You mentioned how sometimes they will design plays to run away from him. There was a specific play that Kansas had on the goal line. I think it was on first down, it was first and six, where they have Scott lined up as an outside cornerback to the strength side of the formation. The wide receiver who he is guarding runs a, just like a very quick like slant route

and sort of like acting. He's running a slant route to try to, mainly to try to fool Xavier Scott to get him to run away from the pylon move more towards the inside of the field because the run is then going to go to the outside to as a race to the pylon so the outside wide receiver cuts inside really quick Scott follows him but then very quickly picks up on the fact that they're doing this to fool me when he realizes that the running back already has the ball and is running out

towards the pylon, he puts his foot in the ground, immediately sprints straight to the running back and makes the tackle. And he was the only one who would have been able to make the tackle or else it's a touchdown. So there are just, I've watched very, very few college games, if any, that are dominated that much by a defensive back, the way that Xavier Scott was able to do this. It is funny that you bring him up because he was absolutely somebody that I was going to bring up at the end of the show because I have him just outside of my top 10. The biggest issue that I have with him is I don't think his stride length is very long.

And because of that, I think he has really limited recovery speed. His legs are moving a million miles an hour. Yeah. I mean, him giving the effort to run as fast as he possibly can, that will never be in question. But I just, there were too many times when I watched him, and if he gave up separation, he didn't really get that ground back.

And like I mentioned, it's harder to do that in the NFL than it is even in college at that level. So if I have those questions with you in college, I get really nervous in the NFL. But as a nickel defender and somebody that can roam the field and just, you say, that's the football, go hunt it. He is just one hell of a football player. It's so funny that you bring him up and that you brought up Devon Witherspoon's name because

I messaged the college football guys, Dalton and Max, right after I watched Xavier Scott. And I was like, if this guy was faster, he'd be Devon Witherspoon reincarnate. If he was faster, if I didn't have to worry about his speed, he's basically, all of the reasons why you love Devon Witherspoon, he just has some speed concerns. And so, you have him in number two, obviously it's higher than where I have him, but I want you to know that I am right there with you,

standing on the front line, hoping that this dude is healthy because he is just one hell of a football player. It is funny going back to Witherspoon, just some of like the parallels. He's another Florida kid that had a big basketball background like that first kind of love. This is an all county first team basketball player from Florida that goes out to Illinois

and is just this high energy demon that corner. I just, maybe it's one of those things where his film is some of the most excited I've been this summer and I'm not gonna say I got carried away because I will stand by the ranking, but I cannot wait to watch this guy play. And like we obviously have Big Ten and NBC, but I cannot wait to watch this guy play. And like we obviously have Big Ten and NBC. I'm gonna have a role in some of the coverage of that

this year which I'm very excited to take on. And when Illinois is on our schedule, man, it's between him and Akis. Akis? Akis, Gabe Akis. This group's gonna be a lot of fun to watch. Yeah it is, shout out to Connor Rogers for invading our televisions on Saturday

for some of this college football action. I can't wait brother. I'm excited for you to not only have this opportunity to do some stuff on network TV for college football, but also get a little bit of draft talk in there, maybe a little bit earlier than what they normally do, you know? Anytime they let me, it will be done. Okay.

So who do you not have in your top 10? Is it Aviancerral from Clemson? That's it. It's Aviancerral. Okay. All right. All right. So I mean, did you hate him or is he like just outside of the top 10?

I had him at 12. Okay. I had Xavier Scott at 12. This is funny. That is really, really weird. You know when I watched Aviancero? It wasn't even like I was watching the film and I was like, ah, this guy just doesn't,

he was one of the first players I watched and I just kept putting players over him as I kept going. Interesting. Where I looked back and I was like, man, I didn't even dislike him that much. I'll just say my number one concern before I throw to you I just think he's a slender guy sure that gets bought that gets bodied on the outside all the time 100% and if he can't transition to the inside or just get bigger and stronger, which I'm not overly confident in the latter part

It's tough for me to be that high on a corner. And I can totally understand that. He does a lot of really good things fundamentally the right way. Yeah. And he plays so hard against the run. That's not the size problem. Yes. It's not the size problem.

It's in coverage. Yeah, and you know, he reminds me a little bit of Asante Samuel Jr. in that regard where you watch him play. 100%, yeah. And it's just like, man, he's small. Now he's gotten his chance in the NFL. I actually don't think he's signed anywhere right now. I think he's a free agent.

