Slimm's 2016 Cornerbacks (Seniors)

[Pachyderm_Wave]

1. Kevin Peterson / Oklahoma St. / 5'11", 190 (Shut down Kevin White one-on-one)

2. Jordan Lucas / Penn St / 6'0", 199 (Big, physical corner was one of the most consistent cornerbacks I saw last year. Will make the move to safety in '15 in order to direct the youth on defense)

3. KeiVarae Russell / Notre Dame / 5'11", 190

4. Will Redmond / Mississippi St. / 6'0", 185

T5. Trae Elston / Ole Miss / 5'11", 195

T5. William Jackson / Houston / 6'1", 185

6. Morgan Burns / Kansas St. / 5'11", 195 (Fast. Dynamic kick returner)

7. Cyrus Jones / Alabama / 5'10", 196 (Alabama's best CB despite playing through all of last year with a torn labrum in his hip. Incredible)

8. Briean Boddy-Calhoun / Minnesota / 5'11", 188

9. Maurice Canady / Virginia / 6'2", 185

10. Richard Leonard / FIU / 5'10", 189

11. Lafayette Pitts / Pittsburgh / 5'11", 195

12. Lloyd Carrington / Arizona St. / 6'0", 188

13. Fabian Moreau / UCLA / 6'0", 195

14. Eric Murray / Minnesota / 6'0", 196

15. Blake Countess / Auburn / 5'10", 185 (Transfer from Michigan)

16. Demetrious Nicholson / Virginia / 5'10", 185

17. Nick VanHoose / Northwestern / 6'0", 190

18. Jamal Golden / Georgia Tech / 6'0", 193 (Watched him in high school. One of the best kick returners in the country)

19. Khary Bailey-Smith / UMASS / 6'2", 194

20. Kweishi Brown / Arizona St. / 6'0", 206

21. Kevon Seymour / USC / 6'0", 185

22. Adairius Barnes / Louisiana Tech / 5'11", 186

23. Jonathan Jones / Auburn / 5'10", 181

24. Jimmy Pruitt / San Jose St. / 6'0", 203

25. Brian Poole / Florida / 5'10", 205 (Best in zone where he can keep the play in front of him....not comfortable in man-to-man. Despite Florida's insistence to play him at CB, his best position is at safety in my estimation)

26. Danzel McDaniel / Kansas St. / 6'1", 205 (Big, physical, hard hitter. Struggles in off man...more comfortable in press. Best fit might be at safety. Passion for the game)

27. Donte Deayon / Boise St. / 5'9", 170

28. Frankie Williams / Purdue / 5'9", 190

29. Tavon Young / Temple / 5'10", 174

30. Randall Jette / UMASS / 5'10", 180

31. Josh Hawkins / ECU / 5'10", 186

t32. D.J. White / Georgia Tech / 5'11", 185

t32. Ken Crawley / Colorado / 6'1", 180

33. Taveze Calhoun / Mississippi St. / 6'1", 185

34. Eaton Spence / Illinois / 6'0", 185

35. Bradley Sylve / Alabama / 6'0", 180 (Benched after getting torched by Kevin White in season opener last year. Converted 4-star WR continues to improve and has the skills worth developing)

36. Duke Thomas / Texas / 5'11", 178

37. Leviticus Payne / Cincinnati / 5'10", 192

38. Tracy Howard / Miami / 5'11", 191

39. Ronald Zamort / Western Michigan / 5'10", 174 (Led the country in passes defended last year)

40. Sean Draper / Iowa / 6'0", 190

41. Anthony Brown / Purdue / 5'11", 190

42. V'Angelo Bentley / Illinois / 5'10", 190

43. Brandon Greer / Central Michigan / 6'1", 200

44. Trevor Williams / Penn St. / 6'1", 196

45. David Mims / Texas St. / 5'11", 198

46. Fred Tiller / Kentucky / 6'0", 177

47. Kenya Dennis / Missouri / 5'11", 200

48. Cre'von Leblanc / FAU / 5'10", 195

49. Devin Bass / Ohio / 5'9", 190

50. Jabriel Washington / Alabama / 5'11", 182

51. Paris Logan / Northern Illinois / 5'9", 190

52. Wonderful Terry / Western Kentucky / 5'10", 180

53. De'Vante Harris / Texas A&M / 5'11", 175

 

[ckparrothead]

Apparently I like Jonathan Jones a lot more than you do. He's impressive to me.

