Chris Simms' 2021 NFL Draft cornerback and safety rankings | Chris Simms Unbuttoned Ep. 252 (FULL)

so like i i'm gonna watch this weekend yeah i did not fill out a bracket okay um is that rare for you it is rare tomorrow oh it's tomorrow wow so they changed it okay so i still might do it okay yeah that's right it's a football podcast but we talk sports we talk b-ball all right and i wish i didn't do my bracket because i did it and it looks real shitty hello this is chris sims unbutton and this is paul burmeister hey what's up man how you doing uh yeah sorry you made me realize yeah yes it wasn't that night right so i did do it the very next morning dan patrick show was they were blowing me up oh you got only you got an hour to send it in hurry up how bad is it i i like it's horrible i think i had virginia in the final four i think i also had illinois in the finals did you have my hawkeyes i had your hawkeyes making like a maybe a sweet 16 i think a final eight yeah right i mean big ten basketball homie crack balls back yeah yeah no i mean i'd like to that would be a job i'd like to have how can i see the ncaa tournament i could have seen it just as well as they did i mean do they feel good after that weekend going wait all the teams we thought that were one two and three seeds got beat by a bunch of you know seven eight and 12 seeds and things like that yeah that's why that's why it's impossible my youngest son threw something at me he said did you know that you have a better chance pick every beach in the world of of locating one pebble like you're going to pick one pebble that you selected before better chance of doing that than having a perfect bracket in the ncaa i would imagine so unless i ended up watching a lot this weekend i didn't expect to i did you know just live sports see any of it the finality of it you know the desperation i did go okay this is like this is better than i was expecting even though there's no fans and bands and all right it was cool my texas team is done i mean we suck at sports at texas i don't know what else to say maybe it's karma for our messed up school fight song which also bothers me just going to throw that out we have that in common both of our schools went down in the tournament yeah and we're both wearing navy today some similarities right running through right but you don't have a fight song that's got some weird uh racial undertones do you no yeah you don't know but we do we do and i don't like that aspect of my school right now i'm not happy with them from that angle or our sports i mean football basketball i mean we're just we're irrelevant so that's that but we got a good one today yeah talk about football yep i've been watching a ton of football uh you have to i mean safeties and corners i was thinking about what a massive challenge it is to rate this group yeah and i love comparisons yeah so let's say the nfl season full swing right we have like 14 games to get ready for if we're here on a monday yeah compare that workload and that prep to watching all the safeties in corners yeah um this is probably more of an intense work right and it's a weird year this year too you know again i'm not like i call my friends in the nfl and go give me your rankings or give me your ti i don't do that i don't do any of that i release my rankings and then i tell my friends after most my friends are like that anyways they want to see my rankings first before we have a discussion about it right so um but this year's weird and the fact of i like to have a list of guys right just a reference point not to say that i'm going to agree with how they're listed or anything like that but the the lists are all over the place this year aren't they they're all over the place and that has made it even worse for me because now i don't trust it so i'm uh let me watch five more guys let me watch 10 more guys because i've seen guys that are i'm going this guy's not in the top 20 he's top three like there's no question you know i thought like i told you before we started diamond brown from north carolina i looked at one list he wasn't on the first page a wide receiver seems impossible yeah it is impossible because i could tell you since i released that rankings i've had a lot of teams already feedback to me and going hey he's pretty damn good you're right we're he's a first rounder so that's that but i that's where he got stressed out so it just is a never-ending thing right now to where i'm going you know whoa okay let me watch a few more oh man this guy was 17th on here he's damn good i don't know what's 25 look like and it's just gone never-ending rabbit never-ending and i got more notebooks and crap here and i'm all over the place but i'm excited about it and it's a good group as far as i like the the safeties a lot there's a lot of good safeties in this draft corners i think the top end group is pretty damn good um i'm not blown away by the top end group but but it it i think there's a drop off after the top end group significantly with the safeties i went down the line and went i mean man this guy's my number eight or nine safety but i mean if i talked to a coach and he told me he was number five safety for them i wouldn't go oh you're just so stupid that's crazy it's a it's a good group of safeties before we get into the corners first as you kind of alluded to a lot of reaction to what you did with a wide receiver sure and how you had them ranked i want to hit a couple of questions there cool so for your 2021 draft rankings let's begin with the real josh kang rashad bateman isn't a great athlete 6-2 2-10 random four three nine sounds all right to me yeah route running on par with devante smith i don't know about that i respect sims a lot but i really disagree here where'd you have him ranked well i like him he's one somewhere in that seven to ten range there's just not enough pure physical ability there i mean hey that's a good question and there's a lot of things i like about this guy but you know again go back and tell me how much impressive yak you see or just straight beating a guy over the top with pure speed you know again he's going to have a really good role in the nfl and everything like that his tape does not show 439 speed and here's another thing we're going to dispel here throughout this process 439 speed at your pro day ain't 439 speed at the combine there's a difference there in fact you can add a tenth maybe a tenth you know 0.15 to that you know that's the general rule and that's why a lot of guys you see every year don't run at the combine because ooh i'm a little worried about what my number might be here let me go to my environment now where there's human error because someone's hitting it instead of a laser at the end so if you see 439 that's 449. there's no doubt that's four four nine every coach in football is gonna go that's a tenth below that so uh again he's a real good player i'm not trying to knock him he's gonna have a legit role in the nfl he's got a little inside outside value but he's more of an inside big slot type guy and yeah i just don't think it's a he's a pure elite specimen as i'm talking about some of these other guys staying in the big ten it's nice that you mentioned how pro day 40 times are a little bit scared rondale moore yesterday bump jazz says does rondae almost rondale morris 40 time change things unofficially 4.29 i mean it makes me feel good because i want rondell moore the guy i saw my the freshman year as a special special player i mean that guy is a first round pick the problem is the last two years of film don't show that guy because of the injuries and everything he's had to deal with there would you have him so i mean as far as listing them it was a hard list i didn't i nowhere in the top seven or eight or nine at that point no you know this is one where yeah you'd have to go through it and put him some through some vigorous you know workouts and see where he is physically he does have first round talent you know even though he ran great and if he continues to have workouts that are great i still think after two years of being injured and being a smaller guy there's no way he climbs back into the first round but he could be that guy where you know next year we sit here and go you know he was picked in the third round and look he's healthy and he's a superstar or a weapon in the nfl right now i don't deny that anyway but all i can do is go buy the film listen if i had personal workouts and got to know the guy maybe i'd feel differently about it but just the film the last two years is is a little too underwhelming all right prospect rundown presented by applebee's 2021 draft corner rankings what up applebee's yeah look at you yeah you know you know i don't know if you've heard but i'm kind of a big deal around here i guess so no i'm not let's begin actually by taking a peek at last year's okay top five corners yeah and we're always learning we're always thinking about ways and what we did last time how can you help us for this time uh you had you were a little bit more down on jeff okuda than some others you liked aj tyrell more than some others what's something from last year's evaluation of corners that you applied to this year's kind of as a note to thyself about how to be better at it i i think first off i like my rankings right there i'm not going to lie i mean cj henderson and aj tyrell had better years than jeffrey yakuta that's not even close i'm just sorry okuda's year was very underwhelming for all the reasons i said coming out in the draft you know there was a lot of good top five pick no it was you know the technique and all that was perfect but the one thing i'll always take away from corners and just a reminder this year again i i want to see pure raw ability that's what corner is about it's pure raw ability yeah i know interceptions are cool and he's got tackles and whoa he can play zone coverage that's great but when times get tough in the nfl and you need a you know big stops or your defensive players to be special you need a guy that you can go wait you you you cover that guy who runs 4-3 wherever he goes right and we'll we'll work on all the other stuff we can work on zone coverage and tackling and things like that so uh that's where i always keep in mind with with this just going going into it don't get enamored with you know again the headlines the chatter and i want to see this is a position specifically i mean really really specifically where i i got to see raw explosiveness you know and not to get too carried away sometimes with technique and this is another one too because i got a guy on this list who's got some underwhelming film of time to where i go wait what he does and what they ask him to do in this defense we could bring back darrell rivas and it's going to be some struggles here this is not fair to do to the guy and you got to keep that in mind too just like when a quarterback has nobody open you can't find the quarterback you know the same thing here with the db so sorry for that long answer but hopefully that answered it i asked people to send me some questions yesterday knowing we're going to talk about cars and safety good one here when i was thinking about what are you looking for in a typical cornerback at chris voltman asks is it more important to be an excellent man corner since it's somewhat of a skill you have to have to be born with you pointed that out a time ago or is being competent in zones more important since it comes down to a lot of awareness and i like that word which is harder to teach once you've been drafted yeah no i mean i i think the the the speed the explosiveness is the harder thing you can teach a guy you know awareness with good coaching not that it you know maybe he doesn't catch up to that guy who does have great awareness in that that department but again i'm not drafting a really good zone corner in the first round i i'm not you know i'm you're going again first round is about elite traits things that these guys do where you go whoa you know he's not perfect but he's got these one or two things that are really special and like nobody else in the draft can do that and to me again that's where it goes to man zone coverage is great i'm all for zone coverage the problem is in big plays and big situations zone coverage in the nfl just ain't going to get it done against the good offenses and good quarterbacks we had this discussion a lot you play zone every play against tom brady and aaron rodgers they're going to get into the right play and the receivers as much as they play are going to find the hole in the zone and they're going to pick you apart that way you know at when you look at the really good defenses for the most part when it becomes big time plays or like we talked about during the season it's a third and four and it's a must-have down you can't play zone on that the good quarterback's a five-yard completion they got 75 different ways to get a five-yard completion against zone coverage you're gonna have to have some studs that go no i'm gonna get in this guy's face and you're gonna throw into a really tight close window and i might get a hand on it knock the ball in the air and do those type of things that to me is what we're looking for here when we're ranking corners uh as far as that's concerned all right ranking corners of this class you already said i have a question right here overall thoughts you already said that you like the class but don't love it yeah when it comes to corners so we're going to go from the from the lower ranking to the top right top five here for this group so at number five who do we have well oh well yeah but we going five here or six this one here i think that we have i have five listed here if you would like to oh yeah no you're right you're right i wasn't sure if we were gonna add who just just off the bat we have six for safeties we have six for safety yeah did i mess