After wide receiver, cornerback very well may be the second-deepest positional group in the draft. While there are nine cornerbacks in the latest PFF top-50 draft board, that doesn’t necessarily mean each one is going to be plug-and-play into your favorite team’s scheme. Here’s how I would break up the top of this year’s cornerback class schematically.
[Editor's note: Check out PFF's 2020 Post-Free Agency Mock Draft and NFL Draft Big Board. PFF Elite subscribers can also download the 1,100-page 2020 NFL Draft Guide.]
All-Around
These guys don’t have one scheme in particular that best suits their skillset. They can likely hold up in any role in any coverage and not look particularly out of place.
Jeffrey Okudah, Ohio State
While he’s listed as an all-around corner, Okudah really only played man coverage or cover-3 last year for Ohio State. We have him as playing 14 snaps in all of 2019 in a coverage that wasn’t man or cover-3. At 6-foot-1, 205 pounds with a wingspan over 6-foot-6 (longest of any defensive back at the combine), Okudah was built in a lab to play cornerback. His physical tools translate to anything you want to play.
Kristian Fulton, LSU
LSU went from a ton of cover-3 back in 2018 to a ton of press-man and quarters coverage this past season, and Fulton never missed a beat. He earned an 89.7 coverage grade in 2018 and then an 86.8 in 2019. He doesn’t possess great length to truly press at the line with a sub-6-foot wingspan, but he’s got the feet to execute any coverage.
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