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

Matt Williamson, Dale Lolley and Mike Prisuta give you their takes on the top cornerback prospects in the 2022 NFL Draft in the episode of NFL Draft Triple Take

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone, and welcome to still another edition of the
NFL Draft Triple Take, presented by U P m C.
I'm Mike Pursuita along with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson.
We are going through the players available for the upcoming
draft at the end of April, position by position. We've
got quarterback analysis for you today, and before we get

(00:21):
into and out, I want to remind everyone that you
can catch these and any like programs on all of
the Steelers social media platforms. But guys a lot of
receivers and therefore a lot of quarterbacks, Matt is it's
really that simple. The college game is taken care of
what the NFL game needs. Yeah, am, And and and these

(00:42):
guys are testing extremely well, just like the receivers. They're
always seems like there's a wealth of corners coming in
the league, but boy, they go quick and teams covet
this position and it's pretty obvious why. I mean, if
you don't have three, you trust, you're doomed and you
really should have four. Yeah, I agree. And this year's

(01:03):
group is is interesting. Um, A lot of big guys,
bigger like cornerbacks in this year's draft. I mean a
lot of times. You see, you know a lot of
the five ten, one ninety type size size guys this year,
a lot of guys who were six one, six, two,
six three even deeper into the draft. And as we
saw at the combine, guys, these guys can all run um.

(01:25):
I don't know if it was the track. You know,
they did replace the the the the surface at the
at Lucas Oil Stadium, but everybody was running the sub
four or five this year. Did they replace it with ice?
They on skates every position? It seemed like that was
that was something else of Quarter in particular. Dale's point

(01:46):
really well well stated, not just fast, big and fast,
and you know what's better than fast? Big and fast?
So let's get into what's available. We'll go through our
top five as we have been doing, position by position. Dale,
let's lead it off with you and uh care Elam

(02:06):
of Florida. Yeah, he's got some NFL bloodlines. Good size
didn't play quite as well last year as he had
previously in his career, but again six and then ran
a four three forty at the combine. I mean, big
and fast, what what what's not to like? I mean,
you know, so there's a lot here to like, uh,

(02:26):
you know, he's a nephew of Matt Elam, who was
a safety with the UH with the Ravens, was a
former first round draft pick. Um, you know, Elam's gonna
be a guy who's who's very intriguing, you know, depending
on where he goes. Is it related to the former
great actor Jack Elam. I don't believe he is. I
don't know if you remember him. He was underrated. I thought, anyway,
Matt your number five. Yeah. I was torn between m

(02:51):
and Gordon for number five. Um. Gordon was rumored to
be just a total freak show in terms of test thing,
and he was fine. He wasn't amazing. But I heard
some track nerds talking about it doesn't look like Gordon
worked on his start at all. You know, so he
plays fast tracks, would know? Yeah, right, you know, the

(03:12):
boy his start needs a lot of work. Like, okay,
I believe you whatever. Um, he's kind of the other
corner at Washington. I'm sure we'll get to his teammate
here at some point. He could play inside outside, solid build,
good size, you know. You know, so there's a lot
to like here. I do think he's a very much
a plus athlete and we'll make an impact early. Now.

(03:34):
I I went for the freak Show at number five,
and uh, we're talking about big and fast. I give
you Tarik Woolen, University of Texas at San Antonio, six
ft four, two hundred and five pounds four point to
six in the forty. I am here to tell you
I have not seen this kid play a snap of football.

(03:54):
But did I mentioned six ft four, two hundred five
pounds four point to six. He's a former wide receiver.
UM teach them how to play corner. He's six foot four,
two five piles. I don't know if you guys heard
this or not. He runs a four point six. I
knew he was gonna be fast, Mike, because they had
those mile per hour trackers on on those guys at

(04:15):
the Senior Bowl, and he ran like twenty three four
or five. Yeah, when it was counting, and so I
mean that kind of you know, then you start watching
him a little bit and you're like, okay, there's some
there's some traits there. You do worry about the you know,
when you get that big, I mean that's just extreme size.
You worry about some of the change of directions and stuff.
But I don't know if anybody's going to outrun him

(04:37):
down the sideline and then be able to catch the
ball over top of him because of that length. For
number four, we all took Andrew Booth of Clemson. Matt,
we'll let you speak for the group here since we're unanimous,
but uh, I really like this gets physicality among other things. Yea,
and because the school he's at, you know, he wasn't
a three year starter or whatever. He kind of took

(04:59):
over this year, um and in somewhat of a work
in progress. But he is a piece of clay that
is very mouldible. I mean he's six foot, he's almost
two hundred pounds, very long. He's fine in zone. But
he's the type of guy you want impressman corps, you
know as impressman coverage, which is what every team's after
right now. I think a defensive backcode would just love

(05:22):
to get ahold of Booth and uh follow this under
great minds think alike. We're also uh unanimous in our
number three cornerback prospect that that would be the fforementioned
Trent McDuffie from Washington Dale. How did the Washington lose
a game this year? Pretty good? Apparently, people could run
all over him, Mike, because the cornerbacks were both are

(05:45):
both like they'll be gone by the middle of the
second round, both of them, you know, so I would
assume it was difficult to throw the football on them.
McDuffie's a three year starter at Washington, ran a four
or four four forty at the combine, so he got
the you know, you've got the everything that you want there.
He allowed sixteen receptions in eleven games this past season,