up maybe maybe i messed up and sent pete the wrong text message okay either way let me see your list for five and six just like you know right yeah we're we're going real right here okay on this pulling back the curtain yes no so you're looking at the safeties there yes and that number six is a is um is a is a corner right so that's where we're messed up a little bit okay okay marco wilson right right this is live tv that's okay here we go so it doesn't matter marco wilson either way let's just hit on him okay before we let up the graphic he's a guy that deserves at least to be mentioned he's number three for florida he's a really good corner i mean smooth you know has really good hips you know can move in and out of transition really well where he's not in the top five for me is just because there's a little bit of a lack of burst or closing on the ball as compared to maybe the top five guys we're gonna talk about here but marco wilson i'm just glad we got to talk about him a little here because i do think he deserves to be talked about in the conversation you know of the top corners in the draft there's no doubt borderline first round talent at the very least i look at it and go there's no way he's on the board past 45. he had six in round one last year right so i could see that i mean again guys that are elite that can cover true elite athletes man-to-man they don't grow on trees that's a special special group of people and he is one of those guys that was asked to do that in college and did it at a really high level just not quite to the level of these guys and what i think pete got confused with is number five safety is a guy from florida too so maybe that got confused a little bit but marco wilson you know i like a lot about his game and really out of these top corners i'm going to talk about maybe has the best nickel value too because changing your direction and flipping hips is real and you know wait kristen why don't i just stand up right now and explain hips a little bit just to people a little all right i mean just so she can widen out here all right but like i'm going to talk a little bit about some guys who just got greasy really great hips and they can do this and flip to this or they can be in this angle and then it's just really natural that way we got other guys sometimes who are you know it's it's more like this and then it's okay wait i gotta go this way okay let me do that and i'm more of a straight liner right where we get to the top corners in this draft you know they can be like this and now somebody cuts this way and they're in a real good wide base and they can just open up and continue to go right so anybody that's wondering what hips are that's what i'm talking about and hopefully you're watching on youtube rather than just going what the hell is chris sims doing as i'm listening right now um so if he's a good nickel corner does that mean he can cover the slot definitely no doubt about it and i think that's really probably you know he can do both yeah he's got the size to do both he does i just think there's a little lack of top end speed and burst out of his break maybe compared to some of these other guys we're going to talk about here in a second that just makes him number six and on the edge of a first round talent for for my money at least getting us to number five we go to the pac-12 from stanford paulson adibo paulson adibo was a really fun watch okay he didn't play last year so that's the great thing about this year's draft too it's like wait no this guy didn't play let me go back to 2019 and watch it's kind of annoying which is which i've talked about a little bit but i think the first thing i'm going to say about adibo that is really like maybe has the best ability to get out of trans and when i say transition being in a back pedal being a okay i'm i'm i'm in a sprint and being able to stick his foot in the ground like we see great wide receivers do and have no wasted steps stick the foot in the ground the guy runs a 15 yard out route and he can just boom put it in the ground and really accelerate to the football okay that's where he is really special i mean and might be he's on par with really the top two or three guys in the draft as far as that's concerned i would think he'd be higher than fifth because that's a pretty important quality it is it is a really important quality now he has a little bit of that hip stiffness we talked that we just talked about he is a hair of a straight liner now what i do like about this guy is if you decide to play him at free safety or something like that at some point in his career he can do awesome to me out of all the good corners here now this guy is a kamikaze missile he will hit you he comes downhill at a million miles per hour and again i'm not all about like tackling for corners where it's an essential thing but there's a physicality element to his game especially in like the short passing game you know screens half back tosses where he's gonna have real value as far as that's concerned isn't that even more important now with all the catch quick release out to a tyree kill or somebody where these guys have to tackle more than maybe there's no doubt you're you're not gonna get away with just being a pure cover guy all the time this day you know 2021 nfl there's no doubt there's real bad and there's some teams that are going to value that right more than others like you know the pittsburgh sealers they're probably a team that's going to go you know yeah we're the steelers we tackling is important for us at corner we do all these zone blitzes and things like this so we leave guys in areas where like you got to make the tackle we can't have some cover corner where it's like oh i don't really want to tackle him oh he ran through my arm tackle right they don't want that but that's where i think you know it is really good his ability to accelerate his no wasted foot movement in and out of brakes and things like that is really really special and it's elite i mean it it really is and then you know his ability to close is real good as well now yeah like i talked about if he has to flip his hips and do things like that it's not as smooth as some of the other guys we're going to get to you know here in a second and really when i broke them down you talk about the hips a little bit being tight and you know maybe a hair too aggressive when you really watch him on film the only time he gets beat was with double moves but that's because he's so good at getting out of brakes and stuff he's going to drive on the ball and make a play on it so he is amazing at closing the gap between those receivers they make an out route he's in the back pedal and he can come downhill and like the really good corners in this draft too this is the other thing that he does really well he can play off or man-to-man bump like he can play off and be very effective that way where okay he's in a back pedal he's back pedaling the guy runs a curl route and boom he can close on in a hurry he's really good at that of course he can bump and turn and go because of his good straight speed but there is a little bit of a there's where there's a little bit of a wasted step because of like i say the hips being a hair more of a straight liner again i'm being picky these are top athletes of the world it's still really damn good but i'm a big fan of paul cena debo debo i hope i'm saying that correctly uh he's a baller and he was fun to watch do you think it's a team by team value of how much they think it's important to be able to do the off and the bump i think that or is that universal like we got to have that no matter what the team is no i don't think it's i think it's just it's it's it's a plus not all great man-to-man corners are good playing off coverage they're not you know you could look at almost like marcus peters likes to play off he likes to okay you're coming at me i got greasy hips and good feet i don't care i'll be able to match it and do those type of things right where then there's like marlin humphrey where he might not be quite as good at that so he gets in your face and he's going to go no i'm going to make you earn every yard of this i like to just get there and you know have i have a little bit more of a pure straight line speed to where guys like marcus peters who their speed's good but it's not wow they can protect themselves by being off a little bit too so i don't know if teams necessarily value it any more or less it's kind of more just like icing on the cake if they can do both i guess is what i would say getting us to number four from central florida aaron robinson yeah aaron robinson like is like uh uh it's it's it's an intriguing film okay he would be the guy i'm talking about where he was put in some positions where i go i don't care who you are i don't know how you're going to succeed here what kind of position well just being in the nickel covering the slot with no help at any time just like hey it's you against this guy and you're not going to have a safety that's going to help you on the inside or a safety that's going to help you on the outside and we're going to run pick plays underneath and we expect you to cover them and it's just like you know yeah there's going to be some players there where guys are going to get catches it's just too hard but like the pure ability again is amazing he's one of those guys where i look in some place and go yeah that guy caught it okay that guy caught it he got beat off the line of scrimmage but holy cow did he close the gap after he got beat and that quarterback was lucky to get that completion in there you know he's a little bit of a raw specimen as far as when it comes to technique he's just kind of doing it with pure ability and when you get to see him play outside corner you go watch out this is a bad man pajama i mean he is first off he does like to tackle too all right uh that but but i think he's a real island cornerback and when you see him get to play outside and use the boundary to his advantage a little bit man he's got great jam and physicality at the line of scrimmage and then i think his speed is really what jumps out to me you know i think he's probably a high four three guy like nfl combine 543 you might see 4-2 at a pro day something like that it's that type of speed and of course has length that's 6-1-193 so he should be an outside corner he's got the ability to play inside corner i think it was one of those things where ucf said this is a tough position you're the best player in our defense so we're going to let you do it and good luck exactly right so there's going to be some underwhelming plays but you've got to you got to look past that it's like aj tyrell last year aj tyrell from clemson yeah my number two db in the draft people were going did you see jamar chase catch those balls in the national champion and i said yeah i also saw aj tyrell in his hip pocket now yeah he caught it joe burrow made great throws jamar chase is amazing but he didn't outclass aj tyrell if we're talking this is the number one best receiver in college football this guy was right by him so let's not forget that aspect and i think sometimes that gets lost in translation too where they go he lit up a catch and did this right and i'm going the guy's a freaking nature and he was all over him yeah i think it probably helped you a lot to watch tyrell go up against somebody like jamar chase really gave you real conviction to how much you liked him because he's up against a potential future top five kind of pick there's no doubt but you have aaron robinson now central florida i i hear you maybe he didn't go against someone even that close to good so how do you get the conviction on this guy when he might not have gone up against a high pick the entire no i i hear you there's there's you know i try to look for teams with speed at receiver like so i go to the houston game houston's got some guys at receiver we talked about one of them on the last podcast um i'm blanking on his name pete what's that damn houston receiver number five uh he can he can fly um it's killing me but with his name he can fly okay marquez stevenson thank you pete right i look for that kind of stuff to go with wait i know this guy can fly like he's got legit kind of like ted gin type speed let me see what he looks like when he's matched up against him and he's not out class at all and there was a few other guys in that game too that i go this guy can run whoa you know because i'm watching them next to marquez stevenson going they're both running go routes and they're at the same level and i see too many plays too again where he's in the slot the guy's running a crossing route and yeah he's getting beat by a yard or two but now the ball's in the air and he's all over it or he does get picked a little bit and the guy catches it but gets zero yards after that he closed on him when the ball was in the air so he caught it and he thinks they're thinking whoa we gotta pick play and he's gonna run up the sidelines no you got a three yard gain because this guy's all over it sounds like you're describing a first-round talents definitely at corner teens or 20s the more likely i think probably more like yeah late teens to the 20s that that area kind of range but you know i mean he you know he really you remember you remember like he's a bigger generous jenkins okay that's what i would say that's sort of some of the movement remember al harris or the the green bay packers yeah i saw a lot of that and maybe it's the hair he's got this long hair that also looks like that um but again i think he's a guy that was a little bit played out of position because he was doing a solid for the defense and i think the the talent is real and i just want to make sure i hit everything because he's a twitchy as hell you know he's playing the toughest position on their defense and you know he's great at the line of