NFL Draft Triple Take (CB), March 18, 2022

the Steelers social media platforms. But guys a lot of receivers and therefore a lot of quarterbacks, Matt is it's really that simple. The college game is taken care of what the NFL game needs. Yeah, am, And and and these guys are testing extremely well, just like the receivers. They're always seems like there's a wealth of corners coming in the league, but boy, they go quick and teams covet

this position and it's pretty obvious why. I mean, if you don't have three, you trust, you're doomed and you really should have four. Yeah, I agree. And this year's group is is interesting. Um, A lot of big guys, bigger like cornerbacks in this year's draft. I mean a lot of times. You see, you know a lot of the five ten, one ninety type size size guys this year, a lot of guys who were six one, six, two,

six three even deeper into the draft. And as we saw at the combine, guys, these guys can all run um. I don't know if it was the track. You know, they did replace the the the the surface at the at Lucas Oil Stadium, but everybody was running the sub four or five this year. Did they replace it with ice? They on skates every position? It seemed like that was that was something else of Quarter in particular. Dale's point really well well stated, not just fast, big and fast,

and you know what's better than fast? Big and fast? So let's get into what's available. We'll go through our top five as we have been doing, position by position. Dale, let's lead it off with you and uh care Elam of Florida. Yeah, he's got some NFL bloodlines. Good size didn't play quite as well last year as he had previously in his career, but again six and then ran a four three forty at the combine. I mean, big

and fast, what what what's not to like? I mean, you know, so there's a lot here to like, uh, you know, he's a nephew of Matt Elam, who was a safety with the UH with the Ravens, was a former first round draft pick. Um, you know, Elam's gonna be a guy who's who's very intriguing, you know, depending on where he goes. Is it related to the former great actor Jack Elam. I don't believe he is. I don't know if you remember him. He was underrated. I thought, anyway,

Matt your number five. Yeah. I was torn between m and Gordon for number five. Um. Gordon was rumored to be just a total freak show in terms of test thing, and he was fine. He wasn't amazing. But I heard some track nerds talking about it doesn't look like Gordon worked on his start at all. You know, so he plays fast tracks, would know? Yeah, right, you know, the boy his start needs a lot of work. Like, okay, I believe you whatever. Um, he's kind of the other

corner at Washington. I'm sure we'll get to his teammate here at some point. He could play inside outside, solid build, good size, you know. You know, so there's a lot to like here. I do think he's a very much a plus athlete and we'll make an impact early. Now. I I went for the freak Show at number five, and uh, we're talking about big and fast. I give you Tarik Woolen, University of Texas at San Antonio, six ft four, two hundred and five pounds four point to

six in the forty. I am here to tell you I have not seen this kid play a snap of football. But did I mentioned six ft four, two hundred five pounds four point to six. He's a former wide receiver. UM teach them how to play corner. He's six foot four, two five piles. I don't know if you guys heard this or not. He runs a four point six. I knew he was gonna be fast, Mike, because they had those mile per hour trackers on on those guys at the Senior Bowl, and he ran like twenty three four

or five. Yeah, when it was counting, and so I mean that kind of you know, then you start watching him a little bit and you're like, okay, there's some there's some traits there. You do worry about the you know, when you get that big, I mean that's just extreme size. You worry about some of the change of directions and stuff. But I don't know if anybody's going to outrun him down the sideline and then be able to catch the ball over top of him because of that length. For

number four, we all took Andrew Booth of Clemson. Matt, we'll let you speak for the group here since we're unanimous, but uh, I really like this gets physicality among other things. Yea, and because the school he's at, you know, he wasn't a three year starter or whatever. He kind of took over this year, um and in somewhat of a work in progress. But he is a piece of clay that is very mouldible. I mean he's six foot, he's almost

two hundred pounds, very long. He's fine in zone. But he's the type of guy you want impressman corps, you know as impressman coverage, which is what every team's after right now. I think a defensive backcode would just love to get ahold of Booth and uh follow this under great minds think alike. We're also uh unanimous in our number three cornerback prospect that that would be the fforementioned Trent McDuffie from Washington Dale. How did the Washington lose

a game this year? Pretty good? Apparently, people could run all over him, Mike, because the cornerbacks were both are both like they'll be gone by the middle of the second round, both of them, you know, so I would assume it was difficult to throw the football on them. McDuffie's a three year starter at Washington, ran a four or four four forty at the combine, so he got the you know, you've got the everything that you want there. He allowed sixteen receptions in eleven games this past season,

