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As the 2020 college football season winds down, 2021 NFL Draft talk will heat up. Here are the top five cornerbacks in college football, a group of future NFL Draft prospects.
Just missed the cut: Asante Samuel Jr. (Florida State), Jack Jones (Arizona State) & Shakur Brown (Michigan State)
1. Patrick Surtain (Alabama)
Surtain was already an SEC All-Freshman selection by league coaches and he become Bama’s top corner in years, despite having Trevon Diggs and others around him.
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What stands out about him off the snaps is how patient he is and if anything he forces receivers to give away what they are doing with fake jams, to force them to get into their release early and from that point on he just reads the hips of the receiver.
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At 6’1”, slightly 200 pounds, he is physical when carrying receivers downfield and he excels at taking away space towards the sideline. The Crimson Tide coaches ask him to play a ton of man, travelling into the slot for certain matchups, and to be honest, his tape is almost boring to watch, because opposing teams just don’t throw his ways. He has several reps, where he perfectly stays in phase and at best teams can try a 50-50 ball.
Against Ole Miss earlier this season, he gave up one slant for 10 yards the entire game and they threw at him like two more times. Like all Alabama corners, Surtain wants to get involved as a tackler. I would say the two things that he’s not great at is getting into face-guarding down the field too much at times and receivers can beat him to the inside if they get him to buy the initial outside stem, since he doesn’t have elite short-area quickness.
Also check out: Complete 2018 NFL Draft Results
2. Eric Stokes (Georgia)
As great as Surtain has been this season, Stokes has been tested more and that’s why you kind of see more of his brilliance.
Coming into 2020, fellow CB Tyson Campbell got most of the attention, but Stokes has outplayed him all year. He has all the tools and physical style of play to give receivers problems off the line and he does a great job of squeezing his man into the boundary. Just running with guys and staying attached to them, while being able to track the ball or work to the back-shoulder, is textbook. He can change up with his approach in different types of press, including press-bail technique in three-deep zone coverage.
Stokes shows no fair of getting beat over the top and he has excellent short-area quicks to contest quick hitches and slants. I’d like to see him come off blocks earlier and knock the hands away, but his ball-production has really increased, including making his first three career interceptions this season.
3. Derek Stingley Jr. (LSU)
Stingley came out as a freshman and was the best corner in the whole SEC, despite of how stacked the talent is at that position.
He intercepted six passes and deflected another 15. Nobody played more press man-coverage in 2019 than LSU did.
Stingley uses a soft approach for the most part, where he rarely opens up his hips prematurely and he is very physical with denying free access to the inside. Countering vertical routes, his ability to turn and find the ball whilst staying engaged with the receivers is special, plus then he has elite ball-skills and leaping ability to come down with the ball himself.
He had two phenomenal INTs against Georgia in the SEC title game for example. The only receiver that really won the battle against him in 2019 was Alabama’s DeVonta Smith, who to be fair, has been the top receiver in all of college football this season.
I would say overall the more advanced route-runners can give him a little bit of trouble, because of the way they can test his reaction to hesitation releases and body language (Florida’s Van Jefferson last year for example), but as far as the 2022 draft goes, he’ll be as perfect a CB prospect as we’ve had in a while.
He missed the 2020 season-opener and hasn’t gotten much ball-production yet, but opposing teams have been able to take advantage of the rest of that defense quite a bit.
4. Jaycee Horn (South Carolina)
The son of former Pro Bowl receiver Joe Horn, Jaycee already had a solid two years for South Carolina, but he has really jumped onto the scene this year.
The Gamecock coaches have asked him to travel with the opposing team’s top receiver for the most part and he has given those guys a lot of trouble with his physicality and the ability to stay square as long as possible, while being to pivot quickly and work around targets.
He completely shut down Auburn’s Seth Williams in their matchup earlier this season outside of one 50-50 ball downfield, where he kind of tripped, including breaking up three passes towards the end-zone and him picking off two more, putting out some absolute clinic tape.
He has since decided to sit out the remainder of the season in order to prepare for the 2021 draft, because his team didn’t really have anything to play for, but not before intercepting his first two career passes and knocking down another six.
Horn has a tendency of a getting a little grabby at the break point and he doesn’t look overly comfortable in off coverage, with a pretty high pedal is rather and therefore needing some time to come out of it.
5. Shaun Wade (Ohio State)
Wade almost exclusively lined up in the slot last year with two first-round corners in the 2020 draft on the roster (Jeffrey Okudah & Damon Arnette), recording four INTs and 14 more passes broken up over his first two years, to go with four TFLs as a sophomore, but he has transitioned more to the outside in 2020.
Not only does he have the length and muscular frame to do it, but he is also very fluid at flipping his hips, where his acceleration and long speed are both excellent.
Wade has played a lot of press-man and covered shallow zones, with the ability breaking any direction when playing nickel, but also stays on top of vertical routes in cover-three. I think you see the football IQ in his ability to quickly decipher route patterns and break on them.
However, what I loved most about his 2019 tape in particular was how aggressive he was working through blockers and stopping screens and outside runs, while also being a highly dependable open-field tackler. In press, he still needs to learn how to actually stun receivers by landing jams inside their chest and I wanted to see him make some more plays on the ball when both he and his receiver have a chance at it.
If you enjoyed this content, I would really appreciate if you could check out the original full piece - https://halilsrealfootballtalk.com/2020/12/12/top-five-college-players-at-every-position-defense-edition/