scrimmage like i talked about not only just with jamming but even mirroring guys like when guys are making all these moves he cuts them off at every which way and that is impressive too and like i said there's if somebody coaches him a little bit and gives him a little more technique you know this is a guy i go and go watch out he's a legit nfl island corner and be able to match up with anybody not exactly a household name so it's good to get to know him that way with all that detail the player we have at three of the player you have at three certainly is a household name from alabama patrick certain the second or certain you definitely hear them both saw him yesterday depending on when you're listening to it that was tuesday at the alabama pro day he ran again pro day times uh he was in i believe in the low four fours right uh but tell us about why you have him at three well i know that this is going to be the one this is my jeffrey akuda this is my jeffrey okuda because it's common to see him at one or two right and i really like that again let's i'm not trying to say that this kid's a player i mean he's player i like this kid better than jeffrey okuda last year just to tell you that right okay so you know there there's a lot to love and again you know look six two if you're watching here 6-2 208 39-inch vertical 131 you know inch broad jump 18 reps on 225 and then 442 at 208 like that's that's impressive as hell now that's real deal whole wheat field i love that now again we're going to go back to the four four two it's not a four four two you know at your pro day that is not a four four two that is a combine four or five two four five for you that's a four or five two and you know the other thing i'll say too here is you know there's really not a lot to nitpick about this guy's game you know size you know really great feat for his size he's really good in and out of breaks like we talked about can stick his foot in the ground he's got loose hips i mean he's got real great hips that way but the speed is to me a little bit that's where he's number three for me okay again you know we're talking about this guy's a baller he is but you know if i put him out on the edge against the elite wide receivers in football who can really go let's you know the tyre reeks the odell's of the world those kind of guys i would worry about his ability to be able to jam them turn and run with those guys okay that would bother me a little bit so again i really like them but i think that's what just bothers me is just the pure raw explosiveness is not up to par with these next two guys we're going to talk about here in a second comparisons are real helpful this time of year especially with somebody that was his teammate recently right trivond diggs yeah from alabama right pick of the cowboys that's right i forget what round like it's pretty early i think you're going to go in the second round but there's i know there's a lot of teams that had him as a first round db right for sure compare those two and what do you see yeah i think that he's a better player than diggs he is you know maybe diggs had a little bit better of a straight line speed um but it's not by much but i think certain everything he does at the line of scrimmage again the ability to flip his hips and do all that the size he's he's a notch above trevon diggs this guy's a this is a top 15 pick for sure right i'm saying that there's no doubt he's that kind of player so uh there is a difference there thinking about 10 thinking about the cowboys in jim chow with a good question on twitter for me at number 10 overall should the cowboys pair certain with diggs it makes sense it does and it also makes sense within their scheme right they play the seattle scheme you know and again they just drafted dan quinn's the d coordinator of the cowboys he just drafted aj tyrell you know this guy has man-to-man attributes i don't think he's as purely physically gifted as aj terrell was coming out of clemson again i'm a guy that maybe overvalues the team that they just go you take that mofo there you take him and then we'll do other stuff over here and that to me also is a little inkling as i look into things you know certain they didn't always trust him on the islands against the greatest receivers there wasn't alabama there's more zone coverage on that defense than i i expected as i've watched through their film and stuff like that so i think that's that is always a little bit of a context clue to me a little bit new this year i feel like it was a little bit more new this year as compared to other years i've watched you know they've had so many good db's come out of there and everything like that um but but again i mean he's a specimen there's no doubt about that he is going to the bigger receivers in football he's gonna give them a legit tough time the t higgins of the world and you know who else whatever you you guys got my drift the bigger receivers he's gonna be able to run with them move with them and not be out physically by them either i just worry about the after burners in football the guys who can really go the terry mclarens those kind of guys the dk metcalf i don't know if he can run with those guys and that's what would bother me just a little bit when it comes to him i think it's important to point out because people are going to see that you have him at three instead of one or two and be like oh how can he do that you just said you think he's a top ten corner so the actual ranking's a little lower than you may see other places but you believe this is a really really good point i think there's a really good player i mean you're getting everything too you know when we had our question about zone he understands zone he's a good tackler you know there's really not a weakness to his game other than i just would like to see a little bit more pure speed out of him at cj easter day i had your question written down here was going to ask it that the question is i know how much chris values speed in corners worrisome we just talked about that it is cj as your third corner as opposed to thanks for listening yeah exactly right i i you know who who who are the the top corners in football right now i mean i think if we really broke it down a lot of them have legit legit speed yeah right when you get what you're getting to is no matter what the name is it picks out you're not concerned about their speed exactly right right i didn't just you know when you think about the real island legit corners they're 4-3 type guys is it more important for a corner than a receiver to have that top end speed i yes you know the receiver you can motion them stack them because he could be a great setup guy he knows how to run routes he knows how to you know break people's ankles yeah to where that you know gets a speed the corner though you can't you can't be that again you're going to get your ankles broken so now when that happens what are you going to do after that and that's where the pure speed comes into question right like you're definitely you're playing corner in the nfl somebody's going to break your ankles every game it's just now are you going to get broken for an 80 yard touchdown or are you just going to give up a 10-yard completion yeah and that to me is you know i guess the thing that just does a hair scary about certain it's not easy for you for either one but if there's a speed deficient receiver i think there's more more ways for that person to find a way to be successful in the nfl than a speed deficient corner i agreed 100 i think that puts it in perfect you know perspective kind of surprising at number two which is always fun tyson campbell from georgia yeah what's up there well i mean tyson campbell was the guy i turned on and you know he's my dearmi brown from the receivers or whatever but he's the guy i turned on i just went why is nobody talking about this guy i mean i don't understand it what jumped out i mean first off you know all the things we talked about being well schooled like certain right certain is great in and out of transition stopping all those things great hips all that he's got all of that stuff but i think he's actually better at like sticking his foot in the ground and wasting less steps than than certain but the bottom he is better at that i don't think he's better than that and then the pure speed is there too you know they're just they play him and you got that guy a whole lot and they're playing against the same dude they're playing against the same dudes there's no doubt in fact i'd say he's playing against worst dudes because he's got to play alabama certainly doesn't have to play alabama you know and hey listen that's another context of that game right how was it to me there's nobody that covered devante smith better than him through the year there's nobody he was not outclassed by devante smith he was not outclassed by wado wado has a long touchdown pass because they hit feet and he falls down and waddle ends up with like an 80 yard touchdown pass on a switch release and two man where him and the guy they were switching it with they weren't on the same page so i don't know who messed it up either way he went inside at first and then kind of catches back up to waddle yeah and then as he's catching up and looking up they hit heels and he goes down but i mean to me this is the guy i look for this is now this is the guy i want this is a true shutdown elite corner you know with with really again i was really impressed with the tackling i was expecting when i first saw him six to 185 okay he moves good but then i watched a few plays and went man look at this guy coming downhill tackling people aggressively doing all that but i just think all the things we talked about as far as you know like a debo we talked about with stanford the ability to put his foot in the ground and drive on the ball this guy is just as good as a debo except he's bigger and he's got better hips than adibo as far as that's concerned i mean it's pretty like flawless and again you're gonna see plays against florida where they catch the ball for a touchdown you know but he's in their hip pocket they can't separate one inch now these are great receivers who are of course seeing the ball the whole time and they adjust and make a thing happen but i i again those are positives to me going like wait this is an elite guy that everybody's looking at hey there's the tight end that everybody thinks is a top five pick he can't get three inches of space from tyson campbell here's another receiver that's really damn good okay touchdown but i mean he was covered like a blanket so back up to that because he already mentioned that he did well against devonta smith right covering kyle pitts is a completely different thing and he has the physical ability to do that too that's where i liked it she was pretty good range exactly you know his length for for a guy that's a little more maybe slender than certain and all of that you know the game wasn't any less physical to him and again the context clues of what i said they they they showed more confidence in putting him in an island than alabama did putting certain in an island and i'm i'm big into that i'm sorry i just he guard pits most of the game he didn't guard pits most of the game he he stays outside against the guy who's the guy i got him oh he's over here okay i mean and they play some zone two i don't want to say it's like every play but you could tell there was a concerted effort to go like oh no we're playing man this play you got to take the best guy who is that best guy okay you got him right there there is that you know i mean just again i just was uh he was my love affair of this draft the technique is really good they put him on an island a lot you know he's a better raw athlete than certain the way they play him tells him a lot the alabama guys certainly did not outclass him or any of the other guys you know and i thought he has really good ball skills too that's the other thing that i thought i mean certain did too i don't want to overlook any of that sure but i was really impressed with like you know even the completions like he sees the ball he's trying to make a play on at the last second but he doesn't do it okay but there's a lot of other plays where you know he's running up the sideline he's all over the guy he knocks the ball down right you know and that's where i was really impressed with uh tyson cable i i mean to me i mean yes as you know just like you know last year to me this is he's got a little that ej henderson except i think the game's even better than ej henderson cj cj excuse me uh as far as just the polish the aggresson the got a little bit of the the mojo of like hey i'm the man come and come and do it i was going to ask you because i know you liked aj tyrell a lot we talked about him a couple minutes ago as your number two corner last year yeah if you liked him better than last year's number two but you you like him even better than last year's number one i i think i yeah i do i think i do yeah you know henderson was a little bit of a projection a little yeah because there was some man i wish he would show just a little bit more energy or life to a degree but you saw too many plays where you just went man that's amazing coverage or look at that movement that's special this guy has no let down there's never like anything that i ever looked at and went oh i wish he just was you know the ability to turn and run was legit i mean his hips were legit you know i wrote even early on i was just like whoa this kid in and out of transition is impressive like can really stick his foot in the ground i wrote you know can put his foot in the ground and drive on the ball as good as anybody in the draft better than certain maybe up there with the number one guy we're going to talk about yeah yeah so i'm a big fan as you can tell and to me he was kind of the the surprise