INDIANAPOLIS — By the tip of final season, the Patriots had been filling their cornerbacks room with road free brokers, practice-squad gamers, hopes and prayers.
If they intend to contend in 2023, it’s time for some upgrades.
Free company ought to supply some options, although with a skinny crop of above-average starters obtainable, the draft might show to be a greater guess. Not solely within the first spherical, however perhaps the second and even perhaps the third.
According to draft evaluators, the 2023 cornerback class is without doubt one of the deepest in current reminiscence. The high three prospects – Oregon’s Christian Gonzalez, Illinois’ Devon Witherspoon and Penn State’s Joey Porter Jr. – may all hear their names known as earlier than the Patriots make their first choose at 14th total. Or, one among them may supply a home-run choice at a severe place of want, particularly if Jonathan Jones departs in free company.
Gonzalez and Porter Jr. met with the Patriots on the mix, the place Porter Jr. unintentionally introduced himself as an ideal match for Bill Belichick’s protection to reporters on Thursday.
“I’m a physical press corner,” he started, “who’s gonna get in your face and do his job and do it well.”
Porter is tall (6-foot-2), lanky and brimming with potential. His father, four-time Pro Bowl cross rusher Joey Porter, has repeatedly informed his son he desires him to be obtain greater than he did within the NFL. He simply may.
Porter Jr., whom opposing quarterbacks started to keep away from over his last season, nonetheless completed with 11 cross breakups and two picks over 10 video games. He turned a second-team All-American and trimmed his penalties from 10 in 2021 to 3 final 12 months, a typical weak point amongst bodily corners.
Gonzalez is one other specimen at at 6-foot-2 and 201 kilos, maybe probably the most athletic nook within the class. He can play press-man, the Patriots’ most popular protection in important downs, and packs Pro Bowl potential.
Witherspoon (6-foot, 180 kilos) is a heat-seeking missile as a tackler who picked off 4 passes final season. According to Pro Football Focus, he allowed catches on 34.9% of his targets final season. Playing beneath former Pats assistant Bret Bielema, Witherspoon ought to include a stamp of approval, to not point out the requisite physicality and ball expertise demanded of all Patriot cornerbacks.
If the Pats cross on a first-round cornerback, as they did a 12 months in the past with Washington’s Trent McDuffie at twenty first total, they received’t be brief on Day 2 choices.
Mississippi State’s Emmanuel Forbes, arguably the highest ballhawk in the complete class, lately tied the FBS file with six profession pick-sixes. He scored three final season, when he additionally completed with 16 cross breakups and blocked a kick. Forbes is fluent in press protection, instinctive and a borderline Day 1-2 choose.
His slender body, at 180 kilos, is unlikely to spook the Patriots, who chosen 171-pound Jack Jones final 12 months. Forbes’ love of movie research also needs to appeal to, in addition to his background as a receiver.
Another ex-receiver, South Carolina’s Darius Rush, starred on the Senior Bowl, a historic hotbed for Patriots prospects. He quelled considerations about his inexperience on the place, whereas flashing the ball expertise which have change into a staple of Pats’ corners lately.
“I may not have as much experience as guys playing it their whole career, but I proved I am a DB,” Rush mentioned of his Senior Bowl expertise. “I am able to do what guys have been doing for 10 years. I showed my skill set out there, able to play press-man and zone coverage and make plays when need be.”
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Rush is a projected late-round choose, whereas his nook counterpart at South Carolina, Cam Smith, is a late Day 1, early Day 2 chance. Smith trains with former Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore, a fellow South Carolina alum, and profiles equally as an aggressive man-to-man nook. Smith, nonetheless, recounted an “uncomfortable” interview with the Patriots on the mix.
“It was very intense,” Smith mentioned Thursday. “I kind of felt uncomfortable. I had to answer a lot of hard questions dealing with some of the stuff that I did in college. I just had to make sure that I answered those tough questions.”
Specifically?
“Just trying to open up about myself,” he mentioned. “I never really have opened up about myself, trying to talk to everybody and stuff like that. Just trying to open up and make sure everybody knows exactly who I am.”
If the Patriots are open to Smith come April, the 6-foot, 188-pounder may compete for enjoying time along with his anticipation, size and ball expertise. After the primary spherical, Georgia’s Kelee Ringo, Miami’s Tyrique Stevenson and Maryland’s Deonte Banks all boast bodily instruments that might someday assist them grow to be above-average starters. Stevenson is one other Senior Bowl standout, who defined Thursday how he is honed his man-coverage expertise through the years.
“Staying more fluid in my hips, staying more square at the line of scrimmage, using my hands more and making sure I give that receiver a hard time,” Stevenson mentioned. “Making him doing things that they usually don’t do things they usually do. Because offense is a timing game.”
And so is the draft, which is why for the corner-needy Patriots, the timing could not be a lot better.
Source: www.bostonherald.com