Have we ever seen a rookie position group play this well, so early in the NFL?
A sizable collection of first-year cornerbacks have provided their respective teams with positive play in the first month and a half of the 2022 season, with play ranging from good to spectacular. And for this group to do it now is bananas, given how many incredible receivers roam the NFL and how difficult today’s rules make the corner position.
Let’s give these youngsters the credit they deserve as we approach the middle of the season.
Draft status: Round 1, No. 3 overall
Outstanding Stats: Five pass breakups, one interception, no touchdowns allowed on 211 cover snaps, one missed tackle on 358 total snaps.
Stingley played like 2019 LSU Stingley, which is precisely what the Texans hoped and believed they were getting when they named him No. 3 overall in April. He is incredibly fluid in changes of direction and closes in on football at lightning speed.
What I also like about Stingley – he’s not strictly a zone or man specialist. He has such a natural and terrific feel to know where the ball is likely to be headed when he’s in the zone and then can flip the switch and lock in for a tough pressman task. Check out the water-like fluidity he demonstrated in that pass breakup in the end zone against fellow rookie Alec Pierce – who just happens to be a big athletic freak:
Stingley has also been a rock as a tackle, which is certainly secondary to the covering ability at his position in today’s NFL, but not a completely unimportant attribute at the corner. His 24 tackles are the third on the team entering Week 7, and to have just one missed tackle in your first month in the NFL is almost unheard of. Now, he hasn’t faced a murderous line of No. 1 receivers, but early returns on the former LSU stud have been fantastic for Lovie Smith’s defense.
Stingley is a 21-year-old up-and-coming defensive star in Houston.
Draft status: Round 1, No. 4 overall
Outstanding Stats: A low 43.3% rookie-class completion percentage cleared on passes within his coverage area on 228 cover snaps, eight pass breakups to date.
What Stingley built in the hype of his 18-year-old true freshman season in 2019, Sauce Gardner recreated with his entire Cincinnati career — a tenure famous for one in which the long, lanky cornerback didn’t allow a touchdown.
While he played less competitively than most corner prospects who rank in the top 10 in the draft, Gardner didn’t seem outmatched in the Bearcats’ contest against Alabama, his final game in college. . Teams began to stay away from Gardner as his career progressed, but he had three interceptions in his three seasons at Cincinnati and had 16 pass breakups.
And he played just like he did in college in his first month and a half of the NFL season, budding with confidence in man coverage, thanks to innate ball skills and the contraction of sticking with complex routes on the ground, as he did. here during a breakup with fellow rookie Romeo Doubs of the Packers:
Gardner can look a bit awkward changing direction because he’s so tall, but he does it in a hurry and plays with the fierce demeanor usually found in locked cornerbacks. And he just turned 22 in August. To date, Gardner has done a good job against Amari Cooper, Ja’Marr Chase, Diontae Johnson, Tyreek Hill — despite a weak pass interference call — and the Packers receiving contingent.
Draft status: Round 1, No. 23 overall
Outstanding Stats: In Weeks 5 and 6 combined, he had two interceptions and two pass breakups in 99 cover snaps.
It’s not that Elam performed disappointingly in the preseason, it was the productivity of two former end-of-day 3 picks at Buffalo’s corner that made many believe the first-round pick would not start on opening day. He got the starting gig and was a consistent force in the Bills’ secondary the first month and a half of the season.
For Elam, primarily a press corner across from you in Florida, it’s taken a while to acclimate to Buffalo’s zone program, but he’s been getting comfortable lately. Just check out the awareness he showed on that huge interception from Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City’s first practice of the game in Week 6:
Elam’s other interception so far came in a zone drop against the Steelers in Week 5. There were flashes of the sticky man coverage we saw in Florida throughout his illustrious career with the Gators, which provided the Bills’ coverage versatility even with Tre’ Davious White still rehabilitating the torn ACL he suffered on Thanksgiving last year. Another youngster, Elam only turned 21 in May. Goodness.
Draft status: Round 3, No. 68 overall
Outstanding Stats: Three pass breakups with no touchdowns allowed in his last two games out of 59 cover snaps.
Emerson was a lot like many former Mississippi State cornerbacks on film: fiery, ultra-physical, never backing down from a men’s cover challenge. That style paired with refined skill led to him being drafted in Round 3, and on what was a porous Browns defense early in Week 7, he was one of the only bright spots.
This pass breakup against the Chargers’ Mike Williams, one of football’s most physically imposing fumbles, exemplifies what Emerson brings to the Cleveland secondary:
Now there have been some coverage issues from Emerson, which is to be expected. Still, in the past two weeks, the lights have really come on for the former SEC standout in Cleveland.
Draft status: Round 4, No. 121 overall
Outstanding Stats: Three pass breakups and two interceptions in the last three games out of 101 cover snaps.
Jones was a blast on film. He’s a former five-star recruit who moved from USC to Arizona State, then had a stellar career with the Sun Devils before entering the league. The only concern about him – his age. He will be 25 in December. Still, his age didn’t stop the rookie from making a litany of big plays early in his career with the Patriots.
That interception and home visit of an Aaron Rodgers pass a few weeks ago taught the tape and demonstrated just how sudden Jones is:
Like in college, Jones has mostly lined up on the perimeter, but he’s more than capable of sinking inside to perform nickel-and-dime cornerback duties. There were missed tackles on film. These don’t bother me too much, especially for a small rookie defensive back. It’s the splatter plays that really move the needle, and Jones has been a football magnet over the past month.
Draft status: Round 5, No. 153 overall
Outstanding Stats: Four interceptions and no touchdowns allowed on 217 cover snaps, one missed tackle on 403 total snaps.
Woolen is currently tied for the league lead with four interceptions, and it’s as if the Seahawks’ opponents to date haven’t scouted him or completely forgotten about the UTSA star’s scouting report. The dude is 6-foot-4 with a gear of 4.26 — yes, 4.26 — and arms nearly 34 inches. Do not field test it. Your receiver does not pass it deeply. Just ask Marquise Brown and the Cardinals, who fell victim to Woolen’s otherworldly explosiveness and size in a Week 6 pick.
But when it comes to Woolen’s change of direction skill, I didn’t expect her to be this good, so early in her career. Accelerating and exploding in another direction at this height and over 200 pounds is not easy. Yet, like the rookie featured here, he can:
Woolen was meant to be a long-term project, more of an impeccably gifted athlete than a cornerback to be taken seriously as a full-time contributor in Year 1. But the Seahawks threw him there, and he continued to produce, as a man, in the zone and even below against fast outings.
Draft status: Round 6, No. 212 overall
Outstanding Stats: Three pass breakups and one touchdown allowed on 124 cover snaps, one missed tackle on 220 total snaps.
Kendrick was a fixture in the first round of the all-too-early May and June drafts and even his only season at Georgia after a productive career at Clemson. Strangely, though, after a breakout four-steal, three-assist campaign for the Bulldogs in 2021, the buzz for Kendrick was all but non-existent. After clocking 4.79 in the 40 in his pro day practice, it was thought Kendrick might not even be drafted.
The Rams grabbed him in Round 6, and so far he’s proving he was indeed draft-worthy. He’s been the full-time starter on the perimeter and played more like the early-round pick many thought he might be at the start of 2021, with fierce breaks on football and sound technique, like on this pass break on a road in-break to DJ Moore in week 6:
He wasn’t a pure stallion to start his NFL career. The Rams, however, must be pleased with the former Day 3 pick’s early payback entering Week 7.