guy of the secondary great detail there an awesome set up to number one because i can back up a little bit your number third your number three corner you think is a legit top ten pick yeah that's really good yeah top 15 for sure your number two corner okay top 15. your number two corner you would have had number one in last year's class you had six go in the first round yeah so caleb farley from virginia tech must be awfully good if you have him as your best one he's a star i don't know if i've ever really evaluated a corner like this wow like now you want to talk about corners that should be drafted in the top three yeah caleb farley is worthy of being drafted in the top three didn't even play last year didn't play i know i mean so i mean that stinks that's might be the only negative we talk about i'm just i've never seen a guy with that size move the way he does start at the top and the number one reason you're so high because i've never seen a guy with his size be able to move cut accelerate you know greasy hips all of that i've never seen a guy i mean to me it's like the film is better than jaylen ramsey coming out a few years ago and you know i love me jaylen ramsey yeah i mean i love jaylen ramsey i got a man crush on him so that's what i wrote i mean i wrote you know and and two you know it's another thing that i never hit with campbell like he can play off too because of that ability to kind of back pedal and put his foot in the ground and driving the ball but you know this kid i wrote here here's just the synopsis that he can play he can jam or play off he's surprisingly good in off cut coverage he doesn't understand leverage or you know where his help is but it doesn't matter he gets it done with just pure raw ability and then you know the talent is the real deal i wrote i don't remember a cornerback this big that can move like him and i wrote jaylen ramsey question mark question mark and then the ability you know again in transition and when i say transition for all those they're out listening i'm just talking about you know backpedal or hey you're running up the sideline with some guy now he puts the brakes on and his ability to you know slow down put his foot in the ground and then re-accelerate that's what i mean by in and out of transition that's what he does i mean that's it's special for somebody that big you know he tackles he has it all and will be more dangerous in the nfl when he learns how to use his long arms and man press coverage and then i wrote his stop start restartability it's off the charts it's off the charts and his ball skills are off the charts i mean so when i look at all that i just go now we wasted a lot of time on a cuda last year and everybody telling me a top five pick this kid is a top five pick so if if the jaguars go trevor lawrence yeah if the jets keep that pick and go with your guy from byu zach wilson right should the dolphins take him at three no because they have a zillion dollars into their corners and xavier howard and byron jones and they drafted a first round corner last year so hold on let me just pull up the nfl draft order so this is this is what can play into this right here this year it's just the the again with all of this stuff you it's about some of these other positions yeah and what's going to be there are the teams themselves about what they need you know so you know the jet the jets have a real need at corner they have a real need at corner they could live with sam darnold they could live with sam darnold and if they wanted to take kayla farley at number two i would have no problem with that i think a lot of people in this building might have a problem yeah they would you're right and then you know if i'm telling you i'm saying no jets take zach wilson okay you know the falcons would they go to another corner after taking one in the top 20 last year i don't know they might value him this kid's good enough to make you think hey damn it let's get two baller corners on rookie contracts and now we can do a lot of different stuff on the defensive side of the ball if he's there at four bengals eagles bengals eagles panthers all need those guys and that's where i start to go into the the corner conversation along with your cowboys to go along with it too if if he's there for for atlanta and they decide that they're not going quarterback there would you like to see him be paired up with terrell i i think there's some real value to that i do to have you know you have two of those guys it's it's i know pretty nice you know you look at a lot of the good defenses though they do got two yeah you know there there is something there i mean we just talked about baltimore they got two of those guys you know the patriots have two of those guys um there's a few others that i'm gonna blank out of here right now as far as the the pressure is concerned but no i mean i i i wouldn't be opposed to that at all i really wouldn't let's back up to the actual skills you saw on tape so tyson campbell you complimented him for being able to to match up with devonta smith and also to do well against the florida tight end cow pits yeah did you see farley going big receiver slot receiver physical tight end he's on the outside mostly but it's virginia tech is cool and a little bit like with tyson campbell too where it's like they'll play man and then they'll go wait we're gonna do something different over here you're good you got him and now we're going to do something else or they just played a ton of man-to-man so i didn't get to see him in the slot a lot there was a few different times and he kind of played off and you know kind of played it that way there's a there's a clip against miami where he's playing off the guy runs like he's playing off and again the technique is not always there so he's just kind of like basketball defensive position and the guy runs inside he goes a little and then he comes back on the outside in a post corner and he gets beat but again it's not something i looked at to go like oh man that's that's trouble there you know this is another guy where what's scary is how freaky good he is and i think he's still really raw like he's he's got he gets coached a little bit and you go whoa this could be scary if he understands where the safety is he won't jump inside here to like cut this guy off you don't need to there's a safety there don't do that once somebody starts to put those thoughts in his brain he'll be he'll be a shut down like legit legit corner and you know you talked about the falcons at four maybe they will be in for a cornerback i mean they got dean pease he's that baltimore new england yeah you know the tennessee titans who just accumulated all those corners those years they might be into that move with caleb barley i don't think it's crazy i'm trying to remember him south bend two years ago because virginia tech was he against claypool he got he got the play clay pool a number of snaps i went back and watched it actually you know because it's of course that was the last year he played how'd it look i mean he's right there with him yeah stride for stride there's there's there's no outclassing of there's nobody gonna outclass this guy this guy is a special special talent the only negative is he didn't play football last year i don't know the human being i hope he worked and did all those things but again like i said i've never seen somebody 62207 who could be that good in hips can plant his foot in the ground and accelerate and then can just can fly yeah sorry for lack of a better freight he can fly he can close ground or he can get on top of the receiver and just be how many rockets he's got three there's three up his ass yeah i think with him him tyson campbell you know wilson uh no er robinson excuse me the ucf guy correct which you had a number or who you had four they have three rockets up their ass they have three rockets up now i think i think caleb farther and tyson campbell it might be a hair more than than robinson but still that they have a little bit of a different top-end speed to me than certain um adibo and marco wilson who we started with pete let's go ahead and recap it with a list of his top corners and chris just what i like here as as your partner you didn't couch it at all it's one thing to say hey farley's number one you said that you love him as much as any corner you've seen recently that he's jaylen ramsey ramsay type right so ballsy job of putting it out there not only is your number one guy but taking it beyond that with how much you like it thank you thank you we'll see i mean uh yeah you know i'm i'm done with like oh i mean you know what are people saying and what's all that that's again where i'm with two people like to do that though even the people who are really good at this like to say but they kind of leave themselves just in case the kid can't play i got you so tyson campbell's the one i'm also you know i'm putting myself out there with that one i respect that you're not that you're not doing that thanks so much safeties yeah top five safety prospects i think we're gonna take a peek at what you had last year okay i know you love this group from this year but last year antoine winfield i guess that was a pretty good job he was he played just a little role i think he proved he was the top secretary in the draft yeah i i think that that was proven really for for for my money there same question i asked you about corners yeah kind of zooming out here before we get into the weeds what did you learn from judge in this group last year to how it can apply to doing a nice job again this year i want guys that can like you know xavier mckinney got hurt he didn't really get to play a whole lot so there's hard there julian blackman he started for the colts you know he was their free safety everything that i saw on film is what i saw with the colts i mean incredible range for a smaller guy or a skinnier guy you know just had no care for his body duggar is a little bit of a projection from the small school and everything like that and he's a little bit of a specialized type safety um but i think what i l and ashton davis i like too i mean again he was good in coverage i probably messed up and should have had a guy like jeremy chin there or something like that nice year right but sue to me here too i'm evaluating these guys on safety and listen some of these guys are playing nickel on their college team you know and it's it's hard but again i think they're playing nickel because they're going wait this guy's so good let's put him by the line of scrimmage let's not have him dropping back in the middle of the field 20 yards every play let's get him down here he's too fast he's too aggressive a tackler you know who cares if he might not have the perfect greasy hips to cover guys he's going to make so many other plays in any and so many other ways so i'm looking for safeties first off that are that are all purpose i look for the traditional safety first thing you know a guy free safety strong safety can he fly down and make tackles does he have some coverage ability and i want to see no hesitation in your game you're going to play safety in the nfl you have to be a crazy mofo you have to have no abandon like no regard for your body like you you can't if you want to be good in my opinion and that's what the good ones are in the nfl so i look for that type of guy and to me you know between the aggressiveness and speed that's where i look to be you know the top safeties in the draft different kind of skills you're looking for but just as a class i get the feeling that you like the safety group as a whole better than the corners yeah i do i think as a whole you know you just i came away thinking there was 10 11 12 safeties where i just went man they're really good and they could all be starting for an nfl team next year that was that was one thing i took away from this going to gainesville to start just like we did with the corners so the sec was keeping the players on there right put yourself out on a limb again number five sean davis florida yeah sean i mean he is your traditional safety free safety strong safety you know has a little bit i mean he's balled up little muscle like right and brings it i mean brings it that's that's the first thing i talk about you know and i think when i you know the big thing with safety is i don't necessarily value the top end speed i like top end speed but to me it's a position too where you know acceleration may be more important in a lot of ways than the top end speed you know unless you're gonna ask that guy to play free safety a lot he needs to have incredible range and things like that but to me i think the thing that jumps out with him more than anything is he can cover he can he's a good free safety you know hips are good they're not great but i think where his real value is is whether he's a free safety or he got him a strong safety and he's playing cover three and he's seven yards eight yards out the line of scrimmage he's in a violent hitter he's a violent tackler i mean he diagnoses run plays and he's down there in the b gap right there's the tailback's there or maybe before and i think that's the thing i liked about him you know more than anything he's more the traditional way that way he may not be like the pure you know top end superstar athlete that some of these other guys were going to talk about but still i think this is a guy that is probably going to probably would run a 4-5 at the combine something like that and plenty and exactly and and really more importantly i bet you his first ten would be really good okay to where you'd go okay man he can come downhill or you're playing safety right and the tight end runs the 10-yard out route okay he can just go go to the target let me break up the ball or let me as soon as he catches this i'm going to knock his hip into tomorrow and crush his hip and do all that