Tag Archives: Cornerbacks

NFL Draft

Top 10 cornerbacks of the 2023 NFL Draft:

Switching back over to the defensive side of the ball here in week two of our positional draft rankings, we go from the wide receivers to the guys that will be lining up across from them on Sundays – the cornerbacks. I project most of these names to play outside primarily, but some of them may end up moving inside for their future team. However, I did not include names like Alabama’s Brian Branch or Illinois’ Jartavius Martin, who did line up in the slot for the most part in college and may also do so in the NFL, but project better as safeties, if they did side into another role.

Similar to the wide receivers, this is an incredibly deep group and I had to study more than 30 guys, in order to feel comfortable about my ultimate rankings. However, the difference is that we have two legit top-ten overall prospects and there are at least four other names worthy of being discussed in the first round. Beyond that, I think the rest of my top-ten and even the two names in the “just missed” category should be off the board after round two. And once again, we are far from done, in terms of guys I believe will find their way onto an NFL field.

I don’t want to waste any more time now and discuss this group:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 cornerbacks in the 2022 NFL Draft:

Switching back to the defensive side of the ball, after breaking down the draft’s best receivers earlier this week, we are now looking at the guys covering them. So this group includes outside and slot cornerbacks, where the boards among NFL teams can vary a lot depending on the defensive scheme they run and what they ask their CBs to do.

As always, I will break down my top ten overall prospects, regardless of scheme fit, and I have three more guys in the “just missed the cut” paragraphs”. Just like the receivers, there’s five names worthy of going in the first round in my opinion and there’s several potential diamonds in the rough, with a large amount of small school prospects with intriguing qualities.

Here’s what I ended up with:

 

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Switching back to the defensive side of the ball, after breaking down the draft’s best receivers earlier this week, we are now looking at the guys covering them. So this group includes outside and slot cornerbacks, where the boards among NFL teams can vary a lot depending on the defensive scheme they run and what they ask their CBs to do.

As always, I will break down my top ten overall prospects, regardless of scheme fit, and I have three more guys in the “just missed the cut” paragraphs”. Just like the receivers, there’s five names worthy of going in the first round in my opinion and there’s several potential diamonds in the rough, with a large amount of small school prospects with intriguing qualities.

Here’s what I ended up with:

 

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NFL Draft

Top 10 cornerbacks in the 2021 NFL Draft:

After talking about the top wide receivers available earlier this week, we are looking at the guys, who will be covering them at the next level. We are including slot and outside corners, which I will differentiate or tell you what I see them as at the end of my individual write-ups.

The top 15 or so all deserve top 100 overall prospect consideration and there will be double-digits in my personal big board most likely. My top three is very much in line with what the consensus rankings seem to be, but from that point on, I differentiate myself to most people out there.

Please remember that these rankings are purely based on the tape and not considering any injury or personal concerns. Washington’s Elijah Molden and Oregon’s Jevon Holland almost exclusively played nickel in college, but will find their names on the safety list next week, since I project them to be classified that way, when they don’t line up in the slot.

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NFL Draft

Top 10 cornerbacks in the 2020 NFL Draft:

After talking about the loaded wide receiver class earlier this week, we now take a look at the guys who will be covering them at the next level. In this category of cornerbacks, I have included both outside and slot corners, while mentioning which type of schemes or roles they could fit best.

This class of cover-guys features one elite prospect, who will most likely be a top six pick, and I think the next three names have kind of separated themselves a little from the rest. Still, there should be several starters from day two and even after that I see a bunch of undersized prospects, who may be overlooked but could easily start at nickel their rookie season.

By the way, you can also find some of my breakdowns on Youtube now!

Here is the list:

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NFL Draft

Top 10 cornerbacks in the 2019 NFL Draft:

After talking about the best wide receivers available on Tuesday, we shift back to the guys covering them – the cornerbacks. When you look at that position, the scheme fit definitely matters more than at some other positions. I tend to differentiate between four different groups – the long press-bail / cover-three types you want in those Seattle-based schemes that so many teams run nowadays, true man-to-man corners, those in two-high safety shells who play a lot of quarters and flats as well supporting the run and nickelbacks lining up in the slot. Obviously you would love to have guys who can do all of those things, but those are extremely rare and I don’t see anybody in this class capable of all those roles.

I think this class of cornerbacks is a very deep one. There are only three, who I think are definitely worth a first-round pick, but there’s several fringe prospects and I think all ten names that I will present here should at least be off the board within the first two days of the draft. I think speed is a big concern with a lot of the guys of this group, but one thing is for sure – it doesn’t lack attitude.

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Player Rankings

Top 10 cornerbacks through the first ten weeks:

The position fans have the hardest time comparing players to each other and ranking them accordingly is cornerback. When people reach outside linebacker nominees in the Pro Bowl voting they look who has the most sacks and with defensive backs the number of interceptions is often the deciding factor. It’s just not that easy. To grade cornerbacks you have to watch the tape and understand their responsibility in the respective schemes. On film you can see if their coverage was that good the opposing quarterback didn’t want to throw their way, what position they were in prior to the pass, how they competed when the ball was in the air and which plays they were responsible for giving up. After watching multiple games of the best corners in the league, I decided to rank the top ten at the position up to this point of the season. This is an evaluation over a span of ten weeks, not who I think are the best in general. So some guys who have proven over time they are worthy of a spot didn’t make the cut, because they haven’t played at the level they are capable of. Here’s my list:

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