But anyways, Avion Terrell, he's a junior this year. He's at Clemson. He's listed it. Wait, do you have official measurements for him? Let me see what I had for him. I don't remember. I have him at 5'11, 180, which is small. I think that's what I had him as too.

So those weren't like spring verified measurements. Gotcha. He is the brother of AJ Terrell, as you would expect. Oh, 5'11, 180 was the official that I had. So I think that's actually accurate. A school actually accurate for once? Imagine. He played wide receiver and he played cornerback

in high school. He was also a track sprinter. He won the state title in the four by 400 relay. It was third place in the four by 100. And he had a personal best of a 10, nine, seven, 100 meter dash. He started five games as a true sophomore, sorry, as a true freshman in 2023.

Started 14, all 14 games last season. You mentioned five, 11, 180, small for a cornerback. That is 42nd percentile and eighth percentile. Now he plays smaller. I think that you see that. You know, it shows up anytime he's asked to play press. It shows up when the ball is coming in and we're getting the catch point. It shows when he's hand fighting throughout the routes. Like he is a smaller

cornerback. There is no doubt about that. But I think the arm length also could definitely be an issue for him in the pros. Did AJ Terrell have long arms? No he didn't. It's one of those weird things I remember off the top of my head. I was so surprised because he's not small AJ's big AJ's bigger than his brother. He is Yeah 31 and a quarter, but he's over 6 foot 1. He's over 6 1 Yeah, so I don't know. It's not that he has short arms, but I was just surprised when I watch AJ Terrell play I'm like, he's got 32 and a half inch arms. Yeah, he looks and he doesn't so yeah Avian's got even shorter arms obviously

He's smaller. He's not as big as his brother. So he's got even two to three inches smaller. Yeah, I would agree That's about it okay, like that's that's that is about it for the negatives the rest of the stuff Yeah, I agree. This is there's so many things well. He does so many things well, man Super fluid movements great great body control, so smaller guy but he's got great body control, great quickness, good first step. I think he's got adequate long speed. You know it's not elite long speed but I think it's adequate long speed especially as an, so he's an off zone coverage defender, that's what he is. You won't see him in press at time because why would you? Why would you want him to expose

his weakness of having shorter arms and just being smaller of a corner? Strength and length. Those are the two things that you want to play press man. So you're not going to put this guy in press. There's no reason to do it. And in fact, he is so, so, so, so good when you put him in off zone coverage alignments. So as an off zone coverage guy, he's got a little bit of a cushion. He's got a little bit of a runway that when wide receivers are getting vertical on him, he can normally turn and run with them pretty well. So he's got that adequate, uh, long speed to him there. Really good ball production in 2024 two interceptions, but more importantly, 20% forcing completion percentage. So even with the smaller arms,

he is a Nat and he is getting up there at the catch point. He is timing things very well. He's being as physical with the receivers as he can. He's got great instincts for when the ball is arriving, when to get his hands up and what to do with it. Elite run defense grade, 90.7 run defense grade last season and just a 12% missed tackle rate at 180 pounds. That is very, very impressive and just shows the great instincts that he has,

the type of football player he is. When he can play off-zone coverage and keep his eyes on the quarterback, the way that he can manipulate space, the way that he can manage space, how he matches up against receivers, how much cushion to give them, when to turn and run,

when to trigger downhill, fighting through blocks, becoming a good run defender, all of that, man, He is a smaller corner. And if you don't like smaller corners or your scheme's not built for it, it probably won't be your cup of tea. But for me, so much of what he does is NFL caliber, especially the way that he approaches the game. I think that when you put him in those off-zone coverage alignments,

man, he is going to make you a happy coach with how well he is able to play the ball. So I am a big fan of Avian Torell because even with him being a little bit smaller and not as strong as you want, I think it limits him to his press coverage reps, but that's okay for how good he is in off zone. And I think that, okay, it should limit him in run defense, but it doesn't, especially last year. And if you give me another year where you're in a, you're anywhere near 80 as a run defender,

you put two years back to back like that, I'm not gonna be worried about it. So I just think that this is a really good football player, somebody who understands the game of football very, very well. So he's my- So you had, he has my C3? Yeah, I had him in C3. C3.

So then my number one is your number two. And then obviously I have AJ Harris at three, who you're at number one. My number one is Jermod McCoy. Yep. From Tennessee. Yep. Yep.