that's where i liked him i mean he really is he's you know again i don't want to has a build or a style to me that was a little like bob sanders remember bob sanders not bob sanders i'm not going to say he's that guy because bob was a freak but has a style about him that way or even maybe like a more compact raeshawn jenkins who just got a big money contract with the jacksonville jaguars um but yeah i i really like this kid i don't know if he goes in the first round i was gonna say 45 top 50 pick probably overall you let me know when we crossed into the category of we're now talking about first-round picks yeah not quite there yet number four tcu this is going to be the only name we get from tcu which is kind of surprising in the safety group and it's not the name a lot of people would expect more on that in a bit but at four are darius washington yep tcu let me get to his page here because um blown away by this guy i know everybody you know talked about the other side of safety i know this is the safety at that school just to clarify that right now i mean i i watched him and thought honey badger that's really what i thought of you know again like will knock your head off i don't care he's 5 8 178 180 pounds somewhere around there and people might go oh that's that's small or whatever you know again honey badger was 58 185 coming out don't don't put these guys into some bigger pedestal than you think because you've seen them on nfl sundays and big games and all that no these guys are about explosion they're balled up muscles and they're not giant guys because they got to run down freaky receivers and running backs and do all those things fill the hole but like i just came away with the guy first off as pure range as a free safety is concerned might have the best out of any there's probably the best i mean he's got hips and ability to do that kind of stuff of like a real like corner was he mostly like the center fielder and a cover one or playing half they played kind of did a little bit of both he i mean it was always safety he didn't really get to see him at nickel and do things like that they play a ton of quarters coverage too which you know in quarters coverage like allows guys the safeties to fly downhill in the run game a little bit too and have that flexibility and that's where he's amazing so i mean range was awesome hips are awesome he is probably the best open field no i don't want to say the best open field tackler he's a really good op there's a better open field tackler okay his his um his tackling what i love about it where he's awesome is again he shoots his gun so he sees the wide receiver screen or a toss sweep there's not like a oh let me stay here behind you know 10 yards down field and if he gets to me i'll make the tackle he goes oh screw you i'm going i'm going to tackle the guy before he gets to the line of scrimmage loss of one there was a corner or two that you said maybe a little too aggressive yeah did he get in trouble for being too aggressive he didn't did not get in trouble being too aggressive not that i saw now you know unless there was a clip that i missed but damn he was a guy that i watched a lot because i just again was like whoa this guy is amazing and you know let me you know clarify what i'm seeing here this is i'm really impressed you know can be a phenomenal free safety what i talked about with this hips and speed you know he could be a real nickel this is why i say honey badger he could be a nickel corner too and match up against shifty wide receivers in the slot so that's where i like him too it's that versatil versatility but his ability to like break on the ball and accelerate it it's up there with the top two corners in the draft i mean that's where it's special to me um so you know i wrote down honey badger if anybody remembers lamarcus joyner from like about seven eight years ago right he was a second round pick you know to me this guy is those guys maybe a hair smaller but he's faster than both of them i would think this guy is like 4 4 speed low 4 4 speed at the combine but the acceleration is through the roof good yeah so you have a physical undersized versatile corner can do it all sounds a little bit like winfield last year yes buck's got him in this rocked up like that he's not quite as rocked up he's a little bit more of a uh a thinner frame okay right but the same aggressive nature that i liked and again i'm into no hesitation i mean if you're playing safety you got to be willing to tackle and do those things and here's another thing i like about the guy he doesn't give a if he gets run over he doesn't care and to me that's big you're playing safety you can't have pride here you have to save the play that's why you're a safety so if the guy's got to run you over then so what you know he's going to trip on you when he runs over you too and he goes down and that's where i i like that aspect of his game too if you're ever on a field at field level at an nfl game the collisions that make you say wow this is more violent than i thought almost always involve safeties no doubt they're the they're this to support your uh kind of how you're describing how they have to be you have to have that that element the those are the craziest guys i was ever on a team with those you know those are pound for pound the toughest guys on the football team maybe other than the running back you know linebackers of course around that discussion but they're much much bigger men safeties are like you know brian dawkins who i played with you know john lynch who i was with one year you know in their brains they're like i'm 6'5 275. and you're like no you're not you're 6'1 210 and you're a psycho yeah and that there has to be something i'm saying sometimes that's why it's shorter careers for these guys because they just hit themselves out but to play that position i do think you have to be that he's a legit free safety a phenomenal nickel corner flexibility to go along with it and like i said i thought his ability to accelerate his aggression were were elite that way third ranked safety in this class and again let me know if we're into the first round category yet javon yeah and i'll say just with our darius washington just to wrap it up i don't know if the size is are people going to be scared of the 178 time frame size frame and all that to me he's a borderline first round pick i mean again if you you know i know you know honey badger he had the issues so that's not a good example where people were a little scared of him and i didn't remember where he got drafted now that i think about i can't even remember where honey badger got drafted but i would think arderis washington is again another guy i would say no way i would he would fall over under the top 45 picks honey badger was third round he was third round because of the off the field stuff right and all that so yeah i mean i i would be cool seeing this guy anywhere from 25 to 40. i think he could be in that range i think he's a really special football team i think i think at this position as much as any position and the buccaneers and their gm jason light highlighted this with their postseason run they had playing on their rookie contracts their entire starting defensive backfield second third and fourth round picks they didn't have a single first rounder and those guys all played really well that was the strength of that group so i bring up the is he a first rounder because it's fun conversation i hear you teams are looking for starters uh rounds two three four five no doubt i bet you tampa had antoine winfield in the first round and that's why they guessed in the second round they're like hey we've had this guy as a top 22 pick or whatever else but there's so many good ones there is so many good ones you're right and i don't know if that's gonna help or hurt this and again it's all about what's there to be had at certain other positions and you know okay wait we have this type of safety already so we don't need that guy or whatever the one last thing i'll say with our darius washington there was one negative because i don't think i hit on any negative he can be over aggressive in his open field tackling of like now he's a middle field safety and he flies down so aggressively that he almost gets down too far to where now there's a there's a running back with a big hole right and he gets down there so aggressively he lets himself get so close to now the guy makes a move and he would like dig himself into the ground and then have to dive at his feet and do that right instead of like just like in that situation hey there's a situation where the guy hasn't got the hole and he goes like a rocket and that's where he's special but in that situation now where the guy's through the hole and you're coming downhill like stop a few yards shorter so you just and just sit there and wait play safe and then play it safe and then just go make the tackle because your acceleration is off the charts good right you know that would be the only negative i found really on his film altogether yeah and since we're hitting baseball season it sounds like like a battery you would sell you don't have to hit a home run hitting a single no exactly you don't have to have a highlight tackle here exactly right just get them down here okay so now for number three yeah javon holland from oregon yeah javon holland from oregon is a guy that plays nickel he plays nickel the whole game all right he's one of those guys where i'm talking about where i don't think i i think they know he's not a true corner i just think they go he's too damn good it's like buddha baker at washington a few years ago who's going to be somewhat of my comparison here to where they're just like oh we've got he's awesome at tackling and creating havoc and he's too athletic so let's put him here closer to the ball a little bit and make those kind of plays and that's where holland is like really damn good six one 196 so the size is real it's got some square shoulders on him is a big time punt returner all right so that says something about the athlete hey you're at oregon and they put you back to punt return you can probably run then yeah i mean oregon's always got a little speed on their team so i like that aspect about him and then he's got you know legit physicality again this is a guy i look at can be a free safety can be the strong safety in the box if you wanted to put him at nickel to be a big nickel and hey this team runs the ball a lot and they got a bigger slot kind of guy he can do it he's got tightness in the hips he's not going to be great at you know opening and flipping his hips and doing all that stuff he's a little bit of that straight line guy we talk about no it's gonna be a little bit more like oh i gotta turn and run he's gonna be like and then he's gonna turn and run and take off that way right just to give an example of that but you know the way he sets the edge and the run game takes on lead blockers or just diagnoses the play and it's coming at him and he just goes i know there's a guy to come and block me but i'm just going to turn on the afterburners and run right by him and go blow the running back up in the backfield you know that's to me where i came away like he has legit downhill speed and legit physicality in his run game to me to where that's where you know you got to look at the player and go okay yeah he plays nickel for oregon he's not a nickel corner that's not what he is you can get away with him there a little bit but i think ultimately you want him to be playing those safety positions sounds like a team is going to need to have a specific plan for him like compare him to like at corner everybody needs a tyson campbell or caleb farley yeah sure do you think he is for everybody i i do think he is for everybody i'm i'm into with my safeties trying more times than not to find guys that are for i want guys that they're for everybody i'm looking at through the traditional lens you know it's probably why last year i put kyler duggler there because i thought it was a limited safety group i didn't love that oh he's a specialist we're gonna bring him in to cover tight ends right and do that type of stuff that's also where you know jeremy chin is a little different jeremy chin basically played linebacker last year for the carolina panthers he didn't really play safety so that to me is a different guy a little bit yeah this i think really all the guys i have in the top five are i look at first ago their traditional safeties anybody who needs a safety no matter their scheme could live with can live with these guys no doubt about it i mean this this is you know you could say buddha baker at the line of scrimmage i could also sit here and go he's jimmy ward the first round pick for the 49ers a few years ago again the same kind of thing though free safety oh we'll put him at nickel here because he helps with the run game and he can do all that type of stuff that's to me the kind of player he is except he's faster and bigger than jimmy ward was coming out you know the way he runs reminded me of devin mccourty and that's when he plays free safety a little bit you get to see the traditional safety looks where i go yeah it's it's damn good devin mccourty got moved from corner as a first round corner because his hips weren't great he was a little bit of like oh no i need to turn and run and then i go that's what i do and that's where javon holland is the same way and at free safety you can get away with being like that you know again yeah i'd love to have a free safety that's real loose and can turn his flips that way and everything like that but it's not as imperative at the cornerback position free safety strong safety nickel versatility and he's a hitter and like i said the biggest weakness is the hips and there's some wasted steps because he's kind of a bigger square guy up top to where yeah he's not perfect