1) Vernon Hargreaves III, Florida Gators
Career
Stats: 121 Total Tackles, 27 PD, 10 INT
Height:
5’10 Weight: 204
Forty:
4.5
Vertical
Jump: 39.0
Size size size. This seems to be such a theme with draft
prospects now. If you aren’t of the
prototypical positional mold, your stock takes a hit. Sometimes being on the smaller side does
hinder you but when you’re just a little shorter and weigh a little less, it
can straight up plummet how everybody sees you.
Hargreaves is 5’10 and 204 pounds.
The weight is fine. The height
won’t be an issue. Just because Richard
Sherman is 6’3 doesn’t mean that all corners need to be tall to be good. Hargreaves plays with great position, most of
the time, and uses his intellect and awareness to beat the best receiver that
he faced off against each week. He more
than held his own against Raiders star wideout Amari Cooper and kept Calvin
Ridley and Laquon Treadwell at bay, for the most part. The height doesn’t bother me with Hargreaves,
but what puts a little bit of doubt in my mind is the needed physicality that
is played at the position now against these 6’5 receivers. I have faith that this kid can hold his own
with his great hands and marvelous ball skills when in the air. A 39-inch vertical doesn’t hurt either. He did occasionally get burned by speedsters
deep down the field but I feel like that was more of a lapse in his mind and a
slight underestimation that he could catch up to the receiver. He was coached very well, especially being a
part of that fantastic secondary that the Gators put out every week and he is a
willing tackler. Hargreaves may not be
that superstar that everybody thought he would be at the end of 2014, but he is
still definitely a fantastic player and well worth a top ten pick.
2) William Jackson III, Houston Cougars
Career
Stats: 108 Total Tackles, 38 PD, 8 INT
Height:
6’0 Weight: 189
Forty:
4.37
Vertical
Jump: DNP
William Jackson III is a fast rising, high
flying cornerback. He has that ideal size
you want to see from a corner, especially with the league moving towards bigger
corners to guard these bigger receivers.
Jackson has a fantastic ability to high point a ball and fight for it in
the air. Once in the air, he has good
enough hands to come down with the ball and shows off his athleticism to get a
big return. The former Cougar does have
some issues with underestimating shifty and fast receivers. They can run by him and once a receiver has a
step on you, there is only so much ground you can make up. I think this issue is because he turns his
head too quick to look for the ball when he should be looking at the receiver’s
body motion and hands. Then once he sees
their body start to contort and the hands rise then he can turn his body around
to make a play. Jackson was very
fortunate that some of the quarterbacks he was facing this past year couldn’t throw
the deep ball that well or else he would have been burned for quite a few
touchdowns. Another issue that I have
with Jackson’s play is he has this tendency to dip his head when he makes a big
tackle. That is obviously a big no. Serious injury can happen when you do this
but I think he is a smart enough kid to stop that. Overall, I do like Jackson. I don’t think he can be a number one corner
if his team does not have a good pass rush.
He needs some help but I think he can be an impact player in this league
for years to come.
3) Mackensie Alexander, Clemson Tigers
Career
Stats: 44 Total Tackles, 11 PD, 0 INT
Height:
5’10 Weight: 190
Forty:
4.47
Vertical
Jump: 37.5
It wasn’t that long ago that Alexander was
rated a higher cornerback than Vernon Hargreaves but oh how the mighty have
fallen. The lack of interceptions has
been the main knock on the kid from Clemson.
He was constantly next to his receiver, which could be the reason for
him never having an interception. Alexander
did play well in man to man situations as his man was almost always covered. Alexander’s main Achilles heel is speed. There were times on tape that he would allow
receivers to get by him and he just isn’t fast enough to catch him. Alexander does recover from double moves well
enough because his quick feet allow this to happen. It may not show in the stat column but Alexander
is a willing tackler. He is not afraid
to stick his nose in somewhere and make the dirty plays. I am pretty adamant in saying that Hargreaves
is the only true number one corner (two if you count Ramsey) in this year’s
draft. That is not a knock on Alexander
and the others, I am just not confident enough after watching film of these
guys to say that they can lock down one side of the field or the other team’s
number one corner.
4) Kendall Fuller, Virginia Tech Hokies
Career
Stats: 119 Total Tackles, 25 PD, 8 INT
Height:
5’11 Weight: 187
Forty:
DNP
Vertical
Jump: DNP
The Fuller name is a thing of beauty in the
NFL. Having that family lineage is a
plus as his older brothers have fared very well in the league. Kendall reminds me so much of his one brother
Kyle, who currently plays for the Bears.
He has great recovery time and would probably be my second ranked corner
if he was healthy. Kyle is a very good
shut down corner and I believe that Kendall could be the same way, if not
better. His fantastic vision and
awareness have helped him become one of the better corners in college football
and when the ball is in the air, he can contort his body and do whatever he has
to do to bring the ball down. But the
injury bug has bitten Kendall during his time in college. In 2014 he suffered a fractured wrist, which
he did continue to play through so at least he showed his toughness to do that. But then in the preseason during 2015 he tore
his meniscus in his knee and once again he attempted to play through the injury. Both of those injuries could be considered
freak injuries but he did do his best to play through them. I love that.
You have to be a tough sum bitch to play in this league and with the
help of his brothers, I believe he could be the best of all the Fullers.
5) Eli Apple, Ohio State Buckeyes
Career
Stats: 86 Total Tackles, 17 PD, 4 INT
Height:
6’1 Weight: 199
Forty:
4.4
Vertical
Jump: DNP
Watch the 2014 tape on Eli Apple because if
you watch last year’s you will most likely be turned off. Playing to not get hurt is not something I am
a fan of (ahem Jadeveon Clowney) because I want these prospects to get better
every year. When you play not to get
hurt, you are not getting better and you create a stigma about yourself that
you are too good to be playing where you are.
He would not stick his nose in for tackles like his counterpart Vonn
Bell but luckily enough for them, that defense was stacked so you could hide
certain players. He would sidestep
bigger receivers and tight ends and did whatever he could to stay upright. That won’t fly in the NFL. Coaches will be all over you the first time
that is done. If he does start to get
burned by receivers, he will grab them to make sure that he doesn’t go all the
way. This can be the smarter move but he
needs to find ways to not get burned or penalized (4 holding and 7 pass
interference penalties in his final two years).
Besides that, Apple is another one of those big corners that stands at 6’1
and runs extremely well. I don’t think
he would pan out against number one receivers because he would need to be a
more physical corner and that is not his strong suit according to the 2015
tape. Apple has had to play through
adversity and had a very interesting tenure at Ohio State. He was having difficulty in the classroom as
well as on the field and a few tests discovered that he was lacking in
iron. Once that was figured out, Apple
turned into a whole other player and is standing where he is standing today.
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