(06:08):
six and eleven games. I mean it's just, uh, nobody
threw at him, and when they did, they had a trough,
tough time completing it. Uh. And that was with you know,
two NFL cornerbacks on the field, so lots of light there.
He's not quite as big as the other guys. He's
five eleve them, but that's more than big enough. Real
quick on McDuffie. He's a nasty old guy man. I mean,

(06:29):
he kind of has some of that Mike Hilton edge
to him, but bigger and more athletic. They blitz him
out of the salot a lot. I mean, he's a
very aggressive tackler. I mean he brings a little you know,
nastiness to him and he's like Mike Hilton, smart enough
that you can move him around and he'll Yeah, they
could definitely play the slot. Yeah right away. Little uh
side notes, since so we just mentioned to uh Washington guys.

(06:51):
At least Matt did Husky Stadium outstanding place to catch
a college football game. I actually saw the Steelers play
out there. They were when they were repairing the Kingdom
in the nineties. But what what an environment for college football.
Not only to get to see great corners, but it's
right all the water and uh Mountaineer in the distance,

(07:12):
you know, to the kind of person likes to travel
around and see different things. Check that out anyway, I
digress number two. Uh, we've we're all in agreement on
two and one, but uh, I've got it in a
little bit of a different order than you guys do.
I took him on. Gardner from Cincinnati is my number two.
Matt and Dale have decided that Derek Stingley Jr. From

(07:35):
l s U is uh the number two prospect available. Um.
I don't dislike h. Gardner. I just like Stingley better. Uh, Matt,
why did Stingley come up to on your list? Yeah?
I think Stingley has a chance to be the best
corner in the league. I mean, or and clearly the
best corner in this class. And I probably dinged him

(07:58):
a little because he's been out of sight, out of
mind a little, you know. I mean, he may use
Pro Day and just be unbelievable, and they had issues
at l s U this past year, but he really
hasn't been a phenomenal player with phenomenal tapes since him
and Joe Burrow were winning national championships, which was a
couple of years ago, when he was just an utterly

(08:19):
dominant nineteen year old player. Um, I think you're kind
of splitting hairs. But it's just Gardener has done more
good stuff recently, you know. Um you mentioned the l
s U days, and during the combine they threw up
some tape from l s U practices back in the
day and it was uh Stingley against Jamaar Chase, and

(08:43):
Stingley was more than holding his own. And I saw
that and I said, you know what, I don't care
what the last two years. If he if he gets
over to Liz Frank Surgery and everything checks out on
Pro Day, that's my guy. Because Jamar Chase has gone
on to be a pretty good receiver in the NFL,
and Stingley was for him three years ago. Yet I apologize,

(09:03):
but he has some of that dion reevous arrogance, slash
baiting quarterbacks. You know, maybe I don't love tackling so much,
you know, but you know those rare corners that just
know they're great. Yeah, and you look at him. I mean,
he doesn't turn twenty one until June um so you're
still getting a twenty year old player who's not a

(09:26):
ton of experience there. But the experience that he had
again in in in two thousand nineteen, he was their
best guy maybe in their whole defense that season. It
just hasn't He just hasn't shown to be that guy
the last two seasons, largely because of the Liz Frank
injury last year. Yeah, it's you know, it's not an
insignificant track that he's been on. But you get that guy, right,

(09:46):
and you're not gonna find a better one day. Let's
uh stick with you. Uh to wrap it up and
talk about the Sauce Gardner from by the way, and
I'll write up I refused to call him sauce. You
can't have a nickname till you getting the league. Oh
you can if if if your pee wee coach gave
it to you, which is what happened with Sauce Gardner.
I mean, so it's not like it's this isn't this

(10:07):
isn't a situation where he gave himself the nickname. This
is not Jack Rabbit Jenkins. You know, you've been in
the league for twenty five years and then all of
a sudden, you you change your name to Jack Rabbit. Um,
this is a you know, he's it's a he's a
good football player. Six three one nine. Uh, just everything
that you want in terms of size. Nine career interceptions
in thirty three games, uh, six point six yards of

(10:31):
catch last season, never allowed of in in a thousand
and fifty nine snaps in college coverage, did not allow
a touchdown. Let that sink. In his entire college career,
he did not allow a touchdown. I don't care if
he's playing our sisters of the poorer. Um, this guy
is really good. He is and to your point there Day,

(10:53):
I mean, didn't have the greatest level of competition, but
it became pretty clear that every opponent that Cincinnati, he said,
why on earth would I throw at him, and they
threw it another guy. It's gonna drafted Kobe Bryant, who
spelled a little different but named after the basketball star.
And that wasn't necessarily a smart move either, But that's
how much they fear Gardner. Yeah, Bryant won the Jim

(11:13):
Thorpe A Word Award as the top defensive back. But
I think Gardner is the guy who's gonna go first
among those two and maybe amongst all the cornerbacks we
shall see. That's gonna do it for our analysis the
quarterback position. I wanna remind everybody that you can catch
all of these types of programs on all of the
Steelers social media platforms. Thank you for finding us this time, however,

(11:36):
and wherever you found us, we're gonna do it again
real soon. Until then, for Matt Williamson and Dale Loali,
I'm Mike. Pursuit of this has been the NFL Draft
Triple Take, presented by you P m C