in and out of breaks and breaking on the ball and things like that there is some wasted movement there and that's why i ultimately come back and go no i know he was a nickel in college this guy is a safety in the nfl we stay in the pac-12 and it's good you brought up uh buda baker because we're gonna get a comparison here in a moment but elijah molden from uw at number two for your safety man man just another like i think holland's a first round safety just so we say that okay okay to get that out there yeah this kit is definitely a first round safety all right the first guy i'm going to say does anybody pay attention to the pro bowl and it might have even been all pro this year i know it was the chris sims all protein this guy's jesse bates jesse bates for the cincinnati bangos who came from wake forest a few years ago that's who he is all right and again here's another guy that plays nickel all right it's it's a nickel guy but i think a lot because of the same reasons we just said with holland they just go he's too damn good to have him 25 yards playing free safety all the time and i have a question here why is he not listed as a corner i i because this will go back to the hips and the tightness thing that way you know unlike some of the corners we talked about and all that again they could be in these positions and do all this this guy at times is like is like he's playing and the guy's coming out of and there's no turning the head it's kind of just like oh oh oh wait you're gonna go that way oh no he went that way right and that's to me not a nickel legit cover corner right that's not what that is so that that's where i say he's not a corner and he's put at those position at the washington defense not because of his pur his coverage ability is good it's not great i think it's his tackling ability and his ability to create havoc is why he's there you know and that's where he was unbelievable again he's the best he probably is the best open field tackler in the whole draft i mean as far as the dbs are concerned he is amazing i mean because he does he breaks down and he waits for you to commit and then you go this way he just goes boom i can accelerate and i'll tackle you you're not going by me and then of course he has the the physicality and the kamikaze style that i talked about with holland or darius washington or even you know the florida kid where if he sees a hole or anything he's going he's gonna he's got no regard for his body and he's gonna take you out that's where i was really blown away by this guy i mean the acceleration that he has is is up there with like the top corners or anybody in the draft with his ability to just go come downhill or if he does break on a ball like he can close the gap in a hurry eli miller asks who is the better prospect coming out of college buddha baker or elijah molden buddha was a hair bigger but i think this kid is this kid excites me more than buddha wow because you liked him too i like buddha there's no doubt i mean i really did and buddha sometimes they got inside the box a little bit more the blitz through a gaps and b gaps and do that you know so i guess there's maybe a hair more of a size physicality element to buddha and this kid i want to say there's more of a pure speed and acceleration element that's better than buddha had okay but still you know buddha still could accelerate pretty good and this kid still can take on blocks pretty good and be physical that way too i think this kid actually excites me more than buddha i do and i'm that's saying something because i think buddha's a baller think he goes in the teens again you know hopefully we can talk about this like three four weeks from now and i can get edge guys under control and how many good ones are there and tackles and some of the other positions but when i really look at it i mean i i think that the guy is he's a top 25 pick for me for sure i mean that's the one thing i wrote i just i just don't know how you know that's possible when you really look at him you know again i wrote the acceleration is the best of all the safeties i wrote i think he's at the worst his speed is low four fours maybe high four threes um you know let me just see it's just some uh uh you know i wrote a honey badger thing and then i came to the jesse bats you know i said he has plenty of raw ability to be a nickel corner back you know but the hips are the question but everything else is wow all right and he's a ball hawk who's physical in all areas of the game twitchy as hell the side to side movements are really good just as far as like oh i gotta go this way oh wait let me get over here to avoid the blocker and still get to the open field tackle that was all real real like unreal i mean it really was i mean he was to me was one of my favorite watches in the whole draft it sounds like i mean just sitting here kind of taking notes i'm looking at someone who could be described as the number one safety low four fours best acceleration of all the safeties the best open field tackler of all the dbs so i say all that yeah because number one must be must be pretty damn good angry cisco from syracuse cisco to me is i mean so you're right the way i talked about molding is special yeah and you're right i love me some molding but cisco first off cisco's faster straight away i'm gonna say he's faster i'm gonna say he's got better hips as a free safety and doing that type of stuff as well now he doesn't play that nickel position this again it's a traditional it's a free safety strong safety type of stuff but cisco is six foot 209 210 to me this is more like jamal adams-ish right maybe not quite as big as jamal but i think he beats jamal in a race all day long you know so that's where i look at you trust him doing as many things i i yes i think he can do just as many things as jamal can he this guy to me is a really really special talent and i and and i i i wrote i mean i think looking on film this guy's a four three speed type of guy i mean it it's that kind of special safety that's it's it's big and 209 or 210 and whatever that is you know and also you know again like some of the range stuff is really special i mean i can't even remember what game it was if it was oh man it might have been the north carolina game he's got an interception i'm blanking i got so many damn games in my head but you know he's kind of you know back pedal okay he's turning to his left and kind of in a side run and now the quarterback flips over to the other side and he can flip his hips and now he turns it on and goes and picks the ball off on like a post route or something like that that to me was really really special his range as a free safety i think was the best out of anybody you know and that's saying something at his size too because you know his hips were every bit as good as the kid from tcu or darius washington but that guy's way smaller and i would say this guy's got he's faster his speed is is better and then you talk about you know again i'm into the physicality the no hesitation anything like that he's a killer he's an absolute killer this kid now it can be maybe is one issue at times he can be a hair over aggressive that way but not in a bad way to me at all skills the ball skills are really damn good they are now there's a few plays on film where he gets beat in coverage and stuff right but he's like playing 10 yards off 15 yards off against a good slot receiver a good receiver and it's like i just want to go well i don't i don't know what you nobody's going to succeed in that position you're going to ask a guy to just sit here 10 15 yards off and let a receiver just run full speed right at him and he can go either way like one false move and you're done and to me that's you know again people are going to look at that and go whoa we got b like that and i go and i just go everybody's going to get beat like that everybody the greatest corners in the world are going to get beat like that so don't go too crazy and docking them points because they called a crazy stupid defense and are expecting way too much out of a human being to make it happen i'm just thinking about syracuse and the acc and who they might have played this year did they play against carolina i think you mentioned that yeah well he's he he uh yes he did play against caroline he only played a few games this year because he tore his acl right pete i'm gonna make sure about that he so he only played a few games so you gotta go back to last year too i think he was only three games this year if i remember correctly tore his acl in 19. you know and 20 and 20. yeah so that could that could be a factor there's no doubt about it to see where it goes yeah yes um acl early in the season i would think he's getting close to being able to be a special special specimen here again soon yeah you know yeah this is it's going to be a little bit of like hey we got to trust in our film and we got to have them in for a workout to see the knee and see if it's okay and all of that but like acls at that age in in the year 2021 again it's a nine month injury i'm not sitting here going oh man he's ruined it's not going to be the same guy so let uh pete's telling me he had that injury in october okay so okay let's say let's say you're the gm of the team late teens early 20s nobody's taken a safety yet right you love elijah molden i do you also like cisco a lot but he's coming off that acl yeah i'm taking cisco you're taking something cisco to me just fits the nfl game more you know molding i do i have a little bit of a size question right just a little bit this is a guy where i go oh no his size is going to allow him to play i think for a number of years and then also i think he can be a true like cam chancellor jamal adams in the box derwin james type safety but you could also put him back at free safety and go his range and the way he's back there is as good as anybody in the nfl at free safety too that's where i really was was blown away by the guy all together you know i wrote you know you know i wrote jamal adams when i first turned it on i went like ooh this guy is just a bigger version of antoine winfield from what i saw last year that's what i really saw except he had better coverage skills yeah and i i loved him to me he's a big time nfl safety he has the look he's got great legs and he is rocked up paul i mean rocked up yeah like you see the great safeties you know they're usually kind of physical specimens because i gotta be able to tense that body up and hit a running back who's 225 and they're running both running four four and he's gonna take him down he's rocked up that way the and i gotta throw in there since you put it out there earlier and he runs a 4-3 i think he does i know i mean that's what he looked like that's what it looked like i nervous on film and the games you see and things like that you know really it was diamond brown was the only guy i came across where i just went with pure speed this is the only guy that's that's faster than this guy out here on the field so uh yeah i love him i really do and i i think he's made for the nfl hey bottom line if your team needs a safety and they're willing to take or use a pick rounds one two or three got some pretty good ones here yeah uh sims 2021 draft safety rankings that was the prospect rundown presented by applebee's what up applebee's there it is feeling good in the neighborhood i want to get to a couple of the names we might have mentioned them a little bit but there are some names that people might have expected to be on your list for corner safeties that did not show up right so at corner no jc horn from south carolina in your top five no no asante samuel jr from florida state no no you know and again i like these guys i do um i think what it you know you know first let's sit on asante samuel asante samuel there's a lot to like you know i just think at the end of the day the biggest thing is i don't trust the raw speed and ability to accelerate and break on the ball as compared to some of the other guys you know it's good technique he's good in those areas but it's not great and even the way they play him and the way he plays he knows he's not great in that area you know oh it's a fast receiver he's going to play 10 yards off and he's going to worry about you're not going to beat me deep you know but awesome zone really understands the big picture of the game what the offense is trying to do and i again i like the player i just don't know if that's a player that i look at to go oh that's like a first round or a top five corner in the draft can have a real successful career i don't doubt that but i think those were kind of my my biggest issues with him more than anything a couple of the homie questions on corners at geno namath thoughts on which corners would be the best well hold on i'm sorry who was the other guy you asked me about there oh jc horn sorry i'm sorry paul i know i'm i'm all over the place sorry i got 90 notes we got a lot of notes there man so lots you know um jc's horn he's the poster child of looks great like oh man look at this guy he's he's special he's a walking past interference in the nfl okay so that's my first thing and he just lacks that top-end movement and pure raw speed again an explosiveness for me to sit there and go oh no he's as good as some of the other guys we've talked about you know yeah he'll be great for tight ends and some bigger receivers and give them some issues but you know the top corners of the draft are going to be able to cover those guys and the speed guys and to me when you go jc horn i go there's no way he's too lumbering and big and there's too many wasted steps you know and changing direction and things like that for me to sit there and go he's one of the top five corners in this trap about carrie vincent jr from lsu i like carrie vincent jr a lot he i really do he's a he's a tough one here's another guy that