I would have CB Mike Hughes of UCF right there with any corner you'd think about taking in the 2nd round, perhaps even with Joshua Jackson and Minkah Fitzpatrick as a 1st rounder.
He's been a Herculean player ever since high school. Won two North Carolina state championships as a QB, coach says he'd have won a third if the ball bounced a different way. Played 11 games as a true freshman for UNC, averaging 35 yards on 3 punt returns. His high school coach says he's coached four NFL players and been coaching for 27 years and Mike Hughes is pound for pound the best football player he's ever coached.
Hughes' Garden City Community College coach calls him a "gift from God". Won his conference DPOY award and helped GCCC win the JUCO national championship, as the team's #1 CB but also a Slot WR, RB, PR, and KR (900 all purpose yards and 7 TDs).
I didn't know any of that before I started watching his UCF tape. But I started watching him at UCF and was blown away by how well he covers in press AND off, zone and man, and how excitingly aggressive he is on the forward attack when going after the ball carrier or blocker. He's a bit small-ish, under 5'11" and only like 190 lbs. But he's got the ability to play on the outside, and his size, agility make him an excellent candidate to move inside as well. In today's league where so much damage is done from the slot, having a guy who can move inside and not just be a body but actually be good there is incredibly valuable. Think Chris Harris Jr of the Denver Broncos.
And none of that is to say anything about his punt and kick return abilities, which are significant. He had FOUR return TDs this year, counting an INT return for TD which is a lot like having a punt return TD. He had four INTs this year, bunch of PBUs. He was a huge cog on an undefeated team which just embarrassed Auburn on the national stage.
The reason he had to leave UNC was because he got into a fight at a frat party and ended up charged with misdemeanor assault, with the charges being dropped based on community service. He was going to transfer from GCCC to South Carolina, but the timing of him finishing his Associates Degree at GCCC didn't match up with South Carolina's requirements. The GCCC head coach personally convinced Hughes to transfer to UCF because he has a very close relationship with one of the defensive coaches on UCF. Hughes took a visit and fell in love with the campus.
Obviously any time you get into a legal situation and have to transfer out of a school, your hackles rise a bit. When you see a planned transfer from JUCO to a major program go awry, that's another flag. But his coaches all rave about his character, his work ethic.
I had someone point out to me that they saw a UCF game where he went down after a play and stopped play so he was forced to leave the field, and rather than have him off the field for one snap, Scott Frost burned a timeout so that Mike Hughes could get back out there. That's how important he was. When South Florida played UCF, Quinton Flowers threw for 500 yards on that defense. Only one catch came on Hughes though. It was a tough cover situation for Hughes (man coverage vs a bench route from the innermost slot in trips, with the QB having extra time to get the ball out there), but Hughes had superb coverage and quite frankly I don't know how Darnell Saloman (6'3" & 215 lbs) caught that football.
But this is the son of a bitch, this guy Mike Hughes, he's the one that ran back a 95 yard kickoff return TD with 40 seconds left in the game after South Florida had tied the game 42-42. Unbelievable finish to that rivalry game.