NFL Draft Triple Take (CB), April 12, 2022

the one but significant first time around. We each gave you our top five candidates for drafting at the positions cornerback in terms of what we're talking about today, and this time around, we're giving you a riser, a faller,

and a sleeper. Now, I'm gonna go just a little bit out of order on this one because one of the dynamics that has developed as we've done these one of the characteristics is that Dale and Matt, who are each other's work wife, her husband, whoever you want to phrase that, they they performed so admirably together on the drive on s n R. They have often come up with the same guy this time around whatever, the same rise or the same fall or the same sleeper, but

this time, guys, we we completed the hat trick. We are are follower is unanimous, and he is uh darien. Yeah, Georgia, you want to lead us off and then we'll all just give a little insight as to why, oh my god, this guy played defense for the national champs and he's falling. How can this be? Yeah, he's he's won a lot of football games, He's been an integral part for a couple of teams. But he has some off the field things, you know that we're a worry before all this process.

I think playing on that awesome Georgia defense gives you some leeway too. It makes life a little easier when the pass rush is getting home like that. But you know, he didn't work out at the combine and ran a four seven five in the forty and his jumps were also pretty poor, so his tenure split was really slow too. I mean, it just was had a good workout for him at all. And is Matt mentioned that off the field stuff? I mean he got kicked out of Clemson,

asked to leave Clemson, and ended up at Georgia. Talk about going for like how does that happen? Like, oh, yeah, okay, we're gonna leave this national championship program to go to this one. Uh, you know, so good for him, but those times that that workout did not help him at all. And and uh he might have to move to safety. Yeah, it's interesting. You know, he was a wide receiver Clemson initially I think fifteen passes for their for their national

championship team. In team he eventually got kicked out. And the head coach Dabos when he says he loves them, and you know, it's just it's just something that happened. He doesn't hold it against the kid. Uh. Kirby smart raved about him. Uh, particularly after Georgia thump Michigan. He was the m v P of the Orange Bowl, the National Championship semi final, a couple of interceptions, but uh,

you mentioned those times. And you know, one of the things we've talked about a lot during these shows is that being great it's not as great as it usually is because there's so many freaks out there that have gone so far past what our normal standard is for being really impressed. This is not the year to be going the other way, particularly off the field. There's just too many people available that don't have bad times. That don't have a relatively checkered past, too many strikes against him.

You know, he needed he needed to run well to kind of alleviate some of those issues for the off the field stuff, and it just didn't happen. Day. Let's stick with you will do rise or second? Usually we lead off with that, but uh, well we'll take that second this time around. Who you got? I got Tarik wool in a Texas, San Antonio And and this is a guy again who caught my eye at a Senior Bowl. Uh. They were putting out a spreadsheet every day down there that they send out to the media of who were

the fastest guys. Uh. During the practices they had the trackers on them, and he ran like twenty three was a late was a late addition to the Senior Bowl. And I'm like, okay, I gotta start watching this guy. So I watched him in the next couple of practice, Like, wow, is he big? I didn't know how big? Six four two oh five and he had a four to six forty at the at the NFL scouting combine, he had a forty two inch vertical. You want to talk freaky athletes,

this guy might be the freakiest athlete in this entire draft. Um, now he's gonna be raw. Um you know U T. S A Is not a big time program. But man, you could take this guy in the in the you know, in that day two and and mold him a little bit and you're gonna have something there. Because at six four two oh five, to be that fast shouldn't be humanly possible. And they have a lot of those guys that are. They're really long striders, are really high cut

like sprinters, you know, like you saying bowl. But he can change direction and drop his hips. There's a lot to work with their Yeah, I'd like that, you know. I wasn't gonna overthink him. Six four two oh five, four point to six. I had him number five when we did the top five. Now, I think that was way higher than most people initially assessed this stuff, which is why I had relatively low hanging fruit from my riser.

I went with Roger McCreary of Auburn, who's a really good player, just missed cracking my top five, but uh, he's just checking the boxes as a lot of them are, just maybe not in an unprecedented fashion, but uh, really good football player. Got his forty down to four point four six at the Auburn Pro Day. Uh. The only thing I don't like about him is everybody keeps talking about this story how he child's baked beans with sugar.

That's his that's his favorite meal. And uh, I don't know if I want to be around him while he's eating it. I don't know if I want to be around him after he's eating He's sitting around the campfire, you know, like a blazing saddle style secret weapon on the field. But he he does not lack confidence and coming out of the SEC. Why would he because there have been many, many, many receivers coming out of the SEC last couple of years. He's seen them all. Yeah.