Who I think if you're going to see a consensus, whatever that means anymore, there's just so many different draft rankings, whether it's from analysts, you know, organizations. Your dog, AI. Yes. I mean. Chad GP PT. Oh God, that's I Ai in the draft industry is I don't want to say a fear of mine But I am it will annoy me when we're getting like AI projects This guy is the fourth best prospect in the class, but the analysts are saying he's 28th, and it's like what does that even mean?

Anyways, that even mean what does that even mean? Anyways. What does that even mean? What does it even mean? Jermod McCoy. Yep. You want me to start us off here? Yeah, go ahead. Well, I gotta start off with the crappiest part, which stinks.

He was training at home in January of this year and tours ACL. Not great. So the number one, or a guy viewed as a contender for the number one corner in this class is not going to be ready to start the season, we're all assuming. That's safe to say. He will return late in 2025 due to an offseason torn ACL. He was a transfer to Tennessee from Oregon State, six feet tall, 193 pounds, grabbed four picks and broke up nine passes last year.

Actually, Trevor, former Allstate baseball player. Love that was a very good baseball player. Don't get a lot of that around these parts. You don't get a ton of it, especially, I think, at corner. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, we get a lot. I feel like receivers and running backs and quarterbacks. Court of play for sure. Baseball back, of course, tight ends. Quarterbacks for sure are baseball background. Of course.

Tight ends, you can sometimes get some baseball background. Yeah. Linebackers, you can sometimes get some baseball. Safeties, sometimes you get a little baseball background in there. But you're right, quarter, you just don't get a lot of them. Tight end is funny you mentioned that one because I feel like it's by default.

It's like, oh cool, you're 6'6, 250 now? Yeah, you're gonna play football all year round instead of playing baseball anymore. Right, right, right. So,, you're gonna play football all year round instead of playing baseball anymore. So, unless you're a pitcher. So, he was only a three-star recruit, Jermod McCoy. So, not that only a three-star to say anything like that, but he's, you know, to what he's become after transferring,

this is someone to me that he is just confident and patient in man coverage, and it allows him to stay on top of routes Short intermediate routes. He is a very difficult player to get away from He wants to play a physical brand of football before and after the catch He wants to disrupt you with a line of scrimmage Through your route at the catch point and if you do catch a pass on him, he's gonna hit you,

and he's gonna try to make you feel the pain. I think his instincts, Trevor, translate to ball skills. You see him understand what the route is trying to do, okay, I gotta click and close, let me jump on the throw in front of me. And he's excellent, I mean excellent, on slant routes and in-breaking routes, chopping the arm down.

It's a violent chop. It's like a borderline martial arts chop to take away either the receiver's hands and arms or the football in the air. I think my favorite thing about him is he has such a good understanding of how to use the sideline to his advantage to limit space. He just knows exactly how to position himself and say I'm gonna let I'm gonna let you kind of you know

Float that way because you're gonna run yourself out of the play because I'm so strong and physical That you don't have enough space to finish the play. He did that with Ryan Williams That was mind blow. Oh, he he he had Ryan Williams in the walls of Jericho in that first half. In absolute hell, no rope break in sight. Absolutely not. He now, Ryan Williams got the better of him in the second half, a loot on a handful of players.

As a Ryan Williams will at age 13, Ryan Williams? 14? Yeah, it's unbelievable. Youngest player to ever play college football. Somehow he's getting younger. I don't know how it happens. But like everything that you're saying, if you're hanging with Ryan Williams, Ryan Williams is going to be no doubt about it first round wide receiver.

And he is every bit of a talented NFL player as Ryan Williams is. So I think Jermod McCoy's probably gonna be a first round corner. Yeah, McCoy's excellent. I think he, the things people will kind of circle with him is I think his long speed is average instead of good to great. And I don't think it's a big thing that hinders him. I just think it's average long speed.

And I think when he allows a step over the top of him because of the average long speed, he falls into the habit of playing the man and waiting for the hands to come up to play the hands rather than trying to turn around and make a play on the ball. But the counter to that is he's so physical. He's so hard to kind of get into that position that it's not consistently in those scenarios where he play as to play like that. So I think this is a really, really good player. I'm rooting for his health and for him to come back and finish the season strong and be a first round corner. I didn't even have as much speed concerns as you did.

