2020 NFL Draft Big Board: Ranking the top ten cornerbacks
By John Newman
The 2020 NFL Draft may have the strongest group of cornerbacks in years. After film and data analysis, here are the best of the 2020 draft class.
With several teams entering the 2020 NFL Draft in need of a top-rate cornerback, there will be a high demand for the position in the early rounds. Several teams this year have been defined by a poor secondary and their season’s fortunes have ebbed and flowed by their front office’s response. The Los Angeles Rams traded two first-round picks in 2020 and 2021 to acquire Jalen Ramsey from the Jacksonville Jaguars. They now have an elite shutdown cornerback, but many fans are wondering if the cost of two first-round picks was worth it.
The Pittsburgh Steelers traded their 2020 first-round pick to snag safety Minkah Fitzpatrick from the Miami Dolphins. While fans and media criticized the move at its onset, with 46 tackles and 5 interceptions headed into week 15, Fitzpatrick is now viewed in Pittsburgh as the last piece the defense needed to make it elite.
The Philadelphia Eagles did little to address its weak cornerbacks rooms during the season, instead choosing to rely on injury-prone backups and veterans returning from Injured Reserve. They allowed Ryan Fitzpatrick to throw 365 yards against them, good for 3 touchdowns and a 69% completion rate.
No matter where you stand on the Coverage versus Pass-Rush debate, this season has shown that a team cannot completely disregard either side. Most general managers and old fashioned Football types will tell you Pass-Rush is more important to success. But that sentiment is changing as data across several seasons has started to show coverage is what determines defensive success more often than not.
With the NFL adopting more spread-style offensive tendencies and relying more on passing yards than rushing yards, the cornerback position has never been more critical to a team’s success than it is today.
In the 2020 NFL draft, there will be several cornerbacks selected in the first and second rounds. The 2020 NFL draft is likely to be the deepest draft class in years for the position and determining which players should be drafted in the first round will be an arduous process for any NFL general manager.
The cornerback position has one of the highest bust rates out of college of any position in the NFL. Several players in recent drafts have looked like world-beaters in college, only to fizzle into obscurity once drafted into the NFL. General managers across the NFL must tread lightly if they wish to avoid a first-round dud in the 2020 NFL draft.
After watching 2019 College game footage and looking at the statistics of over two dozen cornerbacks likely to be available in the 2020 NFL draft, I have comprised this list of the top ten. Neither statistics or my own grade of cornerbacks play trumped the other in importance when ranking this list.
Rather this list is a synthesis of both, to create a top ten that I think is both fair and justifiable. For me, it is not so much about how many interceptions or pass breakups did a cornerback have. Rather it comes down to potential.
For this, they will need the right blend of size, speed, and technique if they hope to be selected in the first round of the 2020 NFL draft. For more information on how I ranked these players, check out this 2013 article from Bleacher Report that explores the process of scouting college cornerbacks.
Every single one of the cornerbacks I have listed is talented and will improve their team’s defense in 2020. Many factors going forward will determine whether these young athletes will succeed at the next level. It is impossible to know how well a player will do at the next level and how they will respond to the rigors of NFL-caliber opponents.
But the ten cornerbacks on this list have shown enough on tape for me to believe they have the raw materials needed to become an elite cornerback at the next level. At the very least, they have shown in college to be a step above the rest and worth a serious look in the 2020 NFL draft.