you ask go could they have put him in any worse positions he plays safety slash nickel i've never seen a team play the safety slash nickel the way they played what did dell pitt do last year which was a delphi got hurt before training camp but towards acl so or maybe achilles but i know he had an injury and he didn't play last year this kid didn't play you gotta go back to 2019. um there's some really bad plays but again i'm going to go back to like what i talked about you know with some of the other guys he's put in a spot sometimes 12 yards off they're like trying to disguise like he's a deep safety but yet they want him to play man-to-man on the slot receiver and do that and now the slot receiver is going a million miles per hour at him and can go either direction and do all those things and yeah he can't he he gets beat on some plays smaller guy i do love the aggression and let me get to his page just so i can can hit this um acceleration speed we're really good i think he's a top 50 corner i said i've never seen a nickel corner have to play man-to-man 10 yards off the ball on a consistent basis like he does like but like good as a free safety you know has good range that way and he's an aggressive wants to tackle tackle you to me that the biggest thing is you know i just didn't know where he quite belonged he even though he's 5 10 185 he didn't play as big as some of those other guys and i just wasn't sure is he a safety is he a real nickel either way i do think he's a top 50 pick in the draft and his ability to accelerate i wrote is top notch like his 0 to 60 is two steps so i love that aspect about him but yeah i just didn't think he was quite as good as some of those other guys to me he might have been in the safety conversation he might have been next okay right there he might be that guy that's six maybe seven whatever how you look at it that way uh but but i did like him a lot any other honorable mention corners that you want to talk about before we move it along um you know the corners no i think we we hit on everybody there's probably a few that i'm missing off the top of my head but we got a lot of time to talk about all this couple of quick questions about your list uh thoughts on which corners would be the best fit for teams running that seattle scheme you talk about quite a bit well that's where like you know maybe the jc horn guy he could really fit that type of scheme there's no doubt you know again it's gonna be that kind of thing where he's gonna jam and then get off and you know yeah he's gonna tackle he's got a physical element to those type of guys but like even we're seeing with the seattle scheme the seattle scheme is breaking down a little bit they've realized they can't play the seattle scheme so much so they got to get some that's why they drafted the kid aj tyrell in atlanta they just said we can't play seattle zone every play we gotta at some point start playing man-to-man because the good quarterbacks just go hey it's single out here except they're just gonna back off every time and worry about the goal routes and we're gonna do that so that has changed a little bit that way but i mean certain could certainly do that i mean all these guys can do it i think the seattle scheme is slowly breaking down though to get away from a little bit because it's too much it's too much it is too much and it's too predictable that way at are you easy asks is there a specific corner who is successful through his physicality versus one who was more successful with the speed and the footwork well i do think again that goes back to the jc horn conversation as far as the physicality is concerned i think there is that that factor to them um i'm missing somebody else who i wanted to get into too about that you know the top five corners you had a debo at five robinson four certain three and yeah campbell two and farley one right i mean robinson had real good physicality at the line of scrimmage there's there's no doubt he he could be that type of guy you know certain can too his technique is great he gets a little scared at times because he he's a little worried about his speed right farley is really the guy there farley can like embarrass you he can be like a jalen ramsey where he can just go like i'm not scared of your speed i'm going to put my right hand right in your chest and then when i get it there i'm not going to back off i'm going to try to embarrass you and put you in the sideline that's to me where like caleb farley's got that ability you know campbell campbell doesn't do that quite as much he's a little bit more of a jam and then okay which way you're gonna go oh you're going this way i'm my speed's good i'm going to now smother you and you're not going to really be able to go by me that way that's kind of what he does he gets on top of it that way but i guess if we have to answer it you know that way i would go with with that aspect let's move into safeties and a couple names not on your list a surprise that trayvon married from tcu you didn't have him one through five no you know yeah i mean i'm yeah now i'm sitting here i'm going oh wait i should have mentioned this guy and this guy i got so many damn guys there's a lot of guys i know you did your homework more rig morig the biggest thing it's all coverage it's he's a corner that doesn't quite have the elite corner skills and then yet he's playing safety and he doesn't really like to tackle you know that to me there was hesitation in the game as i told you i look at these guys first through traditional safety lens i do how did he get to be ranked number one by so many people i i don't know why was a cuda just to slam dunk number one last year why was sam darnold just the uh the number one greatest quarterback we've ever seen what do you think other people see in him though to have him there it's the measurables and then it's the stats of like pbus and things like that and that's where i go that's what we're getting we're getting into oh he looks the part and this is how we want a really top end safety to look yeah and wow look that was pretty good he closed on the ball and knocked it down and did those type of things so it's like hey we like that about him but then i want to go let's go back and watch there's like a few plays in every game where i go you know it just he avoids the tackle he comes downhill and oh i slipped and now talk about all the ways that you've talked about the safety position and what you value and that's the one guy who has to have the acceleration and lack of regard for his body and if that's something that stands out on film i would imagine other people are going to see that too to me he's a specialty safety that's that's where we get into again it's like it's a hey he could be the free safety in the back end and do all that and he's going to be pretty good and this good range and good hips and all that but okay there's that and then what else are we going to do okay yeah he can match up some tight ends because of his size and do all of that but i'm not feeling comfortable in any way with him having to fill a hole in the run game or do anything like that i mean that that's what was scary to me that way you know there is some cover corner qualities about the guy except i don't think the speed is of the legit cover corners is which why he got moved to safety yeah you know and you know the physicality thing is a real thing i said yeah you know he he'll hit some wide receivers as they come over the middle but in filling the holes in the run game and stuff of that he wants no part of that you know i just wrote he's a bigger corner playing safety who just has maybe a hair more physicality than most corners but it's not like oh wow you know i didn't think his he was i would say tyson campbell and caleb barley and certain are more aggressive better tacklers than he are let alone they're better coverage guys and that to me is not the kind of the safety i want but there is some real coverage value he's a guy that i wrote at the end he's probably gonna get overdrafted because he's 62 202 and he's good in coverage you know to where that there's going to be some teams that like him but you know for me on my safety in the nfl no he's a big 12 safety he's a flag football safety here's here's the most important question you have two notebooks and you have a bunch of yellow loose leaf legal pad paper over there who went on who got in the notebooks and who's on the loose paper over there yeah no there's no i'd like to tell you there's like a formula here there's not it's called like it's called i ran out of room on this notebook right yep so i'm out of paper yep then i went and you know it's the pandemic like there's no spiral notebooks in the building i know there used to be so there was a while where so i had to go there was a yellow pattern i hate these yellow pads because they just fall off if they have like the littlest thing they rip off so i went through you know a few days of having to write on the yellow papers and then this week we got some a new there's new spiral notebooks back there okay we're back there just so you know yeah yeah and that's where i can go back and look forward to go back to it again yeah yeah okay so are there any other safeties well well there's like pete wants to hear about paris ford from pittsburgh paris ford from pittsburgh is probably the guy i look at to be next in the safety conversation yeah good length like at the safety position you know he's a six six foot um a good tackler you know plays physical got all the skills you want for the safety position has good acceleration but it's not like eye-popping like some of the other guys we talked about he does come downhill you know i did like that um you know i think that he's a true free safety strong safety he's going to be able to cover tight ends i just think the other thing i looked at with him was you know just not the pure raw tools that some of the other guys we mentioned that just you go whoa who is that vapor trail on the screen right here you know this kid can run i think he's a second round a second round type safety who could end up being like you know he could be one of these those second and third round guys you talk about a few years and we go man he's been in the pro bowl three times in the first five years of his career he says a lot about this safety class you said that right away how much you like it that's someone who didn't make your your top five list richie grant from ucf yeah 27. he's another guy i look at and just go same thing i mean he reminded me of eddie jackson who's being paid a ton of money yeah right i just don't know if there was any like real real elite trade about them but there was a lot of good and no negative and you know again i think that's the these guys i talked about i think are all like second round picks how about well no later than early third efatsu melifanwu from syracuse yeah he's a tough one he's a specimen he's not he he's too big and lumbering to be a legit cover corner you know again you know you've been around football enough how many times do you really you don't see six four corners who can cover people that if they get matched up against a smaller guy who can really change directions they can't do it right you know and then okay so now let me see the rest can he play safety because he's built like a brick house maybe he can play safety well no he doesn't really like to tackle a whole lot he's not that like again that mentality we've talked about where there's a difference between being corner and a safety safeties are psychos they're psychos they will fight anybody on the team they will hit anybody in the open hole corners are not psychos corners are a lot more finesse to there there's more they're cheetahs they want to go out and then just run fast and cover people and okay i gotta tackle and take this guy down okay i'll do it but i don't really want to right that's the corner there's a different mentality in those guys so we've done this we've done this a couple years i think this is the number one podcast for number of notes brought to the table i think so too well because i got to the end of that one and three different vehicles i mean you've been you've been rummaging through and looking for for your notes i gotta one of these years make a transition to the computer yeah i gotta go to the computer because first off i'm johnny environment i mean and i'm wasting trees by i'm the same as you though isn't it it's hard for me to think about i mean i get so much like when i write it down i remember it goes in your brain i know where it is i don't have to look for it i don't want to watch film and when i type it in i just i'm thinking about typing yeah i'm thinking about typing but it would be more efficient it'd be slicker yeah you'd be more with the times i know i'm saying that more to myself than you yeah but it's it's a hard transition no i know i i'd probably need to do it it's 20 21 it's time and you know it's a blue notebook green notebook yellow papers computer paulie way to drive the show today you the man hope everybody enjoyed it send out all the questions i want to keep talking about this i know there's a few guys i didn't hit that i like again you know not everybody's up there they're in the top five guys they're in there but we got them and i love the questions there were some great questions today on the podcast and guys who brought up certain things i appreciate it uh be good we'll see you monday uh edge guys coming up on monday i'm gonna start talking about some of these pass rushers and what they can do of course that's a big position i'm interested to see the group i don't really have a feel for it right now but you the man be good have a good weekend sounds good peace we're out see ya hi i'm mike tarico and thanks for watching make sure to hit subscribe for the latest news and highlights from nbc sports