Good football player. Uh yeah. In this draft, if you didn't run a sub for four at the cornerback position, nobody's gonna talk about you. Matt. Uh you went up to a happy valley for your riser. Yeah. I almost went with Jalen Armar Davis from Alabama. Yeah, as I say it, But I went with another guy, a young man with three names here in three castro fields from Penn State. Um. I think he has some technique work to do. I think he's gonna, you know, need a

little bit of time. A boy he has traits. I mean he's six to almost two hundred pounds long, like he's built in a lab to play press man coverage. He's also flexible. We can go up and play the ball high pointed and he ran a four three forty And indeed, so I'll take my chances on developing him. This is becoming more of a thing, is it not. We're getting away from this guy had eighteen sacks, and we're getting more towards projecting what a guy with this height and this weight that runs an x x x

forty yard dash. We're getting more towards that part of it than we are the proven production, are we not? I think so. I mean especially this time of year. And I think that at times, that's when mistakes are made to you forget what you're watched on tape, you know, and you just kind of what have you done for me lately? Process at times, and I think there's some

mistakes made that way. But I also think analytics has something to do with it that if I see all these measurables and I've got ten years of data to look at, when my hit rates pretty good. I'm gonna stay in that lane. You know, it works out well when when both things mesh, when you have production and and that. But you look at the other way, I mean, why didn't he have any sacks? Why didn't he have any production? Because he has all these athletic traits, so

he goes both ways. Stay with you, Dale, interesting sleep where you came up with. Yeah, I'm gonna stay at the small school guys, kind of like I did with U. T. S A. I'm going to Sam Houston State from my sleeper cornerback as Ziam McCullum again, another good size cornerback six to one. He ran a four three three forty at the combine with a thirty nine inch vertical and

then at a three nine four twenty yards shuttle. Um. This is a guy who not only has those intangibles, the the athleticism, he had thirteen interceptions in college as well. I mean he's actually got production as well as measurables. Yeah, you know, but again it's a small school. He originally signed with Utah coming out of coming out of college or out of high school in in in Texas as a twin brother. The twin brother and he decided they wanted to stay closer to home. They're both I guess

they lined up at safety in high school. They were the two starting efeties and they're they're identical twin brothers. Go figure that out, uh, you know, trying to figure out that if you're a quarterback. So you know, they ended up going to Sam Houston State. And again it was a five year player there, which you're going to see a lot of those guys in this year's draft. But thirteen interceptions in five seasons, that's good. That's pretty good ball skills for me. Now you're keeping it in

the lone star state. Tell us about Marcus Jones from Houston. He is five eights exactly. He's not five eight and a quarter. Uh. He doesn't have long arms, he has a small hands. He's only a slot corner and we can you know, discuss, you know, what's a true slot worth in today's NFL. But everything else is about to say about him is awesome. I love this player. He is unbelievably twitchy, He has great feet, He is you know, designed to deal with the Edelman's and the Welker types

out of the slot. He is tough, he has great ball skills. Um, he's a valuable contributor on defense, but only in that role. But this is what I love about him. He's the best returner in the entire class. I mean, he has nine career return touchdowns and also will run down on punts and kickoffs. As a gunner. You know, he'll stick his face in the fire. Maybe his new team even hands him the football or gets

him on offense. I mean, this guy is a great football player, and I truly believe if he were six ft he might be a top ten day he were five ten, he might be. Right now, he just he just isn't. That's the only problem, right, he never will be. My sleeper is a Lante Taylor of Tennessee, a guy who at the start of the process people were wondering is he a corner or is he his safety? Well, he ran really well at Tennessee's pro day. Uh well,

actually in Indianapolis as well. Um six ft hundred and nine nine pounds, and one of his biggest backers throughout this offseason process has been Jim Nagy, who's the executive director of the Senior Bowl. He's seen a lot of these guys come and go. He says that Taylor. Nagy says, Taylor is inarguably the most innately physical corner available. Not I don't know if he's that, but he's physical and he can run it. So again, don't have to to

go too too far. Once you get into, uh, the portion of the draft where the sleepers are are being heard from, all the more reason to go with the measurables and and the you know, projections as opposed to the production. Not that he's a bad player at Tennessee binding stretch of the imagination, but I think as this process has continued, he's shown people he is a corner and he might be a pretty good one. Yeah, that's

a nice sleeper there. I think it is. If Nagy is his biggest supporter, Ramon and Foster might be his second biggest supporter, because well, anybody who went to Tennessee, that's you know, automatically the way that goes. Yeah, I'll never forget the one year Ramon showed up to camp and he had to tee the tennis See logo wheel covers and then he got he got out of the clippers. Yeah, come for you remote, you know what, forever that's gonna do it for quarterbacks. Probably not a moment too soon.

I was about ready to start singing the sport and fight song. I was getting so fired up. You can get all this stuff on all the Steelers social media platforms. Uh, thank you for finding us. We we appreciate it. If you've been with us all along, we really appreciate it. If you're new to the show, well we're happy about that as well. We're gonna keep doing it right up until Draft night, uh late April, the first round on a Thursday night, then rounds two and three on a Friday,

and then it finishes up on Saturday. And uh, if if you're not prepared as you need to be by then it's because well you just haven't been paying close enough attention. That's gonna do it for us. For Matt Williamson and Dale Lollly on Mike, pursuit of this has been still another edition to the NFL Draft Triple Take, presented by U P m C