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#4 2021 NFL Draft Prospect: Eric Stokes (Georgia)
6’ 0”, 185 pounds; RS JR
A former three-star recruit, Eric Stokes redshirted his first year in Athens. He saw quite a bit of action as a backup his debut season and has started all but one game these last two years. He didn’t have an interception his first two years with the Bulldogs, but nine passes broken up in each of them. This past season, he picked off four passes and took two of them back to the house, to go with four more PBUs, improving from second- to first-team All-SEC.
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Stokes came into 2020 without a whole lot of pop, because of his running mate Tyson Campbell, but he actually outplayed the fellow cornerback the whole season and outside of Patrick Surtain from Alabama, he was arguably the best cover-guy in the country.
Eric Stokes has the physicality, length and athletic ability to give receivers issues off the line and he does a great job of squeezing his man into the boundary. Plus, when receivers try to push off as they approach the sideline, he is quick to swat down the hands and make up that distance again.
He doesn’t show fear to get beat over the top and he has tremendous short-area quickness, to not allow separation on quick hitches, curls or slants. And you rarely see those chicken-wings or stabs at his chest get him off balance. Along with that, he can change up his technique in terms of two-handed press, soft press and press-bail.
On inside releases, he keeps his eyes locked on the hips of the receiver and stays in position as that guy makes his break. You rarely see him give up separation on deep post routes and he quickly gets his feet back underneath himself as his receiver hits the breaks, to keep that throwing window open for a minimal amount of time on routes back towards the quarterback.
Last season, people stopped trying to throw Stokes’ way at some point, but even when they did, he is as good as any corner out there running downfield with guys on the sideline and staying in phase, while being to find the ball over either side and adjusting to the back-shoulder of the receiver.
He covers plenty of ground on sideways shuffle in zone coverage, where he displays excellent awareness and toggles between routes, not giving quarterbacks a clear key to read. And when he becomes the hang defender in three-deep coverage, his eyes immediately go to the post.
Stokes covered LSU superstar (and my number one receiver) Ja’Marr Chase as well as anybody I saw in 2019, with the only catch he allowed coming off a scramble play, where the receiver actually ran a third round pretty much. After putting up solid numbers in coverage in 2019, he held receivers to 16 catches on 28 targets (300 coverage snaps) for 145 yards and one touchdown, while he came away with four picks himself, resulting in a measly passer rating of 43.6 when going his way.
Eric Stokes does not hesitate coming upfield and trying to bring down much bigger running backs, but at the same time, he is a very reliable tackle, breaking down in space and wrapping up with great consistency. That led to only one missed tackle last season. He has plenty of experience coming off the edge on any down and got involved in plenty of stops in the run game that way.
When you look at their measurements, Stokes simply isn’t in the same weight class as the three names ahead of him. He is not very strong in his jams and stabs, to dictate the stems of receivers and actually re-route them. And big-bodied wideouts at the next level could give him more some trouble with push-offs at the top and just physicality in their route-running altogether.
He also may not present the greatest ball-skills, dropping back-to-back would-be interceptions against Tennessee in 2019. At times I thought he got pushed around a bit by big receivers and I’d like to see him be more active with his hands and come off blocks quicker in general.
Nevertheless, he really increased his ball-production this past year and there’s really not much that he has put on tape that gives me any concerns. In terms of a cover-corners with great tape in a conference loaded with NFL receiving talent, only one other guy on this class outmatches Stokes (Surtain).
He just reportedly ran an unofficial 4.25 at his pro day (that would be impressive even the time was a tenth of a second off). So any concerns about his speed that some people may have had – which I didn’t, based on the film – are now gone. The guys in front of him may have a little better length, but Stokes is worthy of a late first-round pick in my opinion.