Physical shortcomings?

 

[Pachyderm_Wave]

Apparently I like Jonathan Jones a lot more than you do. He's impressive to me.

Physical shortcomings?

I like Johnathan Jones a lot. In terms of pure coverage skills, I like him better than a lot of the players ahead of him here. However, I think he's limited to sub packages at the next level. I think he projects as a slot corner.

Size is a concern, along with nagging injuries. He always seems to be battling an injury to his lower body. When you look at how thin his lower half is, it's fairly obvious why. I worry a little bit about how well he'll hold up physically at the next level. But yes, he's a very solid in coverage. Very aggressive and plays with a confident mindset.

 

[ckparrothead]

I like Johnathan Jones a lot. In terms of pure coverage skills, I like him better than a lot of the players ahead of him here. However, I think he's limited to sub packages at the next level. I think he projects as a slot corner.

Size is a concern, along with nagging injuries. He always seems to be battling an injury to his lower body. When you look at how thin his lower half is, it's fairly obvious why. I worry a little bit about how well he'll hold up physically at the next level. But yes, he's a very solid in coverage. Very aggressive and plays with a confident mindset.

Ah I hadn't realized about the injuries. Good point.

 

[DearbornDolfan]

Danzel McDaniel / Kansas St. / 6'1", 205 (Big, physical, hard hitter. Struggles in off man...more comfortable in press. Best fit might be at safety. Passion for the game)

The reason he's not comfortable with off man is because Dodge City CC plays press man exclusively, which is where McDaniel played transferred from. He's working on it, though. I think he's better than 26, though.

 

[Tannenbombs]

I'm a big fan of KeiVarae Russell

 

[Awsi Dooger]

I like what I've seen from Murray of Minnesota, especially when he plays tight to the line of scrimmage. Very good hand usage and instincts. Receivers rarely manage much separation. The cornerback on the other side -- Calhoun -- gets turned repeatedly and loses contact but does make up ground in the late going, kind of like Grimes at this stage.

Overall I like Murray better. Every time I watched a Gopher game he seemed to be improving and gaining in arrogant swagger. By the time it reached the bowl game against Central Michigan the opponent was picking on Calhoun -- or trying to -- far beyond how often they took a shot in Murray's direction.

Murray is a willing tackler but does tend to go too low, around the ankles. That causes some missed tackles that shouldn't happen.

 

[ckparrothead]

I like Murray as well. I was watching a receiver I like quite a bit, Kolby Listenbee, play against Murray in 2014 before Listenbee had achieved the same level of polish he has today. It's clear that Murray's physical coverage style was really irking Kolby.

The guy I really like is Maurice Canady.

He's not a hair under 6'1" which means he's legitimately one of the tallest corners in the draft. He ran a 4.49 electronic time, electronic times being comparable only to themselves (e.g. Hargreaves 4.50 electronic, Artie Burns 4.46 electronic). A 38" vertical, 10'4" broad jump, 4.09 shuttle, all great marks, legit athlete.

But you know he's a legit athlete when you watch him on tape and see that despite being one of the tallest corners out there he slides into the slot in nickel packages and doesn't look out of place at all. There's no awkwardness there. He's outside in base, inside in nickel at 6'1" & 193 lbs with a 6'3" wingspan. That's not common at all.

Sometimes these lengthy players get pigeon holed as press-man guys. That's the expectation. It's probably why Canady drew such high marks for his press coverage in Senior Bowl practices, with guys like Mike Mayock and Dan Kadar singling him out.