Channel: NBC Sports

Views: 279,493

Keywords: NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, PGA, Golf, Athlete, Tennis, Olympics, nbc sports, chris simms, chris simms unbuttoned, chris simms draft, nfl draft, draft, nfl draft 2021, nfl draft picks, nfl draft rankings, nfl mock draft, Rashod Bateman, Rondale Moore, cornerbacks, safeties, nfl cornerbacks, nfl cb, nfl safety, Marco Wilson, Paulson Adebo, Aaron Robinson, Patrick Surtain II, Tyson Campbell, Caleb Farley, Shawn Davis, Ar'Darius Washington, Jevon Holland, Elijah Molden, Andre Cisco

Id: 6kGaVo3Jh1A

Length: 95min 41sec (5741 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 24 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Carroms]

Did you see that the Jags essentially went all in on the Chris Simms draft? Lawrence, Etienne, Campbell, Walker, Cisco.

[u/LFC_Slav]

I love how he really does not give a shit what anyone else thinks when doing his evaluations lmfao, have to respect it. He calls him a borderline 1st round talent.

I guess Keim agrees because he traded up for the dude

[u/ProjectTitan74]

He's not always right, but he's right more often than anyone else I know of. Say what you want about his personality but Chris Simms knows what he's talking about when it comes to breaking down film

[u/philosopher0]

Steal of the draft. (Not counting fields to chicago)

[u/DrDice14]

Simms says no way he is there past 45 and we got him at 136? Is it just the shoe incident or was Simms overrating him?