He's got a former track long jump background, so he's got exposed to this to him. I think his first step is really impressive. And he had, according to PFS tracking, he did have three plays where he was clocked at over 20 miles an hour. So he can get up there. And just, man, so easy watching this guy. I mean, I remember, I think I turned on the album. I think the album tape is the first one I watched because I was like, okay, let's see what you did against Ryan Williams and not only is he matched up against Ryan Williams I'm like four plays in and I go. All right. Well Top 50s a lock lets you see how much higher we do from here Cuz it's just the size you could see the the arm length the height the the overall weight like it's there for him

You mentioned the strength that he has, the aiming points of where he's putting his hand and how he's using that to sort of, not only like angle where the receiver is going, but obviously angle where his body is going and how that so smoothly goes into how he is then staying in phase and hit the hip with these guys

and watching the wide receivers eyes, knowing when the ball is going to get there, using the sideline to his advantage, all this stuff. stuff man if you run a press man coverage type of defense and you play a lot of man coverage this guy has got the mold that you want I don't want to say it's as good as it gets because there are things I think he could do a little bit better I'd love to see him anticipate some of those in ranking rounds a little bit better this upcoming season and there are times where I don't know if you notice this but in the couple of games I watched of him when he loads up for those big hits like he'll dip the head in the eyes and he will just lunge with

the shoulder and there are a lot of times where yeah I mean if he makes contact it's it's pretty impactful and the ball carrier goes down but there are other times where I mean he can get sidestepped he can get one cut when when that stuff is happening. So he's got to keep his heads up. He's got to keep his head up. We don't need the big bruising hits. I mean, you're, for as much as I love the,

I love wanting to make the big hits. I mean, you're an outside corner, man. It's just not going to be your bread and butter. So I'd rather you be a little bit more sound and take some speed and aggressiveness off of it. But excellent player, four interceptions, above a 19% forcing completion percentage last year, I believe.

He is just, I just really hope that he gets back to pre-injury form. That's really what we're looking to see for Jamon McCoy. And if he does, I think he's a first rounder. Yeah, really, really talented player that he plays with the tenacity that you dream of at the position, but he just has so many high IQ understandings that gets you really excited.

So that injury's a bummer, but I think everybody's really excited about his NFL future. All right, really quick, give us your 10 to one one more time, and then shout out a couple of players that just weren't in your top 10 that maybe we didn't talk about.

Yep, so 10, the infamous now Keith Abney, Arizona State, former roller skater, number nine, Chandler Rivers. For the artist formerly known as national champion speed skater. Rollerskater. Nine Chandler Rivers out of Duke. Number eight, Christian Gray, Notre Dame. Number seven, Dalyan Everett, Georgia.

Six, Malik Muhammad from Texas. Five, DJ McKinney, Colorado. Four, Damani Jackson, now Alabama, originally from USC. Three, AJ Harris, Penn State. Two, Xavier Scott, stamp placed, Illinois. number one, Jermod McCoy, Tennessee. Who you wanna shout out outside of that group? Yeah, a couple guys that are, obviously Terrell I watched, I liked,

I just kinda stinks in every spot for him. I really watched Mansour Delane, who's now at LSU. Remember, we had a long combo with him, Virginia Tech. I think he had a down season by his standards. I hope he can bounce back for LSU. Josh Moten from Marshall now at Southern Miss is just really small, but he's the riverboat gambler of the class.

He brought up Asante Samuel Jr. before. Josh Moten must have watched Asante Samuel growing up and going, I wanna do that. Because he'll give up plenty of touchdowns and he'll also take away the ball plenty of times as well. Bit of a wild man. Will Lee from Texas A&M, Will Lee the third, did you watch him?

I did, AKA the blanket, incredibly. The blanket, I love it so much. Will Lee was 11 for me. He was the just missed guy, size, speed for the blanket. And I know we get asked about him all the time. I did watch Davison Ibnosin from Ohio State. I just, I'm just not as high on him, I think, as a lot of other people clearly are.

But I did watch him for the people. He's just too grabby right now. He's too grabby. All the time. He just, all the time. You've got to win cleanly, more consistently a corner for me to take you seriously for the NFL level. You know, it's funny that you have Will Lee at 11. You know who my early working comp is for Will Lee, actually? Your boy TJ Tampa.