But he defies that a little bit. He plays off-man, press-man, quarters, cover three, press-bail, off, slot, boundary, a lot of variation from what I've seen. Later at Virginia he started disguising coverages more, etc. He's got a good foundation in technique. One of the unique things about him is he looks just as comfortable timing his hip turn in off coverage as he is playing up and in a receiver's face. That wasn't always the case, as he got torched by DeAndre Smelter in 2014 from off positions. But in 2015 his transition was a lot smoother and more precisely timed, his recognition of route combinations and drop depth better, really good relating to both the quarterback and the receiver.

Makes some "business decisions" in support tackling. He plays with intelligence and unfortunately sometimes that can mean he decides when the play is his to make or whether he just needs to shut down the sideline and wait for someone else to make the play. When he knows he has to be the guy, like on certain screen plays, surprisingly aggressive and physical. But again that's something that improved greatly from 2014 to 2015.

Really what I've enjoyed doing is watching a game from 2012 (making plays against Miami with "young, dumb energy"), then 2013 (much more disciplined feet but still late in recognition, basically just good enough to be bad), then some from 2014 ([video]flashing the results of tape study[/video], but still trying to figure out pursuit angles and how to handle impressive receivers) and on into 2015 (occasional mental error like biting on the Will Fuller sluggo at the end of the Notre Dame game) and that gives you a good feel for his progression. He's come a long way over that time. He's a classic physically impressive four year guy that got better and better each year.

Think he graduated early. Majored in African American studies but wants to be a coach after he's done playing because he's been playing football since he was 5 years old. Played QB and WR in high school, played three different DB spots at Virginia. People compare him to Richard Sherman but he thinks it's just the dreads and says he thinks he compares a little more to Aqib Talib which is a very smart self-comparison for him to make.

I think the very worst he is, is a Nolan Carroll. Except he's much, much further along than Carroll was coming out of Maryland, as Carroll I believe was still fresh off position switch. I just mean that if Maurice Canady plateaus from here then he'll be what Carroll has become in the NFL. Thing is, why do we think he will plateau? The growth trajectory particularly in the span from 2013 to 2014, and then even more so 2014 to 2015, was pretty steep. He's physically impressive. He just keeps getting better, so why couldn't he continue to do that?

 

[Awsi Dooger]

When I posted in this thread months ago regarding Murray I really didn't look at much else. Now I see there has already been discussion of Jonathan Jones, who I mentioned in a different thread a week or two ago. I don't understand why the two little Auburn corners have been so overlooked. Slimm has them considerably higher than the consensus. I also like D.J. White of Georgia Tech but hadn't heard a peep about him until Bucky Brooks out of the blue pegged White in the early third round to some team the other night on Path to the Draft.

As always, there are too many cornerbacks for me to study fully. I always feel like I'm behind at that position, and that dates to decades ago when I followed more closely. I tend to remember cornerbacks who stood out while either helping me either win or lose bets.

BTW, Tracy Howard of the Canes was a 5 star recruit who was stolen in the late going from the Gators. He played regularly for Miami but was always a disappointment compared to early hype. Howard lacks speed and doesn't have a standout trait. In 2015 he was somewhat phased out as Corn Elder took the cornerback spot opposite Artie Burns.

The other highly rated Canes recruit in this draft class who didn't pan out in college is Tyriq McCord, who was a four star guy. He is an outside linebacker with narrow hips that are also stiff. McCord looked like a potential edge rushing terror early in his career. Then his career mostly drifted away. Straight line guy without ideal instincts.

I mention them only because of the recent history of Canes players who underachieved in college before blossoming in the pros.

 

[j-off-her-doll]

You barely hear about Jordan Lucas, and he's being projected as a 7th-UDFA. Don't get it. He's a good player and a great athlete. Since he's your 2nd CB, I'm assuming you'd draft him. Looks like a solid mid-round player to me.