six and eleven games. I mean it's just, uh, nobody threw at him, and when they did, they had a trough, tough time completing it. Uh. And that was with you know, two NFL cornerbacks on the field, so lots of light there. He's not quite as big as the other guys. He's five eleve them, but that's more than big enough. Real quick on McDuffie. He's a nasty old guy man. I mean, he kind of has some of that Mike Hilton edge to him, but bigger and more athletic. They blitz him

out of the salot a lot. I mean, he's a very aggressive tackler. I mean he brings a little you know, nastiness to him and he's like Mike Hilton, smart enough that you can move him around and he'll Yeah, they could definitely play the slot. Yeah right away. Little uh side notes, since so we just mentioned to uh Washington guys. At least Matt did Husky Stadium outstanding place to catch a college football game. I actually saw the Steelers play

out there. They were when they were repairing the Kingdom in the nineties. But what what an environment for college football. Not only to get to see great corners, but it's right all the water and uh Mountaineer in the distance, you know, to the kind of person likes to travel around and see different things. Check that out anyway, I digress number two. Uh, we've we're all in agreement on two and one, but uh, I've got it in a little bit of a different order than you guys do.

I took him on. Gardner from Cincinnati is my number two. Matt and Dale have decided that Derek Stingley Jr. From l s U is uh the number two prospect available. Um. I don't dislike h. Gardner. I just like Stingley better. Uh, Matt, why did Stingley come up to on your list? Yeah? I think Stingley has a chance to be the best corner in the league. I mean, or and clearly the best corner in this class. And I probably dinged him a little because he's been out of sight, out of

mind a little, you know. I mean, he may use Pro Day and just be unbelievable, and they had issues at l s U this past year, but he really hasn't been a phenomenal player with phenomenal tapes since him and Joe Burrow were winning national championships, which was a couple of years ago, when he was just an utterly dominant nineteen year old player. Um, I think you're kind of splitting hairs. But it's just Gardener has done more

good stuff recently, you know. Um you mentioned the l s U days, and during the combine they threw up some tape from l s U practices back in the day and it was uh Stingley against Jamaar Chase, and Stingley was more than holding his own. And I saw that and I said, you know what, I don't care what the last two years. If he if he gets over to Liz Frank Surgery and everything checks out on Pro Day, that's my guy. Because Jamar Chase has gone on to be a pretty good receiver in the NFL,

and Stingley was for him three years ago. Yet I apologize, but he has some of that dion reevous arrogance, slash baiting quarterbacks. You know, maybe I don't love tackling so much, you know, but you know those rare corners that just know they're great. Yeah, and you look at him. I mean, he doesn't turn twenty one until June um so you're still getting a twenty year old player who's not a ton of experience there. But the experience that he had again in in in two thousand nineteen, he was their

best guy maybe in their whole defense that season. It just hasn't He just hasn't shown to be that guy the last two seasons, largely because of the Liz Frank injury last year. Yeah, it's you know, it's not an insignificant track that he's been on. But you get that guy, right, and you're not gonna find a better one day. Let's uh stick with you. Uh to wrap it up and talk about the Sauce Gardner from by the way, and I'll write up I refused to call him sauce. You

can't have a nickname till you getting the league. Oh you can if if if your pee wee coach gave it to you, which is what happened with Sauce Gardner. I mean, so it's not like it's this isn't this isn't a situation where he gave himself the nickname. This is not Jack Rabbit Jenkins. You know, you've been in the league for twenty five years and then all of a sudden, you you change your name to Jack Rabbit. Um, this is a you know, he's it's a he's a

good football player. Six three one nine. Uh, just everything that you want in terms of size. Nine career interceptions in thirty three games, uh, six point six yards of catch last season, never allowed of in in a thousand and fifty nine snaps in college coverage, did not allow a touchdown. Let that sink. In his entire college career, he did not allow a touchdown. I don't care if he's playing our sisters of the poorer. Um, this guy

is really good. He is and to your point there Day, I mean, didn't have the greatest level of competition, but it became pretty clear that every opponent that Cincinnati, he said, why on earth would I throw at him, and they threw it another guy. It's gonna drafted Kobe Bryant, who spelled a little different but named after the basketball star. And that wasn't necessarily a smart move either, But that's how much they fear Gardner. Yeah, Bryant won the Jim

Thorpe A Word Award as the top defensive back. But I think Gardner is the guy who's gonna go first among those two and maybe amongst all the cornerbacks we shall see. That's gonna do it for our analysis the quarterback position. I wanna remind everybody that you can catch all of these types of programs on all of the Steelers social media platforms. Thank you for finding us this time, however, and wherever you found us, we're gonna do it again

real soon. Until then, for Matt Williamson and Dale Loali, I'm Mike. Pursuit of this has been the NFL Draft Triple Take, presented by you P m C