So it makes a lot of sense that you would after liking Tampa. Of course. Here I am. On Will. It's time to get back to the old Will. It's time to get back to the old me. And I'll do it again. It is time to get back to the old me. So my 10 through one, Hetacario Davis who's now at Washington at number 10, Chandler Rivers from Duke at number nine,

DeAngelo Pons who is at Indiana at number eight, Dalyan Ever from Georgia at seven, Malik Muhammad at number six, Thaddeus Dixon who was at Washington, now he's at UNC at number five, Jalen Kilgore from South Carolina at four, Avian Zerrell from Clemson at three, Jermod McCoy from Tennessee at two, and then AJ Harris from Penn State at number one. I'm glad that you shouted out Xavier Scott, who was my 12th guy and the guy right in front

of him, Smith Snowden, a similar nickel defender from Utah who man, he'sisty. Again just him and Xavier Scott I almost like it was coin flip like who was going to be 11 who was going to be a 12. They are very much the same sort of player just those fiery guys who can play and press man for you. Now Xavier Scott I felt like played a little bit more often than Snowden did but Snowden will play press against you in the slot. So man, he was a lot of fun to watch. Very intrigued about Jermaine Matthews Jr. from Ohio State. Started as an outside corner for them last season. Not a full-time outside starter, I believe, but he got some starts for them last season. He has the overall look of an NFL corner. The thing is that he just wouldn't challenge a lot. Didn't really have a lot of ball production. Didn't have a lot of forcing completions. Didn't have any interceptions. So I just want to see him get challenged a little bit more this

upcoming season. But I think a reason why is because he's a good coverage player. He just every time a quarterback looks their way, he's close enough in coverage and warrants some no throws there. So interesting to see how he plays out. Um, Cam Calhoun, I think is gonna be very interesting. He is at Alabama this year. I know he transferred a couple of times. Where is he? Where is he now? Yes. Where are you Cam?

Yells into the void. He is at Alabama this year. He was at Michigan to start, then he transferred to Utah, and now he is at Alabama. So I think that he is very interesting he is somebody who's got a good size speed combination to him as well so I felt I felt like I'd shout him out. Alan Shuler is the nickel cornerback for Notre Dame who I think he's got to get better in coverage but man you want to talk about guys who just live to defend

the run. Reminding me a lot of what Ty T Smith was for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a slot defender where they just loved how reliable he was in run defense. Now, again, he's got to get better as a coverage defender which I think he can, I think he's got the athleticism for, he's just so aggressive in how he plays the game. Sometimes that led to yielding a little too much separation. So those are a handful of guys.

I watched a lot more, like I said, I watched 29. So I would love to hear from you guys. If there was somebody that we didn't talk about here in this group, fire it off in the comment section. If you guys have your own rankings, we'd love to hear from you. Of course, fire that off in the comment section as well. Best way to do that youtube.com backslash at NFL stock exchange. That really gets the conversation going. You get some interaction with us here on the show, as well as the fellow addicts. Conversation going you get some interaction with us here on the show as well as the fellow addicts Like I mentioned, this is the last podcast episode that we're gonna have for the next three weeks We're off the next two weeks. I know diabolical of us. I'm sorry I'm going on my honeymoon. So I'm gonna have an extended break where I am very far away from my computer

And I'll be fighting big tucks and me and my lawyers. And Connor is going straight to the courtroom to represent himself. We've got 48 hours. To take on big tuxedo, so that's gonna take up the next three weeks for us, but we will be back. I can't remember if we're trying to squeeze in one more position group or if we go straight to the overall big board on the 14th. I think we're doing one position.

I think we have time, yeah. I think we'll do one more position. Hey, let us know in the comments. Comments, let us know. We've got tight end, we've got interior defensive line, we've got linebackers and safeties. I believe are the four that we have not done yet. I think interior offensive line, we did,

we didn't do that with offensive tackle, but I'm gonna say- No, but we watched so many tackles that might be guards. I feel like we covered good basis. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. Tight end, interior defensive line, linebackers or safeties vote or die in the comments. The, I want to the, the, the, the position group that gets the most comments or the most likes on some of those comments is where we will go for the next episode. And then I think after that, it will be the big board episode. And then we're getting into everybody's favorite episode. The very first mock draft that we will do right before the season.

It's right around the corner. You absolutely love it. We love you guys so much. Thank you so much for watching and listening. I'm Trevor Sikama. That's Connor Rogers. Thanks for watching the NFL Stock Exchange. See you guys next time. Thanks for watching!